2021 is almost over, gotta cram it in before it’s too late! Gotta cram it all in! Gotta cram it way up there! Last-minute reviews today on 2021 albums from Calva Louise, Sunless, and the Richard Dawson/Circle collaboration.

Calva Louise – Euphoric
(August 20, 2021)

Calva Louise’s debut Rhinoceros from 2019 was quite enjoyable. The three-piece from California plays an energetic and slightly distorted style of pop punk that leans closer to pop than punk, which makes it easier to swallow for people like me who have a really hard time with straight pop punk. However, while I did like their debut, there was something very sparse and shallow about it to me. It felt disposable; a record that couldn’t seriously be considered for repeat listening as the years go by. Their second album, Euphoric, rectifies this.

For one thing, holy god, these melodies! They seem to transcend the pop punk formula in a glorious way, focusing equally on idiosyncratic rhythm and melody while maintaining a believable, natural high-energy. The band reminds me of early Sleigh Bells with its noisy, bombastically intense style. But even Sleigh Bells in their prime couldn’t write a melody like the soaring, arena power pop of a song like “Hunting”. That one sounds like it should be in a Gatorade commercial, or something equally “hit the fucking gym and get pumped, bitch!”. I mean that as a compliment too.

What really sets Euphoric apart from similar contemporaries is Jess Allanic’s switching back-and-forth from English to Spanish. It certainly brings added texture to the already-textured arrangements. “Tiranto”, for example, is sung almost entirely in Spanish, but the snakey music around her singing is definitely using Middle Eastern scales. “Belicoso” is mostly English, with only one verse in Spanish, but something about the switching brings extra weight to the chorus where Allanic yells “I don’t see it, I don’t smell it/But it’s going to my head!”

This album is fantastic, and largely overlooked by nearly everyone in 2021. Check it out.

Early Verdict:

Sunless – Ylem
(October 29, 2021)

You know, only last winter did I really start getting deep into black metal. After gorging on the genre for months straight without much of a break, I found that I strongly preferred a few flavors. I’LL KEEP THE REST A SECRET, but one is the feverishly dissonant, swirling anxious muck kind of black metal that’s created only with conventional four-piece instrumentation. So, Deathspell Omega. And anything else that sounds like Deathspell Omega.

BUT I STILL HAVE MUCH TO LEARN! Because I spun Ylem a dozen times and I’m JUST NOW finding out that Sunless is considered a death metal band. And I’m like, what the fuck? This stuff sounds like they’re exactly in the same camp as Deathspell Omega, or Dodecahedron, or any of those other chaotic messes of shit black metal outfits! But no, it’s death metal. So I’ll roll with it.

The other death metal band I’m aware of that sounds like this, then, is Artificial Brain. While that band’s themes are firmly rooted the cosmos, Sunless’ themes tread the more enigmatic, metaphysical topics that you’d fucking expect from a goddamned black metal band goddamnit. OK, sorry, I’ll roll with it, I promise.

It’s like technical death metal, but they’re playing with technically proficient messiness. The drummer is an animal at the kit, hi-hattin’ and flim-flammin’ until he pukes up a lung. As the cover art might suggest, the songs weave and swirl around this foreboding green nebula, and, when you stop to take the occasional breath, you can recognize the beauty of that which is so disordered.

That is to say, I like this kind of music because it can engulf my brain completely like not much other music can. You deserve to have most of your senses deprived once in a while. Ylem will help you get through the holidays! Ho ho ho.

Early Verdict:

Richard Dawson & Circle – Henki
(November 26, 2021)

No, not serial sexual harasser Richard Dawson from Family Feud and/or Match Game and/or/and Hogan’s Heroes! We’re talking Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s most phenomenal music sensation since Sting! Sting! Since STING! And this time Dawson brought his Finnish buddies, Circle, to create a crazy new epic prog album about plants or some shit.

A DISCLAIMER IS WARRENTED! This isn’t shitty prog. This ain’t about dragons or unicorns or whatever the hell Neal Morse sings about. God? Pfft. No, Dawson sings sad, folky tunes about sad figures (like himself) getting killed (sometimes) or, perhaps, failing a sociology final exam. And I’ve only listened to a few of Circle’s 8,000 albums, but what I’ve heard has been a QUITE ENTERTAINING, unique mix of krautrock, metal, weird drones, and whatever else they feel like playing at any given moment. Needless to say, I’m acquainted enough with both of these collaborators, and I was looking forward to hearing what this sounded like when it finally dropped in late November. It’s good!

Richard Dawson has a distinctly thick-accented warble that is impossibly well-suited for any genre you throw at him, and Henki runs quite a gamut; from the medieval galloping of “Cooksonia”, to the Sonic Youth-esque drone jam of “Ivy”, to the dissonant, meditative free jazz of “Silphium”, all the way to the ’70s prog excess of “Pitcher”, every track is carefully crafted to be propelled with the perfect amount of slow-building momentum and gripping storytelling. All about plants or some shit.

I hope Richard Dawson and Circle collaborate more often in the future. This is one of the best examples of prog-adjacent songwriting that I’ve heard since I discovered Major Parkinson. Highly, highly, recommended.

Early Verdict: