Greetings loyal readers! Newsletter the second of this grim summer has arrived. Take care of yourselves, and enjoy these funny and evocative reviews!

- Lucy Talbot Allen, Music Writing Director

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

Phoebe Bridgers knew what the world needed when she released her sophomore album, Punisher. Bridgers released the long anticipated album a day early, announcing that she didn’t believe in pushing its release date until things “go back to normal” because she doesn’t believe that the Black Lives Matter movement should ever go away.

Bridgers’ first album, Stranger in the Alps, was released in 2017. She gained more recognition in 2018 when she joined Boygenius, an independent side project piloted by Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Bridgers. She’s collaborated with other artists such as The 1975 and Conor Oberst, deepening her bonds to the music community. So when listening to Punisher, it seems almost impossible to believe that this is only her sophomore release, not only because of her esteemed presence within the indie scene, but because of the maturity in her tender melodies and vulnerable lyricism.

Her lyrics, while simple, are incredibly honest. Punisher is a narrative of Bridgers’ struggles. She opens up about her estranged relationship with her dad and wrestles with her lifelong cynicism and lack of religion. Although it is extremely personal, Punisher is also somehow easy to relate to. “Moon Song” addresses her failure to give her partner what they need, despite her overwhelming love for them. Her song “Kyoto” speaks of Bridgers’ naivety as a young girl, unaware of what the world outside her hometown had to offer. These are all feelings that her listeners can’t help but relate to, as if Bridgers is telling their stories, not just her own.

“I Know The End” is a triumphant, apocalyptic bookend to the album. It features blaring trumpets and almost existential screaming. In her Apple Music editor’s notes, Bridgers shares that she wrote this song to capture the feeling of driving up the California Coast on a late night and the catharsis in feeling like you’re the only person who exists at that moment. When listening to Punisher, that is exactly what you feel for forty minutes. That you are the only person in the world who exists

- Kelly Park, PSA Director

RIYL: Elliott Smith, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Soccer Mommy
Recommended Tracks: 2, 4, 6, 7, 11
FCC: Clean

100 gecs - 1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues

When their experimental, genre-hopping album 1000 gecs was released last May on Dog Show Records/Atlantic Records, 100 gecs displayed a range and foresight that was, in a way, unprecedented. The album, created by the duo Dylan Brady and Laura Les, found itself on multiple best-of-the-year lists and cemented 100 gecs both in popularity and as pioneers in the genre-mashing scene that has come to be deemed “Hyperpop”: an entire aesthetic rooted in traditional pop music and glitchcore, but incorporating sounds that invoke everything from industrial to ska to electronica.

The newly released (Jul 10, 2020) remix album 1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues expounds on this experimentation of genre, and takes it beyond the heights of the original release.

At 19 tracks, every song on the original album with the exception of “I Need Help Immediately” is reworked at least once, in addition to four previously unreleased songs. The album is an evolution of the previous material, something that feels nuanced in the world of the remix album; rather than drawing directly from Brady and Les, every single song expands upon the framework of the genres themselves. Where the gecs find inspiration from early 2000s Eurodance and dubstep, the remixes adapt and warp that same inspiration into something more. “xXXi_wud_nvrstop_UXXx (Remix)” featuring Estonian rapper Tommy Cash and PC Music darling Hannah Diamond feels straight out of a 2004 Swedish warehouse rave, and the “800db cloud (Ricco Harver Remix)” is an EDM fever dream.

Much like the source material, the album manages to keep the listener guessing, zig-zagging through a record store-esque lineup of musical diversity. Features from artists as diverse as Rico Nasty, Injury Reserve, Craig Owens (of post-hardcore band Chiodos fame), and Fall Out Boy keep the album interesting, a considerable feat on a record featuring multiple remixes of the same songs. These left-field contributions transform the album into something ethereal with its experimentation, while keeping it grounded in the present moment by including musicians and DJs with similar genre-bending visions. Frequent “hyperpop” collaborators Dorian Electra (“gec 2 U”), GFOTY (“stupid horse”), Danny L Harle (“gec 2 U”), and Charli XCX (“ringtone”) turn this album, and by extension, 100 gecs, into something of a community project.

1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues encapsulates what makes the band itself so appealing and interesting: it expands on the original ten-track album and doubles down in its attempt to curate an aesthetic, a scene, a manifesto.

