Sam Atkins – A month that contained new (genuinely great) albums from Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Maggie Rogers and I just can’t talk about them. The last few weeks of April belonged to Lucy Rose who released what might just be my favorite record of the year so far. So dynamic and musically daring, it’s a stark difference to the straightforward folk of her previous work, but is stacked with real life experience and emotion. I’m amazed at songs like ‘The Racket’, ‘Over When It’s Over’ and ‘Life’s Too Short’, almost a jazz/folk fusion if assigning a genre to this album would even make sense. Honestly go and listen to it right now, it’s as good as anything else you’ll hear today.
Rick Larsen – Well, it wasn’t Tortured Poets Department. But my efforts to keep a finger on the pulse of popular music are unflagging!
Maggie Rogers is now seven years removed from the viral video of her playing a song to Pharrell Williams in an NYU class. She is almost wrenchingly endearing, bopping her head to her own beat and shooting a nervous side-eye at the star producer. Now she’s playing arenas, being profiled in the New Yorker and attending the Met Gala. Good for her. Her new album, Don’t Forget About Me came out in April. I feel like she’s chipping a bit at a vein that Swift abandoned to instead document exhaustively her poor choice in men and producers. Rogers has a bit of a Linda Ronstadt vibe going and the title song and ‘So Sick of Dreaming’ sound like lost AM radio hits. There is something very openly calculating about Rogers that is oddly refreshing.
James Spearing – About this time every year, as the weather warms and the sun shines a little more, my mind turns to the sunny island holiday I’ll soon be going on in my imagination. That holiday needs a soundtrack and so my inner basic rave bitch takes control of my listening for a short while. Luckily Carlita and I. JORDAN were ready to provide with ‘Cash for Love’ and ‘Round n Round’. Album wise (and I guarantee I won’t be the only PB to give this a mention) it has to be Lucy Rose with This Ain’t The Way You Go Out. Sam’s already called it album of the year, so stop reading this and read his review instead.
Tom Burrows – I love the new Vampire Weekend album. I really wasn’t that bothered about the prospect of Only God Was Above Us when it was announced. I assumed that the band was on the decline since Rostam left, and didn’t feel I needed any more of their scholarly quirkiness in 2024. But after a couple of listens, I was hooked for all of April. The production on this record is tremendous. There’s a real attention to detail with the sound, which can be hugely exploratory even across a single song, yet still retains a tightness that makes the songs incredibly catchy. Their lyrics can often be very cryptic, but the turns of phrase and self-referential sonic choices make the whole album endlessly compelling. This will be high on my personal year-end list for sure.
Also released on that busy early April Friday was the new album from Mount Kimbie, The Sunset Violent, which I’ve also had on heavy rotation. They’ve morphed from a post-dubstep duo into a post-punk quartet, but they’ve retained a similar musical appeal even though their sound has changed. There’s something in the melancholy-that-you-can’t-quite-place that makes this new set of songs frequently relistenable – even if on the surface the album is a little more one-note than we’re used to. My personal favourite is the King Krule-featuring ‘Empty and Silent’, where he basically reads extracts from his diary for 6 minutes. It’s much better than that sounds.
Matt Paul – I listened to some great albums this month. It’s Sorted from Cheekface is full of fun irreverence, whilst also poking holes in modern society. With a little more bite and and also poking holes in modern society is the new Bob Vylan record. Makes Me Violent feels like a step up from the excellent prior record, and they’re in with a chance of getting that Mercury nom, of which they think they were ‘robbed’. And lastly is the aggressive Model/Actriz with their dark and provocative debut Dogsbody. I’m a year late on this one, but they’re the band I’ve been looking for to fill that 00s dance punk void that I’ve been feeling for years.
That’s all for this month. Enjoyed these recommendations? Why not buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/pickybastards?
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