Release Radar: December/January 2024

Thank you for your service Pitchfork, WMUC Music Team got it from here. Less than a month into the semester, the team has already been working hard in helping you keep track of the best of new music. I really thought the month was going slow for music, but we ended up finding seven albums rated 8 or higher this month! Of course, even the lower rated releases are on here because they resonated strongly with some members, and we hope you get the chance to listen through them.

Without further ado, here's our pick of the month!

With plastic death, glass beach takes a massive departure from their original sound that pays off in a big way. Where the aptly titled the first glass beach album was influenced in emo and power pop, plastic death takes a much more artful and sometimes psychedelic approach without entirely removing the appeal that gained the band so much attention from their first album. The slower and more melodic songs, such as “Coelacanth,” “Whalefall,” and “Guitar Song,” evoke an ethereal journey through the ocean. The more prog rock influenced tracks like “rare animal”, “cul-de-sac”, and the phenomenal 10 minute track “commatose”  each feels like a complete side quest in its own rights, with changing melodies and heavy guitar solos that seamless transforms the song into something unrecognizable by the end of the track.

plastic death, while a massive departure from their debut, is a masterful and unique album that proves glass beach has matured into a different, and dare I say, a better band than they once were. - P.G.

Notes -

• Genre: Art Rock, Progressive Rock
• Favorite Tracks: Cul-de-sac
• Recommend if you like: Origami Angel, Brave Little Abacus, The Mars Volta

Rating: 8.5

It’s cool to like country again. And it’s still cool to live in Burlington. With these twin developments, the Burlington/Vermont alt-folk scene has had enhanced scrutiny placed upon it. The diagnosis? The Green Mountain State is at the cutting edge of indie folk. However, it’s misleading to describe the Vermont scene as one consistent mass.  From the orthodox folk revivalism of Eric George to the Faheyesque lofi guitar work of Brendan Provost to the Elephant Six-inspired ballads of Greg Freeman, the scene is fertile with a new and diverse generation of troubadours.

One of its exemplars is Lily Seabird, with her sophomore LP Alas,. With nine songs and clocking in at over 47 minutes, Alas, is primarily composed of crawling barn burners. One after another, tracks build up with Seabird’s vocals overlaid on top of sparse guitars and percussion, before lashing out into raw, distorted solos. This performance never quite overstays its welcome - shorter songs are sprinkled throughout the LP to give some breathing room, while the instrumental payloads are always satisfying. The vocals are also convincing, with the listener practically being able to hear Seabird grit her teeth on tracks like Grace, Dirge, and Waste.  Seabird is also able to strike out on a path of her own from her Burlington colleagues, embracing power pop hooks on songs like Twenty. This is an advancement from 2021’s Beside Myself, which more rooted itself in conventional rock n’ roll. This is no longer indie pop dipped in twang; this is a true fusion album, delicately mixing together several musical traditions into a wholly new product.

Sometimes an endurance test and always interesting, 2024’s Alas, feels like it belongs in the upper echelon of fuzzed-out alt-country alongside Wednesday and MJ Lenderman, showing the potential of what folk/country can look like in the 2020s. - M.A.G.

Notes -

• Genre: Alt-Country,
• Favorite Tracks: Grace, Twenty, Waste
• Recommend if you like: Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Greg Freeman

Rating: 8

A fervor has been brewing below the streets of Brussels; its name is Warm Exit. Rapid dissonant basslines pulsate through a dilapidated subway tunnel, and the lights flicker aggressively as the announcer shouts cryptic and ominous declarations through the PA. The band’s debut album Ultra Violence’s influences are graffiti-tagged to the walls, but with how impeccably they execute the familiar punk & noise rock, it’s not to be drawn to it. We’re excited to see where the band will go next and how they will build on their sound. - J.L.

Notes -

• Genre: Post-Punk
• Favorite Tracks: Danger Becomes a Necessity, Become the Butcher
• Recommend if you like: IDLES, Nine Inch Nails, Swans

Rating: 8

Listening to Wall of Eyes feels like sailing through a serene lake under the cloudless night sky, its surface reflecting an impossibly lucid view of the cosmos. Without losing an ounce of depth or creativity, Thom Yorke, along with his most recent band The Smile, has released one of his most easy to listen to albums. Each track smoothly fades into one another with grace, but the textual innovation and composition of progressions can’t be understated, reflecting ambient and post-rock sensibilities. Compared to their last album debut, Wall of Eyes manages to strike a more cohesive atmosphere - J.L.