- Reanna Cruz, Head of Content

RIYL: Skrillex, SOPHIE/A.G. Cook, Poppy
Recommended Tracks: 5, 7, 11
FCC: Explicit (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14-18)

Haim - Women in Music Pt. III

Maybe you’ve run out of exes to surprise with a late night “how’s your quarantine going?” text. Maybe you’re tired of channeling your existential despair into oscillating between Animal Crossing and TikTok. No matter what ails you, Haim’s Women in Music Pt. III is the perfect balm to ease the ache of a cancelled summer. It grapples openly with the heavy feelings that seem to hang over the entire year — stagnation, depression, nihilism — without sounding like a hopeless lament. Instead, the cheekily-abbreviated WIMPIII is the kind of lightweight, sunsoaked indie pop capable of transforming your daily state sanctioned walk into a genuinely fun and cathartic moment.

Haim’s musical influences are clear throughout. “Los Angeles” and bonus track “Summer Girl” bookend the album, the latter peppered with choral “doot doo-doos” lifted straight from Lou Reed. The swaggering, distorted electric guitar solos on “Up From A Dream” and “All That Ever Mattered” call to mind the ruthless, guitar-driven pop of Sleigh Bells and St. Vincent. “Hallelujah” is a heartfelt memorial to Alana Haim’s late best friend, with delicate acoustic fingerpicking and full harmonies like Fleetwood Mac’s.

It’s difficult to pick just a few standouts from WIMPIII. I’m particularly fond of “Gasoline,” a languid and seductive ode to capital-Y Yearning that will have you involuntarily body rolling while you fold your laundry. I also love the falsetto vocals and woozy bass on “3 AM,” which seamlessly interweaves dial-tone-adjacent synths and soft stabs of acoustic guitar. It sounds the way it feels to try and fall asleep in a room without air conditioning.

“Man From The Magazine” may be my favorite song of all. Danielle Haim’s vocal performance is incredibly potent. The repetitive melody in the chorus is both contained and exasperated, and the dips into the low end of Danielle’s range are just beautiful. I never get tired of hearing her punctuate the track by muttering “to be the c*nt” with great bitterness over suspended chords reminiscent of Joni Mitchell.

Haim’s third album is an instant classic that finds the band sometimes morose and introspective, sometimes unabashedly horny, and always at their best.

- Anna Podkowski, Co-Program Director

RIYL: MUNA, Maggie Rogers, Jessie Ware, Tennis, Waxahatchee
Recommended Tracks: 1, 5, 6, 9, 11, 16
FCC: Explicit (9, 11, 13)

Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind

The first time I heard of Yves Tumor was in late 2018 when they released their wonderfully progressive album Safe in the Hands of Love. The album was an explosive mix of noise music, experimental RnB, and dark electronica unlike anything I had ever really heard at the time: I was immediately hooked. I quickly fell in love with the different musical risks Yves Tumor made and the wide variety of sounds and styles that were incorporated. When Yves Tumor announced their follow-up album Heaven to a Tortured Mind and accompanying lead single “Gospel For a New Century” at the start of 2020, I was buzzing. The single feels like a musical successor to Tumor’s 2018 neo-RnB fever dream “Noid,” and while the production is less abrasive overall, the sense of grittiness within a pop structure is still there. As the final three singles –– “Kerosene!”, “Romanticist,” and “Dream Palette” –– trickled in throughout the first months of 2020, I felt the project was going to be a clear contender for my album of the year.

When the album was finally released on April 3rd and I got to listen to the whole project, I was initially disappointed. The experimental electronic (“Economy of Freedom”) and dark club (“Honesty”) style tracks from Safe in the Hands of Love that I enjoyed so much were, sadly, no longer present. Yves had narrowed their scope and decided to focus on a more singular sound. To my ears, many of the tracks blended together, and while the project was cohesive, it lacked the grand scope of Safe in the Hands of Love. Now that time has passed and I’ve had the chance to revisit the album, I realized that I came into the experience with a certain set of expectations, and only disappointed myself when they weren’t met.

As I continue to relisten, I find myself feeling more in awe with the album and its perfect companionship to the perturbed pandemic state we live in. The lyrics on Heaven to a Tortured Mind speak to the human feelings of love, lust, heartbreak, and the conflicted space in between. The instrumentation tends to match this conflicted space and amps it up to extreme levels. The roaring horns and ripping guitar played while Yves Tumor frantically sings “you know I’m out my mind, girl, don’t make this harder” on the chorus of “Gospel For a New Century” set the mood for the whole album. When Yves Tumor sings that they “want to dance into your hurricane” (“Romanticist”) it’s clear that Heaven to a Tortured Mind perfectly encapsulates our human yearning for connection even when the whole world seems to be in pandemonium.

- Nick Calahan, DJ

RIYL: Dean Blunt, Prince, serpentwithfeet
Recommended Tracks: 1, 4, 6/7, 10, 12
FCC: Clean

NEW ADDS: Phoebe Bridgers, 100 gecs, Haim, Yves Tumor