Plus the following Review, featured just prior to A Good Time Pushed by Kim Deal.

Kim Deal: Nobody Loves You More (4AD)

Released 22nd November, 2024

Years in the making, Nobody Loves You More is the first solo album by former member of The Pixies and The Amps and current member of The Breeders, Kim Deal. Some of its tracks date back over a decade and have been sporadically performed live, while others have appeared —albeit in a more embryonic form— on a series of 7-inch singles released between 2012-2014. On Nobody Loves You More, however, these tracks are fleshed out, fully realised and have never sounded better. 

Produced with the assistance of a long and varied list of contributors, from Breeders bandmates to members of Savages, these co-conspirators enrich the album’s palette while ensuring it always remain unmistakably Dealian at its core. Sadly, Nobody Loves You More marks Deal’s final collaboration with veteran recording engineer Steve Albini, who passed away in May of this year. Deal and Albini have worked together since the early days of The Pixies and Albini has engineered at least one album by every band Deal has played in.

Arguably the strongest songwriter in The Pixies, the full range of Deal’s skills are on full display across Nobody Loves You More’s eleven songs. Running the gamut from the breezy indie-pop of Coast, through the darkened disco-funk of Crystal Breath to the anthemic Disobedience, Deal demonstrates her mastery of numerous styles and her knack for a hook; all before the listener has to flip the record.

One of the album’s most touching moments is the sentimental yet heartbreaking Are You Mine? written during a period spent caring for her late mother when she was diagnosed with dementia. Opening with the lines, “Are you mine? / Are you my baby?,” the song embodies all the pain and uncertainty of caring for a loved one who no longer recognises you.

Big Ben Beat is a driving, post-punk tune that kicks the second side of the album into gear. Describing the exploits of a pair of delinquent lovers, one of whom, according to the chorus at least, is “… just another asshole.” Side two of Nobody Loves You More packs far more rock and roll punch, without sacrificing the diversity of side one. It ends with the punchy A Good Time Pushed, the last song on the record recorded with Albini and one that rivals many of the better songs in Deal’s already distinguished back-catalogue.

Nobody Loves You More bears all the hallmarks of a labour of love. While it seems almost criminal that we have had to wait so long for a Kim Deal solo record, our patience has been rewarded in spades. Deal has clearly been biding her time, reworking and refining these songs before allowing them out into the world. Nobody Loves You More manages to sound diverse, but feel familiar and it is destined, in time, to be regarded as on par with anything released by her well known —and much loved— other bands.

Nick Stephan

• Songs played
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Show Intro - Darker With The Day (Excerpt)
• Connor D’Netto & Yvette Ofa Agapow - Announcer Backing Track - Material IV: Dopamine Deficit
• Carl Orff - O Fortuna
• Poison Ruïn - Frozen Blood
• Interview - Mac Kennedy (Poison Ruïn) Part 1
• Shadowknell - The Briar Harp
• Slowcut - Rot To Bloom
• Interview - Mac Kennedy (Poison Ruïn) Part 2
• Poison Ruïn - Sanctuary
• Low - I'm On Fire
• Matchess - In Sleep
• Sophie - Intro (The Full Horror)
• Kim Deal - A Good Time Pushed
• Boiling Hot Politician - Factory Farmed Panel Show Disorder
• Ronnie & The Rhythm Boys - Hey Joe
• MJ O'Neill - All Queerly Shaped And Luminous (Canon Distorted)
• The Worm Turns - Crane My Neck
• Blue Diner - Mezzanine
• Ghost Mutt - Pity Olympics
• Aluk Todolo - Lux I

