The Alternative Album Chart: The best new indie albums this week
As we enter the final stage of a flow of great album releases throughout August, the month shows no sign of letting up. Just when we thought maybe the year would take a brief pause from its gushing faucet of brilliant art, it came as a surprise when another cluster of records that are more than enough to keep our heads bobbing into next week. Adding an extra dollop of fun to the party, there’s also a more than welcome reissue from Oxford heroes, Supergrass.
Admittedly, some weeks this year have been more fruitful for albums than others, yet this one sits firmly on the more verdant side. Despite us pushing ever closer into the final quarter of 2023 – a year that has passed in the blink of an eye – we should still be enjoying the final days of sun before we hunker down for the colder months. The releases in the past seven days echo this sentiment that we’re not quite done with summer yet, with a host of sonics delivered that make us want to go outside and bask in that glorious vitamin D.
In recent weeks, we’ve relished in the sounds of new albums from the likes of The Hives, Blur, Guided by Voices and Fiddlehead. This week has seen another excellent collection arrive, provided by the soulful palettes of Willie J Healey, the long-awaited return of American garage rockers Be Your Own Pet after 15 years since their last studio effort, and Californian goth heroes Drab Majesty, who mark the start of a new chapter.
So, for this week’s Alternative Album Chart, we’ll leave you in the company of the above releases and more. This batch provides abundant content to keep listeners fascinated until the following set arrives in the closing week of August.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
Bunny – Willie J Healey – 4
A well-engineered bass sound is a thing of beauty, and Michelangelo will have done well to carve out the marvellous rumble that struts its way right through Willie J Healey’s new album, Bunny. The album is a stark departure from the blueprint of his debut, Twin Heavy. That contrast is a mark of his unbridled boldness when it comes to experimenting with sounds and styles, backed up by his knack for crafting a golden groove.
That dexterity when it comes to groove is the fundamental ingredient that makes Bunny a triumph. Sometimes, when an artist veers into a new sound, they get overwhelmed by the invigoration this new lease gives them and end up caught up on the ‘sound’ itself rather than what to do with it thereafter. Every track on Bunny, however, swaggers to the tune of a different topline. Put simply, it offers up a repertoire of soul-funk hits as opposed to a soul-funk soundboard. Thus, it simply never stops being luscious.
A buoyant effort, Bunny embraces counterpoint throughout, harbouring a retro soul in a fresh wallop of layered studio sounds, with a voice that says ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’ and beautifully contoured grooves that follow that with the affirmation that ‘it’s all small stuff’. [Words: Tom Taylor]
Mommy – Be Your Own Pet – 4
Sometimes, when fate intervenes on your behalf, it’s best just to ride the wave. The explosion of the American indie rock scene in the early 2000s gave opportunities to a whole list of bands who weren’t built to last. For a variety of reasons, the indie/punk/alternative graveyard is filled with its fair share of skulls. While exciting and important for their time, an act like Be Your Own Pet never really got the opportunity to bask in their influence or benefit off of their acolytes.
But luckily, things change. In a day and age where everyone from Wet Leg to Beach Bunny to Amyl and the Sniffers owes a debt to the path laid out by Jemina Pearl and her uncompromising mix of garage grunginess and pop punk, it was only a matter of time before Be Your Own Pet got a true revival. After being hand-selected by Jack White to open up a pair of shows on his 2022 ‘Supply Chain Issues Tour’, Be Your Own Pet went from tepid reconciliation to a full-on reunion as they began to release new music.
The energy and intensity that made Be Your Own Pet a standout act in the mid-2000s has morphed into something equally riveting. Rather than try to be teenage punks again, though, BYOP decided to evolve by getting weirder, heavier, and less self-conscious. Almost 20 years after the first was released, Be Your Own Pet finally has something resembling closure. But with any luck, Mommy will be the start of a chapter instead of a bookend. [Words: Tyler Golsen]
An Object in Motion – Drab Majesty – 3.5
Like many people, I’ve been waiting for a new Drab Majesty release since 2019’s Modern Mirror. This week, the Californian duo – comprised of Andrew Clinco and Alex Nicolaou, better known as Deb Demure and Mona D – return with An Object in Motion, a 32-minute, four-track sonic odyssey that sees the group move into a new area, shedding the darkwave connections of the past.
An Object in Motion enters a more psychedelic space than before, evoking images of their native land’s rolling vistas and cultural past. “An extended player or a mini-album, you decide,” the press material instructs us, but despite how you quantify the new body of work, one thing is clear: Drab Majesty isn’t done yet, and the future is exciting.
Haunted Mountain – Buck Meek – 3
Although he is best known for playing guitar in the indie folk outfit Big Thief, Buck Meek has been releasing solo music since 2018. His third effort, Haunted Mountain, is his best yet, blending country twangs with themes of love, family and home, where all are intertwined.
Haunted Mountain is loaded with startling instrumental layers, invoking a mixture of retro country albums and modern folk. While the album sometimes lacks musical variation, the record certainly possesses a distinctive sound – one that invites the listener in with welcome arms. Meek’s vocal cracks come more often than perhaps necessary, yet they reassure us of the singer’s dedication to vulnerability and honesty. [Words: Aimee Ferrier]
Road – Alice Cooper – 2.5
At this point, Alice Cooper doesn’t need to prove his rock and roll chops to anyone else. Considering his pedigree as one of the founders of shock rock, Cooper could have easily retired in the 1990s and still been considered a pioneer of rock and roll and a staple of classic rock radio. Now, with the new album Road, what does Cooper’s approach to horror look like these days?
Although this is far from Cooper’s greatest album to date, Road has more than a few great moments that will keep hardcore fans satisfied. Considering how long he’s been playing, Cooper could easily use this album to wrap up his career, making one final bow with an ode to the life that made him a star. Then again, judging by the lyrics of ‘Road Rats Forever’, it doesn’t look like the king of shock rock wants to hang it up until he’s six feet underground.
Reissue: Life on Other Planets – Supergrass – 4
In 1995, at the height of the so-called Britpop wave, Oxford group Supergrass released their seminal debut album, I Should Coco. Buoyed by stand-out hits like ‘Caught by the Fuzz’, ‘Alright’, ‘Lenny’ and ‘She’s So Loose’, the record attained the distinction as the best-selling debut album released on Parlophone since The Beatles’ Please Please Me. The allure of Supergrass’ debut would indeed be difficult to top, but the band weren’t inclined to rest on their laurels.
Closing the decade out with In It for the Money and Supergrass, the band proved themselves accomplished musicians capable of complex arrangements. A generation-defining debut will always be hard to eclipse, but Supergrass impressively continued to refine their musicality into the new millennium to rapturous effect.
The band released its fourth album, Life on Other Planets, in September 2002, sating a wolfish appetite among devoted fans following a three-year drought. Supergrass’ eponymous album of 1999 was critically lauded as a bold step into the aforementioned refinement. Still, the band was concerned that it had alienated some fans pining for the urgency of its preceding releases.
Keeping the rhythm section as tight as possible, Life on Other Planets flies through 12 tracks in 40 minutes. As the album title might suggest, Supergrass returned to their roots in classic rock, especially that of David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Contrary to ‘Life on Mars’, however, was the notable injection of pace and lyrical abandon. [Words: Jordan Potter]
