I understand I”m waaaaaay late with this one. Frances Quinlan, formerly of the band Hop Along (who in 2018 provided us the absolutely brilliant album Bark Your Head Off, Dog, offered here), released her second solo album in January of this year. however it’s taken me this long to digest it.
Likewise is weighty. All meat, no filler. It starts with the complicated, word-heavy Piltdown Man, as well as then introduces into “Your Reply,” which seems at very first to be a gentle, catchy single–but the opening bars read, “Somebody composed “tender” in the novel’s margins/As if to remind about a valuable force/In the next paragraph, the protagonist/Sat down on the belly of a dead horse.” What is going on here? Deeply poetic, musically deceptive, constantly surprising–this is an album that can’t be listened to casually. It pushes boundaries, forces the listener to think, as well as it’s amazing.
RIYL: Fiona Apple’s 2020 “Bolt Cutters” release. It’s going to be difficult at the end of the year to choose which of these is the much better album overall.
Likewise by Frances Quinlan
Next, Phoebe Bridgers, who can do no wrong in the ears of indie music writers, as well as whose tunes are consistently fascinating, has one more fantastic album out.
Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
Finally, Tee Grizzley dropped one more fantastic album a while back–a mixtape. Tee is consistently creating excellent rap. one of the very best doing it today.