• Songs played
• Local Authority - Replaced
• KNEE - Sweaty and Alone
• Wombo - Slab
• dust - Trust U See
• The Keepaways - What can you do
• Feral Fatigue - Barb Dwyer
• CAKES - Involuntary Soul
• Feral Fatigue - Digger
• Fugazi - Strangelight
• The Worm Turns - Crane My Neck
• Wire - Mannequin
• Pylon Reenactment Society - Crazy
• Gut Health - Uh Oh
• Constant Mongrel - Lifeless Crisis
• Dirty Three - Great Waves
• Sacred Hearts - Crocodile Tears
• Verity Whisper - BONE SHED
• Guppy - TO-DO-A
• The Clean - Are You Really On Drugs
• Special Features - Chest
• Jebediah - Military Strongman
• Cash Savage and The Last Drinks - My Friend
• Slint - Breadcrumb Trail
• Fred Leone - Yirimi Gundir
• Guided By Voices - A Salty Salute

Plus the following review, featured just prior to Funny Man by Chat Pile.

Chat Pile: Cool World (The Flenser)

Released 11th October, 2024

Toxic and ugly, a chat pile is a type of mining waste: huge mounds of rock fragments rejected in the process of lead-zinc mining. Often repurposed as gravel and used in the production of concrete, roads and railway ballast, the high levels of lead present in the chat often pose a health risk to humans and other living organisms in their vicinity. There’s a revolting heaviness to the term, an element of unease and discomfort that turns the stomach and tightens the bowels, making it an apt choice for the Oklahoma City band of the same name.

Owing much to underground trailblazers such as The Jesus Lizard, Big Black and Killdozer, Chat Pile have been active since 2019. Their blend of nu-metal, sludge and noise-rock, coupled with constant touring, has won them a dedicated legion of fans; despite the abrasive nature of their music and the difficult subject matter of their lyrics. In 2020 they signed to San Francisco label The Flenser, joining the ranks of artists such as Agriculture, Mamaleek and Ragana who are openly challenging the preconceived notions of “heavy” music. Cool World is the group’s second full-length and the follow-up to God’s Country, their critically acclaimed debut album.

Cool World’s release was preceded by three singles, I am Dog Now, Masc and Funny Man. Each one is a brutal statement of intent, unchained and unleashed upon the public with the express purpose of informing their audience that Chat Pile’s songwriting is as savage as ever. Funny Man is a particularly ferocious example, pummelling the listener from the first second, and right up until the last.

Chat Pile make no secret of their love of late nineties nu-metal and this influence is particularly apparent throughout Cool World. Frownland’s bass intro channels the best moments from Korn’s first album, whilst both Shame and Masc channel the melodic peaks of Deftones. Crucially, Chat Pile manages to borrow from these sources without being overly reverential or even particularly obvious.

Strangely, for a band that could be politely described as an “acquired taste,” Chat Pile’s star is rapidly rising. Drummer Stin even indicated in a recent interview that they can (almost) afford to quit their day jobs. Bands as extreme as Chat Pile rarely get an opportunity to exist beyond the margins, especially given their predilection for documenting the darker aspects of society. Remarkably, it appears the world is ready to embrace Chat Pile, warts and all and —perhaps even more surprisingly— on their own terms.

Nick Stephan

• Songs played
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Show Intro - Darker With The Day (Excerpt)
• Slow Walkers - Announcer Backing Track - Wake (Excerpt)
• Lydia Lunch - This Side Of Nowhere
• Buñuel - Drug Burn
• Interview - Eugene S. Robinson (Buñuel) Part 1
• Whipping Boy - Sunshine Nellie
• Oxbow (Feat. Lingua Ignota) - Lovely Murk
• Interview - Eugene S. Robinson (Buñuel) Part 2
• Buñuel (Feat. Megan Osztrosits) - Fixer
• Gnod - Waves Of Fear
• Losss - Numerical Five
• Chat Pile - Funny Man
• Verminate - Extraterrestrial Pest Control
• Resin Tomb - Dysphoria
• Amby Downs - Wiigunma-Li
• Poison Ruïn - Attrition
• Whoroboros - True Blue
• Queerbait - Rolled Eyes
• Anni Hogan (Feat. Nick Cave) - Vixo

Plus the following review, featured just prior to North Of The Border by The Hard Quartet.

