Album review
In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on February 23, 2024:
MGMT, Loss of Life
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MGMT are back with their fifth studio album and first for Mom+Pop, Loss of Life. The follow-up to 2018’s Little Dark Age was co-produced by past collaborator Patrick Wimberly, mixed by Dave Fridmann, and features additional production from Oneohtrix Point Never, Danger Mouse, and live MGMT member James Richardson. The record also has the first-ever duet on an MGMT release, from Christine and the Queens, who appears on ‘Dancing in Babylon’, which preceded the album along with ‘Mother Nature’, ‘Bubblegum Dog’, and ‘Nothing to Declare’. “All joking aside (never!), we are very proud of this album and the fact that it was a relatively painless birth after a lengthy gestation period, and are happy to be releasing this baby into the world with Mom+Pop,” the duo commented. “Musically speaking, we are running at around 20% adult contemporary and no more than this, please.” Read our review of Loss of Life.
Real Estate, Daniel
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Real Estate have released their sixth LP, Daniel, via Domino. Following 2020’s The Main Thing, the album was previewed by the singles ‘Haunted World’, ‘Water Underground’, and ‘Flowers’. Martin Courtney, Alex Bleeker, Matt Kallman, Julian Lynch, and Sammi Niss recorded it at Nashville’s RCA Studio A with producer Daniel Tashian; according to a press release, they named the album Daniel “simply because it seemed like a good idea to bestow a human name upon a record. Was it for Daniel Tashian? Maybe. Was it the sign of a band that has now been around long enough to take its music seriously without taking itself or its perception too seriously? Absolutely.” Read our inspirations interview with Real Estate.
Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past Is Still Alive
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Alynda Segarra has returned with a new Hurray for the Riff Raff album, The Past Is Still Alive, out now via Nonesuch. The follow-up to 2022’s Life on Earth features the previously unveiled singles ‘Colossus of Roads’, ‘Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)’, ‘Alibi’, and the title track. The record was produced by Brad Cook, mixed by Mike Mogis, and has contributions from Anjimile, Conor Oberst, and S.G. Goodman on vocals, as well as musicians Libby Rodenbough, Matt Douglas, Meg Duffy, Mogis, Phil Cook, and Yan Westerlund. According to a press release, inspirations include “radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and the history of activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury.”
Allie X, Girl With No Face
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Allie X has followed up her 2020 LP Cape God with a new album, Girl With No Face. Marking the Toronto-born, LA-based singer-songwriter’s first self-produced record, with additional production from Justin Meldal-Johnsen, it features the early singles ‘Off With Her Tits, ‘Black Eye’, ‘Weird World’, and the title track. “It’s very hard to sum up a body of work you’ve spent thousands of hours on, but here’s an attempt,” X said in a press release. “There is a death in this music, as well as the beginning of a rebirth. I needed to make something that came completely from me. If only once, and if only to prove to myself that I could do it. I would describe these songs as angry, stubborn, honest, dry, melodramatic, fast, and indulgent… the same way some people describe me ha. I hope everyone likes it but if not, try turning it up a bit.”
Mary Timony, Untame the Tiger
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Mary Timony has issued Untame the Tiger, her first solo album in more than 15 years, via Merge. The record was made following the dissolution of a long-term relationship and bookended by the deaths of her father and mother; Timony wrote many of the songs over a two-year period while serving as the primary caregiver for her ailing parents. “This was the hardest thing I’ve been through. Every week I had to manage a new crisis,” she said, adding: “Because I was making impossible decisions on behalf of my parents, creative choices now seemed more manageable. Since I had to confront the reality of loss, I realized what was important to me about being alive, and I became less scared. The record became my anchor in a time when I was losing so much around me. It felt like all I had — a guide that helped me through, and gave me hope.”
Glitterer, Rationale
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Glitterer have put out a new album called Rationale. Following 2021’s Life Is Not a Lesson, it’s the first full-band LP from the former solo project of Title Fight’s Ned Russin, featuring Nicole Dao on keys, Jonas Farah on drums, and Connor Morin on guitar. Frequent collaborator Arthur Rizk produced the LP. “I had a few different ideas of how to expand Glitterer, but after spending a year practicing songs about loneliness by myself, I decided a cohesive band was the only way to go,” Russin commented in press materials. “It has been, and always will be, my preference to be in a collaborative, creative unit, I just had to figure out how to get there.”
Laetitia Sadier, Rooting for Love
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Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier has released Rooting for Love, her first solo LP in seven years. Out now via Drag City, the album was preceded by the singles ‘Une Autre Attente’, ‘Panser L’Innaceptable’, and ‘Who + What’. It follows 2017’s Find Me Finding You, which came out under the name Lætitia Sadier Source Ensemble, as well as Modern Cosmology, a collaborative album with Brazilian group Mombojó. The record features organ, guitar, bass, synth, trombone, vibraphone, live and programmed drums, and a vocal assembly billed as the Choir.
Colouring, Love to You, Mate
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Colouring – the moniker of Nottingham-based songwriter and producer Jack Kenworthy – has unveiled his latest album, Love to You, Mate. The story behind the album largely revolves around Kenworthy’s life brother-in-law Greg Baker, who died of cancer in early 2022, almost a year after being diagnosed. “Love to You, Mate is a love letter to my wife, family and Greg for what they all did; a photograph of that time,” Kenworthy shared in a statement. “We were this tight-knit, inseparable group of friends for a whole year… a year we look back on with great pride. I really feel we’ve made this music together.”
Other albums out today:
The Body & Dis Fig, Orchards of a Futile Heaven; Maya Shenfeld, Under the Sun; Nadine Shah, Filthy Underneath; Little Kid, A Million Easy Payments; Church Chords, elvis, he was Schlager; Remo Drive, Mercy; Jazmin Bean, Traumatic Livelihood; Molly O’Leary, Marigold; Erick the Architect, I’ve Never Been Here Before; Carlos Nino & Idris Ackamoor & Nate Mercereau, Free, Dancing …; Mama Zu, Quilt Floor; Persher, Sleep Well; Whispering Sons, The Great Calm; Amaranthe, The Catalyst; Joëlle Léandre & Pascal Contet, Miniatures.
