The Playlist Archives: January 2018

I’ve been meaning to go into my playlist archives again for a while, and early January seems like a good time to do it. So: we’re skipping back half a decade, looking at what music I was listening to in January of 2018. It appears that it’s mostly 2017 albums that I discovered through year-end lists or otherwise missed the first time around, a lot of which is from bands I still enjoy regularly today. There’s a couple 2018 songs in here, and some archival picks (mostly 1992, it seems).

Lost Boy ?, Lilly Hiatt, Racquet Club, Friendship, WV White, and Mary Lynn all have two songs on this playlist. Mo Troper has three. The more things change…

Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify, Tidal, BNDCMPR (the latter two missing a couple songs). Be sure to check out previous playlist posts if you’ve enjoyed this one, or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

Rosy Overdrive’s 2023 will start soon.

“Paradise”, Alejandro Escovedo
From Gravity (1992, Watermelon)

We start things off with a heavy-feeling Alejandro Escovedo song–is there any other kind? Not from Gravity, at least (a record that has appeared in these playlists before). “Paradise” begins Escovedo’s 1992 debut solo album with a sparse acoustic guitar and “Did you get your invitation? / There’s gonna be a public hanging”. From there, the song rises and falls, a sweeping and worthy opening statement.

“The Underside of Power”, Algiers
From The Underside of Power (2017, Matador)

I came to The Underside of Power thanks to the acclaim it got at the end of the year, I’d imagine–and while in hindsight it doesn’t rank among my favorite records of 2017, the strongest tracks from the album (“Walk Like a Panther”, “Cry of the Martyrs”, and this one) are as good as anything else that came out that year. The title track especially is where Algiers’ post-punk and gospel congeal into something streamlined, sharp, and hard-hitting.

“Hollywood”, Lost Boy ?
From Canned (2015, PaperCup)

I stumbled onto Lost Boy ?’s Canned around this time, which I still think is a very fun pop rock album. Lost Boy ? is the project of New York’s Davey Jones, and it’s associated with Exploding in Sound band Baked somehow, though I don’t remember exactly how (Lost Boy ? themselves previously released an EP on EIS as well). Jones’ vocals are high and kind of cartoony, matching Canned’s album cover, and the music on “Hollywood” is fun, too–but in a more straight-up power pop way. 

“Dictator Out of Work”, Mo Troper
From Exposure & Response (2017)

Exposure & Response definitely stands up as one of my favorite records of 2017. It actually feels a little weird to listen to now, as Mo Troper’s current lo-fi, home-recorded fuzzy recent records are a world away from his clean, horn-laden era. Still, I think Exposure & Response is the best of the “buttoned-up and full of bile” Trooper period, and “Dictator Out of Work” goes down incredibly smoothly (impossible to not enjoy his delivery on “a hero on the campaign trai-AIL”).

“Trinity Lane”, Lilly Hiatt
From Trinity Lane (2017, New West)

Trinity Lane is just a solid country rock record through and through, and the title track still sounds really good to my ears. Lilly Hiatt’s tribute to the titular Nashville street is a hand-clap-heavy rock and roll tune that begins with Hiatt declaring “I get bored, so I wanna get drunk / I know how that goes, so I ain’t gonna touch it” and ends with her concluding “It’s workin’ all right for me”.

“dOn’t turn me Off”, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya feat. JD AKA ThrashKitten and Mal Devisa
From DROOL (2017, Sooper/Father/Daughter)

Like a lot of people, I think, DROOL was my first exposure to Chicago’s NNAMÏ, back when he was still going by his full name. Although he’s blown up a bit in recent years, Ogbonnaya already had his fingers in several genres by this point (see the math rock of 2013’s Despondent EP). Sure, compared to his more recent work, “dOn’t turn me Off” is a relatively barebones rap song, but that’s an asset here for NNAMDÏ and his guests (including an always-welcome Mal Devisa).

“The Bar Is Low”, Pissed Jeans
From Why Love Now (2017, Sub Pop)

Ooh, yes. This one’s on this playlist. “The Bar Is Low” is one of my favorite songs from 2017, and, in a bizarro world in which noise rock has Top 40 currency, a should’ve-been number one hit single. We don’t even necessarily need to get into the song’s subject matter to see why–it’s a two-parter, the first part getting by on a classic rock guitar riff and all the low end you can want, and then the cameras get really, uncomfortably up close to Pissed Jeans in the scorching second half. As for what the bar is, exactly….ah, just listen to it. It’s self-explanatory.

“Brickwall”, Fred Thomas
From Changer (2017, Polyvinyl)

Damn, some of my favorite songs ever are on this playlist. I don’t know if “Brickwall” is the best thing that Fred Thomas has ever written, but man, it’s gotta be up there. Using one of the most underrated setups in indie rock troubadour music (that’d be: electric guitar and vocals only), Thomas delivers some opening lines to remember before launching into a pop song that’s almost violent in its jaunty-music, dire-lyrics juxtaposition. The animals are right, Fred, there’s gotta be a better way.

“End of the World with You”, Calexico
From The Thread That Keeps Us (2018, Anti)

Alright, so now we get a couple of singles from then-upcoming 2018 records. I remember the full album disappointed me, but Calexico’s “End of the World with You” is still a nice, pleasant, big-sky folk rock tune that I don’t regret sticking on here. Does the song flirt with anonymity? Maybe, but some weird guitar work and the very excited-sounding James Turrell shout-out make this one stand out. 

“Turn Twice”, Trace Mountains
From A Partner to Lean On (2018, Figure 2)

The prevailing narrative (i.e., something I probably read in one album review ever) about Trace Mountains is that Dave Benton’s post-(and also during, yes) LVL UP project gained its footing with 2020’s Lost in the Country after the forgettable lo-fi A Partner to Lean On. Bullshit! This album is still the best one, and “Turn Twice” is still Benton’s best non-LVL UP song. And you know that I’m right, because “Turn Twice” isn’t even a song I’m pre-programmed to like. I definitely did not want anyone from LVL UP doing AutoTune-heavy synthpop, but this song is so well-done that it doesn’t even matter that it doesn’t sound like Return to Love.

“Funeral”, Mary Lynn
From My Animal (2016, Anyway)

I haven’t thought of this one in a while. Mary Lynn is(?) a Columbus band led by Mary Lynn Gloeckle (whose other band, This Is My Suitcase, apparently made an album last year, so she’s still making music), and their most recent record is 2016’s Anyway-released My Animal. “Funeral” is a piano-pop-rock tune that bounces along happily to the funeral in the chorus, which appears to be metaphorical and relationship-derived.

“Beating My Head Against a Wall”, Jeff Rosenstock
From POST- (2018, Polyvinyl/Quote Unquote)

Justice for POST-! Like a lot of people, I was initially underwhelmed by Jeff Rosenstock’s follow-up to WORRY.– and then I downloaded it and went somewhere with no reliable internet for three months, and came back loving it! At this point, I wasn’t there yet on the admittedly least-friendly of Rosenstock’s solo records, but I did like the effortless Rosenstockian pop punk charm of “Beating My Head Against a Wall” pretty much immediately.

“Skip to the Good Part”, Friendship
From Shock Out of Season (2017, Orindal)

Remember when I was talking earlier about how some of my favorite songs ever are in this playlist? Well, here we are. I must have discovered Friendship via this song during this month; they’re now quite solidly one of my favorite newer bands. And while last year’s Love the Stranger has plenty of contenders, I’d still have to choose “Skip to the Good Part” as my favorite Friendship song. It’s their “ambient country” era at its peak, with the drum machine and synths contrasting–no, not contrasting, fitting perfectly with Dan Wriggins’ vocals.

“Alt Shells”, Bethlehem Steel
From Party Naked Forever (2017, Exploding in Sound)

Yes, I still fuck with Party Naked Forever. I bought it on vinyl not too long ago (and no, not entirely due to Nicole Rifkin’s excellent artwork). Bethlehem Steel were still a three-piece band at this point, and opening track “Alt Shells” is a fairly straightforward and catchy 90s alt-rock/punk-influenced anthem that feels right at home on Exploding in Sound (who, if you haven’t noticed, figure pretty heavily into this playlist). I should revisit Bethlehem Steel’s 2019 sophomore album, which didn’t grab me at the time.

“Controlling the Sea”, Flotation Toy Warning
From The Machine That Made Us (2017, Talitres)

Oh, here’s a fun one. The Machine That Made Us was Flotation Toy Warning’s long-awaited sophomore record, coming over a decade after 2004’s Bluffer’s Guide to the Flight Deck. Long-awaited by other people, I mean–I only just discovered them through the newer album. Since I wasn’t really part of their cult following, I have no qualms about saying I like The Machine That Made Us a little better–their mobius-strip chamber pop that frequently stretches to seven-minute range is a really compelling sound, but “Controlling the Sea” gives the best of Flotation Toy Warning in a bite-size form.

“Drag Down”, WV White
From House of Spiritual Athletes (2017, Anyway)

Here’s another one I haven’t thought of in quite a while. WV White (they’re named after a butterfly, apparently) is a Columbus slacker rock/90s indie rock/lo-fi rock group that hasn’t released anything since 2017’s House of Spiritual Athletes, but this record holds up, especially “Drag Down”. It’s simple enough, based around one shambolic but catchy guitar riff and some mumbled but melodic vocals. Come back, WV White!

“The Poet Laureate of Neverland”, Mo Troper
From Exposure & Response (2017)

I had to double-check which Exposure & Response songs are on here, because I really could’ve chosen any of them (No “Your Brand”? Seriously, me?). “The Poet Laureate of Neverland” is a pretty inarguable pick. Not that this era of Mo Troper dealt much with “subtlety”, but this one’s a little less in-your-face than “Dictator Out of Work” (even as it falls squarely into the “withering character study” camp). At the very least, it’s restrained enough that the final “You’ve got the head of a politician / And a sloth’s ambition” chorus feels built-up-to.

“Last to Sleep”, Fazerdaze
From Morningside (2017, Flying Nun)

This is a good song off of a good record, simply put. Morningside is typically described as dream pop– “Last to Sleep” is certainly pop music, for sure, and it marries mid-tempo, lifting guitar chords with synths and a drum machine to kind of feel like what a modern Flying Nun release should be. Fazerdaze would go on to not release anything for five years, and I never even listened to last year’s Break! EP in full. Maybe I’ll do that.

“New Granada”, Racquet Club
From Racquet Club (2017, Rise)

Racquet Club is a band that features members of Knapsack, Samiam, and The Jealous sound, and their 2017 self-titled debut (and, to this date, only) record sounds approximately like what an “elder statesman” version of those bands’ sound would be. “New Granada” is a pretty good example of Racquet Club’s “restrained punk rock”, all tension-building power chords and prominent bass in the verses that eventually explode into a huge chorus.

“Marigold”, Lemuria
From Recreational Hate (2017, Asian Man/Turbo Worldwide/Big Scary Monsters)

I know Lemuria has some hardcore fans; I dunno too much about the Buffalo band, but I do like this song. I think Lemuria was one of those bands that were doing scrappy, lo-fi/90s indie rock-inspired music before it became the dominant strain of guitar music again the second half of the 2010s, so 2017’s Recreational Hate (to date, still their newest record) is, probably unintentionally, a victory lap album. “Marigold” is a fun multi-part hooky alt-rock track, jumping from mid-tempo banger into a faster, bigger finish.

“Nashville”, Indigo Girls
From Rites of Passage (1992, Sony)

The most recent Rosy Overdrive playlist has an Indigo Girls song on it, this one from five years ago has one–it’s comforting to see that one thing hasn’t changed in a half-decade. And why should it? “Nashville” is an excellent song in which Amy Ray goes in on the titular city both culturally and musically. It’s a gorgeous, full-sounding folk rock tune (harmonica, accordion, cello, and violin all make an appearance), and also, I like how she pronounces “human” weirdly (“Hu-mon”?) in “Nashville, you forgot the human race”. 

“Brick Body Complex”, Open Mike Eagle
From Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (2017, Mello Music Group)

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Brick Body Kids Still Daydream in full–I remembering enjoying in a consistent way that 2020’s Anime, Trauma, and Divorce didn’t quite hit–but “Brick Body Complex” still sounds great. Like most of the record, it’s based around Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes, in which Mike grew up. In classic Mike fashion, he announces “I’ve got something to bring to your attention” in the midst of a chorus placing himself among similarly-originating “ghetto superheroes”.

“Different, I Guess”, Lilly Hiatt
From Trinity Lane (2017, New West)

Coming after the roots rockers at the beginning of Trinity Lane, “Different, I Guess” is a second-half country ballad about a messy sort-of-relationship with a ton of hard-hitting lines. From the failed attempt at keeping distance and trying to “look tough” in the opening lyrics, to the gut-spilling in the chorus, to one blunt object after another (“I don’t think you’ll ever know how deep that I went”), it’s…a lot. In a good way.

“What a Time to Be Alive”, Superchunk
From What a Time to Be Alive (2018, Merge)

“What a Time to Be Alive” is the title track and lead single to the Superchunk Trump album. Okay, maybe it’s a little more than that, but there are plenty of lines that timestamp this song (albeit in a not too over-the-top way). It’s Superchunk, though, so it’s a very good pop punk song regardless of subject, featuring both a pogo-ing chorus and a secretly-just-as-good pre-chorus (“There’s a crooked line that runs….”). It’d be interesting to revisit What a Time to Be Alive as a whole once it stops being directly relevant, but it does not seem as if we’re there yet.

“If You See My Beloved”, Friendship
From Shock Out of Season (2017, Orindal)

Another one from Shock Out of Season, of course. I think songs from this album kept showing up on my playlists over the next few months (“Fuzzy” definitely did, and I think “Workhorse” too); I don’t know if “If You See My Beloved” is my second-favorite song after “Skip to the Good Part” or not, but it’s an excellent opening track and a solid choice. It’s even more electronics-based than “Skip to the Good Part”, built almost entirely off of its quite noticeable drum machine beat. And Wriggins is on point throughout, from communicating a conversation about Auguste Rodin to “Clouds come on, do their drifty thing”.

“Oh, What a Bummer”, Micah Schnabel
From Your New Norman Rockwell (2017, Last Chance)

Micah Schnabel is a one-of-a-kind figure in underground Ohio indie rock-cowpunk-alt-country-rock-folk-whatever. I was, geographically and demographically, primed for a Two Cow Garage phase, and I still have a lot of fondness for that band, as well as Your New Norman Rockwell, Schnabel’s 2017 solo album in which he, somehow, lays it all out there even more than he does with Two Cow. “Oh, What a Bummer” is a trip–it’s a very catchy folk rock song about, well, everything, containing both some very triumphant lines and some genuinely uncomfortable moments. 

“UFO”, Upper Wilds
From Guitar Module 2017 (2017, Thrill Jockey)

“Roy Sullivan” is my favorite Upper Wilds song (at the time, and probably still now); it must be on an earlier one of these playlists. “UFO”, though–this is a very good song, too. Probably tied with “Vampire Crane” for my second-favorite track on Guitar Module 2017, the debut record from Dan Friel’s post-Parts & Labor guitar band. Like Friel’s best songs, the instrumental squall of “UFO” is very tuneful, and Friel’s vocals in between the in-the-red fuzz-rock peaks are just as catchy.

“High Beams”, Trevor Sensor
From Andy Warhol’s Dream (2017, Jagjaguwar)

Haven’t thought about this one for about five years, either. Trevor Sensor is a Chicago-based singer-songwriter who was releasing folk rock on Jagjaguwar barely after turning twenty-one, and Andy Warhol’s Dream is aided by names and bands like Richard Swift, Whitney, and Foxygen. “High Beams” makes a good argument for Sensor sticking out among the retro 70s-folk-rock revivalist crowd: his voice is remarkable, as many have pointed out–and just as importantly, it’s not hidden beneath instrumentals and reverb like too many of his peers seem inclined to do.

“Two & Two”, Mary Lynn
From My Animal (2016, Anyway)

A second Mary Lynn song? Sure, why not. Like “Funeral”, here we have another piano-heavy pop-rock song, although in this one, the bouncing piano duets with some melodic lead guitar for pretty much the whole song. It doesn’t rock as much as “Space” (probably my favorite track from My Animal), but “Two & Two” is a very catchy mid-tempo tune that sticks out thanks to another ace vocal performance from Mary Lynn Gloeckle.

“Suck You Dry”, Mudhoney
From Piece of Cake (1992, Reprise)

“Pull yourself together, take a stab at forever,” indeed. Is this my favorite Mudhoney song? Piece of Cake surely doesn’t stand up against their earlier records as a whole, but “Suck You Dry” is such an excellent distillation of Mudhoney’s garage-punk into a two-and-a-half-minute single. And, considering how far it sounds from Nirvana (let alone from the other Seattle “big three”), it’s a good an example as any as to why “grunge” was never a purely musical signifier. This wasn’t gonna be a breakout hit in 1992. Imagine, though….

“Old Man”, Mo Troper
From Exposure & Response (2017)

We’ve reached the third and final Exposure & Response song on this playlist, and what a song it is. “Old Man” is tucked away near the end of a fifteen-song album, and this is where Mo Troper lets the record’s overall pristine, refined attitude slip a little bit. It’s still more polished than, say, anything off of MTV, but, reflectant of some pretty brutal lyrics, “Old Man” turns in a little bit darker, louder version of clean Mo Troper pop.

“Bank”, Lost Boy ?
From Canned (2015 PaperCup)

Oh, nice. This is a fun little song. Davey Jones starts “Bank” with some chugging acoustic guitar and his high vocals, and then it explodes into sunny power pop about a minute into the track. A sunny power pop song about robbing a bank, of course. I like the pop-punk bass that leads the music in the second verse here, that’s a nice touch. It’s such a cool-sounding song; it really does make me want to put on a ski mask and hang out in the Cadillac-ac-ac-ac.

