Alternative Album Chart: the best new indie and alternative albums this week
It takes a lot to be a musical hero in the contemporary world, given that there are already so many undisputable greats and sonic bases covered. Yet, talent will always slice through the mass of content and online opinions like a honed Bowie knife through meat, and silence the din of the outside world. In that particular equation, MJ Lenderman is the person wielding the blade, with his guitar his weapon of choice. His new record, Manning Fireworks, is exceptional.
There’s a lot to be said about Lenderman. He’s the latest in a long line of alt-rock guitar heroes, the spiritual successor to both J Mascis and Kurt Vile, and an astute lyricist and fantastic songwriter. Drawing upon country to bring his vision to life, as he does in his other band, Wednesday, he crafts a record that both edifies and causes you to stop for a moment of intense reflection. Lenderman has been the darling of alt-rock for some time now, and I get the sense that he will soon be classed as one of this generation’s finest across the board.
It’s not very often that we have weeks where so many releases correlate to high quality, but it’s certainly true for this week’s Alternative Album Chart, brimming with veterans and new artists asserting their excellence. After nine years away, Pink Floyd leader David Gilmour returns with the brilliant Luck and Strange, New York’s second favourite purveyor of indie disco, The Dare, produces his mission statement in What’s Wrong with New York, and Sarah Kinsley blows away on the perfectly named Escaper.
Yet, astoundingly, these are just a handful of what’s in store, arriving from across the vivid spectrum of genres, and the world itself. It must be said, though, that despite the general supremity in store, there are also a couple of clangers in the mix, including a majorly disappointing debut from South London’s ostensible second-coming, Fat Dog, and some of the worst lyrics you will have ever heard courtesy of York’s The Howl and the Hum, on another aptly named release, Same Mistake Twice.
Enjoy the most extensive Alternative Album Chart of 2024 below.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
Manning Fireworks – MJ Lenderman – [4.5]
MJ Lenderman might be a name unknown to those who are not fully immersed in the world of contemporary alternative rock. Yet, the North Carolina musician has been making waves for a while now, both as the guitarist of Asheville’s Wednesday and as a solo artist. His previous album, 2022’s Boat Songs, verified his potency outside of shoegaze/country band stylings. And the latest solo album, Manning Fireworks, confirms the extent of what his supporters have long been saying. Lenderman has all the chops to be an artist we tell our kids about.
While Lenderman’s work in Wednesday provides another clear illustration of his songwriting nouse and status as one of this generation’s guitar heroes, his efforts as a solo artist, uninhibited by the creative whims of others, offer the most detailed pieces of evidence. The most valuable of them all is his fifth album, Manning Fireworks, which sees him burnish his craft to a glistening effect and excel in every department.
From the imaginative wordplay to the towering solos Lenderman delivers, on Manning Fireworks, the Wednesday guitarist decisively displays his creative power and gilds a record that will undoubtedly go down as one of the year’s best.While country music might not be for everyone, the way he blends it with other elements is a masterstroke, constructing a journey that leaves a mark. It’s a rare feat of late, but one of this generation’s finest guitarists, might just be one of its songwriters too.
Escaper – Sarah Kinsley – [4.5]
When Lorde released Melodrama, a wave of aspiring musicians felt ignited, ready, and energised by the prospect of creating something equally musically exciting. According to Sarah Kinsley, Lorde achieved something others hadn’t in a long time: she created music that was both richly satisfying—juicy and sweet—while also feeling limitless, transcending the worlds she created.
This was followed by a surge of equally captivating releases, like Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell and Mitski’s more recent album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, to name a couple. The breadth of musical exploration and the quality of these works seemed to be the domain of artists who knew precisely how to balance the experimental with the accessible.
Many others leaned too heavily into one or the other—too experimental or too overtly pop—failing to achieve the lasting impact of those who found the perfect balance. But Kinsley’s latest release, her first full-length LP, Escaper, proves that she has far surpassed the finishing line, her passion for producing and singing establishing her as a world-class artist and a well-rounded visionary with an incredibly promising future ahead.
Crime in Australia – Party Dozen – [4]
In an increasingly saturated musical landscape, it can often be difficult for artists to produce something both original and organic. Given the increasing business focus of the music industry, it seems that many bands get caught up trying to create a marketable sound with commercial appeal. Sydney duo Party Dozen, on the other hand, are not like many bands. After the success of their previous album The Real Work, the pair have constructed a follow-up which takes on an entirely different sound and atmosphere, with utterly compelling results.