Notes -

• Genre: Art Rock
• Favorite Tracks: Teleharmonic, Bending Hectic
• Recommend if you like: Radiohead, Black Country New Road, Sonic Youth

Rating: 8

HI_TEK MZK, VOL.1 sounds like a sample of alien club music. CONNIE’s influences of SOPHIE and other legendary producers really shine on all of his tracks here, as they are all supremely danceable and leave you unable to do anything but bust a move. The features are also all amazing, with rappers like RXKNephew, Zelooperz, and Matt OX showing just how tapped in CONNIE is with the experimental rap scene. The only detriment to this EP is that there is little in common between the songs besides CONNIE’s production, leaving it feeling more like a portfolio of CONNIE’s capabilities, but this brief glance into his style has me excited for how his sound will evolve and shape up in the future. - F.B.

Notes -

• Genre: Experimental hip-hop
• Favorite Tracks: GS1, GFRX88, PURPLE APE
• Recommend if you like: SOPHIE, Matt OX, Zelooperz

Rating: 8

On Thy Slaughter’s Soft Rock A.G. Cook and Easyfun package up PC Music’s classic sounds into a refined final showing for the iconic label. For over 30 minutes, the two producers seamlessly riff off of each other’s styles to form a cohesive final project. Easyfun builds on the electric guitar sound he explored in “Electric,” while A.G. Cook sprinkles in his classic industrial sound. The two producers utilize Caroline Polachek’s illustrious voice on “Immortal,” one of the catchiest songs on the album. They also employ Charli XCX for “Heavy,” another strong track. Soft Rock is a far cry from A.G. Cook’s most experimental instrumentals and is instead a palatable electronic guitar album with a simple, catchy lyricism that helped define the PC Music sound. Although PC Music announced an end to its label last year, Soft Rock serves as a product of the innovative spirit the collective was built on. -M.H.

Notes -

• Genre: Pop
• Favorite Tracks: Immortal, Heavy
• Recommend if you like: PC Music, Caroline Polachek,

Rating: 8

Great Doubt is Astrid Sonne’s first release in almost 2 years of inactivity, and is a beautiful mix of sounds, from the synthy production on songs like “Staying here” to the strings on “Almost”, Sonne flexes her ability to mesh sounds with differing sonic textures. The album isn’t noisy though, and leaves a lot of room for contemplation for the listeners. The second half of the album is particularly strong, with tracks like “Staying here” having extremely catchy arpeggiated synths. The 26 minute runtime also feels good, without being too long to lose your attention but also not being too short to leave you wanting more substance. This album definitely sets up some interesting sounds that I’m interested to see how Sonne will capitalize on later. - F.B.

Notes -

• Genre: Art Pop
• Favorite Tracks: Staying Here, Do You Wanna
• Recommend if you like: Jockstrap, Bjork, Caroline Polachek

Rating: 8

ORQUÍDEAS is Kali Uchis’ latest album and a beautiful look at latin pop. Throughout the album she explores a variety of genres from reggaeton to R&B. This may come as a negative to those who particularly loved her past R&B-heavy works such as Red Moon in Venus, but I believe that there is enough for them here that they can still enjoy the project to its fullest. Her beautiful voice adapts to all the different styles and connects the album to show love in all its forms. The only con of the album for me is that it plays it pretty safe and doesn’t try to experiment much, but this could just as easily be a positive for someone else. - F.B.

Notes -

• Genre: Contemporary R&B, Latin pop
• Favorite Tracks: Muñekita, Young Rich & in Love, Te Mata
• Recommend if you like: Rosalia, Steve Lacy, Selena

Rating: 7.5

The timing of every syllable resonates with intention on UMD alum Yemi Sol’s most recent EP four the sol. The project marks a departure from the artist’s customary jazz rap and boom bap beats, now rapping on brighter production featuring creative and intentionally choppy sampling. Some of the tracks have been kept in the vault by Yemi for over a year due to concerns over how his evolving style would be received, and we hope he’s encouraged to take more risks like this in the future. Yemi’s flow is smooth yet powerful; it seems like all he needs right now is one breakthrough track and a stronger musical identity. - J.L.

