Category: albums/eps

[ep] The Mary Onettes – What I Feel In Some Places

acute.pop

Since the early 2000s, The Mary Onettes were consistently good, blessing us with their beautiful and shoegaze-tinged new wave sound.

More than 20 years in the game now, Sweden indie veterans are true masters of creating dreamy, blissful tunes, which can be best described as mp3 jewels and beautiful audio accompaniments for the peaceful waterfront walk sometime in Autumn.

They continue their winning string on the newest release, a 3-track EP What I Feel In Some Places, which features two fantastic singles and one delightful instrumental. It is quite short, just under 11 minutes, but it’s genuinely marvelous — one you can really lose yourself in.

Check it out below and get the EP on cassette here (out now through Westside Music Sweden & Welfare Sounds).

[album] Zola Jesus – Arkhon

acute.pop
Zola Jesus live @ OFF Festival’18

Nika Roza Danilova aka Zola Jesus released a new LP Arhkon, which might be her best to date. A true piece of modern art and an exciting audiovisual journey, filled with big, anthemic choruses.

It is very complete and is best experienced as a whole — each song naturally flows into another, and the soundscapes created stay in your head for a long time after it is finished.

Vocals are in the spotlight on Arkhon, and you can’t help but admire the work that Zola Jesus has done here, as she is one of the best vocalists nowadays. The hooks are super strong and combined with the dark, abstract lyrics they are creating the basis for this record, with the stunning variety of sounds of piano, violin, cello, viola and modular synthesizers completing it perfectly. A fantastic soundtrack to our turbulent and unstable reality.

Stream below and get the LP here, out now via Sacred Bones.

[album] MELTS – Maelstrom

acute.pop

Dublin five-piece MELTS strikes gold with their fantastic debut LP Maelstrom. Produced by Daniel Fox of Gilla Band, it showcases the group’s ability to masterfully mix post-punk with krautrock sensibilities, embracing repetition, propulsive rhythms and unstoppable energy.

The album’s ferocity can’t be understated, as it goes really hard, not stopping for a second. Really powerful stuff and definitely a band to catch performing live.

Listen below and purchase the record here.

[album] Popstrangers – In Spirit

acute.pop

The new LP from Popstrangers came in as a very pleasant surprise for us that we did not expect. The London-via-New-Zealand outfit made a lot of noise back in the early 2010s when they released two brilliant albums — Antipodes in 2013 and Fortuna in 2014. Both consisted of fantastic songs, some of which I am still playing from time to time (“Country Kills” is one of my all-time favourites).

And now we have In Spirit (out via Rice Is Nice), a brand new record from the group, ten new pieces of which were written over the summer of 2018-19 in rural New Zealand. They still sound amazing and kick it off, landing somewhere between psychedelic pop, lo-fi, noise and indie rock of the 90s, successively mixing it into the cohesive, hazy and organic whole. Great stuff for this hot Summer!

Check it out below and buy the album here.

[album] Cola – Deep in View

acute.pop

Deep in View is the debut album by Cola, released on Fire Talk. The band is new but members Tim Darcy (vocals, guitar) and Ben Stidworthy (bass) have previously played in Ought and they are joined by Evan Cartwright (drums), who used to play in The Weather Station and U.S. Girls.

Together they created the essential collection of dry and competent post-punk, that should immediately appeal to those who like the genre. The guitar work is fantastic and at some points songs go to really unexpected places (especially on the second half, like the beautiful and haunting closer “Landers”). Clocking in at just over half an hour, it is an easy record to love at first listen.

Stream below and buy the LP here.