Potion Seller, When They Get Old (PNWK Records)
This was proffered to me as an EP from a Grand Rapids, Michigan,-based “alt-rock/post-emo/pop-punk band,” so I immediately went into snark mode in preparation for listening to this stuff, expecting it to evoke Good Charlotte and all those way-overdone sounds. But wait a minute, this isn’t your typical nerd-rock band, there’s actual old-school emo here, not just wishy-washy Dashboard Confessional obeisance and over-processed guitars. No, there are some organics here, not to mention some subtlety and even silence; there are spots during “Faster” when I almost expected to hear someone drop a coffee cup in the background. Yeah, the louder moments are cookie-cutter for the genre, but even those aren’t simply wall-of-sound bleatings; in fact — and I know these guys are too young to even know who they are — it’s actually reminiscent of Gin Blossoms or Skynyrd in spots. All told, the band’s first release for this imprint offers a very workable blend of Aughts-era pop-punk and modern emo. A+
Inter Arma, New Heaven (Relapse Records)
OK, cool story time, bros and gals, this was originally going to be a quick review of a different LP from my old friends at Relapse, but the link to the “advance album” was hopelessly mixed in with a bunch of different links, none of which pointed to the actual album in question, and so I’m doing this one instead, which is now two months old. The moral: overeducated PR reps, please make your emails make sense if you’re trying to push a new album to us lowly music journos, that’d be great. Anyhow (grrrrr), this Richmond, Virginia,-based metal act is known for eschewing structure in their rabid noise-scapes, but this is a departure in that the songs are more, well, song-like than what you may be accustomed to from these guys, if you are at all. The tldr is that the tunes are loud and aggressive in an unusual vein, combining sounds and hamster-wheel speeds native to both Cannibal Corpse and Bathory, i.e., the vocals fluctuate between Quorthon and Cookie Monster, but there’s a lot of clangy discordance. Not my cup of tea, but have at it. B-
PLAYLIST
A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases
• June 28 is a Friday and, thus spake the record companies, there will be many new albums presented for your entertainment and ridicule, on that day! We’ll start out with wildly popular children’s bouncy house party band Imagine Dragons, whose new album, Loom, is, you know, looming over my head (see what I did there?), demanding that I talk about it, because all the young children love this arena-pop band of balloon-animal-crafting circus clowns. Wow, this is so nice of Imagine Dragons, the entire album is on YouTube, and I’m listening to the new single, “Nice to Meet You,” this will definitely rule! Ack, this is Justin Timberlake-level cultural appropriation, the singer is trying to pick up a girl at a bar where everyone is gorgeous (except the band, of course, as always) and the tune is sort of like 1970s-soul mixed with LMFAO. I don’t know any child that would like this at all, although I imagine a fourth-grader who loves everything about (the great) Imagine Dragons would force themself to like it. Anyway, Imagine Dragons, everyone.
• Renowned for twerking so vigorously that she occasionally takes flight and soars up to 20,000 feet above sea level, Megan Thee Stallion proves that she hasn’t reached her Vegas-has-been stage yet by releasing her third album, Megan, on June 28! There is music on this album, but don’t be silly, you just want to know about the beefs that are explored in its grooves, because what else is music about, if not beefs? In the single, “Hiss,” she disses Drake, who expressed public support for Tory Lanez, who was found guilty of shooting Megan in 2020. Her boss Kendrick Lamar has also besmirched Drake, so there’s trouble ahead in hip-hop land, get your popcorn. We’ll have more wrestling news after these messages!
• Oh come on already, another Guided by Voices album, so soon, how is this even news; they (meaning songwriting addict Robert Pollard) released one in November, already! Whatever, let’s get it over with, Strut Of Kings is the title, and the single is “Serene King,” a Neil Young-type mid-tempo rawker (again). Pollard sounds like Ozzy in “sinister serpent god” mode (again) in this instantly recyclable classic!
• We’ll wrap up the week with St. Louis-based folkie-whatever Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats andhis new LP, South Of Here! The album includes “David and Goliath,” a Nilsson-meets-Ben Folds quirk-a-thon that’s actually well-written.