Welcome to the September 18th edition of First Listen Friday!
Anjimile released Giver Taker via the excellent Father/Daughter Records this week. Anjimile Chithambo’s vocals and the instrumentation throughout make this an exceptionally gorgeous album. It also feels fully-formed, a mature album for a debut LP. There are no tracks to skip here. There are stand-outs though, “Not Another Word” and “In Your Eyes” made me listen again as soon as they ended. I definitely see myself revisiting this album and I’m excited to hear any future Anjimile projects.
Cults released Host this week. If you’re like me you first became aware of Cults back in 2011 via the very catchy single “Go Outside”. The band has now released their fourth LP and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The album is in the realm of psych-rock and dream-pop but doesn’t feel too pinned down to a specific sound, between that and the production it ends up just sounding like Cults which is a good thing. It’s a really consistent LP, there’s something to like about each of the tracks here but my favorite songs were lead-single “Trials”, “A Low”, “Working It Over”, and “A Purgatory”.
The latest iteration of the name-changing Osees (see Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees) released Protean Threat this week. If you’re unfamiliar with Osees I’d say their sound is rooted in garage rock but branches out in all sorts of directions from there. John Dwyer’s projects are always a rewarding listen and this album is no exception. There are tracks on here that absolutely rip (“Terminal Jape”) and others slow it down and are more psychedelic (“Said The Shovel”) and still others are explorations featuring no vocals at all (“Toadstool”), all are equally great. I really enjoyed this album and I encourage you to check out some of the earlier projects put out under their various other monikers.
Shy Boys released another great single, the last before their album Talk Loud is released next week. I’ve really liked what I’ve heard so I’m looking forward to hearing the LP as a whole.
Duncan Fellows released “Feeling Down” and have announced their forthcoming album THE SADLANDS will be released on October 16th, 2020. I really enjoyed their first album and this makes me think the follow-up is going to be great as well.
Hawksmoor released the very synth-y “Strict Parallels” which will be featured on his forthcoming album Methods of Dreaming. The album comes via Spun Out Of Control Records which I highly encourage anyone who’s into synthesizer music to go check out.
That’s it! Here’s your Spotify playlist of selections from this week, enjoy!
Thank you again Dustin. Of my 20+ weekly newsletters this is easily my most anticipated weekly read. Keep up the great work.
i love cults!