Cam Recommends

Rosalía’s terrific and ambitious new album, LUX, is one of the most stunning listens I’ve had all year. Not that I should have expected anything less from the Spanish musician/genre mixologist/wunderkind, but a full-fledged orchestral album (bent, of course, entirely to her voracious musical will) was not something I had anticipated. There’s a whole lot to unpack with the entire project and it is very much worth your time and I expect to be writing more come the end of the year, but for now, for a sample of this record’s power and unexpected left turns, drop the needle on “Berghain” at full volume. Greeted with a swirling violin that ramps into a full-throated choral shout, we hear Rosalia emerge, descending like a glowing angel into a vaporous abyss. The strings, timpani and choir roil until the goddess of musical alchemy herself (Björk, obviously) cuts through it all with a voice like a knife: “THIS IS DIVINE INTERVENTION!” There’s more, and darker, material to be found, and, indeed, this is the darkest the album gets. But, I think, as a 3 minute experience, you couldn’t experience LUX in any more distilled form. 

I’m not quite sure why I have a nostalgic soft spot for any kind of song or vibe that conveys a sense of “post-club late-night neon-streaked wet pavement alongside foggy ennui” since, like, I’ve never gone clubbing a day in my life. But man, you hit me with those big hazy synths, deep basslines and whispery vocals and I can’t help but tune in. “Folsom” from Lake Aster hits and rides that vibe incredibly well in its short runtime, which might, in fact, be its only flaw: it could easily be twice as long without wearing out its welcome. That said, it’s a dreamy, moody listen for your next night drive. 

When I recommended The Besnard Lakes’ recent “Carried It Around” I brought up the old talking point from Wolf Parade about them only writing “halloween songs or christmas songs,” and I have to bring that up once again if only to emphatically state that the October 31st release of the 13 minute EP titled “The Obsolete Illusion” from instrumental rockers Wolfmen of Mars are some of the most “Halloween” non-Halloween songs I’ve ever heard. Sounding something like a modern day surf-rock but from a timeline where suf-rockers had too many bad acid trips during the time of 80’s nu-wave before deciding to just say “fuck it” and down-tune their guitars to invoke hair-metal all the while playing video games on an original grey brick Game Boy. Does that make any sense? Take a listen and see!

You gotta hand it to a song that rhymes “libido” with “Danny Devito” within its first 30 seconds. This track from Australian rock outfit Psychedelic Porn Crumpets kinda plays like Osees gone pop or maybe the Hives gone indie and rockets forward with a tremendous, chugging, fuzzy guitar lead and the ecstatic yelps of frontman Jack McEwan. “That’s the real shit!” he screams multiple times and if he’s talking about this very song, he’s absolutely right. 

Just Mustard continue honing their intoxicating blend of electronic-tinged, angelically sung shoegaze bangers with their new album WE WERE JUST HERE. It’s a soothingly pummeling record, like being drowned in cotton candy. The title track, with its helicopter-blade synths, wobbling bassline and sky-high vocal delivery, is like a glass juggernaut, staggeringly powerful yet poised to shatter into a thousand crystalline pieces at any moment. It’s a high-wire act of aural optimistic nihilism that’s as exhilarating as it is intellectually stimulating.

It’s a slight case of “first track/best track” with Maneater’s new Curb Your Appetite, but I can’t really fault them since “The Prize” is such a barnburner that I’m not sure any successive track could exceed the fiery barely controlled chaos of this track. Reminding me just a bit of the early rioutous sounds from Wolf Parade, the song roars out of the gate with a set of mile-high organ blasts before settling into a tight dual-vocaled stretch that just begs the listener to crank the volume knob to max and roll those windows down. And we get an excellent little heartland-accented guitar solo in the back-half to really set this track apart. 

Synth rockers POLIÇA return with a fantastic new set of tracks on their new record Dreams Go. Early album highlight “Wound Up” miraculously captures nearly every little thing I’ve loved about this band for near on a decade now: melancholic grooves, spacey production, weighty and elegiac lyrics performed by the incomparable Channy Leaneagh who somehow marries detachment with profound empathy in her vocal stylings, and, of course an absolutely stunning bassline throughout.

Yes, friends of the blog, The Antlers do have an excellent new album out (and you should listen to it!) but something about this live rendition of the titular track from their 2020 masterpiece really hit me as the season (finally) started to change here a few weeks back in Vegas. The live rendition (rounded out with fellow folk-indie travelers Ovvervil River) is a bit more earthy than the one laid to tape, and that bit of grit adds a weight of world-weariness that feels oh so appropriate.