New Music Reviews (5/27)

Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by DJ Alex) shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Flying Lotus, Mavis Staples, Faye Webster, and more.

Flying Lotus – Flamagra (Warp)
The sixth album from this LA producer (aka Steven Ellison) is a masterful, cinematic blend of electronic music with jazz, R&B, funk, hip hop and more, combining an intricate, shape-shifting sound with a stellar guest cast including Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Little Dragon, Tierra Whack, Denzel Curry, David Lynch, Shabazz Palaces, Toro Y Moi, Solange, and Thundercat (who also played on most of the album’s songs). — DY

Mavis Staples – We Get By (ANTI-)
The latest solo album from the legendary lead vocalist with The Staple Singers was made in collaboration with Ben Harper, who produced the album along with writing all the songs. Harper’s production is subtle and sympathetic throughout, while the sound is vintage Staples with an earthy blend of blues, gospel, funk and soul. Featuring her excellent road band as accompaniment, the album combines a stripped-down sound of just guitar, bass, drums and backing vocals with Staples’ powerful lead vocals and Harper’s Staples-inspired lyrics revolving around inequality, change, love, loss, and resilience. — DY

Faye Webster – Atlanta Millionaires Club (Secretly Canadian)
This 21-year-old Atlanta artist’s third album is an impressive set of intimate country and R&B-tinged pop with some gorgeous pedal steel, soaring horns, electric piano, breezy rhythms and wistful melodies accompanying her gently aching vocals and melancholy, lovelorn lyrics. — DY

Sebadoh – Act Surprised (Dangerbird)
This veteran Northampton, MA trio’s ninth studio album (and first in six years and second since 1999) is a strong set of energetic, lo-fi rock with fuzzy guitars, punchy rhythms, catchy song hooks and lyrics blending the personal and the political. Lou Barlow and Jason Loewenstein contributed seven songs each, while drummer Bob D’Amico added another. — DY

Amyl and The Sniffers – Amyl and The Sniffers (ATO)
This Australian band’s debut full-length is a potent set of fierce garage-punk with slashing guitars and energetic rhythms accompanying Amy Taylor’s snarling vocals and often-biting, angst-fueled lyrics. — DY

Black Mountain – Destroyer (Jagjaguwar)
This LA-via-Vancouver, BC band’s fifth album was inspired by frontman Stephen McBean getting a driver’s license for the first time in 2017, while the album’s title pays tribute to the single-run 1985 Dodge Destroyer. Featuring a re-tooled lineup including Sleepy Sun’s Rachel Fannon on guitar and backing vocals, the album is an impressive set of psych-tinged hard rock with heavy guitar riffs, spacy keyboards, muscular rhythms and hypnotic song hooks. — DY

Dumb – Club Nites (Mint)
This Vancouver, BC band’s fourth album is a strong set of sardonic post-punk reminiscent at times of Parquet Courts, combining jagged guitar lines, driving rhythms, declamatory vocals and often-sarcastic lyrics aimed at various human follies surrounding club life. — DY

Youryoungbody – Devotion (self-released)
This Seattle duo’s debut full-length is an impressive set of dark electro-pop with spectral synths, propulsive, at times industrial-tinged rhythms, haunting vocals and mesmerizing song hooks. — DY

Brett Benton – You Got To Pray (Knick Knack)
This Seattle guitarist’s debut album is a potent set of Mississippi hill country blues with fiery guitar riffs, driving rhythms and hypnotic song hooks. — DY

J-E-T-S – ZOOSPA (Innovative Leisure)
The debut full-length from the LA-based duo of NC-bred producer Machinedrum (aka Travis Stewart) and Detroit-bred musician Jimmy Edgar is an inventive blend of hip hop and R&B with a variety of adventurous electronic beats. Special guests include Dawn Richard, Mykki Blanco, and Tkay Maidza. — DY

Middle Kids – New Songs For Old Problems EP (Domino)
This Australian band follows up their 2018 debut album with this solid six-song EP of anthemic, hook-filled pop-rock. — DY

Buddy & Julie Miller – Breakdown On 20th Ave. South (New West)
This Nashville couple’s first album together in ten years is a sharply crafted blend of brooding roots-rock, country, folk and blues, featuring a raw, often-spare sound combining a variety of acoustic and electric instrumentation with their soulful harmonies and Julie Miller’s evocative lyrics of love, illness and loss. — DY

Guitar Is Dead – Guitar Is Dead (Accretions)
The debut album from this New Orleans trio led by guitarist Tristan Gianola is an often-fierce blend of punk, hard rock and jazz, combining monster riffs and fiery guitar solos with pounding rhythms and occasional vocal rants. — DY

Damon Locks/Black Monument Ensemble – Where Future Unfolds (International Anthem)
This Chicago artist’s latest release is an ambitious album recorded at the live debut of his 15-piece Black Monument Ensemble at Garfield Park Botanical Conservatory in Chicago. It’s a heady, politically charged blend of adventurous jazz, gospel, hip hop and more. — DY

Willie Nelson – Ride Me Back Home (Legacy)
The latest album from the country legend is another solidly crafted latter-day release with a warm, soulful sound and a mix of new originals and covers. — DY

Esperanza Spalding – 12 Little Spells (Concord)
The 6th album from this critically-acclaimed NYC-based, PDX-raised artist is an evocative set of jazz, soul, and avant-pop that is cerebral, sensual, and adventurous, and continues to spotlight her prodigious multi-instrumentalist talents, shape-shifting, arrangement skills, and gorgeous acrobatic vocals. — AR

Gemma – Feeling's Not A Tempo (Double Double Whammy)
The second album from this New York duo comprised of Ava Luna vocalist/keyboardist Felicia Douglass and producer Erik Gundel is a solid set of bright electro-pop with glittering synths, propulsive beats, silky vocals and lyrics revolving around taking chances and letting go. — DY

Morabeza Tobacco – Morabeza Tobacco (Luminelle)
The debut album from this Swedish duo (comprised of Gustav and Vanilla) is a sweet set of dreamy, romantic, lo-fi synth-pop that carries a nostalgic, fuzzy, widescreen touch that nods towards the halcyon days of chillwave. Their charming dual vocals are heavily treated, sometimes to detrimental effect, but it's hard to resist their woozy, wobbly, groovy aesthetic. — AR

Erika de Casier – Essentials (Independent Jeep Music)
Quickly reminiscent of Sade and Aaliyah, the debut solo album from this Copenhagen-based vocalist and producer is a sultry set of romantic, atmospheric, 90s-steeped R&B. The album closes out with a sweet liquid drum'n'bass club remix of early single "Intimate" featuring co-production by DJ Sports and El Trick. — AR

Trudy and The Romance – Sandman (B3SCI)
This Liverpool trio’s debut album is a fine set of hazy, doo wop-tinged pop with an atmospheric, lushly textured sound featuring soaring harmonies and dreamy melodies. — DY

Dressy Bessy – Fast Faster Disaster (Yep Roc)
This Denver band’s seventh album is a solid set of hook-filled indie-pop with buzzing guitars, punchy rhythms, and buoyant melodies. — DY

Juan Wauters – Introducing Juan Pablo (Captured Tracks)
The fourth solo album (and second released this year) from the Uruguay-born, New York-based former frontman for The Beets is a solid set of psych-tinged folk-pop combining a lo-fi, acoustic-oriented sound with bilingual lyrics. — DY