7/17/20: Protomartyr, Lianne La Havas, Crack Cloud and more
It’s Friday and there’s some great new music to check out this week.
The wait is over, one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of the year is finally here. Protomartyr’s fifth LP Ultimate Success Today has arrived. Protomartyr is a Detroit-based rock back with post-punk leanings. In my opinion, they’re batting 1.000, going 5 for 5 now with each of their albums being outstanding. There is something about a Protomartyr album that captures my attention and doesn’t let go. Joe Casey’s lyricism is as poetic as ever and the music hits as hard as ever. If you like rock music check this band and this album out. “Processed by the Boys”, “Michigan Hammers”, “June 21” (ft. Nandi Plunkett of Half Waif and Pinegrove), and “Worm In Heaven” were my favorite tracks but I enjoyed it front to back.
Lianne La Havas released her self-titled LP Lianne La Havas this week. It’s her third album and first in 5 years. Lianne has a wonderful voice and the instrumentation on this LP sounds great. The sound varies from R&B to soul to Radiohead (with an excellent cover of “Weird Fishes”). Again, the production of this album is outstanding, its a joy to listen to whether it’s Lianna and a simple arrangement on guitar as on “Courage” or a funkier track like “Read My Mind”. This was the first time digging into a Lianne La Havas album and I really enjoyed it.
Canadian “multimedia collective” Crack Cloud released their new album Pain Olympics this week. Crack Cloud continues the fine tradition of Canadian bands with lots of members (Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, etc.) apparently having an open-door policy for creators of all types to come in and make contributions to the project. This is their second album, I can hear post-punk, Talking Heads, and Devo influences but they definitely experiment beyond those sounds here as well. There are only eight tracks but they cover a lot of sonic ground throughout. Favorite tracks were “The Next Fix”, “Bastard Basket”, and “Tunnel Vision”.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released a new single “Honey” and an accompanying music video.
Whitney released the next single in their series of covers, “Hammond Song” originally by The Roches. It’s also featured on their forthcoming album of covers which will feature 10 tracks in all.
Benny Sings did an excellent NPR Tiny Desk Concert, you should definitely check it out. And while you’re at it you can check out his version of Drake’s “Passionfruit” from 2018.
That’s it for this week! The Spotify playlist of selections from this week is right here, enjoy!