Immersive Squad
Everything Else is Noise
On their latest record, Quiet Hounds leap forward from one memorable panorama to the next. It’s not so much a metamorphosis for the band—a significant segment of the album’s terrain remains comfortably familiar—but a major portion of its considerable magic lies in the way the group continually finds striking new peaks and vistas to unveil. From sparkling indie pop (“Ladders”) to soothing AM gold (“Daring Greatly”), Everything Else is Noise is populated by sounds and structures that are consistently surprising and spellbinding. It’s a grand achievement—a sweeping, forward-looking triumph for a group of musicians that aren’t entirely satisfied unless they are evolving and treading new ground. – GC
Read the full review of Everything Else is Noise.
I Will Only Come When It’s a Yes
Jordan Reynolds doesn’t have to prove her ATLien status in East Atlanta Village anymore. Within two years, her solo stint as Rose Hotel has blossomed into an enchanting outfit with a revolving door of performers. Yet, as her first full length I Will Only Come When It’s a Yes shows, the Kentucky-born singer-songwriter hasn’t lost sight of the intimate observations that caught our ears in the first place. With a smart mix of full-band belters and monologues by moonlight, Reynolds unfolds her windswept tales of broken romance with all the charm we’ve come to know and love. – LA
Read the full review of I Will Only Come When It’s a Yes.
Someone, Anyone?
Dreamy harmonies and twanging guitars have always been Shantih Shantih’s calling card, and on Someone, Anyone? they mold those primary elements into a diverse and captivating collection of songs. Whether it’s the rollicking garage pop of “Gravity,” the spooky desert rock of “Knocking,” or the girl group shimmer of “Radio Dream,” the band continually offers tracks that feel fresh and immediate without sacrificing their vintage appeal. At times dark and driving and at others soft and luminous, Someone, Anyone? is another heady effort from this group of astute songwriters. – GC
Insignificant Whip
Jonathan Merenivitch and Adrian Switon have cut their teeth on the live circuit for a while with their garage stomp gang Shepherds. Insignificant Whip might be just their second LP, but any listener with a pulse who clocks into this midnight stroll will feel those long nights and swaying bodies in Switon’s relentless rhythms and Merenivitch’s fervent croon. Together, the two frontmen sing with blue-eyed soul about the quicksand nostalgia that seeps through YouTube, the callous egos of untrained men and artists, and how standards of masculinity can impact even the most effeminate youths. Like Shepherd’s live set, Insignificant Whip is a barn-burning headliner that’s well worth the wait. – LA
Read our artist feature on Shepherds.
Beyond the Yellow Slick Road
Posers can try, but no one might ever replicate the wavy daydream that Aiden Burns dubbed “post-yacht.” As debut albums go, Slicke’s Majestic 6’s Beyond the Yellow Slick Road sails where few dare to sail, blending bossa nova, jazz, trip-hop, no wave and post-punk in a vaporwave haze as shimmery as a mirage. With a velvety voice between Ian Curtis and Frank Sinatra, Burns explores the gap between the excesses of yesteryear and the empty ennui of today. Somewhere in-between meditations on depression, a darkly queer retelling of a nursery rhyme, and snarky stabs at global warming, they conjure an uncommon beauty—a paradise of flaws where we recognize ourselves in the surreal reflection on the water. – LA
Read the full review of Beyond the Yellow Slick Road.
New Cold Dream
Compiling a year-end list is much more than simply cataloging Atlanta’s best albums, it’s a chance to reassess our perceptions of records after the passage of time, something difficult to do while working under deadlines throughout the year. No record has benefited more from this ability to pause and dive back into an artist’s mindset than TWINS’ New Cold Dream. At first listen, it seems like a natural progression for Matt Weiner, who has started leaning into autobiographical topics and utilizing more traditional pop structures on recent releases. The lyrical density adds a new level of tension to the record, pulling the listener into Weiner’s headspace and then tying them up in a tangled web of contradictions and unanswerable questions that drive each track as much as the beats. This is the key I missed the first time around when I focused on New Cold Dream as a linear progression. In obsessing over the razor-sharp production, I was blinded to the fact that this record is a singer-songwriter endeavor wrapped in the trappings of dance music. Even though all the hooks that make TWINS’ performances so catchy and entrancing remain, they take a back seat to the story told throughout the album—a story of growth, confusion, and maturity rendered all the more powerful through the atypical medium of dark synthpop. – RR
Read the full review of Beyond the Yellow Slick Road.
Sleep Tight, Socialite
With each successive release, Wanderwild only grow sharper and more confident. That may not seem like much of a revelation; after all, aren’t all bands expected to exhibit greater poise and growth as they draw tighter as a unit and further stake out their identity? In the case of the Athens trio, however, that sense of conviction and self-assurance seems to pour out of every rousing chord and anthemic melody of their new LP, Sleep Tight, Socialite. If the band’s last release, 2017’s In Due Time, was an all-out embrace of the uncertainty that engulfs young artists as they work through their fears and insecurities, this latest effort is the group turning those doubts on their head with lean yet booming songs that bring to mind the emphatic rock grooves of Spoon or the Strokes in their heyday. – GC
Read our interview with Wanderwild.
the way felt feels
The airtight tension and caustic fervor lining Warm Red’s six-song debut made for some of my favorite car rides of 2019. Listening to the angular cacophony of stabbing guitars and machine-gun drums fills bleeding from my speakers while the peaks of Atlanta’s skyline receded into gray mist was pure visceral magic. Few records this year, punk or otherwise, struck me with the same vital intensity as the way felt feels. The band’s strident, densely packed squall of punk and noise is explosive, and the bracing clarity of Tony Gary’s androgynous vocals only increases the blast radius. – AS
Ocean Drive
Linqua Franqa may have put Athens on the map for hip-hop, but Wesley Johnson, aka WesdaRuler, has been mixing boop-bap beats on the sidelines for some time. Ocean Drive marks the gravel-voiced rapper’s first full length on his own, but this minimal odyssey to the good times feels like a quiet but swingin’ graduation party held half a year late. Without ever crumbling to sentimental mush, Johnson shows us his journey from a depressed shut-in to a night at the club with the homies and he encourages listeners to join in as the downtempo chill warms up into classy funk. This is real talk for any introvert that needs a boost, and a sweet reminder that your friends and family can help you get down when you need a pick-me-up. – LA
Blue Don’t Make Me Cry
On Blue Don’t Make Me Cry, album highlights “Blood Orange,” “Drown,” and “This Ain’t Love” subscribe to the dialed-in production courtesy of Malik Drake and former Jarrod Milton collaborator Oliver Blue. With their hypnotic beats and sprawling verses, these songs feel much like long poems set to music, impassioned and lyrical. Elsewhere, the honest, resilient “Champion” is one of the year’s most spirited anthems, while “Vienna” does its job as the shortest and sweetest song on the album—a brief, content, happy daydream that runs just 1:17.
The LP ends with a reprise of “Cashmere” that seeks out a stream-of-consciousness flow in terms of its lyricism and production. It is a well-intentioned move, and yet it appears to be tacked on out of emotion. As missteps go it’s fairly insignificant, a slight stumble on a record full of massive leaps and bold moves. Wiley from Atlanta has crafted a debut full of deep beauty, passion, and soul. – Mus Abubaker
Read the full review of Blue Don’t Make Me Cry.