“Broken Arm”, WV White
From House of Spiritual Athletes (2017, Anyway)

Here’s another WV White song; the fuzzy alt-rock of “Drag Down” is gone here, replaced by a sparse, echo-y, acoustic-plucked ballad in “Broken Arm”. It’s not as immediate as the other House of Spiritual Athletes track on the playlist, but it’s delicate and intimate and all the other things you get from the best of this kind of music, and it’ll grow on you. Also, this is a pretty Anyway Records-heavy playlist, isn’t it? 

“White Punks in Angst”, Milked
From Death on Mars (2017, Exploding in Sound)

I’ve always liked this Milked cassette from five years ago. Milked–that’s the project of Kelly Johnson, used to be in Geronimo! with Ben Grigg and Matt Schwerin, and is now in Big Big Bison with them. There was a second Milked record in 2018 that was also good, but Death on Mars is just a nonstop parade of hooky alt/punk-rock, and opening track “White Punks in Angst” is particularly massive-sounding.

“White Knuckles”, Racquet Club
From Racquet Club (2017, Rise)

Speaking of catchy alt/punk songs with “white” in the title–here’s another song from the Racquet Club album. Apparently “White Knuckles” is the closing track on Racquet Club, which I did not remember–these songs are all icebergs, big and chilly, and most of them work as a closing statement. “White Knuckles” in particular wields the choppy power chords, stoic vocals, and giant chorus well. 

“Ho Bitch”, Jenny Mae
From Don’t Wait Up for Me (1998, Anyway)

And we close the playlist off with a Jenny Mae piano ballad called “Ho Bitch”. Perfect. Jenny Mae Leffel had passed away a few months earlier–maybe this was the reason I was listening to more Anyway music than normal, I’m not sure. Leffel’s story is a bit too much to go into here (Anyway’s Bela Koe-Krompecher’s memoir, Love, Death & Photosynthesis, would be a place to start), but–I’ve heard both of her albums, and while there are other good songs in there, “Ho Bitch” is her best song. One of the most gentle-sounding songs with “bitch” in the title, to be sure.

New Playlist: December 2022

It’s the new year, yes, but that doesn’t mean that all the music from 2022 has expired like–I dunno, some kind of food that expires. Anyway, I spent December catching up on a bunch of records from last year that I missed the first time around, listening to some December releases, and exploring some older records (1997 this time around–stick around for the January playlist for more of those selections). I probably won’t start talking about 2023 releases until next week, but I’ve already got some picked out to cover–It’ll be cool!

Big Rig, Buddie, and Thousandaire get multiple songs on the playlist this time around.

Here is where you can listen to the playlist on various streaming services: Spotify, Tidal, BNDCMPR (the latter two missing a couple songs). Be sure to check out previous playlist posts if you’ve enjoyed this one, or visit the site directory. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

“Lucky”, Model Shop
From Love Interest (2022, Meritorio)

“Lucky” is one of these songs that I can try to describe, but–just listen to it. You’ll like it, especially if you’ve been following this blog already. Seattle’s Model Shop are a trio who just released their debut record on Meritorio, and, as one might expect from the label, it’s really sharp guitar pop. “Lucky” is a beast of a song–the chorus is gigantic, but the verses are sneakily the catchiest parts of the song, and the single most memorable moment might just be the quietly-uttered “I’ve been wasting so much time” in the instrumental break. Or maybe it’s the delivery of “You were first to admit there might be something else you wanted” (oof). Or the bouncing bass in the chorus. 

“Hit the Breaks”, PLOSIVS
From PLOSIVS (2022, Swami)

I figured I’d like the PLOSIVS album; I didn’t think it’d end up being one of my favorite things John Reis has ever done. The debut record from Reis’ new band with Rob Crow (Pinback), Atom Willard (Rocket from the Crypt), and Jordan Clark (Mrs. Magician) is ten songs’ worth of nonstop, catchy rock and roll that shows no signs of slowing down from the garage rock veterans. Opening track “Hit the Breaks” sets the scene nicely, cannonballing right into chugging alt-rock excellence.

“Bar Song”, Thousandaire
From Ideal Conditions (2022, Knife Hits)

I’ve done more than enough ranking of music over the past month, but: Thousandaire’s Ideal Conditions, I can say pretty confidently, was my favorite discovery of December. They’re an Atlanta-based three-piece group that pulls from everything I like about 90s indie rock. Songs like their shining achievement “Bar Song” hit it all: the casual, everyman feeling (The full title lyric is actually “That’s a hat you wear to the beach, not to a bar”), the adventurous but tuneful guitar play, and a killer hook. I’m trying to say that it sounds like a lost Silkworm song, which is a very good thing to make. 

“New Skin / Good Life”, fine.
From Love, Death, Dreams, and the Sleep Between (2022, Subjangle)

Whoa, what a record. Love, Death, Dreams and the Sleep Between is a massive album befitting of its title, a nineteen-song, hour-long late entry into the indie pop album of the year running. And yet, “New Skin / Good Life” still stands out as the best song on the Boston, England duo’s second album of 2022 (apparently they made a just-as-large record at the beginning of the year, which I haven’t heard yet). Liam James Marsh and Alice Kat know the power of the “I never meant any harm, I just wanted to leave” line, and they pull out all the stops to show it here.

“She Stopped Making Art”, Kate Ferencz
From You Will Love Again (2022, Magic Pictures)

Kate Ferencz has been making music for most of this century, but You Will Love Again is the first record of hers I’ve heard. It’s a weirdly captivating lo-fi pop album, and the clanging “She Stopped Making Art” is one of my favorite things I’ve found in late-stage 2022. A simple, fuzzy keyboard riff, some pots-and-pans percussion, and a thumping sound make up the bulk of the song, and Ferencz’s vocals are something else, delivering the title line and its follow-ups with a forceful casualness.

“Venus in Retrograde”, Big Rig
From Big Rig (2022, Peaceful Tapes)

“Venus in Retrograde” closes Big Rig with another excellent chorus from The Courtneys’ Jen Twynn Payne, a loose banjo-and-acoustic-guitar folk rock sensibility, and a few choice lyrics that have particularly stuck with me since I’ve heard them. Payne shrugs with “You always appear right when I open my eyes” as a way of introducing the situation, and the string of questions in the chorus is presented incredibly casually, but I’ve been there and I know better than that. Payne closes the song and the record with “Take your time, it’s fine / I’ll wait on the line”–she’s left in suspense, but we were already there, no?

“After Silver Leaves”, Smut
From How the Light Felt (2022, Bayonet)

Smut don’t really sound like how I’d think a band called Smut would sound, but that’s fine. The Chicago band deftly occupies the poppier end of dream-jangle-college pop rock; if you like The Sundays, for instance, you’ll like their newest record. The undeniable hooks of single “After Silver Leaves” make it the obvious highlight for me–it’s another song on this playlist that has a great chorus that’s outflanked in pure catchiness by its verses (“Feeling rebellious, feeling gigantic,” there’s a delivery).

“Indecision”, Buddie
From Transplant (2022, Crafted Sounds)

“Indecision” is the big finish at the end of the Transplant EP (did a four-song EP need a “big finish”? Perhaps not, but Buddie were not to be dissuaded), and it feels like a manifestation of the record’s title and the cross-continent move by lead singer Dan Forrest that preceded it. It’s a hurricane-rocker, taking the uncertainty at the center of the song and spinning it into a strong and firm declaration. “A deluge of relentless indecision / A fork in the road, nothing will be the same again,” Forrest and the band effectively roar at the song’s conclusion. Read more about Transplant here.

“Shame on You”, Indigo Girls
From The Shaming of the Sun (1997, Sony)

This song is just too undeniable to leave off this playlist. “Shame on You” opens The Shaming of the Sun with one of the most successful Indigo Girls songs to ever folk-rock–the three-chord track is built off of an electric guitar bed but still throws in all the acoustic, harmonica, and banjo accents you could want. And who’s Amy Ray casting shame upon here? Quite a bit of people, but most notably those in Georgia espousing anti-immigrant sentiment (so, yes, Amy Ray, shame on them indeed).

“It Will Never Stop”, Sparklehorse
(2022, Anti)

Man, Sparklehorse was so good. Those four records all sound like classics, still, and if you’ve ever explored their EPs and B-sides, you know a lot of good songs didn’t make it to those albums. The posthumously-released “It Will Never Stop” is very much in line with that–apparently it was discovered by late Sparklehorse leader Mark Linkous’ brother Matt while he was going through his archives, and while the sub-two-minute track could’ve just been an unfinished curiosity, that’s not what we get here. We get, in fact, a sharp fuzz-pop song that, if anything, was probably shelved by Linkous for being too straightforward and hooky.

“Your Doubt”, Lovewell
From Around the Flowers (2022, Clever Eagle)

New England’s Lovewell is a duo that’s been making music together since 2018, and their recent Around the Flowers cassette EP is their most substantial release yet. Early record highlight “Your Doubt” is a shiny and punchy example of Lovewell’s shoegaze-y, emo-ish indie rock sound, given an edge from Mark Palladino and Joe Bradshaw’s hardcore backgrounds. Both musically and vocally, “Your Doubt” is incredibly hooky and is more substantial than merely being the product of playing around with some effects pedals. Read more about Around the Flowers here.

“Meaningless”, Jon Brion
From Meaningless (2001, Straight to Cut-Out/Jealous Butcher)

The title track to Meaningless is not one of the songs I remember loving when I first found this record, but upon listening to Jealous Butcher’s reissue of Jon Brion’s sole “pop” solo album, it’s one of the standouts (perhaps the standout). In classic Jon Brion fashion, it balances the simple and the complex (the main/intro part is just two chords; the rest of the song contains…a lot more than that) and the song’s subject (the places and things that were “meaningless” before a since-ended relationship gave them meaning) is, yes, a good enough one to take the album title. Is Brion saying that the previously-“meaningless” things are now meaningless again as the relationship is in the past tense? Or, perhaps more accurately, that he merely wishes they were meaningless again?

“Born Yesterday”, Gladie
From Don’t Know What You’re in Until You’re Out (2022, Plum)

Gladie is the post-Cayetana project of Philadelphia’s Augusta Koch, and their second record (following 2020’s lo-fi debut Safe Sins and a few EPs) is maybe the point where I stop referring to Gladie as just “August Koch’s post-Cayetana band”. For starters, Don’t Know What You’re in Until You’re Out really does sound like a band–listen to album highlight “Born Yesterday”, a ripper where Koch matches the recently-solidified Gladie line-up’s full-sounding alt-rock with a tough-sounding vocal that holds its own in the music.

“Carolina”, Adeem the Artist
From White Trash Revelry (2022, Four Quarters/Thirty Tigers)

White Trash Revelry appears to be something of a breakout record for country singer-songwriter Adeem the Artist, and listening to songs like “Carolina”, it’s not hard to hear why. Adeem’s latest album is a heavy one thematically–they write about growing up queer in the American South holistically, in a way beyond your modern soap-drama-type deal, and I recommend listening to the full thing. “Carolina” is a perfect album opener–restrained musically, anything but lyrically, as Adeem effectively paints their origin story in three minutes.

“Another Realm”, Houseghost
From Another Realm (2022, Rad Girlfriend)

Another Ohio band? You bet! Dayton’s Houseghost are a “spooky” pop punk band whose latest album (December’s Another Realm) is probably the most fun record I’ve ever heard that starts with a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “Funeral Home”. The closing and title track is my favorite cut from it, with brother-and-sister duo Nick and Kayla Hamby singing that chant-along chorus over top of Tyler Beaty’s steady drumming.

“Ladders”, Galore
From Blush (2022, Paisley Shirt/Safe Suburban Home)

San Francisco’s Galore are a ramshackle jangle pop group that evoke Flying Nun Records with their lo-fi, catchy indie pop songs. Their five-song Blush EP is a bit more laid-back than their 2020 self-titled debut, but the sharp songwriting is still there, especially on “Ladders”. The biggest pure pop success on Blush, it’s a mid-tempo, jangly tune with a vintage, hooky college rock refrain that Galore nevertheless use sparingly. Read more about Blush here.

“No”, Moon Pics
From Memoria (2022, Midsummer Madness)

The Memoria EP (at eight songs and twenty-nine minutes, it could be an album if it wanted to be, but “EP” is the Bandcamp description) came out in January, but I only just now came across this solid cassette from Brasilia’s Moon Pics. It’s a record of warmly-familiar-sounding lo-fi, dreamy indie rock–there’s fuzz and reverb, but Adriano Caiado’s vocals are too clear for it to be straight shoegaze. And that’s a good thing, too–“No” features a soaring melody that I’d hate to have to strain to hear.

“Universe”, Thanks for Coming
From You Haven’t Missed Much (2022, Danger Collective)

You Haven’t Missed Much (which made my Best Reissues and Compilations of 2022 list) is a cassette overview of the last decade of Rachel Brown’s work as Thanks for Coming, a discography spanning sixty-something-odd releases. “Universe” was, like a lot of the tape, new to me (it appears it’s originally from 2018’s Back at It Again EP), and it’s quickly become one of my favorite Thanks for Coming songs. It’s a short track, but none of Brown’s brief lyrics are wasted, from the “I’ll believe you when you tell me it’s just a simulation” setup to the “I won’t believe you when you tell me we’re not real” conclusion.

“Cry Alone”, Abi Ooze
From Forestdale Sessions (2022, Rotten Apple)

Shout out to the Post-Trash year-end list for putting this one in front of me. Abi Ooze is a garage punk artist and/or band out of Hammond, Indiana (nice), and neither they nor the label that put out the Forestdale Sessions EP (St. Louis’ Rotten Apple) appear to have any kind of social media presence (also nice). Opening track “Cry Alone” is as catchy and loud as it is a bummer lyrically, with its loose but spirited interpretation of classic punk rock contrasting with Abi’s adventures with the titular activity.

“Crying in a Corn Maze”, Big Rig
From Big Rig (2022, Peaceful Tapes)

While awaiting the third record from Vancouver’s The Courtneys, the trio’s Jen Twynn Payne (vocals/drums) quietly recorded a solo tape earlier this year as Big Rig. And I do mean quietly–I was big on the last Courtneys album, but I didn’t discover Big Rig until about six months after its release. A seven-song, twenty-minute, cassette release screams “low stakes”, but it’s very good, and “Crying in a Corn Maze” in particular excels at melting the Velvets/Flying Nun guitar pop sound of Payne’s main band with a folk/country feel (banjo is excellently provided by Geoffo Reith).

“Dancing to Dance Music”, Waving
From If and When I Fall (2022, Klepto Phase)

There’s something about this brief four-song, ten-minute EP from Toledo’s Waving that caught my attention earlier this month. In particular, opening track “Dancing to Dance Music” is the one that stuck with me; it’s probably the biggest-sounding song on If and When I Fall, a two-minute pop punk bummer tune that raises the stakes several times over its length while nevertheless keeping things relatively straightforward. By the time we get to the end of the song, where Jacob Scott declares “We don’t dance to dance music / All we ever do is cry,” and then starts shredding their vocals, it feels earned.

“The War at Home”, Racetrack featuring Sean Nelson
From Go Ahead and Say It (2006)

Okay, so Racetrack were a 2000s-era Bellingham trio that released one album and one EP and then broke up. Bassist Chris Rasmussen plays in [b r a c k e t s] now, drummer Jackson Long has been with BOAT for a while, and I’m not sure if vocalist/guitarist Meghan Kessinger is doing anything musically. “The War at Home” is, according to Rasmussen, his “attempt to rip off [Silkworm’s] ‘Cotton Girl’”, and I’m not sure if I hear it, but the end product is an excellent 90s-indebted indie rock tune. Oh, also, yes, that’s Harvey Danger’s Sean Nelson singing here too–his “Ba ba da da da”s are more than welcome up against Kessinger in the chorus.

“I Never Really Knew”, Gloop
From Maze Maker (2022)

Baltimore’s Gloop dropped the Maze Maker EP (their second of 2022) in late December, and the four-song release stakes out a position in the world of blues-damaged noise punk pretty much from the get-go with opening track “I Never Really Knew”. The song giddily deploys a Stones-y riff and an insistent drumbeat for Dominic Gianninoto to howl over gamely–fans of the distorted Americana brand of noise rock (from Beefheart to Butthole Surfers to The Grifters) will find a lot to like here. Read more about Maze Maker here.

“Esopus”, Field Guides
(2022)

“Esopus” is a one-off single from Brooklyn dreamy jangle pop project Field Guides, coming a few months after their Whatever’s Clever-released full length Ginkgo. It’s a brief track, not even breaking the two-minute mark, but it establishes itself as a remarkable piece of guitar pop all the same. The synth touches give it as much of a 1980s sheen as Benedict Kupstas’ vocals and lyrics do (his delivery of “At the botanical garden, I was telling you / All the names that I knew” is, in particular, a New Romantic gesture hidden in a lo-fi jangle pop tune).

“Faces”, The Fours
From Shaking and Moving (2022)

The Fours are a Columbus, Ohio-based lo-fi indie rock group, and their latest album, Shaking and Moving, is a worthy entry into the wide world of Buckeye State guitar pop. If bands like Connections, Smug Brothers, and, yes, Guided by Voices are your thing, you’ll find plenty to enjoy in this record, especially “Faces”. This album highlight has a 90s slacker rock, lightly crunchy feel with an effortless, Tobin Sprout-ish simple but effective melody, making its mark in two and a half minutes.

“Soap Disco”, Kara’s Flowers
From The Fourth World (1997, Reprise)

Lmao, sorry for putting a song by the proto-Maroon 5 band on this playlist. But it’d be dishonest if I didn’t; “Soap Disco” has been playing in my head almost non-stop since I first heard it. In several senses, it’s not a particularly “good” song–the lyrics, for instance, are absolute nonsense (“The children had the time / To overthrow the slime / The super-children said they could see…”), but these California teeangers basically stumbled onto a song that does everything you’d want a 90s power pop/alt-rock single to do. It’s two-point-five minutes of all business and hooks. Now, stay tuned for my twenty-year retrospective look at Songs About Jane….

“Buttercup”, Angel Apricot
From The Pink Sunset Over You (2022, Apricot)

The latest record from Toronto’s Angel Apricot is everything one could want in a “bedroom pop” album–The Pink Sunset Over You’s thirteen songs are all subtly beautiful, slow-moving lo-fi indie rock tunes. The chorus to “Buttercup” puts it slightly above the rest of the record for me–Angel still sings it relatively quietly, but they inject the performance with a front-and-center energy, and the keyboards and floating guitar leads make the song feel wide open despite the relatively humble setup. 

“Blind Contour”, Signals Midwest
From Dent (2022, Lauren)

Cleveland’s Signals Midwest have been at it for a while, I think, but Dent is the first full-length of theirs I’ve heard front-to-back (although I did enjoy vocalist/guitarist Max Stern’s EP with Gordon Phillips from late 2021). There’s something about the frantic punk rock of opening track “Blind Contour” that’s stuck with me; the whole album is good, a nice J. Robbins-produced gruff-side-of-pop-punk specimen, but the band really nail the best of the genre in under two minutes with this one.

“Generic America”, Blue Mountain
From Home Grown (1997, Roadrunner)

Blue Mountain’s third album, 1997’s Home Grown, is not the front-to-back success that 1995’s Dog Days was, but it does include “Generic America”, one of their best tracks hands-down. The lyric is a well-worn topic for both country and rock and roll (the two genres of which Blue Mountain found themselves squarely in the middle); “I’m a rambler, I don’t fit in your bullshit modern, empty society”, that kind of sentiment. But it’s a tractor-trailer truck of an instrumental, with everything from the “sharper than it needs to be” drumbeat to the “90s southern rock” guitar heroics kicking it up a notch.

“Toward Fire”, Jon the Movie
From The Holy Parking Lot (2023, Jon)

Jon the Movie (Long Island’s Jon Gusman) released the A Glimpse That Made Sense EP at the beginning of last year, and it found the hardcore frontman exploring a “prog-punk” sound that incorporated everything from Dream Theater to Smashing Pumpkins to Guided by Voices in addition to his history with hardcore punk. Jon the Movie’s debut full-length record, The Holy Parking Lot, is coming in late January, and judging by lead single “Toward Fire”, Gusman is still exploring this axis, throwing together a pleasing combination of shout-along vocals, blistering guitar work, and some “parse this!” lyrics.

“Chupacabras”, Super Furry Animals
From Radiator (1997, Creation)

I finally got around to listening to Super Furry Animals last month via Radiator; I don’t really have much of a strong opinion on it. As I expected, I liked it more than the average Britpop record (that genre’s excess leaves me cold more often than not), but it hasn’t stuck with me, really–other than this dumb one-minute song about the chupacabra. I don’t know why Gruff Rhys is yelling “soy super bien” over and over in the chorus, I don’t know why he calls the chupacabra a “bat”, and I don’t know why this weird unhinged pop punk song is so catchy.

“New Roman Gods”, Tuxis Giant
From In Heaven (2022, Candlepin)

The six-song In Heaven EP is a subtle but vital highlight among Candlepin Records’ large 2022 discography. Boston’s Tuxis Giant make a gorgeous version of folk rock that contains shades of slowcore and 90s indie rock, although EP highlight “New Roman Gods” is one of the record’s more upbeat songs. Matt O’Connor’s delicate vocals holds their own against what’s effectively a country-rock instrumental (and if the instrumental isn’t enough, “Sometimes love is a trick you gotta pull on yourself” is a great country lyric, too).

“SWAG”, Christine Fellows
From Stuff We All Get (2022, Vivat Virtute)

Another underappreciated singer-songwriter who quietly released a full album towards the end of the year, Christine Fellows has given us something that I’m still digesting with Stuff We All Get. The record’s standout track to me so far is the oddly-titled “SWAG” (it’s an acronym for the record’s title, yes, I get that), a song that reads like it’s built from Internet detritus (“Give us feedback, send a screenshot / Colon bracket, take a 10-minute survey”) in a way that reminds me of a dizzier, less defeated version of John K. Samson’s “Select All Delete”. The closing lines and its demands (patience, grace, peace, space, kindness…) are the key here.

“No Good”, Thousandaire
From Ideal Conditions (2022, Knife Hits)

“No Good” opens up Ideal Conditions a bit more subtly than the (relatively) in-one’s-face “Bar Song”, but it’s just as effective in its own way. Since I’ve already started the Silkworm comparison, let’s keep it going–the way “No Good” rolls in with a steady drumbeat and building guitar reminds me of how SKWM started It’ll Be Cool with the six-minute ‘“Don’t Look Back”. “No Good” isn’t quite that large in scale, but it does quite a bit in three-minutes–Thousandaire certainly catch fire over the course of the track.

“Human Kind”, Straw Man Army
From SOS (2022, La Vida Es Un Mus)

SOS is the sophomore album from New York’s Straw Man Army, and it’s really just a solid front-to-back record of punk-peeking-into-post-punk. Album highlight “Human Kind” stews in a pleasing way, much like the rest of the record, with a prominent bassline guiding along a minimal but effective instrumental and spoken word, serious-guy vocals. And the song revs itself up just enough times over its two minutes, too.

“If I Think of Love”, OP8
From Slush (1997, Thirsty Ear)

Tucson’s OP8 (terrible band name, by the way–I just got that) was basically a desert rock supergroup: it was made up of Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb, Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino, and, in something of a geographical outlier, Lisa Germano. “If I Think of Love” (incorrectly labeled as “Sand” on streaming services) was written and sung by Germano, and it’s the clear standout from the one record the band made together, 1997’s Slush. It’s a weird but beautiful alt-country/folk ballad, with stabs of violin and cello balanced by Germano’s even vocals.

“Joined in the Sky”, Hankshaw
From Nothing Personal (1997, NS/New Granada)

Ah, damn, major suicide/self-harm content warnings for this song. But I don’t want to leave out good music just because it makes me a bit uncomfortable to write about, and Nothing Personal is a very good 90s emo record. Apparently Hankshaw came out of Tampa, Florida, and their 1997 debut record got re-released last year through New Granada, but I only just now discovered them. Harold Hasselback’s high vocals are the most striking part of Nothing Personal, as others have pointed out–but the rest of Hankshaw are important in putting together this clean, catchy emo-pop-punk sound that’s very accessible even when Hasselback is painting as dire of a picture as he is in “Joined in the Sky”.

“I’m Insane”, Dinosaur Jr.
From Hand It Over (1997, Blanco y Negro/Reprise/Cherry Red)

I’m fairly certain that Hand It Over was the last Dinosaur Jr. album I hadn’t listened to in full yet–unsurprisingly, I wasn’t in a hurry to get to what’s effectively a J. Mascis solo album, and one without the recognizable radio hits of their other 90s records. As a whole, the album is…just fine, with the exception of “I’m Insane”, which is probably the weirdest Dinosaur Jr. single. The trumpet (played by Donna Gauger) blaring over top of the whole song is such an odd choice–I’m not going to say “it works” in an unqualified sense, but it doesn’t take away from a sharp alt-rock song that sounds kind of Frankensteined together in a good way.

“Jay”, Hobby
From Nombre Parfait (2022, Hidden Bay)

Like their 90s “slacker rock” forebearers a few decades ago, Paris’ Hobby condense post-punk, The Velvet Underground, and friendly but offbeat New Zealand and C86 guitar pop into something barebones and familiar, but inspired. The six-song Nombre Parfait EP is full of pleasing guitar pop anthems, with the triumphant, full-sounding opening track “Jay” being chief among them. Read more about Nombre Parfait here.

“I Was a Stranger”, Smog
From Red Apple Falls (1997, Drag City)

I’ve wanted to put Smog songs on a couple of these playlists, but they’ve always ended up on the cutting room floor. So, thanks to things slowing down a bit in December, we can enjoy “I Was a Stranger”, the highlight of Bill Callahan’s 1997 record Red Apple Falls. I still prefer Knock Knock, but I see why so many people rank this one as Callahan’s best album, and there’s something special about listening to “I Was a Stranger” and hearing him walking from lo-fi striver to elder statesmen folk singer and ending up with just a nice country song while in between.

“Broken Limbs”, Alayne May
From Strange Beings (2022)

I found Strange Beings from a list of everything Seth Engel (Options) worked on in 2022–he drummed on, co-produced, and mixed this record. Chicago’s Alayne May doesn’t make the chilly emo of Engel’s main project, exactly–their debut full-length record (also featuring, among others, Nick Levine of Jodi) is full of casual but well-written folk/country tunes. “Broken Limbs” is particularly memorable to me–the first line of the refrain (“It hurt when the limb I went out on broke…”) continues to stick with me, in both substance and in May’s delivery.

“Sunday Morning”, Buddie
From Transplant (2022, Crafted Sounds)

The Transplant EP is the latest release by Buddie since bandleader Dan Forrest moved from Philadelphia to Vancouver, and “Sunday Morning” opens the four-song record triumphantly. It continues Buddie’s fuzzy and poppy sound that evokes the softer, more melodic side of 90s indie rock, and “Sunday Morning” in particular is a delicate but hefty track with a sleepy, not-yet-awake-enough-to-deal-with-dystopia feel. Read more about Transplant here.

Rosy Overdrive’s Favorite Reissues and Compilations of 2022

Today, we’re closing out both Rosy Overdrive’s Year-End List season and 2022 as a whole with my favorite reissues and compilations from this year. As this list encompasses a fairly wide range of releases, it is unranked, unlike my Top Albums and Top EPs lists.

Here are links to stream this list on various services: Spotify, Tidal. To read about much more music beyond what’s on this list, check out the site directory, and if you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here. Thank you for reading, and see you in 2023.

Balkans – Balkans

Release date: April 8th
Record label: Double Phantom
Genre: Garage rock, garage punk
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

2011’s Balkans was the only full-length ever made by the Atlanta group–singer/guitarist Frankie Broyles went on to play with both Monomania-era Deerhunter and Omni after their dissolution, and there are elements of Deerhunter’s retro pop rock side and Omni’s kinetic spaghetti guitar riffs on this record. Unlike either of those bands, though, Balkans presented it all in a straightforward garage rock package. The record offers up plenty of pleasing fastballs with tracks like “I Can’t Compete” and “Zebra Print”, but it also goes off-the-wall, as album closer “Violent Girls” demonstrates. The reissue comes with four bonus tracks, which are inessential but enjoyable–more importantly, they don’t take anything away from the original record, which still sounds incredibly fresh. (Read more)

Jon Brion – Meaningless

Release date: October 21st
Record label: Jealous Butcher
Genre: Power pop, singer-songwriter, pop rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Like a lot of power pop fans, I’ve long regarded the sole solo album by Jon Brion (of The Grays, countless soundtrack scores, and notable production work for Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann, among others) to be a neglected and unfairly obscure gem of a record. Jealous Butcher’s vinyl reissue (well, issue, as it’s only ever been released on CD before) of Meaningless feels twenty years overdue, but the good news is these songs haven’t lost any power at all in the meantime. Songs like “I Believe She’s Lying” and “Ruin My Day” are pop standards, as far as I’m concerned–they (and Meaningless as a whole) wield a potent combination of incredibly catchy melodies, odd but perfectly-chosen musical choices reflecting Brion’s production work, and a lyrical bite that the record’s prettiness only serves to sharpen.

The Cat’s Miaow – Songs ‘94-’98

Release date: July 15th
Record label: World of Echo
Genre: Indie pop, twee
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The Cat’s Miaow were an indie pop quartet that came from Melbourne, Australia and released a steady stream of cassettes, EPs, and 7”s throughout most of the 1990s (coincidentally, the first record from the four members’ post-Cat’s Miaow band, Hydroplane, was also reissued this year). July’s Songs ‘94-’98 collection is made up of selections from the compilation appearances and singles that comprised the majority of the band’s output during this titular period. The resultant record is thirty-five minutes and eighteen songs’ worth of light, airy, twee indie pop that drifts along breezily and dreamily but not without offering up memorable melodies in the midst of crafting this feeling. Songs like the hypnotic “Hollow Inside” and snappy “Note on the Table” are the more typical pop songs, but the brief numbers like “Crying” also make their mark.

TJ Douglas – Lo 2.0

Release date: June 10th
Record label: Beach Plum Tapes
Genre: Indie folk
Formats: Cassette, digital

TJ Douglas’ Lo was initially self-released as a digital-only album in March 2020, and ran seventeen songs and nearly an hour long. Deciding that these songs were worthy of a wider release, Douglas chose ten of them (plus one new song) to re-release on cassette as Lo 2.0 with Beach Plum Tapes, and the result is an intimate-sounding but varied collection of indie rock and folk songwriting. Douglas wrote Lo while attending a seminary, training to become a hospital chaplain, and they view those songs as particularly confessional. Douglas’ lyrics, which frequently reference their faith and struggles with sobriety, are serviced well by this collection of music–although, to be clear, one doesn’t need to be grappling with either of those subjects to get something out of Lo 2.0. (Read more)

The Dream Syndicate – What Can I Say? No Regrets…Out of the Grey + Live, Demos, & Outtakes

Release date: January 14th
Record label: Fire
Genre: Alternative rock, psychedelic rock, Paisley Underground
Formats: CD, digital

Originally released in 1986, Out of the Grey was the first Dream Syndicate record not to feature key members Kendra Smith and Karl Precoda. While the band’s earlier albums split the difference between dreamy psychedelia and speedy desert rock and roll, Out of the Grey zeroes in on the latter, and finds a wide range within it to explore. The “rockers” no longer sound hurried and frantic; on the converse, The Dream Syndicate come off like a band with all the time in the world. On the heels of a long-overdue vinyl reissue of the original record last year, Fire Records has produced two discs’ worth of previously-unreleased bonus material to enhance the CD release of What Can I Say? No Regrets….; the 1985 live set that comprises the second CD in particular is a highlight of the extra tracks. (Read more)

Feeble Little Horse – Modern Tourism / Hayday

Release date: March 11th / October 25th 
Record label: Crafted Sounds / Saddle Creek / Unstable
Genre: Shoegaze, noise pop
Formats: Cassette, digital (Modern Tourism) / Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital (Hayday)

2021 was the year of the Feeble Little Horse; the band released both their debut EP and debut full-length that year, and as the Pittsburgh four-piece group have only grown in stature, both of them have seen reissues over the course of 2022. In March, Crafted Sounds put together an expanded cassette version of their Modern Tourism EP, which is a casual record of rough-around-the-edges lo-fi pop rock songs that the band recorded before vocalist Lydia Slocum joined the band. Slocum’s voice is just one of the many differences in the noisier and busier Hayday, which has been given a physical release by the band’s new home of Saddle Creek (co-released with Feeble Little Horse’s own label, Unstable). Even though the Clone High sample is now gone from highlight “Kennedy”, Hayday remains a compelling noise pop album that’s only grown on me. (Read more about Modern Tourism)

Go Sailor – Go Sailor

Release date: June 10th
Record label: Slumberland
Genre: Twee, indie pop, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Rose Melberg has long been known to me as one-third of Tiger Trap, whose sole self-titled album is my favorite twee record (and, hell, one of my favorite records, period), and is probably almost equally well-known to the world as half of The Softies. Those two groups would be enough for most musicians, but as fans of Melberg know, they’re just the tip of the iceberg–which Slumberland’s recent reissue of the Go Sailor compilation reminds us. The trio of Melberg, Paul Curran (Crimpshine), and Amy Linton (The Aislers Set) only lasted for three singles and a few compilation tracks–putting them all together, as this compilation does, reveals a fourteen-song record of sharp pop songs that is touched with jangly melancholy but injected with a spirited energy from Curran’s bass and Linton’s drumming. The vinyl is already sold out, but according to Slumberland, it will be available again next month.

Guided by Voices – Scalping the Guru

Release date: October 28th
Record label: GBV, Inc.
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital

Of the two “re-imagined” records made up of previously-released recordings that Robert Pollard put together this year, Guided by Voices’ Scalping the Guru is the crowd-pleaser. Comprised of lesser-known songs pulled from the band’s “classic era”, combining 1993-1994-era GBV EPs into a full-length creates something inarguably weirder than any of their records from that period, in a fascinating way. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of “hits” here, including “Big School” from the previously-unavailable-digitally Static Airplane Jive (and the inclusion of the six songs from this EP justifies Scalping the Guru on its own). But the record as a whole feels slapdash and off-the-cuff–which, considering this was a time when Pollard could toss off something like “Indian Fables” in forty seconds, this isn’t a problem at all. 

Heavenly – Heavenly Vs. Satan

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Skep Wax
Genre: Twee, indie pop, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl

Skep Wax (the label founded by Heavenly’s Amelia Fletcher and Robert Pursey) is planning to reissue all four Heavenly LPs on vinyl over the next two years, and it began with their re-pressing of 1991’s Heavenly Vs. Satan, thirty years and change from its initial release on Sarah. Although Heavenly Vs. Satan would eventually be released in the United States on K Records, and Calvin Johnson would sing on one of the band’s later releases, Heavenly always fell more on the “stately” side of twee music than their American counterparts’ ramshackle nature. The band’s steady rhythm section and bright, frequently arpeggiated guitar playing already made up a firm foundation, even as their punk influences subtly but notably poke out on a few of these tracks. (Read more)

Krill – Alam No Hris

Release date: November 18th
Record label: Sipsman/Sren
Genre: Garage rock, lo-fi indie rock, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Krill’s 2012 debut record, Alam No Hris, is rougher-around-the-edges than their most popular record, 2013’s Lucky Leaves–to say nothing of how it compares to their stretched-out, refined 2015 swan song A Distant Fist Unclenching. Although Krill would half-heartedly attempt to tame their sound over the years, the best parts are already present in Alam No Hris–punchy, jerky post-punk-y garage rock unleashed along with the unmistakable vocals of Jonah Furman. Furman offers plenty of classic Krill lyrical moments throughout Alam No Hris, as well–his muttering of “When did we wear a baseball cap?” in “Piranha Girl” keeps sticking with me, and “Self-Hate Will Be the Death of Youth Culture” is the ad nauseam mantra Krill song of the record.