The Hard Quartet: The Hard Quartet (Matador)

Released 4th October, 2024

The Hard Quartet are The Traveling Wilburys for the post-grunge generation. Comprising Emmett Kelly, Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney and Jim White, there isn’t enough space to list all of their respective projects, but if you know, you know and if you don’t, rest assured that each member possesses a formidable musical resumé. Kelly, Malkmus, and Sweeney share bass, guitar and vocal duties, whilst White drums and also contributes some vocals. This fluid approach to instrumentation results in a sonically diverse record and a supergroup free of the usual rock-star egotism.

Teasing the —then-unnamed— project earlier in the year with a series of posts on social media, the group settled on the name The Hard Quartet and officially announced their self-titled album in July. From the get-go expectations were understandably high and a series of single releases prior to the album’s release did little to diminish expectations. Earth Hater, Rio’s Song and Our Hometown Boy, gave listeners the first taste of what the group’s combined talents were capable of. Arguably —and somewhat ironically— these three songs are some of the album’s weaker moments. This says more about the quality of the rest of the record than the songs themselves, but they are so heavily reminiscent of much of Malkmus’ other work that upon first listen one could be forgiven for mistaking them as an unreleased Jicks outtake or a Pavement b-side.

A double album that runs for almost an hour, The Hard Quartet has no shortage of twists, turns and surprises. Where it truly shines is when the group leans into the diversity imbued by the sum of their parts. Surprisingly soft and subdued, Killed By Death is a musing on mortality, tenderly sung by Sweeney and propelled by White’s incredible drumming. Conversely, Renegade is a two-minute punk thrasher eerily reminiscent of The Germs, but with slightly less snarl. These two songs speak to the diversity of The Hard Quartet and their ability to incorporate a wide variety of styles while still managing to create a cohesive final product.

Closing out the record is a hat trick of highlights that showcase the band’s ability to allow each player the space to be heard. North Of The Border, Thug Dynasty and Gripping The Riptide are masterful exercises in restraint that manage to sound equally loose and refined. North Of The Border and Gripping The Riptide each have an experimental edge that shares some similarity to White’s recent collaborations with Marisa Anderson, whilst Thug Dynasty invokes the slacker swagger of early Pavement. 

Having learnt from the missteps of similar acts, The Hard Quartet demonstrates that mutual respect is key to any great collaboration. Clearly, they are friends first and bandmates second and this foundation of friendship is what makes their debut album so special. Far from being a cynical cash grab orchestrated by a greedy manager or record company executive, The Hard Quartet is the result of four mates coming together to indulge their creative instincts while relishing the opportunity to create something exceptional.

Nick Stephan

• Songs played
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Show Intro - Darker With The Day (Excerpt)
• Connor D'Netto & Yvette Ofa Agapow - Announcer Backing Track - Material III: Comes In Waves (Excerpt)
• The Saints - Swing For The Crime
• Mick Harvey - Heaven's Gate
• Interview - Mick Harvey Part 1
• David McComb - Setting You Free
• Ed Kuepper - Demolition
• Interview - Mick Harvey Part 2
• Mick Harvey - Suitcase In Berlin
• Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld - Hey Hey, My My
• Xiu Xiu - Common Loon
• Sophie (Feat. Juliana Huxtable) - Plunging Asymptote
• The Hard Quartet - North Of The Border
• Amyl & The Sniffers - Big Dreams
• Tropical Fuck Storm - You Let My Tyres Down (Live)
• Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing - Out of Zone
• The Worm Turns - His Last Daughter
• Deafcult - Annihilate
• Ben Ely & The Mungo Fungo Band - Fade Away
• Buñuel (Feat. Kasia Robinson) - Crack Shot

Plus the following review, featured just prior to Project 4 Ever by Alan Sparhawk.

