Two new albums and one that’s coming soon, plus records from Tanya Tagaq and Chvrches, and the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack.

As always, I’ll include the Spotify and Apple Music playlists at the bottom.

Streams

English Teacher

This band co-headlined with Sprints on the tour that just ended. They were in my queue for a while, then last week I had a day with 2 long drives in it, and it came on. Then it was the only thing I listened to until I got home.

They’re so unique, I bet those shows with Sprints have been epic. They seem so well-matched. The songs change style mid-track, from low-key dance rock to full-on wall-of-noise in a second. The lyrics waver between silly and striking (sometimes strikingly silly). The musicianship is off-the-charts. It’s artsy but catchy, kinetic and memorable.

Once home I looked them up, and found a few songs they did live for WFUV radio. Look at the way this bass player plays on ‘Nearly Daffodils’:

Is this a common style that I’ve just never seen before?

This profile in The Independent is a good piece. Their debut album comes out in April, I’ve already preordered it.

Marika Hackman – Big Sigh

No idea how this found me but I’m sure glad it did. It’s very disarming, the album starts with piano and voice and you think you know where it’s going.

You don’t. Hackman is a killer songwriter, the music is eclectic and layered, and the production surprises throughout. Straightforward pop songs turn into sinister, noisy things. Surprising, often provocative lyrics grab your attention when it drifts.

Laura Jane Grace – Hole in my Head

Besides being a trailblazer, an excellent memoirist (I didn’t realize Dan Ozzi cowrote the autobiography!), a fearless activist and role model, she happens to write killer songs too. Transgender Dysphoria Blues is an essential listen that will land her in the ‘cultural icon’ conversation for a long long time. I saw Against Me! live in Toronto many years ago, and it was unforgettable.

The new record rips. Cuffing Season is a beast of a song.

Spins

Tanya Tagaq – Retribution

Tagaq is having a well-deserved moment right now. She’s been fairly well-known Canadian musician, visual artist and writer for a while, and was a key contributor (musically and otherwise) to the just-wrapped season of True Detective. This album came out in 2016, shortly after her Polaris Prize win (think Canadian Mercury Prize). She was also briefly my neighbour when this came out.

If you’re unfamiliar, her fame was earned by being a solo throat-singer, and if you don’t know that sound it can’t really be explained, just press the button to have your mind blown a little:

It’s heart-stopping. Literally. Her music gives me anxiety, but I can’t stop listening. This album is full of fury, and it’s also stylistically wildly diverse. The title track starts out as a furious spoken-word warning about climate change and slowly morphs into a hypnotic, growling, shrieking ball of intensity. Her band balances her primal sounds with noisy and unpredictable backup. You won’t hear a more upsetting and angry song this year. Aorta is three and a half minutes of rhythmic, droning percussion behind a vocal that sounds lifted from the scariest demonic possession film you’ve never seen.

This album ends with an unforgettable cover of Nirvana’s “Rape Me” that twists the original into sinister, unsettling nightmare fuel, complete with a whispered “rape me kill me beat me” that will haunt your dreams.

The album not at all a gentle experience, but Tagaq has never been one to tread lightly. This album is a headphones experience you won’t forget.

Chvrches – Screen Violence

This (their last?) is the album that ignited my Chvrches fandom. Obviously their first album is a classic, but I hadn’t given them any real attention until this found me. The idea of a horror movie concept album could (maybe should) have gone horribly wrong but they nailed it. When Robert Smith shows up on How Not to Drown, it’s perfect.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack

This one cost me a little credibility with the teenager, but it’s perfect in album form. “Man of Constant Sorrow” is a strange fit on a playlist you rock in your car. But on a Sunday morning while making a leisurely breakfast, the album is flawless. I’d forgotten about “You Are My Sunshine”, which was a song my dad used to sing to my kid before he died in early 2020, so that did me in a little.