June 2023 in Music
a handful of albums + a whole lotta singles
June was a loaded month for music. I heard a ton of new stuff, went to a few shows, and caught up on some release from earlier in the year that will probably end up being some of my favorites of 2023. The monthly cadence coincides really nicely with how I’ve been managing my music library for several years now. Everything that comes into my orbit gets thrown onto a monthly playlist, and now I’ve added the step of taking the best new releases from each of those and throwing them into your inboxes. I hope my harvesting efforts help you find something you love :)
Albums
3D Country - Geese
3D Country is my favorite album I heard this month. I wasn’t crazy over Geese’s 2021 debut, but a couple of the singles leading up to their second album are bangers and definitely raised my antennae, namely “Mysterious Love” which is one of my favorite tracks of the year so far. Yes, they’re yet another post-punk band, but on this album they’re going for something that also shares a lot of DNA with classic rock, southern rock, and jam bands. On two separate occasions, I thought the lead singer sounded a bit like Robert Plant, and not in the cringy copycat way that others have attempted in recent years. As much as I love the BCNR’s and black midi’s of the world, a more classic vocal style is a nice change up from the genre’s ubiquitous spoken/shouted vocals. The arrangements are a bit more traditional too, but Geese play with the same frenetic energy that makes this modern era of rock music so exciting. I think this is a great entry point into the modern post-punk world if you tend to gravitate towards a more classic rock sound, and I could easily see this winding up high on my end of year list.
O Monolith - Squid
Squid, on the other hand, is NOT a recommended first stop on your journey into the world of animal-named post-punk bands, but it’s damn cool to watch these guys evolve their sound after the success of their first album. Bright Green Field was one of the more exciting debuts of the last several years, and even if I felt it was mostly carried by a few incredible songs, it largely delivered on the promise of the their initial singles and EP. I’ve enjoyed most of the singles leading up to O Monolith and felt good about their ability to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump. On an initial listen, I can’t say I enjoy this album as much as Squid’s other stuff, but I have immense respect for their willingness to try something new on almost every front. The funky grooves of BGF aren’t nearly as prevalent, but they’ve been replaced by swirling synths, vocoder effects, and a host of other studio tricks and experiments that work more often than they don’t. I think the successes are concentrated in the first half/two-thirds of the album - the last handful of tracks didn’t do much for me and felt more like half-baked demos than fleshed out album cuts. Regardless, Squid are on a great path here. This album is not going to work for a lot of people, but I think it’s a gateway to a very promising future.
Girl With Fish - feeble little horse
Lots of animal names in this section this month, not sure what that’s about. I saw this album near the top of Paste's list of best 2023 albums so far and gave it a spin, and I was surprised by how catchy some of these tracks are despite its scratchy, DIY aesthetic. The vocals are super dynamic, ranging from dreamy pop hooks to screaming freak-outs, and manage to pierce through the lo-fi walls of sound found on the majority of the tracks. It’s a short, so I’ve run through this one a few times, and with each listen, Girl With Fish sounds more and more like an album with staying power. If you’re interested in the intersection of lo-fi, shoegaze, and noise pop, you should give this a run and be sure to keep feeble little horse on your radar.
Space Heavy - King Krule
Krule has been one of my favorite artists for nearly a decade now after his appearance on RATKING’s 2014 album So It Goes (one of my favorite albums of the 2010s) put him on my radar, and for my money, he’s remained one of the great artists working over that timespan. His 4th (!) album Space Heavy is possibly the most ethereal he’s ever sounded - the melancholic slowness that permeates Krule’s work up to this point is subtly brightened with jangle pop tones and dreamscape textures that give the album a more defined sonic signature. It otherwise sounds like the King Krule you’ve heard before, but this iteration of his sound comes with a more consistent execution than some of his last couple of projects, as much as I love The Ooz and Man Alive. I don’t think any of the tracks on Space Heavy have the standout appeal of something like “Dum Surfer” or “Stoned Again,” but they come together into an arguably more cohesive package. It’s a refined and relatively low-key entry in the 28-year-old’s rock solid catalogue.