Alan Sparhawk: White Roses, My God (Sub Pop)

Released 27th September, 2024

When Mimi Parker passed away in 2022, after a two-year battle with ovarian cancer, Alan Sparhawk lost his wife, closest collaborator and bandmate of thirty years. Their group, Low, was known for their exquisite vocal harmonies, but also their penchant for experimentation. Low frequently challenged accepted musical boundaries, with their earliest albums notable for their crawling, glacial pace and low volumes, whilst their latter releases embraced electronic distortion and sonic deconstruction.

Low’s final records, 2018’s Double Negative and 2021’s Hey What are considered two of the greatest albums released since the turn of the century. Both are masterful displays of innovation that manage to sound equally frightening and comforting, whilst feeling simultaneously futuristic and familiar. Within the framework of these two albums, Low completely deconstruct the DNA of each song, manipulating, then reassembling them whilst maintaining the heart and humanity that lies at their core.

With White Roses, My God, Sparhawk’s first solo album, he continues this push into uncharted musical territory. Composed primarily using electronic instruments, such as synthesisers and drum machines, the album is notable for its pitch-affected vocals. On first listen this effect can be jarring, but once acclimated, its utilisation enhances the voice’s role as an instrument, exacerbating the emotional element of Sparhawk’s vocals.

Sparhawk described his process for writing the album as, “Messing with the drum machine and the synth that was kind of just around the house.” Adding, “It takes a lot of stabbing around. I would mess around for about an hour and there would be maybe a minute and a half somewhere in there that would be worth going back and checking on.” His excitement for these moments of discovery is evident across all of the album’s eleven tracks but is most notable on I Made This Beat. Running just shy of two minutes, it features Sparhawk repeating the song’s title over a rudimentary drumbeat and pulsing, danceable, synth lines. I Made This Beat is almost childlike in its sense of pride and wonder, imbued with the enthusiasm of achievement that comes after long periods of unsuccessfully trying to break new ground.

Get Still opens the record and provides an early highlight, its woozy ambience and joyous chorus strike a perfect balance between the sombre and the celebratory. Closing out the album is another standout, Project 4 Ever. Propelled by electronic drones and punctuated by bursts of crackling static, Project 4 Ever is the track most reminiscent of Sparhawk’s previous work, bearing some similarity to songs such as Quorum or Tempest off Double Negative.

Perhaps the album’s most heartbreaking moment is one of its briefest, the one-minute track Heaven. Musing on the afterlife and the loss of a loved one, it contains the line, “Heaven, it’s a lonely place if you’re alone.” Whether the song is intended to be from the perspective of the departed or those they left behind is unclear, but it possesses significant emotional weight for a song of such short length.

It would be easy to describe White Roses, My God as a “grief album,” similar to Ghosteen by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, but do so is to ignore the playfulness that is ingrained within its every note. It would be more apt to consider it an album created in spite of grief rather than in response to it. White Roses, My God marks the beginning of a new chapter in Sparhawk’s life and career. After three decades in a band, he is now making music on his own. In doing so he has crafted a strange but beautiful album, a testament to the power of music and a poignant reminder of the human spirit’s ability to endure.

Nick Stephan

• Songs played
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Show Intro - Darker With The Day (Excerpt)
• Michael Fiedler - Announcer Backing Track - Realistic (Excerpt)
• Kris Kristofferson - Sunday Morning Comin' Down
• Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire
• Alan Sparhawk - Can U Hear
• Interview - Alan Sparhawk Part 1
• Low - Rome (Always In The Dark)
• Low - Days Like These
• Interview - Alan Sparhawk Part 2
• Alan Sparhawk - Project 4 Ever
• Devo - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
• The Stress Of Leisure - Man Who Makes A Racist Comment (Objects To Being Called Racist)
• Ghost Mutt - Stud Puppy
• God Bullies - Save Me
• Party Dozen - Piss On Earth
• Tape/Off - Alexander
• The Worm Turns - Dead Speak Of Lives
• Refedex - Free Form Doubt
• Chimers - Glossary
• Mouse - Yosemite
• Locust Revival - Cursed Me
• Mick Harvey - Demolition

Plus the following review, featured just prior to Hypnogram by Thurston Moore.