The Real Work brought a great deal of attention to the Sydney duo, particularly for their celebrated collaboration with fellow Aussie post-punk hero Nick Cave. Having toured their unique brand of improvisational no-wave and jazz-influenced post-punk all around the globe, the follow-up album required the pair to return to their roots in Australia. Rooting themselves in the recently gentrified land of Marrickville, Party Dozen soon produced the foundations of Crime In Australia; a wonderfully inventive, improvisational effort which is reportedly meant to evoke the soundtrack to a retro 1970s crime series. While this influence is obvious, particularly on tracks like ‘Wake In Might’ or ‘Judge Hammer’, the record also features more than its fair share of curveballs.
Inevitably, when a musical duo heavily features a saxophone, many audience members assume the presence of jazz in some form. While jazz certainly has its place in the repertoire of this album, Crime In Australia features an impressively broad range of genres and influences. For instance, the band obviously finds inspiration in the captivating punk scene of Australia, most notably on the closing track, ‘Jon’s International Marketplace’, which borders on hardcore at points. For the most part, though, Party Dozen carve out their own unique sound, awash with distorted basslines and infectious sax soundscapes. The record is certainly more openly abrasive and distorted than the band’s previous efforts, though that is far from being a complaint.
Luck and Strange – David Gilmour – [4]
After raising hopes among fans with a one-off Pink Floyd charity single, ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’, in 2022, David Gilmour faded once again into the bliss of semi-retirement. Over the past decade, Gilmour has spent plenty of time with his family, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown period. Fortunately, they all seem to share music as a hobby, so it was only a matter of time before they pieced together another work of art for the former Pink Floyd guitarist’s sporadic solo career.
Luck and Strange arrives this week as Gilmour’s first solo studio album in nine years. Although Gilmour’s wife and longtime lyrical collaborator Polly Samson has patched together her material over the past decade, Gilmour entered the studio over five months in 2023 to create the final arrangements with vocal contributions from his daughter, Romany, bassists Guy Pratt and Tom Herbert, drummers Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao and orchestral arrangements by Will Gardner.
The album is tortuous both sonically and emotionally, with moments of brightness, darkness, beauty and fear. As we make our way through this series of emotional undulations, however, Samson and Gilmour present omnipresent themes of ageing and mortality. Gilmour’s glory years with Pink Floyd are many years behind him now, but in this balanced, familial album, he proves he’s still got it.
Migratory – Masayoshi Fujita – [4]
In 1975, after releasing his first ambient record, Discreet Music, the legendary producer Brian Eno defined the genre as music “intended to induce calm and a space to think.” He added, “Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.” By this definition, Masayoshi Fujita has truly excelled in his latest solo offering, Migratory.
Fujita, like most commanding voices in the ambient world, operates in emotional movements. This discerning collection of songs flows through moments of intensity, providing space for thought. Key-based melodies provide bright optimism, which is juxtaposed in places by looming clouds of hazy synth and resonating woodwind intrusions. Even in its darker regions, Migratory is cathartic and spiritually edifying.
To add a nuance of variety to his new album, Fujita collaborated with guest vocalists on two of the 11 tracks. On side one, he brings in the American poet and musician Moor Mother, who delivers an evocative spoken-word passage in ‘Our Mother’s Lights’. Later, Fujita welcomes Hatis Noit to provide a more musical vocal performance in ‘Higurashi’. Between these two points of human contact, the listener is taken on a voyage to isolated regions of the universe, from the valleys to the stars.
What’s Wrong With New York – The Dare – [4]
Two years ago, Harrison Patrick Smith spent his evenings DJing deep cuts to kids chasing the high of the 2000s around downtown New York. Now, when he’s not accompanying Charli XCX to Boiler Room sets, he spends his nights donning a suit and tie, hauling stacks of Marshalls to basement venues ready for his own blistering live shows as The Dare. His debut album, What’s Wrong With New York? is the sonic culmination of these experiences, an electro-clashing collage of synths and sleaze.
Smith’s story may sound familiar to the indie kids of the 2000s — LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy experienced a similar rise to fame from cult DJ to indie sleaze icon, and the similarities don’t stop there. But Smith isn’t just capitalising on borrowed nostalgia for New York two decades ago with What’s Wrong With New York? He’s reviving it for a new generation, pushing into the sleaziest and silliest facets of that initial wave, and kicking the whole world in its teeth with untied laces. The naysayers might call it pastiche, but nostalgia is now too firm a crutch in culture to ignore or deride.
What’s Wrong With New York? is entirely driven by blistering bass and boastful lyrics, each primed for playing at fullvolume through the biggest speakers in the stickiest basement clubs. He sings of all-nighters and come-ups, of girls and five-dollar fragrances, each statement more self-involved and social media-friendly than the last. But there are occasional glimpses at humility, at realisations that the party life won’t last forever and a longing for home.
Born Horses – Mercury Rev – [3.5]
Ever wondered what the works of Italo Calvino would be like set to free jazz and voiced by a whispering sentimentalist? You’re not alone; nobody has. But abiding by convention and expectation has never been part of the outlook of Mercury Rev in the 35 years that the Buffalo, New York band have been about. This latest reinvention, Born Horses, stays true to that lineage.