Notes -

• Genre: Hip Hop
• Favorite Tracks: CAVEMAN
• Recommend if you like: Chance the Rapper, Isaiah Rashad, IDK

Rating: 7.5

ILION, the latest project from French trio Slift, is best taken as a whole, rather than in individual tracks. Sticking with the tracks laid down by their previous album, Ummon, the group chugs forward through a psychedelic web of heavy riffs and atmospheric reverberation (albeit with ILION being generally heavier and more meandering than their previous work). There is not a single chorus to be found between the entire eight-track, eighty-minute project, and the group takes a definitively cinematic approach to their songwriting in this project. At times it feels like they are just jamming along with no particular destination in mind, but the well-thought-out reverberating effects, stellar drumming, and instantly hooky repeated basslines help tie an otherwise floaty album together a bit.

This album should feel right at home with enjoyers of prog rock epics, but will likely feel pretty unapproachable to new listeners of the genre (a comment I got was “I feel like I should be labeling this as objectively good but I don’t necessarily like it.”). The relatively off-putting and sparse metal vocals certainly don’t help with that, as with the album’s insistence on atmosphere above all. ILION feels like the type of music that someone not invested in it could toss on and go about their day, whereas someone who really enjoys the style  and the way Slift engage in their musical builds is able to become fully enraptured and engrossed. Where you fall in that is up to you, but ILION feels like a project that I should be able to give an extremely solid recommendation across the board to that ultimately meanders itself into a bit of a corner. - T.T.

Notes -

• Genre: Progressive rock, space rock
• Favorite Tracks: Confluence, The Story That Has Never Been Told
• Recommend if you like: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Tool, Sleep

Rating: 7

Ty Segall’s 14th solo studio album proves to be another solid record that covers some compelling new territory for the garage rocker but suffers from its length. The build-up for Three Bells was much more notable than it had been for Ty’s last few LPs given the four great singles (and accompanying music videos) that preceded its release. “Void,” and “Eggman,” the first tastes of the record, went headfirst into psychedelia but had a disconcerting sourness to them. “My Room,” and “My Best Friend,” were more straight-up rock cuts with catchy hooks and layers of twangy electric (and acoustic) guitars. The majority of the record proves to have a sound that is pretty in-line with the singles; emphasis on layering, repetition, and colorful yet sour guitar lines. This new focus works the majority of the time but can run a little dry or become grating on occasion. Besides the singles, opener “The Bell,” “Reflection,” “Watcher,” and closer “What Can We Do,” all serve as highlights worth coming back to. “Hi Dee Dee,” and “Repetition” prove to be a little too sour for repeated listens, but definitely aren’t awful songs. The rest of this album falls somewhere in between in terms of quality and arguably stack up as filler. Overall, the length and some overly repeated ideas take away from what could’ve been one of Ty’s best releases. Three Bells is unsurprisingly a quality release but with some extra weight cut off, it would’ve been one of the best of the year. -G.H.

Notes -

• Genre: Psychedelic Rock; Art Rock
• Favorite Tracks: Void, Reflections, My Room
• Recommend if you like: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Thee Oh Sees

Rating: 7

On his newest album "Iechyd Da", Bill Ryder-Jones sounds like he’s strolling past his slow, seaside hometown of West Kirby bathed in the soft glow of the morning sun. As Covid-19 changed everything in the world around him, Ryder-Jones reflects on echoes of a past both beautiful and sorrowful. On quieter songs like “I Know That It’s Like This” and “A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart pt.3”, Ryder-Jones’ soft breathy singing tugs at your heart strings. On the more chamber inspired songs like “If Tomorrow Starts Without Me” and “This Can’t Go On”, a cocoon of warm strings and piano envelops you. While not every track on the album is memorable, its peaks are truly remarkable. -J.L.

Notes -

• Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Chamber Pop
• Favorite Tracks: I Know That It’s Like This, This Can’t Go On
• Recommend if you like: Sufjan Stevens,

Rating: 7

Penalty of Leadership is the second full-length LP from Detroit-based rapper Boldy James and Montreal producer Nicholas Craven.  This is the first album recorded from Boldy James since he broke his neck, a vertebrae, and three links during a serious car accident in early Jan. 2023. According to Nicholas Craven’s twitter, the first single “Brand New Chanel Kicks,” was recorded on Jan 30th, five days after leaving the hospital while recording the song in a neck brace and wheelchair. Craven flew back and forth from Detroit during Boldy’s recovery process, finishing the album in several sessions. Penalty of Leadership is a highly anticipated follow-up album to the critically acclaimed 2022 album “Fair Exchange, No Robbery.”