Thurston Moore: Flow Critical Lucidity (Daydream Library Series)

Released September 20th, 2024

On first listen, Thurston Moore’s latest record, Flow Critical Lucidity, is surprisingly conventional. To be clear, Moore has not released a modern-day pop record, but when you consider that two of his most recent albums, Spirit Counsel and By The Fire, stretched to ninety minutes and two and a half hours respectively, Flow Critical Lucidity’s forty-minute runtime certainly seems conservative in comparison. This tendency for the traditional is even more surprising when one considers Moore’s co-contributors include Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadler and My Bloody Valentine’s Deb Googe, with the latter performing on all the album’s tracks as part of Moore’s backing band.

Moore has made a career of both mining and defining the avant-garde in modern rock, first with Sonic Youth and —since that band’s dissolution— as a solo artist, in various other projects such as Chelsea Light Moving and through the acts he releases and champions through his Ecstatic Peace and Daydream Series Library record labels. His underground credibility and knowledge of music history guarantees his appearance in most music documentaries and he recently published his autobiography, the epic and exhaustively detailed, Sonic Life: A Memoir.

Flow Critical Lucidity gets off to a slow start with New In Town. Taking influence from Middle-Eastern music, it features a rhythmic and repetitive guitar riff that, whilst interesting, never goes anywhere. Its follow-up, Sans Limites, featuring the aforementioned Sadler, couldn’t be more different. An early album highlight that proves Moore is still capable of making music that is beautifully melodic, but still challenging and unique. Sans Limites succeeds in all the ways that New In Town fails. Both rely heavily on repetition, but the former knows when to break new ground whilst the latter rests comfortably in place, stubbornly resisting the urge to grow and evolve.

Released as a single more than a year ago, Hypnogram finds Moore in familiar territory, creating his uniquely mellow brand of off-kilter guitar music and demonstrating that the more he ages, the more comfortable he is in embracing melody. This is not meant to imply that Moore’s earlier compositions were merely discordant walls of noise, for even at their most abrasive, Sonic Youth knew the importance of a hook. What has changed, however, is that previously the melody would provide the counterpoint to Moore’s excursions into the experimental, where now it is the focal point.

Like most alternative music lifers, Moore has a dedicated fan base prone to gush over much of what he does and, to be fair, in a career lasting over forty years his benchmark for quality is rather high. Even his missteps have merit, with defenders arguing that their lack of convention meant they were never intended for those with more “traditional” tastes. Flow Critical Lucidity may be one of his rare middle-of-the-road records, it is by no means bad, but it lacks the gusto of his bolder works whilst, at the same time, being a tad too innovative and unusual to appeal to a broader audience.  

Nick Stephan

• Songs played
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Show Intro - Darker With The Day (Excerpt)
• Michael Fiedler - Announcer Backing Track - Accent Orange (Excerpt)
• Rowland S. Howard (Feat. Jonnine Standish) - (I Know) A Girl Called Jonny
• HTRK - Fascinator
• Interview - Jonnine Standish & Nigel Yang (HTRK) Part 1
• Still House Plants - No Sleep Deep Risk
• Astrid Sonne - Stuck In Pause
• Interview - Jonnine Standish & Nigel Yang (HTRK) Part 2
• HTRK - Fast Friend
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Carnival Is Over
• Party Dozen - The Big Man Upstairs
• God Bullies - Cops
• Thurston Moore - Hypnogram
• Mouse - Goodbye At The Door Forever
• Local Authority - Wonder
• Stan - Trouble
• The Go-Betweens - In The Core Of A Flame
• Ed Kuepper - Real To Me (2)
• Screamfeeder - Don't Get Me Started
• Alan Sparhawk - Get Still

Plus the following review, featured just prior to Hide & Seek by The Jesus Lizard.

