The Big Indie Playlist: This week’s best new music
It’s all fun and games with The Big Indie Playlist until someone cries. Believe me when I tell you that there is at least one, maybe two, songs on the playlist this week that got things a bit misty. Damn you, Sufjan Stevens, you do it to me every time.
Besides that, we’ve got enough indie music this week to keep our spirits high. We’ve also had some stellar albums, including the new high water mark from Mitski, The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We. A real testament to pure songwriting talent, the album solidifies Mitski’s standing as perhaps the great artist of the moment. Other albums from The Pretenders, Nation of Language, and Corinne Bailey Rae have also gone down smooth this week.
If you want to check out more of the best of the new albums, you can check out our Alternative Album Chart, which is stocked full of goodies just waiting to be discovered. Otherwise, if you’re looking for a quick fix, we’ve got you covered with the best new singles of the week.
From Sufjan Stevens and Big Thief to Snail Mail and Wilco, there is once more a smorgasbord of surprises from the music world and a few emerging talents to boot. Here are all the best singles from the week of September 15th. You can check them all out in a playlist at the foot of the piece, too.
This week’s best new music:
The best new folk songs
Sufjan Stevens – ‘Will Anybody Ever Love Me?: You can always count on Sufjan Stevens to both make your day and ruin your day. The iconic folk singer-songwriter is beloved by millions, but will he truly ever find solace? I don’t know, but every time he tries, he puts out another great song, so there’s certainly no rush. (4.5/5)
Big Thief – ‘Born For Loving You’: You know what rocks? Songs about having sex. You know what else rocks? Songs about having sex in the back of pickup trucks. Country music got one thing right. And so did Big Thief, who unleashed a carnal ode to those down-home delights in ‘Born For Loving You’, another killer single from the indie folk rockers. (4/5)
Snail Mail – ‘Easy Thing’: Have you ever made a home demo of a song? Most of the time they sound like absolute garbage. I have no idea how Lindsey Jordan, AKA Snail Mail, managed to get ‘Easy Thing’ to sound so good while recording it in her parents’ house, but such is the way of an artist I guess. (3.5/5)
The best new indie songs
Joel Culpepper – ‘Free’ (ft. Tom Misch): So ‘Free’ isn’t really an “indie” song. It’s more of a funk-soul track with some killer indie rock elements. Quibble all you want, but Joel Culpepper has done it again, this time taking bringing fellow British Neo-soul artist Tom Misch along for the ride as he unfurls a killer new jam. (4.5/5)
Yumi Zouma – ‘KPR’: Every good music writer finds a bit too much joy in bragging about seeing artists before other people. I happened to see Yumi Zouma, the awesome New Zealand indie pop outfit, when they came through Washington D.C. supporting their 2022 album Present Tense. They played the Black Cat. It was rad. So is ‘KPR’, the latest addition to their stellar discography. (4/5)
Jamie Webster – ‘Fickle Fran’ (ft. Billy Bragg): I love a good drunken singalong. No word on whether Jamie Webster or Billy Bragg happened to be inebriated as they spit out the words to ‘Fickle Fran’, the tumbling new track about “your local salesman” on a mission to sell enough cheap handbags and fake sunglasses to stay warm during the winter. But I certainly will be when I sing along to the “Bah ba da da da bah” chorus next time I hear the track. (4/5)
Bombay Bicycle Club – ‘Turn the World On’: Another lovely track from British stalwarts Bombay Bicycle Club from their revival period, ‘Turn the World On’ is a delicate but driving track that will be perfect once the weather gets a little bit colder and gloomier outside. (3.5/5)
The best new alternative/rock songs
Cherry Glazerr – ‘Sugar’: A dark and fuzzy slice of noise pop, ‘Sugar’ is the latest killer track from one of rock’s most consistent songwriters, Clementine Creevy. ‘Sugar’ has a wonderfully forbidding atmosphere to it, almost as it something constantly on the edge of breaking. But When Creevy croons out the title phrase, it sounds sweet, like a trap. (4/5)
Animal Collective – ‘Gem & I’: Maryland’s proudest sons Animal Collective are *this*close to releasing their latest effort, Isn’t It Now. If you happened to blend every Animal Collective song together and poured it like a stiff drink, it would probably come out something like ‘Gem & I’. That’s not an insult at all: I love when Panda Bear takes hold of a track and squeezes all the pop hooks he can out of the band’s weird psychedelic sauce. (4/5)
Wilco – ‘Cousin’: You can always count on Wilco for solid material. Every time I think the legendary Chicago indie rockers are over the hill, I remember how much I liked Schmilco, Ode to Joy, and even their country diversion Cruel Country. Does that mean I’m becoming a dad? Maybe, but I’m equally looking forward to Cousin, the band’s upcoming lucky 13th studio effort. (3.5/5)
Wild Nothing – ‘Suburban Solutions’: Wild Nothing doesn’t waste any time slapping you right in the face with the synth-pop stylings of ‘Suburban Solutions’. It might seem like a bit of a pastiche… if you hate things like fun and dancing. If you’re not that square, then you’ll find plenty to like in ‘Suburban Solutions’. (3.5/5)
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