The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau – What If It Works?

Release date: March 25th
Record label: Omnivore
Genre: Power pop, psych pop
Formats: CD, digital

After reissuing the entire Game Theory catalog, Omnivore’s next Scott Miller-related release is a bit more off the beaten path, but 2006’s What If It Works? is anything but a minor work for both Miller and his co-conspirator Anton Barbeau. Coming some time after The Loud Family ceased being a full-time band, Miller and Barbeau made a casual record together comprised of a few spirited covers, reliably sturdy pop songs from the dependable Barbeau, and some of Miller’s most straightforward pop songwriting since the early days of Game Theory. Their opening version of “Rocks Off” is probably one of the most fun recordings I’ve heard, well, ever, “Total Mass Destruction” is as good a bummer pop song as Miller ever wrote, and the record’s two “bonus tracks” (Barbeau’s bonkers “I’ve Been Craving Lately” and Miller’s six-minute trip “Don’t Bother Me While I’m Living Forever”) pull out new tricks.

Mal Devisa – Kiid

Release date: January 26th
Record label: Topshelf
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, alt-R&B
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette digital

Deja Carr has been releasing music independently as Mal Devisa fairly consistently for the past few years–her mix of lo-fi indie rock with rap and R&B has flown somewhat under the radar, but she has a following, which will hopefully only grow after signing to Topshelf Records this year. Topshelf digitally distributed some of Carr’s back catalog, and also released one of her most beloved records, 2016’s Kiid, physically. Kiid remains a compelling album-length look at a singular talent several years later. Carr’s indie rock balladry is on full display on the album–songs like “Fire”, “Sea of Limbs”, “Forget That I”, and “Live Again” grab one’s attention using little more than Carr’s voice and minimal guitar playing–and on the flipside, Carr just as deftly turns out noisier fare like “Fat” and “Dominatrix”, which pull from both punk rock and hip-hop.

Massage – Oh Boy

Release date: March 11th
Record label: Mt. St. Mtn.
Genre: Jangle pop, post-punk, college rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Originally released in 2018 and recently re-pressed by Mt.St.Mtn., Oh Boy (and, by extension, the band Massage itself) is the product of a group of musically-inclined acquaintances congealing into an actual band, and it sounds like it. The Los Angeles five-piece group come off as excited about their ideas, how they’re going to present them, and who they’re presenting them with throughout their debut full-length. The upbeat songs sound like lost college rock singles, even as they’re shot through with Massage’s “rainy day” side—and conversely, there’s a clarity in the slower songs that works to bridge the gap. Oh Boy is probably the Massage record that is least interested in deliberately cultivating a single mood throughout, but they were already doing it. (Read more)

Ovens – Ovens

Release date: December 2nd
Record label: Tankcrimes
Genre: Power pop, psych pop, alt-rock, lo-fi indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

San Francisco’s Tony Molina has made a name for himself with a solo discography full of fuzzy power pop and psych pop in extremely short, digestible servings. Effectively every alley that Molina would eventually wander down in his solo records he began exploring in his previous band, Ovens, as this self-titled record (originally released on CD in 2009) demonstrates over 44 songs and an hour’s worth of strong guitar pop. Ovens has two main modes that they meld together eagerly on their only release: loud and fuzzy alt-rock  that evokes Weezer and Dinosaur Jr. with its triumphant guitar heroics, and an enthusiastic, jaunty acoustic pop sound that reminds me of early Of Montreal. More than an interesting early artifact, there are more than enough gems on Ovens to make this as key a part of Molina’s oeuvre as anything he’s released since. (Read more)

Pere Ubu – Nuke the Whales 2006-2014

Release date: April 1st
Record label: Fire
Genre: Post-punk, art punk, experimental rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Nuke the Whales 2006-2014 is the fifth in Fire Recordings’ series of box sets compiling the vital work of Cleveland’s Pere Ubu, an anthology that has provided hours of proof that the band has a lot more to offer than a handful of early punk rock-era “hits”. The material on Nuke the Whales covers an era of Pere Ubu that had never been my favorite, but I’m happy to report that this remixed and remastered reissue makes an excellent case for these four albums. The warped garage rock of 2006’s Why I LUV Women and the hard-hitting, percussive experimental rock of 2014’s Carnival of Souls are the immediate highlights (well, about as “immediate” as this kind of music can be), and 2013’s The Lady from Shanghai now strikes me as hypnotic and transfixing in a way that it hadn’t in its initial form. Aside from perhaps 2009’s Long Live Père Ubu, one doesn’t have to be a hardcore fan to appreciate these records–anyone who’s been intrigued and subsequently disappointed by a new buzz band that’s “transforming rock music” will find what they’re looking for here. (Read more)

Robert Pollard – Our Gaze

Release date: May 24th
Record label: GBV, Inc.
Genre: Power pop, experimental rock, 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Our Gaze is a compilation of selections from two frequently-overlooked Robert Pollard solo records, 2007’s Standard Gargoyle Decisions and Coast to Coast Carpet of Love. On the one hand, both of those albums are good enough to stand on their own, and culling the “best” from both of them leaves out many worthy songs (“Slow Hamilton”, anyone?). But I have to judge Our Gaze as the reissue that it is, rather than the one I’d prefer it to be–and by that metric, it’s an incredibly strong record. Most of Coast to Coast Carpet of Love’s strongest pop songs are here (“Miles Under the Skin”, “Rud Fins”, “Current Desperation (Angels Speak of Nothing)”), and the songs pulled from Standard Gargoyle Decisions, always seen as one of Pollard’s more “difficult” solo albums, shine especially in this new context: multi-part prog-garage tracks like “Pill Gone Girl”, “Hero Blows the Revolution”, and “Folded Claws” feel like early runs at what the current lineup of Guided by Voices has been doing lately.

The Sonora Pine – II 

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Husky Pants/Touch & Go
Genre: Slowcore, 90s indie rock, post-rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The Sonora Pine originated in 1995 from half of Louisville post-rock group Rodan’s final lineup, but singer/guitarist Tara Jane O’Neil and drummer Kevin Coultras (along with violinist Samara Lubelski) veered hard away from the occasionally scorching post-hardcore side of their previous band and instead probed the empty spaces in between. This especially held true on their second and final record, which has been remastered and re-pressed by Touch & Go (whose imprint Quarterstick initially released it) and Husky Pants Records for its twenty-fifth anniversary. O’Neil had already amassed an incredible discography, but her guitar playing on II feels like a defining moment–these songs stretch themselves out confidently, rising and falling while her guitar and Lubelski’s violin twist around each other. (Read more)

T54 – Drone Attacks

Release date: September 30th
Record label: Ally
Genre: Noise pop, shoegaze, fuzz rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Christchurch, New Zealand’s Joe Sampson is best-known to me as a member of the Salad Boys (along with, at various points, Brian Feary and James Sullivan from Jim Nothing, and Ben Woods). Before that group, however, he led the loud shoegaze/noise pop trio T54, whose 2011 EP Drone Attacks has recently been given an expanded and remastered reissue from Ally Records. The bonus material contained in the new version of Drone Attacks turns a six-song, 25-minute EP into twenty tracks and over an hour in length. The original songs, from the massive pop hooks of “Julie K” to the crunchy, speedy “CR Model”, still thunder satisfyingly, and among the extra material, the live-in-studio recordings show that T54 could still make just as much noise in real time.

Tall Dwarfs – Unravelled: 1981-2002

Release date: August 19th
Record label: Merge
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, experimental rock, indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

While part of me wishes Unravelled: 1981-2002 was comprehensive, the rest of me knows how unfeasible that is with the amount of material the Tall Dwarfs released over their twenty year career, and it’s hard to find fault with the breadth of the 55-song, 2.5 hour compilation. One can poke their head into any part of Unravelled: 1981-2002 and find lo-fi pop gems from the incomparable New Zealand duo: as it’s chronological, all of my favorite “classic” Tall Dwarfs songs show up early on (“Nothing’s Going to Happen”, “Crush”, “All My Hollowness to You”), but perhaps an even neater trick that the compilation pulls is diving into the lesser-discussed later years of the band and coming out with some brilliant songs that I’d heard maybe once before, if ever, and never properly appreciated (“Time to Wait”, “Gluey, Gluey”, “Room to Breathe”).

Marvin Tate’s D-Settlement – Marvin Tate’s D-Settlement

Release date: November 4th
Record label: American Dreams
Genre: Funk, R&B, experimental rock, soul
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Chicago poet, artist, and singer-songwriter Marvin Tate was the bandleader of The D-Settlement, a massive group that adorned Tate’s writing with everything from funk and rock to soul and reggae over three records, all the while remaining in relative obscurity. American Dreams Records has taken up the task of making their discography available to a wider audience–an endeavor that feels overdue by reputation alone, and only backed up by the music contained therein. The barebones but still adventurous Partly Cloudy, the full-band realization of The Minstrel Show, and the stretched-out, jammy swan song American Icons are all strong records in their own right, and taken as a whole, make a strong case for The D-Settlement as underground music champions. (Read more)

Thanks for Coming – You Haven’t Missed Much

Release date: December 16th
Record label: Danger Collective
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, bedroom pop, singer-songwriter, indie folk
Formats: Cassette, digital

Rachel Brown is most famous as half of Brooklyn weird pop duo Water from Your Eyes, but over the past decade, they’ve also amassed a huge solo discography under the name Thanks for Coming. There are about eighty Thanks for Coming releases on Brown’s Bandcamp page, so compiling an album’s length of them on a single “best-of” cassette, as Brown and Danger Collective have done with You Haven’t Missed Much, seems like a great way to introduce one’s self into this particular world. The songs on You Haven’t Missed Much range from demos recorded by Brown solo to more fleshed-out tunes featuring contributions from Lily Konigsberg, Mike Kolb, and their Water from Your Eyes bandmate Nate Amos, but all fourteen of them display Brown’s talents as a songwriter and lyricist (even though my personal favorite Thanks for Coming song, “Directions”, isn’t included).

The Trypes – Music for Neighbors

Release date: March 18th
Record label: Pravda
Genre: Folk rock, psychedelia
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

The Trypes’ Music for Neighbors hits both subcategories of this particular list, as it’s a reissue of a compilation. Hailing from Haledon, New Jersey, The Trypes are forever linked to their hometown’s most famous export, The Feelies–a band with whom The Trypes shared several members. The original Music for Neighbors came out in 2012, and collected the entirety of their mid-1980s studio recordings. The Trypes pushed their loosely college/folk rock-based sound to psychedelic and exploratory extremes, as everything from the six-minute “(From the) Morning Glories” to the weird minimalism of “Belmont Girl Is Mad at Me” to two blissed-out Beatles covers demonstrates. Pravda Records’ reissue adds plenty of CD and digital-only bonus tracks, including two brand-new Trypes songs which feel right at home here.

Various – Big, Big Wave

Release date: April 25th
Record label: Feral Kid
Genre: Garage punk, hardcore punk, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital

I love a good various-artist, all-original-tunes compilation, and Feral Kid Records has served up a great one with Big, Big Wave, a survey of Hattiesburg, Mississippi’s surprisingly (or, perhaps not so, given the Magnolia State’s rich music history) fertile garage rock and punk scene. Biff Bifaro, John Angelo, and John Toohill, blown away by a host of Hattiesburg bands on previous tour stops, recorded this entire seventeen-song compilation over the course of one evening, and there’s more than enough here to show why they were inspired to do so. Judy and the Jerks, the most famous band on the compilation, are well-represented with two wild animal-themed punk tunes, but Big, Big Wave also offers up everything from fuzzy southern garage punk (“J Bird”, Ded Jewels) to 80s new wave (“Shield”, Control Room”) to lumbering blues rock (“Golden Zeppelin”, Stellatone).

Wire – Not About to Die (Studio Demos 1977-1978)

Release date: June 24th
Record label: Pinkflag
Genre: Post-punk, art punk
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

As Wire seem to get slightly more comfortable with looking back a little bit on their past, 2022 saw the formal release of Not About to Die (Studio Demos 1977-1978), a widely-bootlegged collection of early Wire recordings that serves as a wonderful companion to (and, perhaps, in its own way, equal of) the band’s first three records. The first half of Not About to Die in particular is Wire as a curious punk band, bashing out songs that would either mutate on later recordings or become forgotten–songs like “Oh No Not So (Save the Bullet)” and “Love Ain’t Polite” are brief shots of poppy punk that feature a lot of Pink Flag’s touchstones yet feel like a different path than the one the band eventually went down. Not About to Die is, as a record of demos, stripped-down throughout, but signs of the massive leaps Wire were about to take in a short amount of time were already there; discography cornerstones like “Being Sucked in Again” and “I Should Have Known Better” are already present, basically in their final shapes.

Also notable:

Pressing Concerns: Samuel S.C., Galore, Gloop, Hobby

Come one, come all, to this: the final Pressing Concerns of 2022. Counting this post, I’ve written about 218 albums and EPs over the course of this year alone—and that’s not counting the many albums and EPs that weren’t formally reviewed but made appearances on the site’s respective year-end lists. I’m proud of that. This final edition features a compilation of recordings from the initial run of 90s indie rock group Samuel S.C. (then known as Samuel), as well as new EPs from Galore, Gloop, and Hobby.

If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

Samuel S.C. – 94-95

Release date: November 3rd (digital)/February 17th (vinyl)
Record label: ORG
Genre: 90s indie rock, indie punk, emo
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Sideways Looker

In the mid-90s, Samuel emerged from State College, Pennsylvania and released three EPs and singles (including a split release with Texas Is the Reason) on labels like Art Monk Construction, City of Romance, and Simba–and then that was it. At least until earlier this year, when Samuel announced a reunion as a four-piece (minus original member Josh Deutsch), a new, more searchable name in Samuel S.C., and an all-new record slated for next February. The new one, High Places, is set to be released alongside a vinyl reissue of the seven songs from Samuel’s original run, the digital version of which came out last month.

94-95 collects the brief but worthwhile Samuel 90s recordings, and makes a good argument for the band (which includes Rosy Overdrive favorite James Marinelli on guitar and backing vocals) receiving more attention in the context of 90s indie rock. If Samuel didn’t get the attention of some of the bigger independent bands of the 1990s, it could be because of (well, aside from the obvious fact that they never made a full album) their straddling of three or four different lanes. The Samuel of these songs falls somewhere between the punk-er side of Merge- and Matador-based critical-darling indie rock groups and the rockier side of Jade Tree Records emo bands, and lead vocalist Vanessa Downing’s confident, scorching singing gives them feet in the Dischord Records and Kill Rock Stars camps as well.

“Sideways Looker” is pop songwriting run through an emo-punk filter with its chiming lead guitar, the anthemic “Empty & Then Some” features some nice dueling vocals from Downing and Marinelli–and both are just as loud and amp-cranked as the rest of the record. 94-95 doesn’t take its foot off the gas, resulting in an album that has the energy of an early Superchunk or Sleater-Kinney album. Those are lofty reference points, to be sure, but merely being able to make this comparison feels like proof that Samuel S.C. and ORG Music were justified in unearthing these songs. (Bandcamp link)

Galore – Blush

Release date: December 16th
Record label: Safe Suburban Home/Paisley Shirt
Genre: Jangle pop, indie pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Ladders

San Francisco’s Galore debuted in 2020 with a self-titled debut album that put the band on the scrappy, ramshackle side of jangle pop, evoking Flying Nun Records with their lo-fi, catchy indie pop songs. The five-song Blush cassette EP, co-released by Paisley Shirt Records (Flowertown, Red Pants) in the U.S. and Safe Suburban Home (R.E. Seraphin, Teenage Tom Petties) in the U.K., is their first new music since Galore, and it finds the quartet making music that’s no less catchy, if a bit more laid-back, than their last record. There’s a haziness to the songs in Blush–the occasional murkiness of the recording style contrasts with the bright melodies and shades of synths and strings that pop up throughout the EP’s five tracks.

Blush begins with “New Living”, an excellent piece of guitar pop that feels dreamy while still being sharp in its rhythm section. The biggest pure pop success on the EP comes right in the middle with “Ladders”, a mid-tempo, jangly tune with a vintage, hooky college rock refrain that Galore nevertheless use sparingly. The second half of Blush is a bit less accessible, comprised of the dramatic, violin-aided “Fire” and the reverb-y noise pop closing track “Second Moon”. “Less accessible” is relative here–“Fire” still features jangly guitars and some nice melodies, and there’s a pop song hidden beneath the business of “Second Moon”. Blush tries on some new clothes and retains the best of its core sound–what more could you want from a five-song jangle pop EP? (Bandcamp link)

Gloop – Maze Maker

Release date: December 22nd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Noise rock, post-punk, punk blues
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: I Never Really Knew

Gloop are a trio of Baltimore weirdos who have been putting out a steady stream of noise rock EPs and albums since around 2017. Late December’s Maze Maker cassette EP is their second release of 2022, following August’s Television Fire. Their latest offering is only four songs, but the band (Max Detrich, Dominic Gianninoto, and Blake Douglas, the latter of which has since left the group) stake out a position in the world of blues-damaged noise punk pretty much from the EP’s get-go. Gloop cite names like Jon Spencer and Captain Beefheart as inspiration for Maze Maker, and these songs join a long and storied lineage of bands distorting Americana and rock and roll into dark, captivating areas (The Jesus Lizard, Butthole Surfers, U.S. Maple, The Grifters).