For their ninth studio album, the veteran band absconded to a little spot between the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson Valley. Therein they duly contemplated life. Born Horses is filled with all the worldly reflection that a retreat to quieter climes breeds. In fact, it is a record drunk with dreaminess. It could find god in a tomato, and prise poetry from discardedsoda can cast beneath a bush. That makes the record just as admirable and highfalutin as that sounds.
Amid horns and hallowed philosophy lies a record with its heart firmly in the right place. For many bands in the autumn of their years – especially ones that have been through the rigours of Mercury Rev – its becomes about simply turning material out and hoping it is still relevant. Born Horses subverts that: it piles all of the group’s collected wisdom, bothmusically and spiritually, into an album that feels timeless. Sometimes it is so dreamy that it floats right by without a whiff of grounded reality, and you’re put off by a few wayward production choices, but for the most part it lusciously sweeps you up and spoon-feeds you bliss like a much needed vacation.
Fade In – Three Quarter Skies – [3.5]
Amidst the shoegaze revival of the 2020s, genre pioneers Slowdive have experienced a wave of fresh interest. Fans new and old have flocked to festivals and venues each night to hear ‘When The Sun Hits’ and ‘Sugar for the Pill’ live, to catch a glimpse of shoegaze gods in the flesh. Behind-the-scenes, on tour buses and flights between sold-out shows and overflowing fields, drummer Simon Scott chanelled his emotions into a new project named Three Quarter Skies.
Scott’s debut album under this name, Fade In, spawns from the feelings of discomfort and grief he experienced on the road but off-stage, from the feelings of grief he grappled with after the loss of his mother, and the restlessness he felt out on the road. As a result, Fade In isn’t quite as pretty or delicate as some of Scott’s more dream-pop adjacent work with Slowdive.
It’s a record that certainly fits into the Slowdive universe, and one that fans of the shoegazers will likely enjoy just as much as they enjoyed Everything Is Alive last year, particularly the more noise-inclined, but it’s still detached enough from the band to stand out on its own. Fade In is a demonstration of the drummer’s ability to create an atmosphere, but it’s also more personal endeavour for Scott, an encapsulation of all of his discomforts, the hope and longing for something softer.
VIVA Hinds – Hinds – [3.5]
It has been years since Hinds last released an album, and a lot has happened. After the release of The Prettiest Curse in 2021, the band essentially collapsed. Ongoing lockdowns meant that the album couldn’t really be promoted or toured, original members Ade Martin and Amber Grimbergen left the group, and Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote were left to pick up the pieces. As the years went on, it seemed to become clear that there was really only one thing to do: start from scratch.
So the story of their new album, VIVA HINDS, feels beautifully reflective of the story of the band itself, which is essentially a story of friendship. The group began when Cosials and Perrote fell into the same friendship group amid the Madrid music scene. Finding a partner in crime in the form of another music-obsessed woman keen to form a band, their closeness has forever been the ground the group is built on. When the other members left, this new project returns to that foundation and starts construction again, resulting in an end product that’s bigger, better and far more polished than anything they’ve made before.
It’s clear that on this new album, Hinds are giving it their all. It’s like you can feel Cosials and Perrote hold hands and run, not letting anything or anyone hold them back as they take all the chances, level up their sound, follow all ideas through to the biggest and most thorough endpoint and yet still deliver it all with the fun energy they’ve always been beloved for. The next step is to augment that buzz with depth.
Ensoulment – The The – [3.5]
Romantic. Sexy. Drunk. Melancholy. Tranquil. Fun. Joyous. All words that previously had nothing connecting them except that they were descriptive are now linked by the perplexing new album by the post-punk stalwarts The The, Ensoulment. It’s an album that keeps extensive lyricism at its heart but has a barrage of varying instrumentation underlying every song.
The reason why this album needs to be so word-heavy is because of the amount of subject matters it talks about. Everything happening today, from the big picture of artificial intelligence taking over the world to the small issue of a breaking heart, no stone is left unturned.
What stands out about this album is the same thing that lets it down. While the poetic lyricism is profoundly moving, having a 12-track record dedicated to elongated passages can wear relatively thin at times. The instrumentation isn’t the most varied. Some songs are more funk-infused, and a few are more stripped-back, but generally, they don’t sound too dissimilar. As a result, some songs blur into one another, and it can drag ever so slightly.
Generally speaking, though, this album is a real treat to listen to. For a band who have been pioneers of poppy experimentation since 1979, they continue to refuse to just turn out another number for the discography. The latest vibrant record poetically discusses different issues with gorgeous music. You could listen to it at face value or take the time to dissect it; regardless, it’s well worth a spin.