Singles
“The Hillbillies” - Baby Keem, Kendrick Lamar
Technically, this song came out in May, but it was added to streaming services on June 5th so I’m grandfathering it in. Kendrick and Baby Keem kickoff the pgLang era with one of the most fun and loose hip hop tracks I’ve heard this year. I’m not historically huge on Baby Keem, and I was not a fan of Kendrick’s last album, but this song is starting to make me believe that there might be some merit to their cousinly partnership.
Giving a shoutout to the two newest singles from local ATL band Sword II - not because they’re local but because they rock. I’m including both of these because I think they each bring a unique angle to what Sword II are going for on their debut full-length Spirit World Tour (which I haven’t listened to yet, too much music). “Body” is a euphoric, danceable, and noisy pop banger, whereas “Mirror” takes things in a grungier, more downtempo direction while still maintaining the synth-heavy noise pop through-line that seems to define the band’s sound.
“Dominoes,” “Candle Flame,” & “I’ve Been in Love” - Jungle
These new Jungle singles are exactly the kind of straightforward dance pop bangers that I’ve been missing lately. Jungle come through with some perfect production and undeniable grooves on this collection of tracks, and the features from Erick the Architect and Channel Tres fit into their sound so perfectly that they hardly feel like features. Their new album Volcano is out on August 11th - trying not to get my hopes too high, but based on these singles, I’m feeling realllly good about this one.
The side project (or perhaps, the new main project) from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood appears to be starting its next album cycle barely a year after the release of their first album, a project that I admired more than I loved to listen to. This track, on the other hand, kinda blew me away. It’s an 8-minute track that takes its time building towards a truly awesome pay off that could easily be a respectable conclusion to a great Radiohead song. If this track is any indication, The Smile’s second album has a great chance to top their first.
Really sweet, 90s-inspired pop song that’s super easy to recommend to just about anyone. This sound is just the latest of about 100 different genres explored by the ever-shifting Shamir, whose unique vocal performance and sharp, relevant cultural references keep this track from sounding like a lot of the other songs in this vein.
“(It Goes Like) Nanana - Edit” - Peggy Gou
The world is a more fun place with fresh Peggy Gou. One of the greatest DJs alive continues the trend of never missing with another throwback house cut that’s likely to burn down warehouses and festival stages alike. I love how old school the three-note piano refrain is - reminds me a bit of this Crystal Waters classic.
Just as his piano ballad era was starting to get a bit stale, James Blake pivots HARD back to his glitchy, electronic roots - though it doesn’t really sound like his earlier dub cuts. It’s got a little more bounce than anything from that era, and his voice is completely absent from the track - instead, he leans heavily on a fun and disorienting dancehall vocal sample that doesn’t suit the instrumental perfectly but works well enough to get me stoked for whatever else he’s got cooking. New album out Septmber 7th.
Other Stuff
I’m adding this section for the June issue because there was a lot of stuff that came out, and even if I didn’t have time to write about ALL of it, I wanted to include it in this newsletter to help you stay on top of all the music you might miss if you aren’t combing the internet as obsessively as me.
“Under Control (The Strokes Cover)” - Fleet Foxes, Uwade
Fleet Foxes covering The Strokes should be frontpage news as far as I’m concerned
Absolute total banger with straight up contagious energy (for people who like Cheekface)
“Eastside” - Jay Rock (With Kal Banx)
Absolute total banger with straight up contagious energy (for people who like braggadocious-sounding rap music and who probably do not like Cheekface)
This is some honest-to-god rock music
Blackbox Life Recorder 21f - Aphex Twin
We’re in decade 4 of Aphex Twin’s career and he’s still throwing heat
Every song linked in this newsletter is also compiled into the playlist below (except the Fleet Foxes cover - gotta go to bandcamp for that one). Thank you <3