This week I have new releases from tUnE-yArDs, Stortregn, and Noga Erez! Indie throwback pop with some infused soul! “Diverse” extreme metal! Middle-Eastern hip-hop! Eclectic! Exciting! I’m bored now.

tUnE-yArDs – sketchy.
(March 26, 2021)

Oh man, remember tUnE-yArDs, you guys? Merrill Garbus’ project was one of the biggest names in indie music circa 2010, and then everything about it dropped out of the zeitgeist as if it were a snuffed-out candle flame. Was it the annoying AOL-era alternating-caps band name? Although that probably didn’t help, it’s because indie music changed and Merrill Garbus didn’t whatsoever. This music hearkens back heavily to the weirdo-pop aesthetics that the indie scene was known for during its ’00s heyday. This stuff is passé now. tUnE-yArDs was one of the last ones in on it, and one of the first ones phased out.

I was surprised to find out that sketchy. is the FIFTH studio album! The band fell off my radar, just like everyone else’s, after w h o k i l l topped all the charts in 2011. And, yeah, after throwing this on for a spin, my immediate reaction was that Garbus was still stuck in the past. But after getting over that notion, this album is pretty fucking phenomenal. Varied instrumentation is layered over the goofy electronic chirping and blurping sound effects to create some very lyrically heavy R&B and blue-eyed soul. Garbus has a great voice, and her political messages are sincere and poignant. I especially enjoy “silence pt. 1 (when we say ‘we’)” where she laments the slowness and perceived futility of single-handedly making a difference in this stupid, fucked-up world through lines like “Not in my lifetime/I know, I know/Not in my lifetime/I know, I know, I know” and “She said ‘change yourself to change the world’ and I’m gonna try“. This is followed by “silence pt. 2 (who is ‘we’?)”, which is just that: one minute of silence. Sometimes something uncomfortable happens and you have to sit with it. Then you move on.

Here’s a funny anecdote: I have a friend who’s having his first baby this week, and I praised this album to him highly. He probably shouldn’t listen to “hold yourself.” though, because the song is about why parents fuck up their children even if they have good intentions. As a parent myself who agrees with the sentiment, it’s not the best message to get into your head when your life suddenly changes after the birth of that first kid. If you’re reading this, and you know who you are, sorry about that!

There’s a lot that’s incredible about this record. I have no hesitations with giving this the big ol’ fat grinning face. Gonna catch up with tUnE-yArDs. Maybe. Some day.

Early Verdict:

Stortregn – Impermanence
(March 12, 2021)

“Stortregn” is a Swedish word that means “downpour”, so with heavy metal band Stortregn’s fifth album Impermanence I was expecting just that. I wouldn’t describe their music as a downpour, per se; this sounds like rain I’d like to play in. La la-la la-la…

Beats me why a band from Switzerland would name themselves after a Swedish word, but they did, and here we are. At the beginning of this album, with its gentle acoustic lead-in to a neoclassical flurry of melodic speed metal guitar and hoarse, raspy vocals, all I could think about was Children of Bodom. I was about to write Impermanence off as another cookie-cutter melodic death metal record, but I kept picking up on little surprises as I made my way through. Some technical death metal riffs here, some gothic metal vocals there. Some passages were thrashy, some passages had blackened blast beats. Sometimes the shrieky vocal delivery was easy enough to understand, sometimes the guttural utterings were so distorted it sounded like some good old-fashioned barnyard pig-fuckin’ was going on! I even picked up on a quick, crunchy guitar solo I’d expect from Cynic or Voivod that I wish lasted a bit longer. And all the while I was impressed by the pacing and sequencing. And, of course, at 44 minutes it’s a great length too. Color me smiley.

If you’re the kind of person who is able to pick apart the nuances that separate all the heavy metal sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-subgenres, then Impermanence defies easy classification. A lot of the mood is a little same-y, but the replayability factor here is high due to their diverse, yet seamless, take on extreme metal.

Early Verdict:

Noga Erez – KIDS
(March 26, 2021)

Noga Erez is an Israeli-born and -based hip-hop, pop, and electronic musician, citing influences such as Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar, and Björk. Pretty cool, right? Based on that list, plus the overwhelming critical acclaim, I expected more than what I got.

First of all, the very first song (after the 11-second intro track) rips off its melody from The Roots’ “Criminal”, which I noticed right away and it kind of tainted my perception as I made my way through the record. Am I the only one who noticed that? Maybe because it’s a deep cut on a subpar Roots record anyway? But it’s there. I can’t help but hear little bits here and there on KIDS that sound too similar to what I’ve heard before. Like she chopped up and pasted pieces of her influences together instead of making something of her own from it.

I feel a little harsh, though, because this record does have its moments. Erez has good, smooth flow for sure, likely drawing from Kendrick, and there’s non-stop energy even when she’s projecting a slurred, lazy persona. I also appreciate a lot of hooks, especially the chorus of “NO news on tv”, which I’ve been humming for a while now. If you want female-fronted Israeli hip-hop, well my friend, look no further. I’m hoping some more of her own personality comes out in the future, though, because a lot of this just feels like she’s playing a character that hasn’t been fleshed out fully yet.

Early Verdict: