The Alternative Album Chart: The best new indie albums this week
As the summer approaches and festival season inches closer, artists are desperately trying to get their albums out there in time. This week’s main talking point is the return of The Lemon Twigs, who have shared their highly-anticipated fourth album, Everything Harmony, which currently stands as an album of the year contender.
Other new releases include the comeback of the mysterious electronic musician SBTRKT. Seven years after the release of his third album, Aaron Jerome has finally shared another instalment of music in the form of his new LP, The Rat Road. In the interim period, Jerome has been on hiatus, but the new offering is a reminder of his talent to anybody who dared forget during his absence.
Aside from new releases, the music world has offered more strange stories over the past seven days. Perhaps the most unexpected was an apology issued on behalf of the legendary indie band Pixies for their song ‘Where Is My Mind?’ disabling alarms on Google Pixel phones. The classic track begins with the word “stop!” which the device understands as a command.
Back on the topic of new music, below is Far Out’s take on the most important releases of the week. From Fred Again’s collaborative project with the master of ambience Brian Eno to the experimental electro-pop sounds of Westerman, these are the best offerings to be shared from the first week of May.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
Everything Harmony – The Lemon Twigs 4.5/5
Everything Harmony is a very clever title. This is, indeed, The Lemon Twigs’ most one-track record to date, using a single acoustic echo chamber throughout and keeping the music light and lilting. Like Brian Wilson at his best, on secretly strange songs like ‘Born To Be Lonely’ and the title track, they often serve up pop that seems so seamless on the surface that it hides the almost-inscrutable musical complexity beneath it all.
It is as light and easy as music gets, but it is also intricate and full of dark depth, all whisked to a shimmering height by stunning performances that build to a beautiful zenith when the brothers harmonise themselves. In the end, Everything Harmony is an album that does supremely what indie was invented to do: highlight the good times with poppy sunshine and blow away problems on a cool breeze.
The Rat Road – SBTRKT 4/5
The Rat Road is 22 tracks of creative nouse, encompassing genres ranging from dubstep to ambient in what is a great example of how to create dance music for contemporary times, plucking inspiration from everywhere and anywhere. This has always been SBTRKT’s trademark style, but on his new offering, Aaron Jerome refines the formula and is helped by a cast of familiar faces, including Toro y Moi, Sampha, D Double E and Teezo Touchdown.
The album evokes the optimism of the period when London’s greenery is in full bloom, and everyone – despite the city’s reputation – seems relatively content, regardless of the copious amounts of sweat on display. In many ways, that is the great triumph of The Rat Road. In wanting to create a genuinely human-sounding record, Jerome has realised his full vision as SBTRKT and created a record that appeals to everyone – you just have to be willing to give yourself up to it. It meshes with the listener’s lived experience and place in the world. Not many artists can claim to have achieved such a feat.
An Inbuilt Fault – Westerman 3.5/5
There’s an abstract beauty to An Inbuilt Fault, the latest album by the British-born, Athens-based musician Westerman. Refusing to let anything be too straightforward is a wonderfully combative space to take in music – it definitely provokes the strongest reactions in people. Even if you don’t really “get” An Inbuilt Fault, there’s nothing particularly grating or lazy in the album’s construction. Everything feels purposeful, even if that means purposefully erratic.
On the occasions when Westerman threatens to get too far out, he pulls things back in with relatively straightforward indie pop gems. At the very least, the new release is just as accomplished as the singer’s first album, making An Inbuilt Fault an undeniable success.
Fase Luna – LA Priest 3.5/5
Each song on Sam Eastwood’s latest release blends with fluid ease, flowing like the ocean surrounding him during the album’s creation. Fase Luna is a gentle album and the perfect accompaniment to a late summer’s evening or an afternoon lounging by the waves. The record opens with the soft twangs of ‘On’, which retains a chilled pace, never faltering into monotony due to Eastgate’s mesmerising distorted guitars and the quiet yet upbeat percussion.
Fase Luna harnesses a cohesive sound that feels indicative of a specific place and time, transporting us to our very own oceanic fantasy world with every listen. Although this results in a slight lack of variety, it’s hard not to fall for Eastgate’s woozy rhythms and powerful vocals illuminating every track.
Lullabies From The Lightning Tree – Sad Boys Club 3/5
Sad Boys Club are a group who have built a reputation on the strength of live performances, and their introspective debut is made to be performed in an intimate, sweaty club. Across the album, frontman Jacob Wheldon deals with the darkest facets of his soul on tracks such as the brooding ‘To Heal Without A Scar (Is A Waste Of A Good Wound)’ and the opening track ‘Peak’.
On the other hand, ‘Delicious’ and ‘Coffee Shop’ are tracks which lean too heavily into their influences, with Wheldon sounding like a young Rivers Cuomo, despite being a Londoner. Toward the end of the album, Sad Boys Club come into their own as they express an originality which is lacking in the earlier tracks. The emotional ‘Cemetry Song, 20/5’ is the highpoint of the LP, and the line of “We are mirrors, Reflecting mirrors, Reflecting everything we can’t yet see” is particularly poignant.
Secret Life – Fred Again and Brian Eno 1.5/5
On paper, Secret Life had all the ingredients to be an album of the year contender. Fred Again is currently the world’s most in-demand electronic artist, and Brian Eno is the man to whom he owes much of his success. Four Tet even claimed it was “the most beautiful album of 2023”, but sadly, it’s 11 tracks which are more likely to make the listener fall asleep than a handful of Xanax pills.
Last month, Fred headlined Coachella, and everything he’s touched in the last couple of years has turned him into an unlikely superstar. However, this album just aimlessly meanders across its 44-minute running time, and the quality control level of Secret Life is almost non-existent. While Eno started mentoring Fred when he was a teenager, and there’s a romanticism attached to the project, it’s for the best if they stay in their respective lane.
