New Music Reviews (7/1)

Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates (joines 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 Thom Yorke, Mal Blum, Cassius, and more.

Thom Yorke – ANIMA (XL) 
The Radiohead frontman’s third solo album is a fascinating set of dark electronic grooves with an often-unsettling sound combining eerie synths and twitchy, anxiety-inducing rhythms with uneasy lyrics exploring the unconscious while also reflecting our dystopian era. — DY

Mal Blum – Pity Boy (Don Giovanni) 
This New York-based artist’s sixth album is a potent set of emotive power pop with crunchy guitars, energetic rhythms, buoyant song hooks and personal lyrics revolving around non-binary identity, bad habits and resilience. — DY

Cassius – Dreems (Caroline International) 
This French duo’s fifth album is a strong set of buoyant house grooves and soulful downtempo with propulsive beats, bright synths and occasional guest vocals. Sadly, group member (and influential producer) Philippe Zdar accidentally fell to his death days before the album’s release. — DY

New Age Healers – Debris (self-released) 
This Seattle band’s third album is a strong set of shoegazer psych-rock with fuzzy, effects-laden guitars, dark lyrics and dreamy melodies. — DY

The Black Keys – “Let’s Rock” (Easy Eye Sound/Nonesuch) 
This Nashville-based duo’s ninth album (and first in five years) features a more streamlined sound than their past few releases, stripping it mostly back to just guitars, bass and drums while still maintaining a fair amount of stylistic diversity ranging from fiery garage-rock and funk-inflected blues-rock to atmospheric psych-pop and buoyant folk-rock. — DY

Baroness – Gold & Grey (Abraxan Hymns) 
This Philly-based band’s fifth full-length is a potent double album of prog-tinged hard-rock and metal with a dynamic, expansive sound ranging from pummeling metal and shoegazerish hard-rock to soaring post-punk, psych-tinged folk, atmospheric space-rock and more. — DY

Taina Asili – Resiliencia (self-released) 
This New York-based Puerto Rican artist’s third album is a well-crafted blend of cumbia, salsa, reggaeton, ska, traditional Puerto Rican music, rock and more, featuring often-politically charged songs shaped by personal stories of resilience from women. — DY

Summer Cannibals – Can't Tell Me No (Tiny Engines) 
This Portland band’s fourth album recasts the band’s garage-rock with a rawer, harder-edged sound along with equally hard-edged lyrics revolving around leaving a toxic relationship. — DY

Preservation Hall Jazz Band – A Tuba to Cuba (Sub Pop) 
The latest album from this long-running New Orleans band is a soundtrack to the new documentary of the same name, which is about the group’s recent travels to Cuba to retrace the influences of indigenous Cuban music on New Orleans jazz. It’s a soulful, rootsy blend of traditional Afro-Cuban music and New Orleans jazz recorded in a variety of formal and informal settings around Cuba. — DY

Fernando Viciconte – Traitors Table (Fluff & Gravy) 
This veteran Portland artist’s latest release is a diverse, well-crafted set ranging from brooding rock and sleek post-punk to bouncy psych-pop and wistful folk-pop with often-politically charged lyrics contrasting division and hate with love and empathy. — DY

Necking – Cut Your Teeth (Mint) 
This Vancouver, BC band’s debut album is a potent set of aggressive post-punk with a dynamic sound featuring fuzzy angular guitars, punchy rhythms and angst-fueled lyrics. — DY

Mega Bog – Dolphine (Paradise of Bachelors) 
The fifth album from this Seattle-based artist (aka Erin Elizabeth Birgy) is an adventurous set of prog-tinged psych-pop. Featuring accompaniment by members of Big Thief, Hand Habits and iji, the album combines a dreamy, occasionally unsettling shape-shifting sound with her often-surreal lyrics. — DY

Daughter of Swords – Dawnbreaker (Nonesuch) 
The debut solo album from this Durham, NC-based founding member of Mountain Man (aka Alexandra Sauser-Monnig) is an often-poignant set of spare, acoustic-oriented folk-pop combining fingerpicked guitar and atmospheric synths with her airy vocals and personal lyrics of a broken relationship. — DY

Girl Friday – Fashion Conman EP (Hardly Art) 
This LA band’s second EP is a strong 4-song set ranging from driving post-punk to grungy hard-rock, combining bright song hooks with sharply crafted, feminist-minded lyrics. — DY

Night Moves – Can You Really Find Me (Domino) 
This Minneapolis duo’s third album is a well-crafted blend of breezy psych-pop and plaintive folk-rock with shimmering keyboards, atmospheric guitars, smooth harmonies and buoyant melodies. — DY

Chris Staples – Holy Moly (Barsuk) 
This Seattle artist’s latest album is a fine set of hushed folk-pop combining a mostly spare sound with often-dark, sometimes hopeful lyrics about these troubled times. — DY

Kirin J Callinan – Return to Center (EMI Australia) 
This Australian artist’s latest release is a wide-ranging covers album of 1980s songs ranging from Public Image Ltd and Ultravox to The Waterboys and Momus. Try 2 (Momus), 3 (The Waterboys), 4 (Spectral Display), 7 (Public Image Ltd) & 10 (Ultravox). — DY

Denzel Curry – ZUU (Loma Vista Recordings) 
The latest album from this breakout rapper and former Raider Klan member from the Carol City neighborhood in Miami is a strong set of dynamic, uncompromising, hard-hitting hip-hop that pairs his fiery commanding flow over gritty, absorbing, bass-heavy beats that are largely handled by Australian production duo Finatik N Zac aka FnZ. Boasting a bombarding in-your-face sound that recalls 2 Live Crew, N.W.A., Clipse, and Run The Jewels, ZUU is Denzel's tribute to South Florida and provides a captivating glimpse into the region's energy and anxieties. — AR

Prettiest Eyes – Volume 3 (Castle Face) 
This LA band’s third album is a fine set of industrial-tinged post-punk with ominous buzzing synths, clanging guitars, relentless rhythms and stern vocals. — DY

Raveena – Lucid (Moonstone/EMPIRE) 
The debut full-length album from this rising NYC-based Indian-American vocalist is a gorgeous set of warm, organic, quiet storm R&B that marries her honeyed vocals with smooth, soulful backdrops dominated by rich instrumentation and airy tempos. — AR

Beak> – Life Goes On EP (INVADA) 
The latest EP from this British trio featuring Portishead’s Geoff Barrow is a fine set of experimental electro-prog grooves, combining often-motorik rhythms with unsettling textures. — DY

Carla Geneve – Carla Geneve (Dot Dash Recordings) 
The debut EP from this Australian musician hailing from the small Southwestern coastal town of Albany is a riveting set of evocative indie rock steeped in 90s' alt-rock touchstones. While her vivid lyrics sometimes recall fellow Aussie Courtney Barnett, her dynamic backdrops and expressive guitar touch upon grunge, slacker rock, and skeletal guitar-pop in impressive fashion. — AR

Lady Lykez – Muhammad Ali EP (Hyperdub) 
The second release (and Hyperdub debut) from North London MC Lady Lykez is a hard-hitting hybrid of high-energy dancehall, grime, and UK gqom that blends her commanding rapid-fire delivery over progressive club beats produced by Hyperdub’s Scratchclart (aka Scratcha DVA).— AR

Prometheus Brown – Tagsibol EP (Beatrock Music) 
The latest release from this Seattle artist (aka Geo, formerly of Blue Scholars) is a solid three-song EP of reflective hip hop combining laid-back beats with trenchant rhymes blending the political and the personal. — DY