The Alt Weekly Roundup (5/18)
Posted: by The Editor
The Alternative Weekly Roundup is a column where our staff plugs a variety of new releases in a concise, streamlined format. Albums, singles, videos, and live sets. Check back each Monday to see what we were jamming the week prior.
Have a Good Season—Shapes I’ve Never Seen
The debut LP from Have a Good Season comes just as the weather is starting to get reliably warmer. Fittingly, some of these tracks like the breezily nostalgic “Comix” and the bright, sweet “Lemon Drop” will be perfect companions for warm drives and open windows. The best moments of Shapes I’ve Never Seen feel like sunnier complements to Pianos Become The Teeth’s recent work, which is a way of saying that this is a debut you don’t want to miss.
Jordan Walsh | @jordalsh
VAR—The Never-Ending Year
What an appropriate title VAR’s second LP has. The Never-Ending Year is a lovely soundtrack for uncertain times, a half-hour of warm post-rock and high, slurry crooning.
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
Seer Believer—”So Much Like Perfect”
The latest song from Seer Believer, the project of Gleemer’s Nick Manske’s (Gleemer), churns heavily and slowly with a hint of the ‘90s obsession that bands like Superheaven made their names on a few years ago—but this time with crisp, high fidelity production. As such, “So Much Like Perfect” burns bright like a torch against a dark, cold hallway.
Jordan Walsh | @jordalsh
Thanya Iyer—”Always, Be Together”
Thanya Iyer’s “Always, Be Together” sounds like it has a foundation in ambient music. All the little details are meticulously thought-out, electronic and orchestral flourishes adding up to more than the sum of their parts, bending and changing the shape of the room with sound. When Iyer’s vocals come in, repeating just the one line (“let’s make a deal to always be together even though we don’t belong”), the song takes on an effect that’s at once intimate and hallucinatory.
Jordan Walsh | @jordalsh
Polo G—THE GOAT
Polo G’s 2019 debut, Die A Legend, was an affecting ode to fallen friends and family members. On it, the Chicago rapper proved himself as a vivid storyteller with a pleasant sing-rap delivery that radiated tender melancholy, but his follow-up, The Goat, sees him spreading into more upbeat and aggressive fare. “Martin & Gina” is a love tune for his girlfriend, “Relentless” mentions his goal to put another foreign in his backyard, and “Go Stupid” (Feat. Stunna 4 Vegas and NLE Choppa), which was a single he released earlier this year, is an endlessly hard trunk knocker about dodging feds while trying to jumpstart a music career.
Eli Enis | @eli_enis
The Alternative’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlist
Each week our editor Lindsy Carrasquillo compiles a playlist of songs our staff has been jamming. We’ll post it on Fridays on Twitter and then include it in each edition of the ‘Weekly Roundup’ to make sure you don’t miss all of the great music we’re recommending.
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