The Jesus Lizard: Rack (Ipecac/Mushroom)

Released September 13th, 2024

Twenty-six years is a long time between drinks. The Jesus Lizard have lain dormant for longer than most bands have careers and few could have predicted that 2024 would herald a new album from the group that Steve Albini once described as, “The best band of the 90s, hands down.” Rack continues the band’s predilection for four-letter word titles and proves that one shouldn’t be cynical of all bands who reform and record after long periods of inactivity, for it delivers all the manic energy of their early classics; and then some.

The Jesus Lizard defined an era of rock music that existed in the shadows of grunge that was far too challenging and terrifying for greater public consumption. One critic famously described frontman David Yow’s vocals as sounding, “like a kidnap victim trying to howl through the duct tape over his mouth.” Despite this, the group received significant critical acclaim during their career which lasted from the late 1980s until the turn of the last century. Reforming sporadically and touring over the years, the band kept any new material they were working on a secret until the album announcement earlier this year.

Kicking off the proceedings is Hide & Seek, a song that barges out the gate like a pissed-off bull with a matador in its sights. It may not be as memorable as the menacing guitar opening from Then Comes Dudley or the barn-burning stomp of Boilermaker, but it is fearsome in its intent, indicating that The Jesus Lizard are —to borrow a crass Australian colloquialism— not here to fuck spiders.

Hide & Seek formed a trio of singles, alongside Alexis Feels Sick and Moto(R), that were drip-fed to the public prior to Rack’s release, each one raising the bar —and the anticipation— for the album’s eventual release. Alexis Feels Sick brings bassist David Wm. Sims to the forefront, commencing with a repetitive bass line that builds tension and provides the song with its musical anchor. Sims’ playing is often overlooked in discussions about the band, but his style is unique, providing a sleaze-funk counterpoint to the group’s often chaotic sound.

Rack runs for a lean thirty-seven minutes and for the duration of the record the band rarely takes their foot off the gas. What If? is the —almost— exception and the closest thing the record has to a slow number; although those seeking a ballad should apply elsewhere. Heavily rooted in the rhythmic interplay between Sims and drummer Mac McNeilly, guitarist Duane Denison contributes his signature, spidery guitar while Yow’s lyrics beg the question, can we ever completely know, or trust, those around us?

It’s always a pleasant surprise when heavily anticipated albums not only meet but exceed your expectations and Rack is one such record. The fact that it took twenty-six years makes it all the more astounding. Put simply, this is as good as anything in The Jesus Lizard’s back catalogue. I can only hope that Rack is the dawning of their renaissance, with even more great records to follow.

Nick Stephan 

• Songs played
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Show Intro - Darker With The Day (Excerpt)
• Loidis - Announcer Backing Track - Love's Lineaments (Excerpt)
• Campingsex - Und Sie Alle
• The Jesus Lizard - What If?
• Interview - David Yow (The Jesus Lizard) Part 1
• Scratch Acid - For Crying Out Loud
• The Jesus Lizard - Elegy
• Interview - David Yow (The Jesus Lizard) Part 2
• The Jesus Lizard - Hide & Seek
• Big Black - The Model
• Spirit Bunny - Marshmallows
• Electric Prawns 2 - Short Circuit
• Chiffon Magnifique (Feat. Fhae) - Alone
• Locust Revival - I.W.T.F.K.Y
• Blue Diner - Morningside
• Nice Biscuit - Love That Takes You Up
• James Howard - Life Doesn't Move Through Time, Time Moves Through Life
• Connor D'Netto - Witness
• Jonnine - Spring's Deceit
• HTRK - HA