Maze Maker comes out firing on all cylinders with opening track “I Never Really Knew”, which giddily deploys a Stones-y riff and an insistent drumbeat for Gianninoto to howl over gamely. The pleasingly distorted, twitchy “Rubber” and the mostly-spoken word sprint of “Canned Meat” are similarly lean pieces of deep-fried noise rock, filling out the midsection of the EP until we get to “Drunk & Undead”, Maze Maker’s big finish. The closing track stretches out to four and a half minutes, with Gloop lumbering across a slowed-down but still splintered blues rock instrumental before things start to fall apart (in a good way) towards the end. If Maze Maker ends up being the final 2022 release I cover on Pressing Concerns in terms of release date, we certainly didn’t go out with a whimper. (Bandcamp link)

Hobby – Nombre Parfait

Release date: December 16th
Record label: Hidden Bay
Genre: 90s indie rock, jangle pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Jay

Nombre Parfait is the third record from Paris’ Hobby, following a self-titled EP that came out in December 2020 and a split release with pre-Hobby group Deaf Parade the year before. The six-song Nombre Parfait cassette finds the band, now a quartet, putting forth a catchy, compelling version of 90s-inspired indie rock, reminding me of a scruffier, more “slacker rock”-indebted version of fellow Parisian college rock revivalists EggS. Like their forebearers a few decades ago, Hobby condense post-punk, The Velvet Underground, and friendly but offbeat New Zealand and C86 guitar pop into something barebones and familiar, but inspired.

Nombre Parfait is still a well-constructed EP, “slacker” sheen aside–it’s full of pleasing guitar pop anthems. The band (vocalist/guitarist/songwriters Volkan Ergen and Manolo Freitas, bassist Matin Mahieu, and drummer Florentin Convert) open the record with the triumphant, full-sounding “Jay”, and breezier tracks like “Life Hack” and “Safety Rules” are catchy both in terms of vocal melody and in guitar play. Hobby switch from English to French lyrics throughout Nombre Parfait; the majority of songs are in the former, although the (relatively) melancholic “Au bord du réel” is a second-half highlight. Nombre Parfait is the work of a band with a clear knack for making energetic, complete, and fun guitar pop. (Bandcamp link) 

Also notable:

Pressing Concerns: Ovens, Heavy Mother, Smug Brothers, Gabriel Bernini

It’s mid-December, but I’ve still got new music to talk about in Pressing Concerns! Well, one of these is technically old music–today looks at a reissue from Tony Molina’s old band, Ovens, as well as new albums from Heavy Mother and Gabriel Bernini and a new EP from Smug Brothers. Rosy Overdrive’s Top 25 EPs of 2022 went up earlier this week, and the rest of the year will feature the reissue/compilation list (probably after Christmas) and one final edition of Pressing Concerns (probably early next week).

If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here (one fun thing that’s happened since I last wrote one of these is I’ve gotten laid off from my job, just in time for the holidays, so….)..

Ovens – Ovens (Vinyl Reissue)

Release date: December 2nd
Record label: Tankcrimes
Genre: Power pop, psych pop, alt-rock, lo-fi indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: Punch You in the Face

Ovens is the birthplace of Tony Molina. Although I haven’t gotten around to covering the singer-songwriter’s solo career yet on Rosy Overdrive, he certainly fits right in around here: his discography is full of fuzzy power pop and psych pop in extremely short, digestible servings. Effectively every alley that Molina would eventually wander down in his solo records is present on Ovens–which I guess is not that surprising, as the self-titled Ovens album (originally released on CD in 2009) offers up 44 songs and an hour’s worth of strong guitar pop. More than an interesting early artifact, there are more than enough gems on Ovens to make this as key a part of Molina’s oeuvre as anything the Northern California musician has released since.

Ovens has two main modes that they meld together eagerly on their only release: loud and fuzzy power pop/alt-rock that evokes Weezer and Dinosaur Jr. with its triumphant guitar heroics, and an enthusiastic, jaunty acoustic pop sound that reminds me of early Of Montreal. With as many songs as Ovens contains, it’s a bit difficult to highlight every one that falls into either category, but tracks like “Same Shit Different Day”, “Punch You in the Face”, and “Everything’s the Same” kick up 90s alt-rock and grunge in their pursuit of heavy power pop, and the acoustic psych pop of songs like “Castillejo Scene” and “Song for Friends” show off Ovens’ Elephant Six side.

Not every song on Ovens falls cleanly into one of those categories, however–Molina and crew set the stage early on in “Fired from the Vogue Pt. 2”, where the song’s acoustic skeleton is doodled over with showy, over-the-top guitar soloing. As Ovens flies by, songs like “Lame Song #224” and “Waste of Time” also can’t commit to either quiet or loud, as well–there’s simply too much for Ovens to do, and only an hour and forty-four songs to get it done. (Bandcamp link)

Heavy Mother – This Time Around

Release date: December 16th
Record label: Feel It
Genre: Garage rock, proto-punk, garage punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: I Know There’s No Answer

The latest (and final release from 2022) from Feel It Records is a scorching garage rock/proto-punk-inspired album straight out of Bloomington, Indiana. The four-piece band Heavy Mother is led by a real rock and roll veteran in Eddie Flowers, most notable for fronting 1970s Indiana punk group The Gizmos–in Heavy Mother, he’s backed by some newer faces, including a couple members of Bloomington Feel It staple The Cowboys (and, of, all things, a former member of Circuit Des Yeux–I guess the Bloomington scene is probably pretty small). Heavy Mother describe themselves as simply a rock and roll band, and their debut record, This Time Around, does anything but disappoint in this front.  

Heavy Mother rip through fifteen tracks of pure garage rock that include standards like “Leavin’ Here” (originally written by Holland/Dozier/Holland and made famous by Motörhead) and “Louie Louie”–but This Time Around’s originals hold their own against the likes of these. Songs like opening track “I Know There’s No Answer” and “Eenie Meenie” feel ageless and incredibly energetic throughout. Even on the slower songs, This Time Around is amp-cranked to remind you of your favorite 70s Midwestern pre-punk fuzz rock group–at least, when they aren’t offering up the very much not timeless “Dicks in Space!”, a brief tune about everyone’s favorite billionaires taking a joyride out of this planet. It’s certainly not the best song on the album, but it’s in the spirit of This Time Around–fun and off-the-cuff. (Bandcamp link)

Smug Brothers – Emerald Lemonade

Release date: December 9th
Record label: Gas Daddy Go
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, power pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Pablo Icarus

Smug Brothers are not exactly indie rock superstars, but the Ohio four-piece band contains plenty to recommend for a certain lo-fi-devoted subset of the genre. Led by prolific singer/songwriter/guitarist Kyle Melton and also featuring onetime Guided by Voices drummer Don Thrasher and Columbus scene stalwart Kyle Sowash, Smug Brothers make the kind of bite-size, Robert Pollard-esque irreverent guitar pop that one might expect from their pedigree. Their latest record, the Emerald Lemonade cassette EP, highlights both the weird and the accessible side of Melton’s songwriting–there’s no shortage of melodies here, but, at seven songs and thirteen minutes, there’s plenty of “blink and you’ll miss it” moments as well.

Emerald Lemonade offers up multiple sides to Smug Brothers early on–the first three songs contain the crystal-clear guitar pop of “Midnight Tomorrow”, the busy, murky noise-pop of “Later Is Quad”, and opening track “Pablo Icarus”, which splits the difference with a charming melody delivered with a full-band sharpness. The second half of Emerald Lemonade particularly ups the skewed pop quotient, with a couple of one-minute tunes that are certainly catchy but don’t hold one’s hand in showing it (“Winter Swimmers”, “Aardvark Fusion”). Although the EP certainly has a lo-fi feel, it’s not minimalist–synths and jangly guitar leads populate these songs in a chaotic but catchy way, much like the rest of Emerald Lemonade’s ingredients. (Bandcamp link)

Gabriel Bernini – Up on a Hill

Release date: December 2nd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Folk rock, piano rock, singer-songwriter
Formats: Digital
Pull Track: Up on a Hill

Gabriel Bernini has been a prolific folk rocker the last few years, making records both in his home state of Massachusetts and his current location of Los Angeles; Up on a Hill follows 2021’s You Got Me by about a year and a month. His newest album is still recognizably Bernini, with his relaxed vocals leading a stripped-down version of a sound that evokes 1970s singer-songwriter records, although one noticeable difference that Up on a Hill brings is that Bernini has moved to the piano for more of these tracks than his previous fare.

Bernini is adept enough at piano-first songwriting to try on a few different styles on Up on a Hill; he still writes bouncy, jaunty, poppy folk songs like “Hooked on Emotion”, “Love to Be Loved”, and “Man with No Head”, for one. The record has a couple of ballads, too—Bernini doesn’t overuse this mode, but these songs mark both the center (“Falling Again”) and end (“Harmony”) of Up on a Hill. Not everything is completely piano-centric, however; it has a presence but is merely one player in songs like “On Your Dial” and “To Know You”, and the title track is built off of a simple but pleasing guitar riff. All eleven of these songs end up falling well within Bernini’s folk rock wheelhouse, but the different touches help fill out Up on a Hill. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:


Rosy Overdrive’s Top 25 EPs of 2022

You’re probably still making your way through Rosy Overdrive’s to Top 100 Albums of 2022, I know–but there were plenty of good EPs to come out this year, as well! Just like last year, I’ve put together a shorter but still substantial list of my twenty-five favorites for you all to check out. The EP is already an under-the-radar format, and most of these picks feel like they’ve been pretty under-discussed–I’m happy with this list, and I know you’ll find something new to you and very good here.

Here are links to the EPs on this list that are on streaming services: Spotify, Tidal. Look for a Best Compilations/Reissues of 2022 list and at least one more Pressing Concerns before the year’s out. To read about much more music beyond what’s on this list, check out the site directory, and if you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here. Thank you for reading.

25. JUMBO – World As Bad Idea

Release date: July 1st
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Indie pop, lo-fi indie rock
Formats: Digital

Bristol’s JUMBO is the latest project from duo Joe Sherrin and Kane Eagle (of SLONK, Milo’s Planes, and RADIATOR); their latest release sounds bigger than the work of two people, however. World As Bad Idea is made up of five songs of big, sincere, and accessible pop rock that isn’t dumbed down in any way, either. The EP opens with the maximalist seven-minute, horn-laden title track which reminds me a bit of Hallelujah the Hills and other driven, stuck-out-of-time indie rock groups–and the rest of the EP packs no less of a punch in its “normal” song lengths.

24. Big Big Bison – Big Big Bison

Release date: August 12th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: 90s indie rock/alt-rock, fuzz rock
Formats: Digital

Chicago’s Big Big Bison is the trio of Matt Schwerin, Ben Grigg, and Kelly Johnson, who used to all play in a band called Geronimo!. Since then, Grigg has kept busy with Whelpwisher and Babe Report, and Johnson has the underrated Milked, and now they’re all together in a new band with a rock-solid six-song EP to their name. Songs like “Minor Fame” and “Native Sparrows” are loud but catchy alt-rock/power pop, sitting alongside the noise-punk “Blank Communication”, the pounding “Bruiser”, and the seven-minute Louisville-style post-rock closing track “Walking Tour”.

23. Ecstatic International – Ecstatic International

Release date: October 14th
Record label: Sister Polygon
Genre: Post-punk, dance punk
Formats: Cassette, digital

Ecstatic International is a new Washington D.C.-based post-punk supergroup comprised of G.L. Jaguar (Ex-Priests), Laura Harris (Ex Hex), Anno (Olivia Neutron-John), Jacky Cougar Abok (Des Demonas), and Nikhil Rao (Bottled Up). The band’s self-titled debut EP delves into the same strain of groovy but smart post-punk music that Priests were exploring before their breakup; its five songs are all sleek, polished, brim-filled dance-punk tracks. Unemotional spoken-word vocals, bubbling Wire-esque synths, and occasional moments of 80s new wave melody all variously color Ecstatic International. (Read more)

22. Aluminum – Windowpane

Release date: October 7th
Record label: Dandy Boy/Discontinuous Innovation
Genre: Noise pop, shoegaze, experimental rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The debut EP from San Francisco’s Aluminum is a compelling listen, finding the four-piece band hitting the ground running with a potent sound that pulls from dream pop, shoegaze, and psychedelia. Windowpane’s opening title track is a recognizable piece of Stereolab-esque noise pop in its steady, motorik tempo and the dual vocals of Marc Leyda and Ryann Gonsalves, and its “tuneful wall of sound” feel is rivaled by “Red & Gold” and “Solar” as well.

21. Fuvk – Goodnight, Moon

Release date: November 18th
Record label: Z Tapes
Genre: Indie folk, bedroom pop, lo-fi folk
Formats: Cassette, digital

Austin’s Shirley Zhu has been reliably, consistently putting out quality indie folk through Z Tapes for several years now, but there’s something about November’s Goodnight, Moon EP in particular that caught my attention. Zhu’s second cassette of 2022 is a six-song collection that features several Fuvk hallmarks–sparse but beautiful acoustic guitar picking accompanied by Zhu’s straightforward but still quite emotional vocals and journal-entry lyrics. Goodnight, Moon follows Zhu through long trains of thought, occasionally poking her head out into the world to become demoralized at a first date or resolving not to wait for someone she knows won’t show.

20. Glazer – Civilian Whiplash

Release date: July 26th
Record label: State Champion
Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, noise rock
Formats: Cassette, digital

The latest release from New Jersey’s Glazer is a six-song cassette EP on their longtime home of State Champion Records (Noun, Snakeskin) that delivers a brief but welcome dose of their heavy but frequently hooky fuzz rock. In a mere fifteen minutes, Civilian Whiplash bursts through blaring, dirty garage punk (“Fan of Violence”, “Excited Delirium”), anthemic, big-chorus alt-rock (“Channel Master”), stomping post-punk (“There’s No Lake”), and the surprisingly rootsy closing track. 

19. Party’z – Party’z

Release date: January 14th
Record label: Storm Chasers Ltd.
Genre: Fuzz rock, noise pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Party’z is the project of Kittyhawk guitarist/vocalist Mark Jaeschke, and it’s rounded out by bassist Clare Teeling (also of Kittyhawk), keyboardist Delia Hornik, and drummer Andy Hendricks. Very little of Kittyhawk’s Midwest emo sound is apparent in Party’z’s four-song debut EP–it’s a record of amp-cranked, fuzzy power pop. These songs are plugged-in and frequently reverb-fests; it sounds much closer to Times New Viking than any fourth-wave emo group. Still, there are four strong, earnest pop songs underneath the feedback. (Read more)

18. Supercrush – Melody Maker

Release date: June 3rd
Record label: Debt Offensive/Flake/Erste Theke Tonträger
Genre: Power pop, alt-rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital

On Supercrush’s latest EP, the Seattle group come off as totally devoted to fuzzy, power-chord-friendly 90s-style power pop. Being power pop scholars is all well and good, but Melody Maker works because it’s a product of enthusiastic believers—Supercrush’s strengths lie less in academically recreating or trying to create some kind of perfect lab mix of these sounds, and more in just letting their faith in these songs speak for itself. And Melody Maker‘s five songs songs are, first and foremost, catchy as hell–from the withering, Matthew Sweet-ish title track to the towering, “Hoover Dam”-esque closing statement of “Helium High”. (Read more)

17. The Sylvia Platters – Youth Without Virtue

Release date: June 24th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Power pop, jangle pop, noise pop
Formats: Cassette, digital

Youth Without Virtue is the first I’ve heard from British Columbia’s The Sylvia Platters, but they appear to have been around since 2015 at least. Judging from the five songs on their latest EP, however, they’re right up my alley—these tracks are expertly-written Teenage Fanclub-esque power/jangle pop touched (but never overwhelmed) by a bit of noise and dream pop distortion. “Blue Juniper” reaches for a bit of 60s psychedelia, closing track “No Quarter” drifts for five minutes, and the title track is nonstop pure, surging power pop–The Sylvia Platters are experts at this stuff.

16. Personal Space – Still Life

Release date: June 3rd
Record label: Good Eye
Genre: Indie rock, post-rock, math rock, soft rock
Formats: Digital

On their follow-up to 2021’s A Lifetime of Leisure, Personal Space feel a little more pointed—they don’t have as much room to stretch out as they did on their last full-length, but Still Life makes the most of its time by covering a wide breadth of sonic and lyrical ground over its four songs. Their blend of “chill” vibes, unusual song structures, and left-wing political lyrics still feels unique—no one else could write a song like “Enron’s Trip”, which echoes Stereolab and Thrill Jockey while sketching its finance-bro subject. (Read more)

15. Ted Leo – For Coit and Killie / The Old 200 / Andy, Come Out

Release date: March 4th/April 1st/October 7th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Punk rock, power pop, singer-songwriter
Formats: Digital

This is a cheat, yes. I usually look down on those who combine several releases by one artist instead of considering each on its own merits. But the casual nature of the three Bandcamp-only EPs Ted Leo released this year makes it hard to choose one over the other, and the quality contained therein makes it even harder to ignore them entirely. Older, unreleased rarities, brand new Ted Leo songs both of the “rocking” and “acoustic” variety, three well-executed covers—put them all together, and you have…well, something that doesn’t exactly measure up to the lofty standard of the full albums Leo made with The Pharmacists, but something quite rewarding in its own right.