There were a total of two singles released in “Brand New Chanel Kicks” and “No Pun Intended,” on an album with 11 songs and a direct 36 minute runtime. The album flows well together, especially with the strong first half that is presented through great song sequencing. With Craven playing well with his sampling process along with using occasional drums and Boldy rapping with his normal flow, the album proves to give a plethora of good songs.

At the same time, this is a project in which if you are not a fan of Boldy, you would not find anything incredibly profound about this project besides the production (a strong highlight for me). With Boldy James releasing 14 projects since 2020 and this being his 15th, Boldy has gotten comfortable with his flow and some set-ups for his one liners; while the one-liners can be good, consistent listening allows you to realize he can almost be seen as coasting lately. It is hard to live up to albums such as “The Price of Tea in China,” “Manger on McNichols” or even “Mr. Ten08.”

While this may not be his best project or comparable to his best work, it is still a very solid to good album for listening. There are very strong highlights on songs like “Soccer Mom” with a grimy xylophone beat with Boldy rapping about past ventures rapping lyrics such as “I had the dashboard doing tricks in that Soccer Mom.”

People can often dismiss rappers for their past decisions and their “rudimentary” topics, but Boldy is a mature and wise rapper which shows in his lyrics. On “Murderous Tendencies” he raps about the amount of death he has seen around him growing up on 6 Mile in Detroit saying, “All of my friends on a Bon Voyage, probably can't even fit all the bodies into one collage.”

Overall, this is a very solid project and hopefully is just a start for a big year for Boldy as last year was a quiet year by comparison to his earlier projects in 2020-2022. It stacks up well to “Fair Exchange, No Robbery,” but falls just a bit short based on the second half having some misses. -J.H.

Notes -

• Genre: Underground Rap, Rapper-Producer,
• Favorite Tracks: Soccer Mom, Formal Invite, No Pun Intended
• Recommend if you like: Underground Rap, Good Production

Rating: 7

american dream, 21’s first solo album since i am > i was, is his most lyrical work, but still leaves much to be desired. The album is much more focused on his personal narrative and upbringing, and delivers on tracks like “redrum”, but falls flat on other tracks such as “see the real”. There are also some questionable bars such as “It smell like gas, I think somebody pooped” which some might find funny or charming but threw me off. Also despite being his shortest solo album since Issa Album it still feels like it drags at times. Overall, it's an okay album and is best dissected to let the best songs serve as filler in a playlist.   -F.B.

Notes -

• Genre: Trap
• Favorite Tracks: redrum
• Recommend if you like: 21 Savage, Metro Boomin, Young Thug

Rating: 6.5

Underground indie darling goes pop on sophomore album to critical dismay, what’s new? Well, for one, we have fervent defenders (emphasis on plurality) of this album in music team. Does it have trope-ish pop punk vocals? Sure. Does it have cringy, corny lyrics? Perhaps. But have you considered that it’s… CAMP? And also the autotunes are great idc, it pairs great with the digital distortion and frankly makes this a pretty interesting pop rock album. - J.L.

Notes -

• Genre: Pop Rock, Indie Rock
• Favorite Tracks: Throw, Happy Endings,
• Recommend if you like:Kid Bloom, The Voidz, Blink 182

Rating: 6.5

• 100% PROD I.V. - LUCY (Cooper B. Handy) & i.v: Lucy's vocal delivery is definitely interesting and not for everyone but if someone being quirky over toontown type-beats for 30 minutes sounds interesting to you definitely check this one out. -J.C.
• 242 FM - 242: Local hip hop collective 242’s debut EP is a fun bundle of trap, Latin beats, R&B-pop, and auto-tunes. Sean Michael popped off on the first two tracks. - J.L.
• Im_my_best_friend - Harto Falión & Evilgiane: A busy year for both Harto Falion and Evilgiane sees a culmination in this 28 minute showcase of both artists at their peak. Harto flows beautifully over evilgiane's cold production in a highlight that anyone interested in plugg should give a listen. - J.C.
• Magda - Donato Dozzy: Ambient techno for deep extended meditation sessions. -J.L.
• Manifold - Amaliah: Very solid tech house, check out this EP if you’re into that. -J.L.
• standing on bidness - GloverOfficial, Will Kobus: Another cool UMD alum hip hop album, this one in a more abstract/griselda-like style. Some truly fantastic, creative beats. - J.L.

This newsletter is produced by Justin Li (Music Director), Freddie Briden (Assisstant Music Director), Mauro Gonzalez, Micaela Hanson, Griffin Hevesy, Paul Gracie, Twist Talley, Jackson Hawkins.