The Alternative Album Chart: The best new indie albums this week
Music is now coming thick and fast as labels and artists gear up for the festival season. This week, Jessie Ware has certainly established herself as someone worth seeing in a grassy field this summer. Alongside Baba Ali and Pearl & The Oyster, it would seem that big beats are back in business as music rediscovers its sense of fun.
Old indie stalwarts The National and The Beach House are also proving that there is life in the ’00s left. With stirring sounds, they stick to their realms and render things a little weepy this spring. All in all, this makes for a split chart this week as summery vibes and those clinging to a rather more morose and reflective feel muscle each other out.
But aside from the quality of the new releases, perhaps the most pertinent point about music this week came from Noel Gallagher. In a hot take, the former Oasis man blamed the sitcom Friends for the troubles that the industry now faces. Gallagher said that it brought about a café culture whereby people are more than happy to shed $20 on two coffees, but the concept of paying for the record is mad in the minds of many. So, with that in mind, always be sure to support artists when you can.
On that front, we’ve curated the best new music that artists have offered this week. From TikTok favourite Matt Maltese to the rather more experimental Nabihah Iqbal, these are the best records that the last week in April had to offer.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
That! Feels! Good! – Jessie Ware – 4/5
Certain records do to the psyche exactly what a text on a sunny Saturday morning without plans saying, ‘Fancy a beer garden today?’ does. That! Feels! Good! is an album that reinvigorates life. It puts sex back into stilted marriages, gets dance-ophobes up on the floor, orders a round of Baby Guinness, and dons bright red lippy in the mirror.
It might not reinvent the wheel beyond that and sure some tracks offer a lot more pep than others, what more do you want? That! Feels! Good! is the after-dark version of the James Ford-produced What’s Your Pleasure?, an adventurous album that she needed to make in order to reach to this point, but looks tame in comparison to the new release.
Coast 2 Coast – Pearl & The Oyster – 4/5
You can judge this book by its cover. One look at the album artwork, and you’re hearing a gaudy sonic depiction of summer, and the French outfit don’t disappoint you. With way too much production and chatter of birdsong laid out over the top, this bubblegum electro-indie is gorgeously overdone. An absolute sham, and an absolute joy.
So, how do you triumph with simple pop when there is too much going on around it? You ensure that the fluttering synths don’t get in the way of your opulent hooks, and this record has those in abundance. Musically, the album coasts along like one of those rollercoasters you see weaving their way down an endless sunny mountain on YouTube. Everything is smooth, nothing hurts, and by the end, you’ve come to love the fruity overload.
First Two Pages of Frankenstein – The National – 3.5/5
The National are back with another slew of sad songs that sound almost indistinguishable from everything else they’ve written. And yet again, First Two Pages of Frankenstein is a masterful feat that makes for a sumptuous listen. Like the male versions of Adele, their songwriting oeuvre suggests that they have been going through a break-up perpetually for 20 straight years. And somehow, they still pluck stirring new lines and morose melodies from this well-harvested tree and triumph towards another consummate assortment of ditties.
This time, they’ve freshened things up by welcoming three friends to the studio: Sufjan Stevens, Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers. The sum of their involvement is to make proceedings about 15% more poppy than usual. That is not to diminish the quality of the contributions – that 15% is particularly potent on the epic ‘The Alcott’ featuring Swift, making for a wonderful melodic trip that might force a few ardent hipsters to reassess the plus-points of pop cheesiness – but the supporting artists are very much assimilated into The National’s stylings, and that’s perfectly fine. In fact, none of this wry patter is meant as a disparagement—the album is great, and, in turn, it successfully highlights the overrated virtue of musical evolution.
Become EP – The Beach House – 3.5/5
If Beach House become any more ethereal, then they run the risk of being inaudible to the human ear. There is a sense of nostalgia to this EP that stretches beyond any musical notes, with just enough of a rolling engine in the bass to push thinks along and to stop you sinking beneath the songs. This is typified by ‘American Daughter’ that constantly threatens to explode from dreaminess and tear open the curtains throughout.
Served as Record Store Day off-cuts from 2022’s Once Twice Melody album, the tracks might not be quite as polished as some of their efforts, but they are far from ash heap fodder. As wistful as ever, the collection makes you feel like you’re driving a car in a Nicholas Winding Refn film. It is a very uneventful journey mind you, but that’s okay every once in a while in these busy days.
Laugh Like a Bomb – Baba Ali – 3.5/5
Baba Ali have returned to take us all on a night out at the Roxbury. With gaudy 1980s cheese driving toes to a tapping oblivion, Baba Ali’s latest effort, Laugh Like a Bomb, is a shot of purified fun amid these troubled times. And once more, the dup prove to be fiercely eclectic with the range of sounds that they throw into their joyous oddities.
Exploring themes of homesickness and the “sense of vulnerability” that comes with it, there is a solid backbone to these tunes beyond experimental electronic music. And therein lies the true triumph of the album, somehow despite all the wild sonics, it comes across as a whole, single entity – an entity that does indeed laugh like a bomb.
Driving Just to Drive – Matt Maltese – 3.5/5
Matt Maltese’s new effort Driving Just to Drive is the sort of album that forms a paradox because one of the first descriptions that springs to mind is faultless. It is a pitch-perfect album, brilliantly written and performed, with hits that fans will love. So, the fact that it fails to reach the heights of a 5/5 is merely a moot point. It might not reinvent any wheels, but it never sets out to in the first place.
While it might never be bold enough to dare to be a masterpiece, it is steadfastly pleasant, happily pillow-propped and dreamily performed. Smooth balladry is what Maltese has been serving up since 2015, and this is yet another seamless slice. With hit singles like ‘Florence’ it will also serve him very well this summer.
Dreamer – Nabihah Iqbal – 3/5
Nabihah Iqbal can turn her hand to most things. The London-born star is an artist, curator, broadcaster, lecturer and musician. Now half a decade on from her debut album, Dreamer, was created over a two years period, but paradoxically it proves to be among her rawest work yet. It is as though those years have been used to get her thoughts in order exactly, rather than overcooking things.
With ambient sounds carrying the music off somewhere wistful, Iqbal lays down her earnest thoughts in a flowing stream. However, with tracks like ‘This World Couldn’t See Us’, she isn’t afraid to bring things up with a bit of a beat. There are other danceable moments with the house-inclined ‘Gentle Heart’, but on the whole, the record is probably best described as dreamy.
Ceremony – Tiny Ruins – 3/5
New Zealander Hollie Fullbrook has been releasing music as Tiny Ruins since 2009. Since then she has sharpened her lyrics to a potent point as she offers up stunning honesty in a softly cushioned style. Alongside these poignant words of reflection are fluttering strings adding texture to the stunning basslines that drive things along.
However, the strongest element is perhaps the confidence that Fullbrook has to allow the arrangements to be sparse. This room to breathe makes the tracks elegant and light. All of this combines for a sweet and stirring listen that seems quite content to slink into the background. It is rarely bold enough to grasp your full attention, but on a sunny spring day that is all well and good.