14. Buddie – Transplant

Release date: December 2nd
Record label: Crafted Sounds
Genre: Indie rock, power pop
Formats: CD, digital

Buddie is an indie rock group founded by Philadelphian Dan Forrest; the appropriately-titled Transplant is the band’s first work since Forrest moved to Vancouver. The four-song EP continues Buddie’s distinct, sincere sound that’s both fuzzy and poppy and lands somewhere between a softer version of 90s indie rock groups like Built to Spill and a more rough-around-the-edges version of straight power pop. Forrest’s vocals are plainspoken but fully melodic as Transplant highlights the more accessible parts of 90s indie rock without losing the genre’s edge. (Read more)

13. Jobber – Hell in a Cell

Release date: October 21st
Record label: Exploding in Sound
Genre: Fuzz rock, punk rock, alt-rock
Formats: Cassette, digital

The core of New York’s Jobber is guitarist/vocalist Kate Meizner and drummer/vocalist Mike Falcone, who also both play in Hellrazor, and those who enjoyed the noisy and catchy alt-rock of the former band’s Heaven’s Gate will find plenty to enjoy on Hell in a Cell as well. The group’s debut EP offers up nothing less than four incredibly strong wrestling-themed grunge-y fuzz rock tunes (and one amusing throwdown of an introduction track). “Entrance Theme” is the one that veers into straight-up power pop, but everything on Hell in a Cell’s got a tight hook. (Read more)

12. Posmic – Sun Hymns

Release date: March 11th
Record label: Let’s Pretend
Genre: 90s indie rock, psychedelia, indie punk
Formats: Cassette, digital

Sun Hymns is the most substantial release thus far from Baltimore and D.C.’s Posmic—it’s an eight-track collection of brief, curious indie rock songs. The songs on Sun Hymns feel like mini-quests: they’re all trying to achieve a specific combination of sounds, and they bow out just as soon as it feels like they’ve gotten there. There aren’t many bells and whistles on Sun Hymns, either— it’s lifting music that’s confident enough to do what that genre does in the clothes of 90s indie rock and little else. (Read more)

11. Lawn – Bigger Sprout

Release date: July 15th
Record label: Born Yesterday
Genre: Jangle pop, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Bigger Sprout is comprised of three songs that were originally released early on in Lawn’s career (as Big Sprout), combined with four brand new ones. I thought about putting it on the reissue list, but since the majority of these tracks are new, it goes here. Wherever it is, it sounds great—the New Orleans band split themselves pretty evenly between sprinting post-punk (“Night Life”, “Medicine Forever”) and Flying Nun-esque sweet jangle pop (“Down”, “Running My Luck”) on the EP, and they’re adept at both.

10. New You – Candy

Release date: June 24th
Record label: Lonely Ghost
Genre: Power pop, fuzz rock
Formats: Digital

Candy is the second EP from Seattle four-piece group New You, and as its name implies, it veers hard into a muscular power pop sound, evoking “Super-” bands like -Crush and –Drag. Bandleader Blake Turner remains interested in the hooky side of 90s alt-rock, and his newly-formed band (New You had previously been a solo project) gives an edge to these monsters of pop songs like “Listerine” and “Fairweather”. Laser-catchy lead guitars, big choruses, and Turner shining over blaring fuzzy rock abound throughout Candy. (Read more)

9. Quinn Cicala – Arkansas

Release date: September 23rd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Alt-country, folk rock, country rock, “post-country”, emo-country
Formats: Digital

I was a big fan of Cicala, last year’s self-titled release from Quinn Cicala and their South Carolina-based band. Since then, it appears that Cicala is a solo act now, and they’re based out of Atlanta, and they’re still making good music. Their latest is the five-song Arkansas EP, which continues Cicala’s streak of quality emotional alt-country-flavored (they call it “post-country”) tales. The breezy-sounding “Don’t Call Me” sweetens the dagger in its title, and “New York Times” and “I Wish Life Worked Like That” show that Cicala can deliver a good holler when the song calls for it.

8. Remember Sports – Leap Day

Release date: September 23rd
Record label: Father/Daughter
Genre: Indie pop, bedroom pop, lo-fi indie rock
Formats: Digital

Remember Sports released one of the best albums of last year with Like a Stone—it was a nice surprise to hear from them again so soon, and Leap Day is another quality release from them, albeit one that sounds pretty different from their last full-length. The four-song EP is a low-key release, especially compared to Like a Stone—drummer Connor Perry is no longer in the band, and these songs recorded as a trio veer into synth-and-drum-machine-aided bedroom pop rather than attempting to seamlessly replace him. Still, songs like the slacker rock of the title track and the busy, sunny pop of “Supervise” capture the best in Remember Sports.

7. Old Moon – Under All Skies

Release date: September 16th
Record label: Relief Map
Genre: Post-punk, jangle pop, dream pop
Formats: Cassette, digital

Old Moon is the project of Burlington, Vermont’s Tom Weir, and with his latest release, he fully commits to the sound of 80’s alternative rock. The six songs on the Under All Skies cassette EP fall between classic college rock and melancholic post-punk, and Weir’s writing takes advantage of the best of both styles. Old Moon’s embrace of reverb and Weir’s plainly emotive vocals conjure up dream pop, but these songs are (for the most part) more grounded and propulsive in a post-punk way. Under All Skies may be one of several Old Moon releases this year, but it feels like a fully-realized collection of multi-dimensional pop songs. (Read more)

6. Cashmere Washington – Almost Country for Old Men, Electro Country for They/Them

Release date: February 25th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock
Formats: Digital

The second in Cashmere Washington’s debut trio of EPs continues Thomas Dunn’s blend of indie rock with “beat-making and lo-fi production”—think music made by somebody equally inspired by math rock and J. Dilla. Almost Country for Old Men… feels more relaxed and confident than last year’s The Shape of Things to Come, not reaching as far into the emo tinge that appropriately colored that EP’s formative recollection. Instead, the new EP casts a wide net, ranging from piano ballads to slacker rock to pop punk over the course of six songs. There’s been a lot of promise in Cashmere Washington since its inception, and it’s already being realized. (Read more)

5. La Bonte – Grist for the Mill

Release date: April 29th
Record label: Anxiety Blanket
Genre: Slowcore, alt-country, folk
Formats: Cassette, digital

Los Angeles’ “quiet rock band” La Bonte is led by its namesake, singer-songwriter/guitarist Garrett La Bonte, and backed by a stable of musicians including Darto’s Nicholas Merz on pedal steel and Chase Petra’s Evan Schaid on drums. Their latest release, April’s Grist for the Mill EP, is emotional, widescreen California slowcore that also feels indebted to glacial-paced spaciousness of bands like Songs: Ohia and early Low. EP opener “Angel” is six minutes of pure sweeping beauty, and, somewhat paradoxically, it’s the record’s two covers (“Gracie Gray’s “Oregon in a Day” and Townes Van Zandt’s “Colorado Girl”) that sound the most intimate. (Read more)

4. Jon the Movie – A Glimpse That Made Sense

Release date: January 5th
Record label: New Morality Zine/Cauldron of Burgers
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock/punk
Formats: Cassette, digital

Long Island, New York’s Jon Gusman is perhaps most notable musically as being the vocalist for hardcore group Rule Them All, but he debuted his solo project Jon the Movie at the beginning of the year with A Glimpse That Made Sense. Jon the Movie falls nicely into the category of “dude with hardcore background making more melodic alt-rock”—Gusman cites Fugazi, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Guided by Voices, and I’ll be damned if the first five songs on A Glimpse That Made Sense don’t sound like the exact center of that triangle.  “I Can’t Help” is MacKaye and Jimmy Chamberlain-evoking, “Soul Tied to a Stranger” is particularly Pollardesque, and ten-minute closing track “Quest for Materiality” veers hard into prog opera. (Read more)

3. ME REX – Plesiosaur

Release date: June 17th
Record label: Big Scary Monsters
Genre: Indie pop, singer-songwriter, synthpop, folktronica
Formats: Vinyl (with Pterodactyl EP), digital

Outside of last year’s Megabear (one of my favorite albums of 2021), ME REX has pretty much entirely operated in the realm of four-song EPs—and in that context, Plesiosaur is their strongest work yet. Songwriter Myles McCabe remains a compelling bandleader, sounding sometimes frantic, sometimes euphoric, and always passionate as he rushes to get out lyrics about “catatonic monuments” and other singular turns of phrase. The rest of the band really feel like they’re matching McCabe, exploding alongside him when the song calls for it and counterbalancing his outbursts with tightly-constructed piano pop rock when that’s what’s most effective.

2. Oblivz – Managers

Release date: May 23rd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Synthpop, post-punk
Formats: Digital

After over a decade of marking post-punk/power pop-inspired indie rock as half of Fox Japan, the duo of Charlie Wilmoth and Andrew Slater have formally forged something different with Oblivz. The group’s debut EP was 2021’s Uplifts, but its follow-up Managers sounds like a commitment to the newer group, the debut of Oblivz as something more than a “Fox Japan side project”. The songs sound fuller and denser, with Slater and Wilmoth finding a New Order-ish medium between guitar rock and electronic music. The black humor and undercurrents of corporate unrest and horror that marked Uplifts and Fox Japan are both present in Managers, particularly in the grim execution bureaucracy of “Out of Time” and the manic “Dr. Y”, and even in the disco-flavored synthpop banger “Up in the Air”, Wilmoth finds a way to touch on feeling isolated in the middle of the bustle. (Read more)

1. The Laughing Chimes – Zoo Avenue

Release date: November 18th
Record label: Slumberland
Genre: Jangle pop, lo-fi power pop
Formats: Cassette, digital

The Laughing Chimes are comprised of Evan and Quinn Seurkamp, two brothers who play vintage-sounding jangle rock that recalls the best of classic Flying Nun Records and the mid-fi, wide-eyed sound of early Guided by Voices (which began a couple hours west of the duo’s home of Athens, Ohio). The guitars on their latest EP, Zoo Avenue, are always chiming; they soar in the record’s first two, single-ready songs, and they shade the more pensive songs as well, like the slightly-more-psychedelic “Airplane Under Water” and the closing acoustic ballad “King with the Hawthorne Crown”. Evan’s vocals are melodic and enthusiastic while wavering a little bit in a melancholic, wistful way that suits the “lost in nature” nature of The Laughing Chimes. (Read more)

 Honorable mentions:

Pressing Concerns: Buddie, Log Across the Washer, 2 Square Y?, Lovewell

Welcome back to Pressing Concerns! It’s the first (probably out of two) Pressing Concerns in December, and it comes right on the heels of Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2022 (maybe you missed it?). But there’s still more music to cover: today looks at new albums from Log Across the Washer and 2 Square Y?, and new EPs from Buddie and Lovewell. Look for Rosy Overdrive’s Favorite EPs of 2022 to go up next week.

If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here.

Buddie – Transplant

Release date: December 2nd
Record label: Crafted Sounds
Genre: Indie rock, power pop
Formats: CD, digital
Pull Track: Sunday Morning

Buddie is an indie rock group founded by Philadelphian Dan Forrest, who put out the band’s first EP and LP (2019’s Change of Scenery and 2020’s Diving) while living there. Now based in Vancouver, the appropriately-titled Transplant EP is Buddie’s first work since Forrest’s uprooting; it’s something of an announcement that Buddie will continue despite the move, with a full-length (Agitator) being announced for next year at the same time. The four-song EP continues Buddie’s distinct, sincere sound that’s both fuzzy and poppy and lands somewhere between a softer version of 90s indie rock groups like Built to Spill and a more rough-around-the-edges version of straight power pop.

Forrest’s vocals have a plainspoken but effortlessly melodic quality to them that reminds me of Lexington, Kentucky’s Andrew English (The Scourge of the Sea, Englishman), and the sleepy, not-yet-awake-enough-to-deal-with-dystopia opening track “Sunday Morning” really drives this home. Buddie’s determination to highlight the poppiest parts of 90s indie rock without losing its edge also reminds me of another likely influence on them, LVL UP. The midsection of Transplant isn’t as immediately grabbing as “Sunday Morning”, but the anticapitalist meditation “Take What’s Left” and the chilly “Northern Skies” both have plenty of meat on them. Closing track “Indecision” is the big finish, the hurricane-rocker that takes the titular uncertainty and spins it into a strong and firm declaration. (Bandcamp link)

Log Across the Washer – The Horse Show

Release date: November 25th
Record label: Repeating Cloud
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, lo-fi pop, experimental pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Eyelids or Something 35

Log Across the Washer is the project of Tyler Keene, who began it a decade or so ago while living in Portland, Oregon. Keene stopped making music for a few years, but reemerged as a New Jersey resident last year with October’s It’s Funny How the Colors, and last month’s The Horse Show continues the rebirth of Log Across the Washer. A classic kitchen-sink lo-fi pop record, It’s Funny How the Colors served up both sparkling, jangly psych-pop nuggets alongside tracks that reflected Keene’s experimental and jazz influences as well. The Horse Show leans even harder into accessibility; nearly every one of its fifteen tracks could accurately be described as a “pop song”.

The Horse Show opens with the barebones “I’m Waiting for the Sun”, which pulls off psychedelia with little more than an acoustic guitar, plodding bass, and Keene’s distorted vocals (he throws in a “woo-hoo” or two for good measure). Log Across the Washer also offer up pop highlights like the Robert Pollard-esque belter “Eyelids or Something” (which appears on the album twice, in a faster and slower version), the Elephant Six singalong “Where Does My Heart Beat Now”, and the brisk, acoustic-strummed “Irvin’s Leg”. Even at its most rickety (the one-minute “The Carousel Room”) or its weirdest (the vocal affect-laden ballad “AM890”), The Horse Show remains friendly and provides no shortage of strong songs. (Bandcamp link)

2 Square Y? – The Secret Degree

Release date: December 2nd
Record label: Emotional Response
Genre: Experimental pop, psych pop, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Pull Track: The Secret Degree

2 Square Y? is the latest project from Jim Welton, aka Xentos Fray Bentos, who has played with The Homosexuals, Amos and Sara, and Die Trip Computer Die, and Ted Barrow (who played with Welton in the latter of those three bands). The members of 2 Square Y? have covered an enormous amount of musical ground over their decades of experience (Emotional Response is releasing their debut record along with a reissue of Amos and Sara’s Go Home Soldier, a fascinating artifact of 1980s disco-influenced dub), but with The Secret Degree, they land in the realm of bizarre, offbeat, but still catchy avant-pop music.

The Secret Degree certainly reflects Welton and Barrow’s post-punk and dub backgrounds—most of the songs feature live-wire, expressive and showy basslines that are as important to the catchiness of these songs as frequent exuberant instrumental interjections or Welton’s ageless trickster voice. The most straightforward pop songs on the record leap out immediately—the giddy opening title track, the snapping groove of “Morgan Drowning”, the slick retro pop throwback of “So Lo”. The weirder tracks still contain memorable moments, like the really bizarrely-sung chorus of “Inside”—and speaking of memorable, The Secret Degree closes with the sparse “I Set Fire to an Angel (The Grenfell Towersong)”, which cannot cloak its well-earned contempt in a pretty acoustic-guitar-picking instrumental. It’s not the only example, but it is the most obvious one—“whimsical” does not have to mean “empty”. (Bandcamp link)

Lovewell – Around the Flowers

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Clever Eagle
Genre: Shoegaze, alt-rock, dream pop, emo
Formats: Cassette, digital
Pull Track: Your Doubt

Lovewell is the duo of Mark Palladino and Joe Bradshaw–the Massachusetts and New Hampshire-based band has been making music together since 2018, and the six-song Around the Flowers cassette EP is their most substantial release yet. The story of Lovewell isn’t an unfamiliar one–Palladino and Bradshaw got their start as hardcore and metal players, but their latest project finds them making more accessible shoegaze-y, dream-y, emo-ish indie rock. Lovewell sticks out among several other ex-hardcore alt-rockers on the strength of their songs; Around the Flowers is relatively humble-sounding for ostensibly “heavy” music, but it’s a sturdy half-dozen songs without a weak spot or dud.

Although Around the Flowers is “dreamy”-sounding, for sure, it lets the guitars ring clear when it makes sense to do so, and the delicate vocals are always melodic and calm no matter what goes on around them. The first half of the EP hews closest toward a traditional alt-rock/emo sound–the punchy “Your Doubt” is my favorite, although mid-tempo opening track “See You Down” sets the tone nicely, too–and then Lovewell try out a few different turns in the final three songs. None of them are huge departures, but the new shades (the low-end-emphasis of “Burden”, the cinematic drama of “Unlikely”, the acoustic “August”) fill out Around the Flowers and help it feel like a full statement. (Bandcamp link)

Also notable:

Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2022 (25-1)

Here it is! Rosy Overdrive’s 25 favorite albums of 2022, revealed today along with albums 50 through 26, and coming a day after albums 51 through 100. Needless to say, these are all great records. You simply can’t go wrong with any of them. It was a three-record race for number one; I’m satisfied with the one I ended up choosing, but all three of them occupied the top spot at various points. Once again, thank you for reading.