Belaya Polosa – Molchat Doma – [2.5]
Cast your mind back to 2020, when the world was thrust into the darkness of a global pandemic and subsequent lockdown. For music fans, one glimmer of hope came in the form of Molchat Doma, whose album Etazhi was issued in the US for the first time mere weeks after the pandemic started. The Belarusian post-punk masters and their endearingly gothic brand of cold wave synth music provided a perfect accompaniment to that dark and dreary period. Four years on, Molchat Doma are still pumping out those dark, atmospheric soundscapes, but the effects have lessened somewhat.
When the trio first announced plans for their fourth studio album Belaya Polosa, they promised a complete reinvention of the band. Relocating from Minsk to the sunny streets of Los Angeles, the band gave the impression that this record would see them embrace more optimistic themes, incorporating influences of dance and even disco music. While these styles are hinted at on the album opener, ‘Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh Kto Ya’, these promises are quickly forgotten, as the band revert backto the distinctive sounds of their earlier records. For the vast majority of this album, Molchat Doma root themselves in the retro, dark synth music that, by this point, has become fairly dreary and uninteresting.
This album seems to be consistently stuck in the middle of a transition. The compellingly original sounds of the band’s early records have dissipated, but they seem reluctant to fully embrace a development in their sound. As a result, Belaya Polosa feels disjointed and sonically confused. It is difficult to imagine much thought was put into the order of songs, which flip-flops between the old style of the trio and this supposed new era to create a pretty uneasy listening experience. The monotone voice of Egor Shkutko acts as a guiding voice through the album, but the lack of diversity in his performance or the instrumentation which backs him makes listening to the album in full a disappointingly tedious process.
Same Mistake Twice – The Howl and the Hum – [2]
In a musical landscape that is oversaturated with countless artists, do we really need any more albums about men lamenting their breakups, pitying themselves, and confessing to acting less than admirably? On The Howl and The Hum’s second album, Same Mistake Twice, Sam Griffiths demonstrates a real knack for writing clichéd lyrics, recycling images that you’ve heard before – and don’t need to hear again.
Although his honesty is admirable, it’s hard to get invested in any of Griffith’s confessions when they all paint him as a rather inconsiderate and selfish human. His words are constantly self-pitying, as demonstrated best on ‘All Your Friends Hate Me’. After admitting that he is “burning in a flame I lit,” he proceeds to sing, “If all your friends hate me/ And all my friends hate me/ Then I think I might just join the club/ I hate me too.”
It is clear that Griffiths is trying to work through complex feelings of regret and longing, but the idea that admitting your flaws makes them more forgivable doesn’t work here. When Bob Dylan did it in 1963, he was reinventing the post-modernist rule book. This sadly seems to miss that point. Between clunky metaphors and references to “deleting nudes” and finding “Jesus” on “Tinder,” Griffiths’ attempts to tap into the current zeitgeist don’t land.
The album has many nice instrumentals, like the tenderness of ‘Pale Blue Dot’ to the moodiness of ‘The Wheel’, where Griffiths’ voice feels close and intimate, creating a haunting soundscape. There is real potential; the production is great, and there are many nicely considered arrangements which make for a really strong base for Griffiths to sing upon. Sadly, he squanders this with some genuinely terrible lyrics—a faux transgressive declaration of: ‘I’m dysfunctional’, that is trying too hard to be just that.
WOOF. – Fat Dog – [2]
It’s been hard to get away from Fat Dog for the past year or so. Word spread about them in London as the next band to emerge from the famous Windmill in Brixton, which gradually spread outward as what was being described as the best live act in modern music was heralded from all corners of the country. Upon seeing Fat Dog live, it was easy to see why they were getting so much hype. Unfortunately, that live experience doesn’t translate well on their debut studio album, WOOF.
When you saw the band live, you were privy to a sound that hadn’t been replicated elsewhere. Walking into a Fat Dog show was like walking into a booze-filled, drugged-up rave where time both sped up and slowed down simultaneously. Audiences erupted at their songs, and it felt like you witnessed what may become the next big thing. However, when these songs are laid bare, and they don’t have the atmosphere of a dingy venue to hide behind, you see them for what they are, which is a single idea drawn out and repeated.
Essentially, if you’ve been following the singles Fat Dog has been putting out, unfortunately, you’ve pretty much already heard the entire album. This piece of music feels like an EP that the band have been forced to stretch out so that they canget their debut out into the world. Despite there being plenty of musical talent and originality on show, they haven’t been given time to develop it futher.
Instead, we’re left with WOOF. which is the same two or three ideas stretched out and contorted to try and resemble something new. Make no mistake, you’re dealing with exceptional musical minds with Fat Dog, but as far as a debut is concerned, WOOF. hardly warrants a listen.
