New Music Reviews (6/8)

Each week KEXP's Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Snail Mail, Pusha T, serpentwithfeet, and more.

Snail Mail – Lush (Matador) 
The debut full-length from Baltimore-bred, Brooklyn-based artist Lindsay Jordan is a masterful set of smartly crafted indie-rock highlighted by her intricate, dreamy guitar work, emotive vocals, wistful melodies and unflinchingly honest lyrics of lost love and resilience. - Don Yates 
 
Snuff Redux – Denim American (self-released) 
This Seattle band's debut full-length is an impressive set of lo-fi garage-rock inflected with driving post-punk, shoegazer psych-rock, soaring power-pop and more, combining fuzzy guitars and energetic rhythms with buoyant song hooks. - DY
 
serpentwithfeet – soil (Secretly Canadian) 
The debut full-length from this Baltimore-bred, New York-based artist (aka Josiah Wise) is an adventurous blend of spectral R&B, gospel, classical, various electronic styles and more, combining a dark, rumbling sound with his fluttering vibrato, densely layered harmonies and personal lyrics of love and desire. - DY
 
Pusha T - Daytona (G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam) 
The latest solo album from Pusha T of The Clipse is a swift knockout punch, arguably yielding his strongest solo effort to date, and the best The Clipse-related material since 2006's Hell Hath No Fury. Produced entirely by Kanye West, Pusha T is in rejuvenated razor-sharp form all on 7 tracks, unleashing his confident, charismatic, seen-it-all coke raps over Kanye's focused, crisp, top-shelf beats. Bound to be one of the best hip-hop albums of 2018. - Alex Ruder
 
Flasher – Constant Image (Domino) 
This DC trio's debut album is a promising set of hook-filled post-punk with fuzzy guitars, bright keyboards, driving rhythms, alternating lead vocals and anxiety-fueled, often-politically charged lyrics. - DY
 
Black Thought – Streams of Thought, Vol. 1 EP (Human Re Sources) 
The solo debut from the veteran rapper with the Roots is a strong 5-song EP of straight-up hip hop. Produced by 9th Wonder and The Soul Council, the EP combines hard-hitting beats and looped soul samples with Black Thought's razor-sharp rhymes. - DY
 
Melody's Echo Chamber – Bon Voyage (Fat Possum) 
The second album (and first in six years) from this French artist (aka Melody Prochet) is a strong set of adventurous, prog-tinged psych-pop. Co-produced by Prochet with Dungen's Reine Fisk and The Amazing's Fredrik Swahn and featuring accompaniment from members of Dungen and Pond, the album combines a colorful, shape-shifting sound with Prochet's breathy vocals alternating between French, English and Swedish.- DY
 
Gruff Rhys – Babelsberg (Rough Trade) 
The fifth solo album from this Welsh artist (and Super Furry Animals frontman) is a well-crafted set of '70s-steeped orchestral pop combining a warm, lush sound with his modest vocals and dystopian, often-cutting lyrics. - DY
 
Chancha Via Circuito – Bienaventuranza (Wonderwheel) 
The fourth album from this Buenos Aires producer (aka Pedro Canale) is a well-crafted blend of cumbia, Andean folk, reggaeton and various electronic styles, combining electronic beats and textures with a colorful variety of traditional instrumentation. - DY
 
Petal – Magic Gone (Run For Cover) 
The second album from Scranton, PA artist Kiley Lotz (aka Petal) is a potent set of intimate, folk-tinged indie-pop combining a mostly spare sound with her aching vocals and emotive lyrics revolving around mental illness, identity and lost love. - DY
 
Aterciopelados – Claroscura (Sony Colombia) 
The latest album (and first in nine years) from this veteran Colombian band led by Andrea Echeverri and Hector Buitrago is a typically expansive blend of cumbia, Andean folk, psych-rock, electro-pop, reggae and more. - DY 
 
gobbinjr – ocala wick (Top Shelf) 
The debut album from this Wisconsin-bred, Brooklyn-based artist (aka Emma Witmer) is a strong set of smartly crafted indie-pop combining moody keyboards with her fragile vocals, wistful melodies and frank, often-wry lyrics dealing with both unwanted and unrequited love. - DY
 
Jorja Smith – Lost & Found (Famm Limited) 
This young London-based artist's debut full-length is a promising set of moody R&B with warm keyboards and hip hop-influenced beats accompanying her aching, jazz-tinged vocals and intimate lyrics of love lost and found. - DY 
 
Shannon Shaw – Shannon in Nashville (Easy Eye Sound) 
The debut solo album from the leader of Oakland's Shannon & The Clams is a fine set of '60s-steeped orchestral-pop. Produced by Dan Auerbach, the album combines a lush, richly detailed sound with Shaw's aching, gritty vocals and lyrics of heartache and loss. - DY
 
The Midnight Hour – The Midnight Hour (Linear Labs) 
The Midnight Hour is the new collaboration between A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad and LA-based composer/producer Adrian Younge. They're joined here by a full orchestra and a varied lineup of guest vocalists for this Harlem Renaissance-inspired set of sophisticated, jazz-tinged R&B along with some occasional hip hop. - DY
 
Arthur Buck – Arthur Buck (New West) 
The debut album from this project pairing Joseph Arthur with Peter Buck is a solid set of roots and psych-tinged rock that's not far-removed from the sound of Arthur's solo recordings. - DY
 
George FitzGerald - All That Must Be (Domino) 
The sophomore album from the London-based electronic musician is another strong set of immersive, mature, exceptionally-produced electronic-pop that balances hypnotic club-ready tech-house rhythms with strong vocal-pop flourishes. His first album in 3 years and his first offering since becoming a father and re-locating back to the UK following a decade in Berlin, All That Must Be features guest appearances from Tracey Thorne, Bonobo, and Lil Silva on a few of the album highlights. - AR
 
Clairo - diary 001 (FADER) 
Following a breakout 2017 that saw her bedroom-pop songs and low-budget YouTube videos go viral, rising Boston-based artist Claire Cottrill (aka Clairo) unveils her official debut release and it's a strong showcase of her charming pop talents that includes the addictive low-key introverted anthems that garnered massive attention last year ("Pretty Girl," "Flaming Hot Cheetos") alongside new, polished, upfront jams ("B.O.M.D." produced by PC Music's Danny L Harle, "4EVER," "Hello?" featuring Irish R&B/rapper Rejjie Snow) that provide a glimpse of her potential to comfortably exist alongside mainstream acts. - AR
 
The Get Up Kids – Kicker EP (Polyvinyl) 
This Kansas City band's first batch of new music in seven years is a strong 4-song EP of emotive, hook-filled punk-pop with buzzing guitars, bright synths, energetic rhythms and buoyant melodies. - DY
 
Virginia Wing – Ecstatic Arrow (Fire) 
This British duo's third album is another fine set off atmospheric, jazz-tinged art-pop with densely produced, shape-shifting songs featuring atmospheric keyboards, jazzy horns and more accompanying Alice Merida Richards' sing-song vocals. - DY
 
Grouper - Grid Of Points (Kranky) 
The 11th album from beloved Portland artist Liz Harris (aka Grouper) is a brief yet mesmerizing set of skeletal, vulnerable, atmospheric ambient/folk/pop that finds her delivering her intimate, hushed, ethereal vocals over gentle piano backdrops. - AR
 
Anemone - Baby Only You & I (Luminelle Recordings) 
Anemone is a project spearheaded by Montreal musician and visual artist Chloé Soldevila. Featuring lyrics in both English and French, her debut release is an impressive set of kaleidoscopic, worldly, infectious psych-pop that's influenced by 70s psychedelia, 90s alternative dance music, synth-pop, krautrock, Italo-disco, and more, and frequently contains swirling flashes of Stereolab and Broadcast at their most playful. - AR
 
Sharda - Sharda EP (Coil) 
The second release and first non-single release on Coil Records, a new label run by Manchester, UK-based electronic producer Murlo, is the debut EP from the mysterious Sharda, creator of addictive hi-NRG electronic jams that blur rave, house, UKG, and happy hardcore in exuberant, giddy, highly-kinetic fashion. - AR