See also:
Part One (100-76)
Part Two (75-51)
Part Three (50-26)
Playlist with all albums (Spotify link) (Tidal link)

25. Kevin Dorff – Silent Reply

Release date: September 16th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: 90s indie rock, singer-songwriter, folk rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Kevin Dorff is a Brooklyn-based, Des Moines-originating singer-songwriter and playwright whose debut record, Silent Reply, is a thematically heavy one. A meditation on death and those left behind, every track on the record is about a friend or acquaintance of Dorff’s who died between 2010 and 2015. The darker moments on Silent Reply are tempered by Dorff’s pleasing 90s indie rock, alt-country, and folk rock-indebted sound, and a writing style that declines to focus solely on these lows. Every track on the seven-song record contains an entire world, appropriate for capturing a life. (Read more)

24. Lou Turner – Microcosmos

Release date: September 2nd
Record label: Spinster
Genre: Folk rock, alt-country
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Microcosmos is Styrofoam Wino Lou Turner’s third solo album since 2017, and it’s absolutely the work of a skilled songwriter at the peak of their output. The album’s title is, for Turner, an attempt to give a name to the feeling of attaining adventure and motion in the domestic and fixed world (“a constellation of microcosms”) that is a (in fact, the) theme of the record. This is reflected in the way Microcosmos sounds like a contented, laid-back 70s folk-rock record, even as Turner’s lyrics and subjects probe and roam within their contexts. Microcosmos is, true to its title, a record that reveals both its ambition and its success in realizing it with closer and repeat listens. (Read more)

23. Upchuck – Sense Yourself

Release date: September 30th
Record label: Famous Class
Genre: Garage rock, garage punk, hardcore punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Upchuck is a fierce five-piece band that hails from Atlanta, and their debut full-length record, Sense Yourself, is a fully-developed look at the group’s heavy but unique take on southern garage punk. The group show off their talents throughout the record, jumping from hardcore punk to zippy post-punk to slow, grunge-y tracks, and songwriter and vocalist KT manages both hardcore-esque barks and more “classic punk rock” sing-speaking with gusto. Upchuck are confident enough in their abilities throughout Sense Yourself to let these songs stretch out to five or so minutes, a rarity in this type of punk rock–and their belief is well-placed. (Read more)

22. First Rodeo – First Rodeo

Release date: April 15th
Record label: Forged Artifacts
Genre: Alt–country, country rock
Formats: Cassette, digital

First Rodeo is the duo of Nathan Tucker and Tim Howe—the former makes experimental pop music as Cool Original, the latter plays No Depression country rock in Vista House. Their self-titled debut record together is a wellspring of excellent folk rock/alt-country songs, with Tucker and Howe’s songs sounding both fun and noticeably deep. Tucker’s singing injects a playfulness into songs like “Pucker Up, Amelia”, while Howe’s drawl gives tracks like “Didn’t It Rain Last Night” and “Patience” even more heft.

21. Bellows – Next of Kin

Release date: March 23rd
Record label: Topshelf
Genre: Indie pop, indie folk, art pop
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, CD, digital

The latest album from Bellows, the project of New York’s Oliver Kalb, has grandiose ambitions, but Next of Kin seems equally concerned with not losing the plot at the record’s sturdy core. Kalb’s songs are dressed up in colorful, brimming palettes throughout the record, but his vocals are breathy and impassioned even in Next of Kin’s busiest moments, which preserves the songs’ intimacy. It’s an important wrinkle for Next of Kin, an album that sits with losses that are felt from the slight-remove of the title on down. (Read more)

20. Good Grief – Shake Your Faith

Release date: March 8th
Record label: Everything Sucks/HHBTM
Genre: Indie punk, punk rock, 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Good Grief are quite adept at making loud, punk-influenced hooky rock music that’s immediately familiar and recognizable to fans of 90s indie rock, and their long-awaited debut record (practically a decade in the making) reflects this. The Liverpool trio are extremely open Bob Mould disciples, songs like “The Pony Remark” could’ve come straight from Superchunk’s On the Mouth, and there’s a heart-on-sleeve earnestness that puts them into Samiam/Knapsack-esque emo-punk territory. No matter how many older groups Shake Your Faith evokes, it all sounds remarkably fresh and present.

19. Dogbreth – Believe This Rain

Release date: August 5th
Record label: Phat ‘n’ Phunky
Genre: Jangle pop, alt-country
Formats: CD, cassette, digital

The fifth album from Tucson, Arizona’s Dogbreth (formerly of, at various points, Phoenix and Seattle) is a sincere, starry album that’s equal parts desert country and classic jangle pop. Believe This Rain takes inspiration from vintage college rock (think names like Tommy Keene and Teenage Fanclub), but there’s also a wide-openness to these songs’ sound that befits their Arizona home and distinguishes them from their influences. Tristan Jemsek’s songwriting gets dressed up in gorgeous jangly ballads, cinematic heartland rock, and amped-up fuzz rock throughout Believe This Rain—barely crossing the half-hour mark, the record feels more than full enough. (Read more)

18. Gordon M. Phillips – Seasonal

Release date: July 22nd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Folk rock, singer-songwriter
Formats: Digital

On his debut full-length solo record, Gordon M. Phillips does not attempt to recreate the baritone-guitar-led, cinematic emo sound that his band, Downhaul, has chased recently. Seasonal was recorded entirely by Phillips on a Tascam 4-track, and it’s subsequently a sparse-sounding album. While it’s certainly pared-down, Seasonal isn’t all quietness, either—songs like “Tarmac” and “The Fall” strain against their acoustic foundations and show Phillips’ penchant for big choruses.  The record remains decidedly Phillips-sounding, whether he’s evoking the country-ish material he recorded with Maxwell Stern in “April” or the moodiness of the most recent Downhaul record with “At, At”. (Read more)

17. The Trend – Sgt. Pepper II

Release date: August 26th
Record label: Good Soil/Yellow K
Genre: Power pop, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The Trend hail from the Maryland panhandle and have been around since the early 2000s—their Bandcamp page lists four and a half members, but their latest record Sgt. Pepper II was written and recorded entirely by two of them: Kenny Tompkins (aka Mr. Husband) and Brian Twigg. Sgt. Pepper II is squarely in the realm of 90s alt-rock-flavored power pop, legitimately earning a Blue Album-era Weezer comparison with grunge-influenced amp-cranking, wild catchiness, and Beach Boys-esque harmonies in songs like “Come Home” and “If Yr Leaving”, and also containing shades of other fuzzy, poppy alt-rock bands like Superdrag and Sloan. (Read more)

16. Jim Nothing – In the Marigolds

Release date: September 15th
Record label: Meritorio/Melted Ice Cream
Genre: Jangle pop, Dunedin sound
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Christchurch, New Zealand’s Jim Nothing are a guitar pop trio whose latest record certainly recalls plenty of music from the original wave of Dunedin groups that put New Zealand on the map for indie rock—In the Marigolds pulls from the breeziness of The Bats, the haziness of The Clean, the fractured pop of Chris Knox, and the prominent violin from vocalist Anita Clark reminds me of music from Alastair Galbraith and the Jefferies Brothers. Most of the 28-minute record settles into breezy, jangle pop, although rockers like “Never Come Down” and “Yellow House” also showcase the band’s strengths. (Read more)

15. Norm Archer – Flying Cloud Terrace

Release date: August 9th
Record label: Panda Koala
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, power pop
Formats: Digital

Norm Archer is the new project of Portsmouth, England’s Will Pearce, and his debut record under the name, Flying Cloud Terrace, is a reflection of his recent interest in home-recording and one-man-band status in service of lo-fi pop music. Pearce cites many Rosy Overdrive-approved bands as inspiration for Flying Cloud Terrace—there’s Guided by Voices in the Who-indebted prog pop of “South Parade”, among other tracks, and there’s a lightly psychedelic haziness that recalls Flying Nun Records, even as plenty of these songs have a revved-up, indie punk tempo.

14. Mike Adams at His Honest Weight – Graphic Blandishment

Release date: September 9th
Record label: Joyful Noise
Genre: Power pop, pop punk, indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The latest record from Bloomington, Indiana indie rock lifer Mike Adams and his backing band is a pretty undeniable, really-going-for-it pop rock album with a compelling personality at its front. Graphic Blandishment’s ten songs feature full-sounding but simple enough instrumentals that serve Adams’ huge choruses about…well, a bit of everything, really. Titles like “Arrow & Asa in the Year 3000” and “Tie-Dyed & Tongue Tied” deliver hooks that bely their wordy titles, not to mention the aw-shucks power pop of “How’s the Messes” (which turns “It doesn’t take a lot of shame to make a mess like the one I’m in,” into a kind of anthem).

13. Mo Troper – Mo Troper V

Release date: September 2nd
Record label: Lame-O
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, power pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Not only does Mo Troper V (aka MTV) continue Mo Troper’s foray into lo-fi, self-made recordings that began with last year’s Dilettante—it’s a full embrace of the inherent messiness by the Portland power pop musician. At its extremes, the fuzziness of MTV results in straight-up noise pop, although the majority of the record strikes a balance between in-the-red distortion and pop hooks: spare acoustic tracks sit unapologetically alongside disorienting, thornier songs. MTV is something of a dispatch from the world of Mo Troper—and there’s more going on there than ever. (Read more)

12. 2nd Grade – Easy Listening

Release date: September 30th
Record label: Double Double Whammy
Genre: Power pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The third album from Philadelphia’s 2nd Grade, Easy Listening, may “only” have sixteen songs (as opposed to the twenty-four on 2020’s Hit to Hit), but the five-piece band make the record feel like 2nd Grade’s most diverse yet. Bandleader Peter Gill’s vocals are delicate and melodic as he steers 2nd Grade through amp-cranked, glam-influenced power pop, shining, effortless pop rock, and hissing lo-fi recordings. The crop of musicians Gill has assembled is effectively a supergroup ,comprised of members of Friendship, Remember Sports, The Fragiles, and Ylayali, among other acts, and they all help Gill realize the full potential of his excellent songwriting. (Read more)

11. Cheekface – Too Much to Ask

Release date: August 2nd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, Cheekface
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Cheekface’s third album picks up the thread where last year’s Emphatically No. (not to mention their 2019 debut, Therapy Island) left off; Greg Katz’s monotone vocals and flung-at-a-cultural-dartboard lyrics pared with pop-friendly instrumentals that are nonetheless somewhat hard to pin down musically yet again abound. On Too Much to Ask, however, the Los Angeles trio also show some willingness to stretch their sound, like the band speeding everything up on opening track “When Life Hands You Problems”, Katz absolutely shredding his vocals in the chorus to “I Feel So Weird!”, or the Cheekface-as-dance-music banger “Featured Singer”. (Read more)

10. Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires – Old-Time Folks

Release date: August 5th
Record label: Don Giovanni
Genre: Southern rock, country rock, folk rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires may slow things down, comparatively speaking, on their fourth record, but the fiery southern rock band has no intention of going “smaller”. Old-Time Folks doesn’t abandon the scope of 2017’s Youth Detention (which is on the shortlist for album of the last decade), nor do they forget that they were once the band that made 2014’s fuzz-fest Dereconstructed, as rockers “Done Playing Dead” and “Caligula” show. Still, Old-Time Folks embraces more acoustic guitars and elevates Bains’ vocals higher in the mix than they’ve been in their last couple of records, really helping out with the impact of songs like the breathtaking “Rednecks” and the massive “God’s A-Working, Man”.

9. Friendship – Love the Stranger

Release date: July 29th
Record label: Merge
Genre: Alt-country, folk rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Friendship may have been reduced to a four-piece band for the first time with Love the Stranger, but, if anything, the Philadelphia band’s fourth record is as full-sounding as they’ve been yet. Songs like “Hank” and “Ugly Little Victory” have surprisingly driving tempos for a band that has justifiably referred to itself as “ambient country” before, and Love the Stranger also has time for synth-based experiments (“Alive Twice”) and dramatic alt-rock (“Ryde”). Still, there’s no mistaking Love the Stranger for anything but a Friendship record—Dan Wriggins sounds just as in his element singing about ramekins with grape jelly remnants and red-tailed hawks over these instrumentals as any others.

8. Perennial – In the Midnight Hour

Release date: February 1st
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Post-hardcore, dance punk, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital

The second album from New England’s Perennial feels like a completely inhibition-less rock record, where thrashing post-hardcore, expanded-palette art punk, and catchy garage rock all combine to make something unforgettably attention-grabbing. Vocalists Chelsey Hahn and Chad Jewett trade off their taunts and howls on pretty much every song on In the Midnight Hour, Jewett’s guitar and Wil Mulhern’s drums slice and punch through each track, and the entire Christ Teti-produced record sounds great. Perennial are pretty much always “on”—forget breather tracks, the only respites in In the Midnight Hour are a few tapering-off outros. (Read more)

7. Sadurn – Radiator

Release date: May 6th
Record label: Run for Cover
Genre: Alt-country, indie folk
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital

Philadelphia’s Sadurn make a very intriguing and attention-grabbing version of alt-country—it’s sincerely devoted to the “country” aspect of the genre, but they still sound quite accessible and built to emphasize frontperson G DeGroot’s songwriting. Sadurn started as DeGroot’s solo project, but the full band that they’ve assembled for their debut record is an asset throughout Radiator, and it’s rarely guilty of overplaying. For every shuffling roots-rock anthem like opening track “Snake”, there’s something like the unflinching relationship analysis of “Icepick”, in which drum machines and synths are DeGroot’s main accompaniment. (Read more)

6. Ex-Vöid – Bigger Than Before

Release date: March 25th
Record label: Don Giovanni
Genre: Jangle pop, power pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

There has been a lot of music to come from of the former members of Joanna Gruesome after the Welsh band broke up in 2015, but the debut album from Ex-Vöid might be the strongest single record from them yet. Bigger Than Before is the full-length reunion of Joanna Gruesome singer-songwriters Alanna McArdle and Owen Williams— they released an EP together under the Ex-Vöid name in 2018, and Williams has also been playing in The Tubs lately. Bigger Than Before is a big, hooky, indie pop record that’s got just a bit of an edge to it. It’s power pop at its wistful best, with McArdle and Williams’ harmonies being shot through with just enough noisiness to punch the songs up a tad.

5. MJ Lenderman – Boat Songs

Release date: April 29th
Record label: Dear Life
Genre: Alt-country, country rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

At 34 minutes, Boat Songs is the most substantial album to come out of MJ Lenderman’s recent flurry of activity. In what has become a much-deserved breakout record for the Asheville alt-country musician (and member of Wednesday), Boat Songs should immediately grab any curious new listeners with the roaring country rock opener “Hangover Game” and the mid-tempo southern groove of “You Have Bought Yourself a Boat”. The rest of the record is a showcase for all of Lenderman’s talents, from the lo-fi fuzz-fests of “SUV” and “Dan Marino” to the affecting wrestling-themed ballad of “TLC Cagematch” to the “how-does-he-do-it” genius of “You Are Every Girl to Me”. (Read more)

4. Joyride! – Miracle Question

Release date: April 15th
Record label: Salinas
Genre: Power pop, pop punk, indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Joyride! come from San Francisco, and they’ve been around for a decade or so, but I only heard of them after they released their fourth album, Miracle Question, earlier this year. But they’re quickly becoming one of my favorite new discoveries of 2022. Miracle Question is a classic 2010s lo-fi power-pop-punk album at heart, even as polished as it sounds at points (chalk it up to experience). Joyride! get all of this done in under a half hour, with most of these songs making their impression both musically and lyrically (there is a lot going on beneath the surface on Miracle Question) in about two minutes or so.

3. Emperor X – The Lakes of Zones B and C

Release date: April 10th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Folk punk, electro-folk, experimental rock
Formats: Digital

The first Emperor X album in a half-decade is certainly more than worth the wait. The Lakes of Zones B and C delivers on pretty much every front that Chad Matheny has explored over his career as Emperor X –surging modern folk anthems, quieter electronic explorations, and beautiful acoustic ballads. The Matheny that grappled directly with the last few years of chaos in 2020’s United Earth League of Quarantine Aerobics EP and last year’s “Sad React” single is present in highlights like “False Metal” and “Communists in Luxury”, as is the more pensive version of his songwriting in vaguer (but no less substantial) tracks like “Freeway in Heaven” and “The Crows of Emmerich”. And this isn’t even taking into account how The Lakes of Zones B and C finds some genuinely new areas for Emperor X to probe in its last few songs, ending with the pure catharsis of “Stars”.

2. Zinskē – Murder Mart

Release date: February 14th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Everything’s tight and in its right place on Murder Mart, the debut album from Philadelphia’s Zinskē. It’s a sleek, well-put-together record that reminds me both of austere, controlled post-punk and mid-tempo 90s alt-rock. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Chris Lipczynski’s low, dry, and stoic vocals stick out throughout the record, as do Emily Cahill’s prominent and frequently melodic basslines. There’s a “sharp dullness” to Murder Mart—the songs might seem opaque at first, but there’s too much going on underneath the surface to ignore. Lipczynski and the band perform this balancing act of being a subtle band that yet always sounds animated by something—even in the lyrics (hell, whole songs) on Murder Mart that I can’t quite parse. (Read more)

1. Mister Goblin – Bunny

Release date: April 22nd
Record label: Exploding in Sound
Genre: Post-hardcore, alt-rock, indie folk
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The third record from the Maryland-originating, Indiana-based Mister Goblin is the first to feature a full-on backing band–Sam Goblin is joined by bassist Aaron O’Neill and Options’ Seth Engel on drums. Mister Goblin was already one of the best under-the-radar indie rock acts of its time—if you’ll recall, 2021’s Four People in an Elevator and One of Them Is the Devil placed highly on last year’s list—but the upgrade to a three-piece gives Bunny a full-throated sound that adds another dimension to their sound. The band really go for it in the Brainiac post-hardcore opening track “Military Discount” and turn in invigorated versions of the Mister Goblin/Two Inch Astronaut sound in “Good Son/Bad Seed” and “Holiday World”, and (just as importantly) the trio still find room for Sam Goblin’s songwriting to breathe in the largely-acoustic final three songs on the record. Four People in an Elevator… was a big step forward for Mister Goblin from a songwriting perspective; Bunny matches it song for song while, at the same time, taking just as large of a musical leap. (Read more)

Honorable mentions:

Click here for:
Part One (100-76)
Part Two (75-51)
Part Three (50-26)

Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2022 (50-26)

Hello! Welcome back (or just welcome) to Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2022! Today reveals the top 50 albums on the list. Yesterday unveiled numbers 100 through 51, so be sure to check those out as well if you haven’t yet.

