My Top 5 New Releases :: New Music Friday :: Week of August 31, 2015

1. 23 Live Sex Acts :: Against Me!

Three-Sentence Review: Raw, real and raucous, and almost as good as seeing Against Me! live. This album requires high volume, and insists that you scream-sing-a-long (or at least that’s its impact on me).

Initial Favorite Track(s): Black Me Out, The Ocean & True Trans Soul Rebel

Rating (1-5 Stars): 5+

True Trans Soul Rebel (live)

2. Self-Titled :: Oh Wonder

Three-Sentence Review: I feel like I heard Oh Wonder mentioned, and heard their songs, off-and-on all Summer long, so much so, that I almost feel like this should have been the Summer album, even if it is now released at the very end of the season. The songs on this album, both the ones I kept hearing in the heat of the past months, and the ones that are brand new to my ears today, are catchy, melancholic, lush, emotional, addicting and seducing. Reminiscent of a more straight-forward, post-Modern Cocteau Twins, Of Monsters & Men, Lana Del Rey and a more melodic Bastille, trust me on this, these songs will get under your skin and have you aching for more.

Initial Favorite Track(s): All We Do, White Blood & Heart Hope

Rating (1-5 Stars): 5

All We Do

3. All Yours :: Widowspeak

Three-Sentence Review: A little throwback 90’s feel to this album, think Belly, Letters To Cleo and Frente!, mixed up with a bit of newer indie pop, think Haim, La Sera, and Bleachers, and it all equates to what All Yours feels like to me (or at least my first reaction to the album). This is another late Summer song that I wish I’d had with me all Summer long, but at the same time, the heat sticks around long into the start of Fall in Los Angeles, and this album is going to be with me for a long while, as well, I think. All the songs on this album have an ease to them that is delightful and soothing, with enough pop sensibilities to be catchy and memorable – songs that are vying to be part of a playlist.

Initial Favorite Track(s): All Yours, Dead Love (So Still) & Borrowed World

Rating (1-5 Stars): 5

All Yours

4. Everybody’s a Good Dog :: Diane Coffee

Three-Sentence Review: Diane Coffee (Shaun Fleming), drummer from Foxygen, has brought out an album today that I can’t seem to get enough. I’ve been in a 60’s music mood lately, and there is something within this album that feels so very 60’s to me, bridging my musical mind between where it’s been grooving lately, and now. Some tracks possess a bit of glam rock, as well (see I Dig You, as an example), a fact that I am definitely am digging, too.

Initial Favorite Track(s): Spring Breathes, Mayflower & I Dig You

Rating (1-5 Stars): 5

Mayflower

5. Yours, Dreamily :: The Arcs

Three-Sentence Review: Solo/side-project by Dan Auerbach (of the Black Keys) is that mix of blues and indie rock that one would expect from someone from the Black Keys, which though predictable to a certain degree, is also a good kind of reliable. This is in no way a Black Keys album, no, it shares more similarity to Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes. This album will make you want to move, and in some cases (see Stay in My Corner), make a move on someone else.

Initial Favorite Track(s): Put a Flower in Your Pocket, Outta My Mind & Stay in My Corner

Rating (1-5 Stars): 4

Stay in My Corner