Here are the week’s hottest new releases! In a changing, unpredictable and turbulent world, something we can always rely on is a new Orb album, with the next holiday-for-the-head never far away. On what is quite possibly the millionth long-player helmed by electronic lifer Alex Paterson, partnered with the now firmly entrenched boy wonder Michael Rendall, the inspirationally productive outfit yet again deliver the goods, with Buddhist Hipsters being one of their best yet.
Twice Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Madi Diaz is known for searing explorations of romance and has created her most powerful statement so far with Fatal Optimist. Madi and producer Gabe Wax (Soccer Mommy, Zach Bryan) set out to strip these songs back, relying on her pure performance and writing. The result is a classic and timeless indie-folk album.
On their new album, The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation, the Montreal band add a lightness and optimism to their post-rock psych. Unique among their furrow-browed peers, The Besnard Lakes are unafraid to marry textured, questing headphone sonics to the honeyed pleasure of radio hits past: the rapture of My Bloody Valentine entwined with the romance of Fleetwood Mac. Imagine dreamy Beach House pop riding Led Zeppelin dynamics with unabashedly androgynous vocal harmonies: a melodic yet mountainous sound world.
Dropkick Murphys’ new album shows courage and confidence, speaking up against the injustices happening in the United States and doing so with a strength and power that harks back to their earliest punk-rock roots. For the People is more than a title: it’s a heartfelt stance, a declaration of who this band is, and who they’ve always been. It’s an expression of humanity at a time of relentless dehumanisation; a promise of hope in an era fuelled by fear-mongering; a declaration of solidarity in an age of disunion; a defiant rebuttal to the charlatans and demagogues who seek to divide us for their own power.
Our release of the week is Public Works and Utilities, the sixth album from Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, which continues to explore the demise of the post-war consensus. This time Gordon Chapman-Fox’s gaze falls on our public services that have been starved of cash or privatised since 1980. His anger continues to power his desire to make Warrington-Runcorn a statement for the here and now, rather than an exercise in rose-tinted nostalgia. The People Matter, as side two’s sole track attests.
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