Crucial Releases for February 21
Brand new albums from Anxious, The Murder Capital, Saya Gray, Youth Lagoon and more!
What a week! I knew it was going to be a challenge when I initially saved over 12 albums to my "Check Out Later" tag in my music app. Luckily I was able to listen to most of these fully, with my favorites getting a couple listens each...three of these albums really stood out above the rest, but I stuck with my limit of two featured albums for this column. So let's dig in...
The first album is Bambi by Anxious (Listen), which I think will go down as a key emo release for this generation. Bambi is the followup to their also fantastic debut album, Little Green House, which landed at #20 on my 2022 Favorites list. And this new album topped that debut. Quite an accomplishment!
It's everything I like about the genre, combining the best parts of bands like Fiddlehead, Samiam, Jimmy Eat World, and many other late 90s/early 2000s emo bands. There are a bunch of bands that have tried and are trying to replicate that era and Anxious just does it better than all of them. And to top it off, they are a great live band.
Favorite tracks: "Counting Sheep", "Head & Spine", "Never Said", "Sunder"
Anxious - Head & Spine video
Anxious - Counting Sheep live
Anxious at the Rec Room in Buffalo, NY
Next up is Blindness by The Murder Capital (Listen), the third album from the Irish post-punk band. Prior to Blindness, the band released When I Have Fears in 2019 and Gigi's Recovery in 2023, which I enjoyed.
Like their country mates, Fontaines D.C., this band is on the come up, having just opened for Nick Cave and Pearl Jam. Whereas Fontaines D.C. has ventured into a more tuneful version of post-punk, The Murder Capital has stuck with the darker, noisier, guitar driven sound that makes them a unique force in today's rock music scene.
Beyond the music, James McGovern's lyrics are just top notch, like on "Love of Country", which focuses on the global hyper fixation on national ideologies and ownership of land:
Under Canal, I sat with Domino, where we shared our lives in full
Commonalities and our tragedies make for quite the afternoon
Just kids reachin′ out to daydreams when our homes have lost their shape
Could you blame us from your pulpit? We had no choice but to escape
The six-year-old inside me sat before my eyes, all new
I've been drenched in my regrets and while you stunted I still grew
Oh, I'm just a kid reachin′ out to daydreams from a few pots of this land
Could you blame me for mistakin′ your love of country for hate of men? Oh
Other favorite tracks: "Moonshot", "Words Lost Meaning", "A Distant Life", "The Fall", "That Feeling"
Honorable Mentions
Saya by Saya Gray (Listen)
Saya Gray is everything I love about alt R&B/alt pop. Weird little melodies, the willingness to incorporate other genres like trip hop, shoegaze, folk, and jazz... each song is an adventure and so good. This almost made my top two...
→ Shop: Amazon
Rarely Do I Dream by Youth Lagoon (Listen)
The fifth album from Trevor Powers aka Youth Lagoon. Twelve songs interspersed with audio from family home videos. I don't think it reaches the heights of his debut, The Year of Hibernation, but it's definitely top 3...and very enjoyable.
→ Shop: Amazon
A few others that I enjoyed parts of:
- Armageddon in a Summer Dress by Sunny War (Listen)
- Melody of a Memory by Eem Triplin (Listen)
- Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams by Patterson Hood (Listen)
- People Watching by Sam Fender (Listen)
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