While a lot of oxygen and press coverage will be sucked up by Beyoncé’s Act II: Cowboy Carter, we’ll leave that alone and focus our New Music Friday on the rock and alternative material that shouldn’t be overshadowed.
Singles
1. AWOLNATION, Panoramic View (Two Twenty Five/The Orchard
Aaron Bruno’s crew is back with the first single from an upcoming still-untitled album. Bruno wrote this song at the very beginning of the pandemic and as he was expecting a child (he got twins!), so that’ll give you an idea of where his head was at. The band will tour this summer with 311. The only Canadian date I know if will be at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls on July 31.
2. Björk & Rosalía & Olof Dreijer, Oral (Olof Dreijer Remix) (One Little Independent)
This is very Björk: ethereal, dreamy, and, er, fish farming. Björk wrote this song about 25 years ago and only rediscovered it after hearing news about poorly-regulated fish farming in Norway. She then enlisted Rosalía (a big pop star in her own right) and Olof Björn Dreijer to rework it. The fish are grateful for the attention.
3. Boy Golden, Here to Stay (Six Shooter Records)
Manitoba’s stoner-country dude (remember KD and Lunch Meat?) will return with a new album entitled For Eden on July 19. The track was inspired by a Charles Bukowski poem entitled “The Bluebird and–get this–the whole album was recorded entirely to cassette, “analogue and off the grid.”
Boy Golden · Here To Stay
4. Goat Girl, Motorway (Rough Trade)
The English all-female trio will return in June with a third album called Below the Waste. This second advance single evokes the sense of a long drive at night. It works.
5. Porches, Rag (Domino)
Porches is NYC’s Aaron Maine, veers between synth-pop and lo-fi stoner rock with this new standalone single. It starts out like something Twenty One Pilots might release but then suddenly shifts into Pixies territory. The music video can be described as chaotic and messy. You’ll see what I mean.
Albums
1. Blue Oyster Cult, Ghost Stories (Frontiers)
With roots going all the way back to 1967, Blue Oyster Cult returns with their fifteenth record and their first in four years. This one, however, is different. The band describes this as an AI-assisted collection of songs that were recorded decades ago. Dumbing it down, that means they went through their archives and used AI to unmix and then remix the tracks. Everything we hear (with the exception of one song) on the album was originally recorded between 1978 and 1983. Curious?
2. girl in red, I’M DOING IT AGAIN, BABY! (AWAL/Columbia)
Norway’s Marie Ulven Ringheim is back with a second album, describing it as an “elevated” version of her first album, If I Could Make It Go Quiet from 2021. If you need to call out an ex’s bad behavior, this song might do it.
3. Maggie Rogers, Don’t Forget Me (Capitol)
You might remember Maggie Rogers as the New York arts student who brought Pharrell Williams to tears with a song she presented to him as part of an arts project. This is her third album.
4. METZ, Up on Gravity Hill (Sub Pop)
The heaviest band to come out of Toronto this century is back with a fifth album and their first in four years. Usually, if you need to clear a room out in a hurry. some METZ on the stereo will work. (I mean that as a compliment. It will show which of your friends are true music compatriots.) Some of the material on this record is amongst the most melodic the band has ever done. This is one of my picks for the Polaris Music Prize this year.
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