This week on Newer Release Roundup we focus on the angsty and the tormented of all ages! That reminds me of a story: never mind, I forgot it!

It’s getting harder and harder to come up with some eye-catching exposition text for this feature. Let’s just move on.

Steven Wilson – THE FUTURE BITES
(January 29, 2021)

Modern prog rock’s Chief Smiley Boy Steven Wilson returns with his sixth solo studio effort, entitled and stylized in all caps THE FUTURE BITES, complete with his ill-fitting glasses-faced smirking mug and MS Paint album cover. Bring all these components together and I was expecting absolutely nothing. As it turns out, I was shocked, SHOCKED, at how much I enjoyed this album.

Prog lovers have been disappointed with Wilson’s recent forays into non-prog territories. Myself, I’ve been less than excited with the neo-prog cheesiness and happier dad-rock melodies of his last couple of albums and I’ve been expecting more of the same with this one. Not the case. THE FUTURE BITES sees Wilson returning more to his moody Porcupine Tree roots while continuing to alienate his audience with disco, neo-soul, funk, pop, and straightforward rock music. Since I don’t subscribe to prog snobbery, there is a LOT for me to enjoy here. The upbeat dance-rock “EMINENT SLEAZE”, the psychedelic consumerism satire “PERSONAL SHOPPER” (featuring Elton Fucking John?!), the poppy anti-social media earworm “FOLLOWER”, which has some beautiful arpeggio piano painting a futuristic soundscape during the bridge. And, all the while, Wilson’s immaculate production skills make everything sound so off and unnerving, and I’m liking this stuff on a level that I didn’t really feel from either Hand. Cannot. Erase. or To the Bone. And it’s only 42-minutes long, the perfect length for a Steven Wilson venture.

My opinion is an unusual one, and I don’t think you’ll see a similar opinion elsewhere, but this is the best product that Wilson has released in about a decade. If this is the music he wants to make now, I’m all in for the ride.

Early Verdict:

Shame – Drunk Tank Pink
(January 15, 2021)

Let me start by saying that Shame’s debut Songs of Praise was one of my favorites from 2018. I considered it to be a somewhat fresh take on post-punk, combining sulky, plodding riffs with politically sharp commentary delivered in a gruffly bombastic baritone. Drunk Tank Pink, the second album, while entertaining, didn’t hook me as easily.

Perhaps it’s more nuanced and layered? Perhaps it’s a little bit too much more of the same? Perhaps I need more time with it still? HERE’S WHAT I THINK: I think the record starts off with incredible strength on the first two tracks. “Alphabet” is snarky and aggressive, “Nigel Hitter” is playful and bouncy, almost like a Talking Heads song. Then they lose me at “Born in Luton”. “Double locked titanium steel“? That’s not even a thing!

OK, in all seriousness, once we tread near the middle of the record the overall tone starts getting a little same-y, and a lot of the record doesn’t evolve from the debut’s formula. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that at all. The formula works! But when you’re so used to one album, a new album of the same formula is harder to break through. And that’s where I’m at right now.

SO, a lot of this album I really like! My gut tells me, though, that this band is repeating a lot of the same tricks. Either way, this album still needs to penetrate. All the best albums are slow penetrators. Yeah baby.

Early Verdict:

Olivia Rodrigo – SOUR
(May 21, 2021)

You probably already know more than I do about Olivia Rodrigo’s extremely popular first full length. Every take has already been explored. Why are you even here? Read some other blog if you want “insight” and “smartly worded sentences”.

Here’s my take: SOUR is a genuinely ambitious and a bravely open testimonial from the aspiring teenage Disney Channel star. Rodrigo has one hell of a voice and her expressive singing is impassioned, mournful, and powerful. One would expect some overly fluffed up bullshit, but the opener “brutal” hits you hard with a 2×4 of 17-year-old angst and doesn’t let up. When you get lines like “And I’m so tired that I might/Quit my job, start a new life/And they’d all be so disappointed/’Cause who am I, if not exploited?” it looks like the recipe for burning bridges. I really get a kick out of this kind of transparency in art, and good for Rodrigo for not being afraid to put herself out there like this! The feelings are genuine, and even if they weren’t it’s still a ballsy way to present yourself.

Too bad that “brutal” is the hardest-hitting track. Most of the rest of the album is moody and somewhat hushed and restrained, almost entirely focused on a single break-up. While the album is rooted in the sardonic and the cynical, it’s relatable and sometimes bitterly funny (“I’ll bet that she knows Billy Joel/’Cause you played her ‘Uptown Girl’/You’re singing it together/Now I bet you even tell her how you love her/In between the chorus and the verse“). And in the end, who could fucking blame her for being angsty and cynical at this stage in her life? It’s entirely appropriate. I’m sure she will do better work in the future, but right now this is where she’s at and this is how it all came out. At any rate, I like it.

Early Verdict: