The Music Dispatch: November 22, 2022
Inside: Weyes Blood, PinkPantheress & Kaytranada, Kelela, Kihyun, cover acts, and bringing concepts to completion
Welcome to The Music Dispatch! This is a weekly part of the Substack where I shortly review every new(-ish) release I listened to. Out every Tuesday. All mentioned songs are available on your streaming platform of choice unless stated otherwise. Is there an album you want to recommend me? @ me on Twitter or head on over to the Retrospring!
Sorry for the odd formatting the past couple days, Substack does this automatically, which is weird and I’m too lazy to fix it.
EPs and Albums
Viagra Boys — Cave World
Flat political messaging but immensely fun grooves make this one a blast to listen to from start to finish. This is the kind of rock I love listening to. Just don’t pay too close attention to the satire.
Black Midi — Hellfire
FOMO ultimately got to me. Hellfire, Black Midi’s latest, solidifies why the London outfit are the current vanguard of UK’s new post punk wave; this is invigorated and deeply immersive, very visceral music that also scratches the theatrical itch quite well.
Duckwrth — Chrome Bull
The latest artist to hit the dancefloor, Duckwrth doesn’t miss on this breezy record, be it as a singer or as rapper. Despite it only being twenty minutes, it feels much fuller, closer to a full-length album than an EP. Give it a spin!
Connie Constance — Miss Power
If you liked Nilüfer Yanya’s debut record Miss Universe, Connie Constance’s sophomore record Miss Power reminded me quite a lot of it (even down to the title!). The blend of indie rock and slight hints of jazz and off-kilter vocal performances is always enjoyable, does similar tricks to equally enjoyable effect. And on YUCK!, Constance tries her hand at British post punk to really fun results. This is a vast step forward from debut English Rose. I suppose if I had one criticism about it, it’s that the album sometimes feels like a collection of songs.
Fousheé — SoftCORE
Fousheé went viral in 2020 and has appeared as a guest singer on a lot of records. With her buttery, sentimental vocals she makes for quite the spot, but you wouldn’t quite be able to tell that on this new record, an exercise in grunge (to my account, one of three movements to slowly break through the mainstream right now) with lots of screaming. While the opener recalls the proto punk of The Raincoats, the rest quickly dissolves to the rock (Willow), metal (Nova Twins) and hyperpop/rock (aka hyperpunk, for my account; 100 Gecs & Rico Nasty come to mind) that other acts do to much better effect: songs that are either too short, have weak hooks, or both. It’s just a bunch of ideas thrown at the listener that don’t fully come to fruition. Shame, because Fousheé is definitely a name to watch otherwise, and the genres mentioned are definitely alive and thriving right now.
Weyes Blood — And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
I sadly didn’t really care for this second bit of Weyes Blood trilogy of environmental despair and ~our times~, best described “new collection of sad emo music”. I know that most of my friends who like this music will enjoy this a lot. It’s lush and orchestral and Weyes Blood sings like a maiden on a tower in medieval fairytale times, excepting Twin Flame, which feels more modern. There is no Movies and I am here for Movies alone.
Blood Orange — Four Songs
These are certainly four songs by Blood Orange.
Kihyun — YOUTH
An immensely satisfying collection of songs, with the first three tracks especially enjoyable and in Kihyun’s wheelhouse. The title YOUTH is basically a more engaging Nell track, or Hyukoh if Oh Hyuk decided to go through the K-Pop songwriting machine. STARDUST is a very fun synthpop track. As usual, Kihyun is a very engaging performer and has a lot of flourish in a way that reminds me of Hero Jaejoong in his TVXQ days (and at the start of his solo career too), which is always massively appreciated.
tripleS — Acid Angel from Asia <ACCESS>
Jaden Jeong’s newest stint is a concept so elaborately stupid that I implore you to google it yourself, I can’t spoil you. Anyways, musically, this is a collection of b-sides that were popular four years ago and I’ve never been the nostalgic type. You know what I’d like to see? Jaden Jeong finishing his concepts to the end for once. I guess OnlyOneOf counts if he hasn’t left them… good for OnlyOneOf.
Singles
ITZY — Boys Like You
This US debut single of ITZY will absolutely make certain that you will never get their actual charms. A song dated on arrival with delivery that doesn’t complement the already poor vocal performance of most ITZY members (this is no dig, because ITZY was never fashioned that way).
Holly Humberstone — Can You Afford to Lose Me?
Now that Billie Eilish decided to make acoustic guitar music somebody else has to make her debut-era ballads, and British singer Holly Humberstone is a best bet as any. I quite enjoyed this one.
VIVIZ — Rum Pum Pum
This single for Universe sounds like a mid-2010s K-Pop title if that’s your thing. But not the A-listers (nor the excellent music that GFriend, the group before VIVIZ) used to make, more the stuff you forgot about until somebody performed them at the MMAs and you go like “ah, yes, that’s right, they came back too.”
Altin Gün — Leylim Ley
Altin Gün remains a cover act to me until they do more interesting things than add a cool psychedelic break to a beloved Turkish song.
Yves Tumor — God is a Circle
Yves Tumor — to my account, the rockstar of our times — returns on this new cut with the sex and propulsion of a young Trent Reznor. It’s a very dark, slinky, sexy song.
PinkPantheress, Kaytranada — Do You Miss Me?
It’s finally here!!! Kaytranada’s house beats are paired with PinkPantheress nimble voice and make for an immensely satisfying combination. This time around, the two minutes feel full and slower paced, unlike a lot of PinkPantheress’s music. Hopefully they have more coming up, I’d love that!
Kelela — On The Run
Going 3/3, Kelela also hits the dance club (as do a lot of people and will in the upcoming months). This is the grownup variant of Do You Miss Me with Kelela’s vocals fading in and out of the song with grace and utter elegance.
Here are the tunes to listen to for this week:
I should be working on my AOTY posts and whittle things down, but… listening to music is easier… and ignoring things is easier… and procrastinating is so fun… anyways who up playing Hades
movies hive...