Though the soul of his music still burns with a vintage sheen, Pokey LaFarge is really exploring grooves of every shape these days. With a bit of exotic flavour under the hood, we get more of the LaFarge we love, though with more fleshed out writing and performances. “Get It ‘Fore It’s Gone” takes an island-like ambiance and blends a lot of bouncy surf with folk for a track that easily warms up your day. The instant bass punch to “Fine To Me” is one of the most modern-sounding LaFarge tracks to date, leaning his amazing sass on record into a great, pop-blues track. The darker throwback rock of “Rotterdam” calls to Third Man Records artists at times, and highlights LaFarge’s more nuanced and rich vocal delivery, as he enhances a familiar-sounding song into one of his best. Though his most classic Pokey track here, “Killing Time” is also all the better with his experience, as this retro shuffle feels wonderfully layered and finessed in every harmony, instrumental fill and breakdown stuffed into its amazing package.
Pulling from a lot of 80s power-pop and disco, Niki Kennedy hits a dance high on her latest single. Each hook adds to the ecstasy of this listen, but it’s Kennedy’s more lo-fi and indie production touches that actually solidify it as a unique track. In between all the blending influences, Kennedy’s shouted count-ins and dropped in vocals uniquely speak to other genres and even more of the Madonna roots here. Even in the moments that may seem too familiar here, the synths are dialed into the perfect sounds to get you moving, and Kennedy gives so much into the final chorus that you’ll easily forget and sing along.
More Snail Mail and Phoebe Bridgers than Charli XCX, Charli Adams does still add a lot of unexpected pop production to her guitar crooning. Downbeat but often shimmering in its use of tones, this record takes a lot of interesting twists and turns. The utter heft of the sadness on “Emo Lullaby :’(“ can only be described as “drenched in pain” as Adams lays out a memorable but singular mood-piece. The soundscape of “Headspace” feels like a neon-laden Taylor Swift song filled with all the synths and cold-glowing tones she would never touch, and it’s a wonder for it. There’s an primal power to “Get High w/ My Friends” as the whole electronic approach and the hazy delivery from Adams makes this a simple but effective dance dream. The riffs and space between notes on “Maybe Could Have Loved” feels iconic, with each notes ring feeling absolutely dazzling, and the lost moments Adams sings to coming off as absolutely heartbreaking.
Banggz takes indie hip hop to new heights on “Who’s Gassing Who” with an effortless flow that keeps delivering. The slithering and demented hook on this track grabs your ears and never lets go, leaving the beats lots of room to stop and go, and while the bass can feel subdued in parts, on the right headphones or speakers, this pops. Banggz is wonderfully candid on this track, opening up on his own fears to really make you buy into his persona celebration all the more. His vocal style works so well that even his lines more loosely critiquing the track around him feels exciting because it always lands with a velvety suave to it.
Angular and spoken punk still hasn’t lost its luster after all these years, and the power that Dry Cleaning harnesses out of this feeling totally evolves their predecessors into a whole new beast. A welcome companion to the likes of Jehnny Beth, Idles, Baxter Dury, Shame and many others, it’s the best blender of everything great about their contemporaries, but utterly its own thing. “Scratchcard Lanyard” brings a little Joy Division sheen, and lets its bass and grimy guitars just work into a dance-punk haze until they’re blown out. The funky core of “Strong Feelings” lets the vocals really pop here, as the band meditates around a fiery idea that would be beautiful to explode but instead holds you just on the edge. Even in the more melodic moments of “New Long Leg,” Dry Cleaning are able to pitch and shift into an entrancing new moment, getting something beautiful just out of a rasp. Though a longer dive, the true sense of growth, emotion and raw ferocity they get out on “Every Day Carry” shows the satisfying and frenetic ends they can get to when given enough time.
