By This article previously appeared on Crossfader
In What We Heard we highlight a few choice quotes from our writers regarding albums that stood out from this month, and provide you with a playlist of this month’s best songs (featured in the “Favorite Tracks” section of each review).
“On their third time around, the Pennsylvanian-bred quartet are still efficiently assembling the vivid vignettes of Quinlan’s mind: family memories, heartbreak, nostalgia, and aging. With Quinlan’s lyrics providing the pictures and her backing band providing the frame, BARK YOUR HEAD OFF, DOG is another quietly stunning album and perhaps their most unnerving.” — Nick Funess on Hop Along’s brilliant Philadelphia indie rocker BARK YOUR HEAD OFF, DOG
“Who would have actually guessed that the famously tectonically-paced Sleep would go ahead and drop a surprise album on everyone’s heads? Well, after something like 15 years, we have finally arrived at the Riff Filled Land . . . Even with all of the Sleep clones that have popped up in the last decade or so, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard something as monstrous as this. Maybe part of Sleep’s return was to remind us how it’s done.” — Joseph Simpson on Sleep’s towering stoner metal comeback THE SCIENCES
“YEARS (…) is a glossier and focused sequel to SIDELONG, an up-all-night, same-shit-different-day update that sees her really taking stock of romance, heartbreak, and hurt. In her own words, it’s a record about finding a way ‘hrough exhaustion, depression, betrayal, hangover after hangover, upper after downer after upper, fight after never-ending fight.’ Those fights, just as they do in real life, unfold with a significant amount of give and take, an internal and romantic tug of war that she battles through red eyes and blurry nights.” — CJ Simonson on Sarah Shook & the Disarmer’s snarling hangover country album, YEARS
Other Notable Recommendations:
Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s exploration of love in the age of tech, SEX & FOOD
Kississippi’s ever-evolving debut SUNSET BLUSH
Kali Uchis’ genre-bending R&B paradise ISOLATION
Cardi B’s splashy and much talked about introduction, INVASION OF PRIVACY
Flatbush Zombie’s flag-planting hip hop trip VACATION IN HELL
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