There is a lot of music out there. To help you cut out all the noise, every week The AV Club is rounding Apartes, five recent releases that we think are worth your time. You can hear that and more at our Spotify playlistand, if you like what you hear, we recommend that you purchase music from featured artists directly at the links provided below. Unless otherwise noted, all versions are now available.
Billie Eilish and Rosalía, “Lo Vas To Look”
[Darkroom/Interscope Records]
At first glance, there seems to be a little more of Eilish than Rosalía in the musical DNA of “Lo Vas A Olvidar”, the new single from the pair of superstars who came together for the first time. The minimalist beat of heavy and distant synthesizers and sparse percussions; the digitally affected vocals; the lyrical delivery occasionally almost whispered – everything is, at this point, vintage sonic style for the young pop star. But Rosalía’s influence soon begins to become apparent, far beyond the Spanish vocals that dominate the track. The faint sadness of the melody takes her into the realm of the Catalonian-born artist, lending a fragile and wounded vibration to the process that not only creates a powerful melodrama vibration, but also pulls Eilish’s sometimes contained sensitivity to a more vulnerable state, instantly affecting the orbit – a melancholy hovering over the music like a fog. In other words, it is a situation of the best of both worlds, a single that merges its musical personalities with the same effectiveness as its delivery in two languages conveys the bitter headache of a novel. [Alex McLevy]
[Loma Vista]
Imagine it is a hot and rainy night and you are approaching a party at home. As you approach, you hear the thunderous bass and, eventually, the strings of a disco dance floor. But when the door opens, it does not bombard you – the music maintains a hushed, contained, yet funky quality. That’s the effect of Rhye’s fourth album, House, which invites you and then takes delight in the expectation. It is the strongest effort of multi-instrumentalist Mike Milosh since Woman, a premiere that surprises by its mystery. Fans expect a certain quality from Rhye’s sexy, midtime ballad, and House recapture this seductive etherality exploring new sound textures. “Come In Closer” goes from a light rain to a beautiful climax with a violin accent, and then there’s the highlight “Black Rain,” Rhye’s most dancey track yet. Larger, but smooth and elegant, House plucks the right strings to keep you tormented. [Cameron Scheetz]
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[Sub Pop]
After securing an audience in the United States with 2019’s PUNK, From Japan CHAI will make its Sub Pop debut this year with WINK, an album that promises the “softer and minimalist music” of the quartet. This is a surprise, considering that the chaotic arrangements and the tumultuous clangor of PUNK it was an integral part of its appeal, but the lead single “ACTION”, despite being a beat-forward affair, remains a lot of fun. Meditative bits of English and Japanese float over the track’s deceptively simple soundscape, a pulsating mix of neon-tinged synthesizers and blunt beats that almost engulf the band at the end of the song. Like all CHAI songs, however, the music seems communal, a party full of fury and joy with the door open. [Randall Colburn]
Matthew Sweet, Cat paw
[Omnivore Recordings]
Matthew Sweet’s 14th album, Cat paw, starts with an exciting guitar line straight from the early hours of a hard rock FM radio station in the 1970s. But this is Matthew Sweet – meaning that the first track, “Blown Away”, soon goes on to a line of exemplary pop songs, which fall into categories like “sweet”, “sad” or “angry” (this one is angry). This introduction paves the way for the rest of the album, which finds an almost solo Sweet (aided only by longtime drummer Ric Menck) framing all his passionate hymns within the thorns of emotion riffs. Instead of having guitar gods like Richard Lloyd of TV taking over the solos, all of these fervent ax haunts are Sweet’s own, using his heart on the guitar strap while exploring his insecurities in “Best Of Me” (“What if the best isn’t me good enough? ”). Fans of Sweet’s historic album, Girlfriend, you will find a worthy successor here; there aren’t that many featured tracks, but the ones that make it to the top – like the animated “Challenge The Gods”, the poppy “Give A Little” and the sad “Come Home” – practically go up. [Gwen Ihnat]
[Handstand Records]
Ashley Kossakowski has a voice born for Rock brand damaged by groupie art. The singer and bassist of NYC-based act has a perfect fusion of music sung in the style of Slits, Kim Gordon rasp and Chrissie Hynde coo – like a less impressed version of Alicia Bognanno from Bully. And the songs sound like the East Coast’s sharp, post-punk platonic ideal, mixing Raincoats vocals and tones, angular guitars and the first Talking Heads into a heady indie rock stew that would feel right at home in a practically downtown jukebox. at any time in the past 30 years. Despite the disparate influences and the sometimes unusual mix of lo-fi songcraft (filled with proudly often tiny guitars) and high-gloss production, all the songs Ephemeral, the band’s raucous and addictive debut, ends up becoming a piece, whether provoking the minimalist groove in the style of K Records (the Polish language “Daleko”) or the diffuse rock of the 90s that resembles Helium (“Thick As Glue”). It’s an album that sounds like the post-punk compilation of big hits you found hidden in an old used record box – captivating, impressive and essential. [Alex McLevy]