See also:
Part One (100-76)
Part Two (75-51)
Part Four (25-1)
Playlist with all albums (Spotify link) (Tidal link)

50. Scarves – Delicate Creatures

Release date: August 26th
Record label: Good Eye
Genre: 90s indie rock, indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The fourth-full length record from Seattle’s Scarves points toward rainy, sprawling Pacific Northwest indie rock while retaining an indie pop simplicity as well. Guitarist/singer Niko Stathakopoulos’s high, comforting vocals evoke both Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch and John K. Samson of The Weakerthans on Delicate Creatures, and his songwriting veers between the found poetry that’s a hallmark of the latter and twee-indebted straightforwardness in which the former has dabbled. As tender as Delicate Creatures can sound, Scarves also probe the darker and deeper side of animal nature to striking effect. (Read more)

49. Blanche Blanche Blanche – Fiscal, Remote, Distilled

Release date: February 14th
Record label: La Loi
Genre: Jazz-pop
Formats: Cassette, digital

Blanche Blanche Blanche is the duo of singer Sarah Smith and multi-instrumentalist Zach Phillips (also of Fievel Is Glauque and a bunch of other bands). The two have made a lot of music together; so far, I’ve only heard their latest record, 2022’s Fiscal, Remote, Distilled, but it rules. It’s a shiny, original record of jazzy pop marked by Smith’s clear vocals that are sung-spoken but still quite melodic and by Phillips’ arsenal of jazz and rock band instruments that can both overwhelm and draw back to fit the songs. Fiscal, Remote, Distilled is smart, but comes off straightforward—songs like “That’s Siberia”, “Overdry Sensation”, and “Only Yesterday” have been bouncing around my head since I heard them initially.

48. The John-Pauls – Bon Mots

Release date: November 18th
Record label: Aagoo
Genre: 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

It feels wrong to call The John-Pauls’ second album “stripped down”, given that it’s made with three guitar players and a keyboardist, but the Austin five-piece band has a straightforward, no-frills sound that compliments Bon Mots‘ ten strong 1990s-inspired indie rock tunes. The record bounces back and forth in terms of formality, from the regal “Didn’t I” to the exuberant “Same Dweller, Different Cave”, but Bon Mots is consistent in its offering of economic pop hooks. There’s precious little on Bon Mots that feels unearned or superfluous in any way. (Read more)

47. The Paranoid Style – For Executive Meeting

Release date: August 12th
Record label: Bar None
Genre: Country rock, folk rock, garage rock, singer-songwriter
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The latest record from Washington, D.C. quintet The Paranoid Style is a particularly potent combination of long, unspooling lyricism, energetic garage rock, and rootsier influences. Lead singer Elizabeth Nelson is a singular songwriter and a conversational, compelling vocalist throughout For Executive Meeting—these songs remind me of the likes of John K. Samson, Christine Fellows, and Franklin Bruno, but with a full-band kick to them (aided in part by Rosy Overdrive favorite William Matheny on keyboards) that ensures that the album, is, above anything else, an incredibly fun listen.

46. Patches – Tales We Heard from the Fields

Release date: February 25th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Post-punk, jangle pop
Formats: Digital

Patches are a new remote-collaboration trio comprised of Evan Seurkamp (of The Laughing Chimes), RKC, and Aaron Griffin. Their debut release is the full-length Tales We Heard from the Fields, a generous 14-song collection that takes cues from all over the map of the past 40 years of alternative rock music. Several hallmarks of post-punk characterize songs like “Plastic and Gold” and “Revisitation”, and there’s also clear influence from classic guitar pop in the sunny “Parallel Mind” and the triumphant “Rosaley”. Plodding, expressive bass guitar tempers some of Tales We Heard from the Fields’ brighter moments, and hooks still mark the moodier ones. (Read more)

45. Oneida – Success

Release date: August 19th
Record label: Joyful Noise
Genre: Garage rock, psychedelic rock, krautrock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital

Brooklyn’s Oneida has amassed a heady, intimidating discography of colossal, unpredictable masses of heavy psych, kraut, and experimental rock music over their twenty-five years as a band, but Success invites the listener to throw out one’s per-conceived ideas of what Oneida should sound like and just enjoy some roaring garage rock. While bursts of noise, feedback, and some long jams still populate Success, they sit alongside plainly-presented, three- (or even two-) chord euphoric rockers—declaring that the Oneida way is, in fact, consistent with rock and roll. (Read more)

44. Camp Trash – The Long Way, the Slow Way

Release date: July 1st
Record label: Count Your Lucky Stars
Genre: Power pop, emo, pop punk
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

The first Camp Trash full-length record echoes and expands on the promise that their 2021 debut EP, Downtiming, showed. The sound that’s most recognizably Camp Trash (the end-of-the-20th-century pop rock that pulls from both the 90s underground and 00s pop culture) is here on tracks like “Weird Florida”, “Let It Ride”, and “Lake Erie Boys”, but they also find space in The Long Way, The Slow Way‘s dozen tracks for LVL UP-evoking fuzz-drone (“Another Harsh Toyotathon”) and power ballads (“Poured Out”). It’s a stubbornly timeless-sounding record for evoking such a specific era of guitar music. (Read more)

43. Near Beer – Near Beer

Release date: July 15th
Record label: Double Helix
Genre: Punk rock, alt-rock, power pop, college rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Near Beer’s self-titled debut record is high-octane pop and punk that doesn’t sound like most “pop punk”—think something like a snottier Hüsker Dü, or even Hot Snakes trying to make power pop. They’ve also got a heartland sincerity to them (belying their hometown of Los Angeles)—a good portion of Near Beer has shout-along choruses, and the trio (particularly vocalist Joey Siara, who always sounds all-in on these songs) play like they want you to notice, get sucked in, and take part in the communal nature of music.

42. Office Culture – Big Time Things

Release date: September 30th
Record label: Northern Spy
Genre: Sophisti-pop, jazz rock, indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Over Office Culture’s first couple of records, the Brooklyn four-piece band have cultivated a distinctive sound that pulls from 80s sophisti-pop and jazz fusion, and their third full-length album is the sound of the Winston Cook-Wilson-led group getting comfortable with stretching this sound and stripping it down to its basic elements (frequently little more than melodic bass and keyboard). Cook-Wilson’s keyboard tones give Big Time Things an inviting and warm feeling, and Office Culture continuously feel like they’re locked into a groove throughout the record. (Read more)

41. Hellrazor – Heaven’s Gate

Release date: August 2nd
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Fuzz rock, grunge, punk rock
Formats: Digital

Hellrazor’s Heaven’s Gate is blatantly indebted to classic alternative rock (you know, the underground version of it), but, as the album’s nine songs helpfully demonstrate, there’s a wide range of music within this field for Hellrazor to explore. Different songs on the trio’s record evoke everything from Nirvana’s intense pop music to Soundgarden riff rock to acid-fried Butthole Surfers punk, all shot through with a Dinosaur Jr.-esque fuzzy noise pop recording style. The group (whose core duo of Michael Falcone and Kate Meizner also play in Jobber) cover plenty of ground in a mere 26 minutes. (Read more)

40. Frank Meadows – Dead Weight

Release date: July 1st
Record label: Ruination
Genre: Folk, alt-country
Formats: CD, cassette, digital

Frank Meadows’ fingerprints are all over Rosy Overdrive as one of the three co-founders of Dear Life Records (MJ Lenderman, Wendy Eisenberg, Trevor Nikrant), but as Dead Weight demonstrates, he’s no slouch when it comes to his own music as well. Meadows has probed some experimental climes in his prolific solo career, but the latest from the New York-via-North Carolina artist is a compelling piano-heavy folk-country record that radiates accessibility. Meadows’ lightly-accented vocals confidently hold the center of Dead Weight, over top of instrumentals that are notably layered but never feel like “too much”.

39. My Idea – CRY MFER

Release date: April 22nd
Record label: Hardly Art
Genre: Indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

The debut full-length record from My Idea, the duo of Lily Konigsberg (Palberta, a solo career) and Nate Amos (Water from Your Eyes, This Is Lorelei) is predictably great, predictably full of intriguing and rewarding pop songs, and somewhat surprisingly dark underneath its surface. Konigsberg and Amos are both mainstays of Rosy Overdrive (This Is Lorelei has an album on this list, and both Konigsberg as a solo artist and Palberta made last year’s), but CRY MFER stands out among their respective discographies with its autobiographical relationship fracturing at the record’s center. This doesn’t stop songs like “I Should Have Never Generated You”, “Yr a Blur”, and the title track from being some of the best pop moments in either of their music careers, however.

38. Romero – Turn It On!

Release date: April 8th
Record label: Feel It/Cool Death
Genre: Power pop, garage rock, punk rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The debut album from Melbourne, Australia’s Romero is a non-stop blast of classic punk rock-infused power pop that rips through eleven sturdy songs gleefully and deftly. Most of Turn It On! has a big, go-for-it kind of energy that evokes the 1970s as much as any of the deliberate “retro” flourishes in their music do—it reminds me of Sheer Mag’s starting points of influence, as well as the poppier moments of Screaming Females. Turn It On! demands to be played loud, and lead singer Alanna Oliver is more often than not belting out her lyrics—these are professionally-done pop songs that don’t let their foot off the gas for a second. (Read more)

37. Oso Oso – Sore Thumb

Release date: March 18th
Record label: Triple Crown
Genre: Pop punk, emo, power pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Oso Oso’s latest release, Sore Thumb, is apparently comprised of what were supposed to be demos recorded together by Oso Oso bandleader Jade Lilitri and his frequent collaborator and cousin Tavish Maloney, and then left basically untouched after Maloney’s sudden death last year. The record sounds awesome (even without a “for demos” caveat), and as a collection of songs Sore Thumb approaches the exhilarating consistency of 2017’s The Yunahon Mixtape. From the absolutely stunning opening track “Computer Exploder” to less aggressive but equally potent album songs (“Describe You”, “Father Tracy”) to new weird places (the hypnotic “Pensacola”), it’s a complete triumph.

36. SAVAK – Human Error / Human Delight

Release date: April 15th
Record label: Peculiar Works
Genre: Post-punk, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

The members of Brooklyn’s SAVAK share a wealth of experience playing in several other notable bands, as well as a love for the less exploited (and subsequently more interesting) sides of punk and post-punk music. The SAVAK of their fifth record, Human Error / Human Delight, is the result of years of honing the friendlier sides of Wire, Sonic Youth, and Mission of Burma into something new and distinct, and seemingly guided by the principles of not only “making the music they want to make”, but “making what they’d want to listen to” as well. (Read more)

35. Motherhood – Winded

Release date: June 24th
Record label: Forward Music Group
Genre: Post-punk, art punk
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital

An “avant-punk” trio hailing from the rather unlikely location of New Brunswick, Fredericton’s Motherhood have been marching to the beat of their own drum for nearly a decade now. Their latest record, Winded, has a barebones, almost live-in-studio feel, with the core of guitarist/vocalist Brydon Crain, bassist/vocalist Penelope Stevens, and drummer Adam Sipkema tearing through both garage rock rippers and weirder turns. Crain’s delivery somehow sounds both lazy and rushed at the same time, which serves Motherhood’s revved-up but still frequently eerie and hypnotic take on post-punk. (Read more)

34. Jeff Tobias – Recurring Dream

Release date: January 7th
Record label: Strategy of Tension
Genre: Experimental pop, post-punk, synthpop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The debut “pop” record from New York multi-instrumentalist Jeff Tobias is something new for the Sunwatchers/Modern Nature saxophonist. Recurring Dream is an adventurous album—Tobias alone is credited with playing fourteen different instruments on the record—but it’s also a highly cohesive one. Tobias’ fervent yet intimate vocals help to ground Recurring Dream when it’s jumping from, say, the urgent chaos of opening track “Our Very Recent Past” to the minimalist funk rhythms of “We’re Here to Help”. Tobias has a lot to say on Recurring Dream, but this doesn’t get in the way of the “pop” side of things either—pretty much every song on the record has a strong hook, and it ends with “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”, a shimmering piece of synthpop propulsion that feels like it could go on forever. (Read more)

33. Meat Wave – Malign Hex

Release date: October 14th
Record label: Swami
Genre: Noise rock, post-punk, punk rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Five years after the release of their cult classic 2017 record The Incessant, Chicago’s Meat Wave has offered up an incredibly potent 35-minute document of their particularly lean brand of noise rock and post-punk with Malign Hex. It picks up the thread of last year’s excellent Volcano Park EP; hard-hitting garage rock, nervous, bass-driven post-punk, and chilly, subtle, more atmospheric moments all populate the album. From the opening horror tapestry of “Disney” through several moments of tension and release, Malign Hex feels like an album made up of pure cauldron-stewing.

32. Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You

Release date: February 11th
Record label: 4AD
Genre: Indie folk, alt-country
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, CD, digital

I had been on the Big Fence about Big Thief for years now, rolling my eyes at some of the hyperbolic praise they’ve gotten even as the electric catharsis of Two Hands scraped my 2019 year-end list and I’ve been impressed by the prolific nature of the band’s members. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is the first time I’ve strongly felt that the group is where they should be musically—it sounds like a record made by four people in tune with themselves and no one else, giddily embracing all of their own ideas just to see where they go.

31. Oceanator – Nothing’s Ever Fine

Release date: April 8th
Record label: Polyvinyl/Plastic Miracles/Disposable America
Genre: Indie punk, alt-rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital

Elise Okusami’s follow-up as Oceanator to 2020’s Things I Never Said (one of my favorite albums of that year) delivers another collection of deep (in multiple ways) but frequently accessible songs, even as it forges ahead a bit in terms of advancing Okusami’s sound. Nothing’s Ever Fine doesn’t exactly hold the listener’s hand, giving the cold shoulder initially with thorny opening duo “Morning” and “Nightmare Machine”, but “The Last Summer” and “Beach Days (Alive Again)” eventually reveal Okusami’s urgent, frantic version of upbeat and catchy indie rock.

30. J. Marinelli – Putting the World to Rights

Release date: August 19th
Record label: ORG
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, folk punk, country punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Putting the World to Rights is far from the first record from Norway-by-way-of-West-Virginia’s James Marinelli, but the latest solo album from the lo-fi indie rock lifer feels like a major entry into his discography. Putting the World to Rights is “folk punk” in the sense that Marinelli uses an acoustic guitar, his Appalachian background, and no small amount of state-of-the-union invective to color his Guided by Voices-esque off-the-cuff pop music—the history lesson of “Antifa Grandpa” isn’t too difficult to grasp, but Marinelli is just as compelling spinning a more opaque yarn about “What Columbus Wants” or “Where They’d Have Us”.

29. Guided by Voices – Crystal Nuns Cathedral

Release date: March 4th
Record label: GBV, Inc.
Genre: Indie rock, post-punk, power pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Judging by both Crystal Nuns Cathedral and the also-on-this-list Tremblers and Goggles by Rank, Guided by Voices are in a heavier, denser mood as of late. I’m on board with it. While Crystal Nuns Cathedral does contain plenty of muscular guitar pop that this current iteration of Guided by Voices can easily churn out (see “Come North Together” and “Never Mind the List”, not to mention the title track), there’s a darkness to these dozen tunes that colors songs like towering opening track “Eye City” and the surprisingly dramatic “Climbing a Ramp”. As the band’s “new lineup” enters a half-decade of playing together, Robert Pollard and his collaborators sound as invigorated as ever.

28. Vintage Crop – Kibitzer

Release date: June 24th
Record label: Anti Fade/Upset the Rhythm/Weather Vane
Genre: Post-punk, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Geelong, Australia’s Vintage Crop have been tearing through their mix of ripping garage rock and talky post-punk since 2017, and their third full-length, Kibitzer, is perhaps their strongest collection of material yet. The band barrel through ten hooky but muscular pieces of egg punk over top of confident-as-ever observations from vocalist Jack Cherry. Kibitzer works as well as it does in large part because of how well-oiled Vintage Crop sound on these songs—particularly on rhythm-forward constructions like “Under Offer” and “Hold the Line”, kibitzing never sounded so good. (Read more)

27. The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field

Release date: September 16th
Record label: Carpark
Genre: Power pop, pop rock
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, CD, digital

Consistency is the nature of The Beths—I mean this in terms of their career, which has now featured three incredibly solid pop-rock records, and I also mean this with regards to Expert in a Dying Field, a more-than-worthy addition into their relatively small but rich discography. The Auckland band offer up a dozen power pop hits that balance wistfulness and exuberance deftly, but Expert in a Dying Field doesn’t feel too same-y, either; they hit different sub-sections of their range with the acoustic-strummed “I Want to Listen”, the zippy “Silence Is Golden”, and the chilly, unanswered final question of “2am”.

26. Non Bruises – Non Bruises

Release date: October 21st
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Indie rock, garage rock, psych rock, post-punk
Formats: Cassette, CD, digital

Non Bruises is a four-piece band comprised of a group of Cleveland music veterans, and their self-titled debut album does indeed sound like a record made by indie rock ringers. Non Bruises is the kind of humble but incredibly capable rock music that can shift from all-encompassing and wide-open to short and punchy without fundamentally changing its sound—fans of bands like Yo La Tengo, Silkworm, and Eleventh Dream Day will find a lot to appreciate here. The record casually, languidly moves through psychedelic workouts, breezy guitar pop, and lengthy slow-building jams with remarkable ease. (Read more)

Click here for:
Part One (100-76)
Part Two (75-51)
Part Four (25-1)

Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2022 (75-51)

Welcome to part two (of four) of Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of 2022! For any and all background info, see part one.

See also:
Part One (100-76)
Part Three (50-26)
Part Four (25-1)
Playlist with all albums (Spotify link) (Tidal link)

75. Spacemoth – No Past No Future

Release date: July 22nd
Record label: Wax Nine/Carpark
Genre: Space pop, experimental pop, krautrock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital

Spacemoth’s Maryam Qudus has amassed quite the resumé as a producer and engineer, interning at San Francisco’s Women’s Audio Mission and John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone before going on to produce everyone from Thao to Sad13. Her debut studio album as Spacemoth, unsurprisingly, has an excellent and unique sound—No Past No Future is a synth-heavy record that frequently rocks, dealing in hard-hitting programmed drums and Stereolab-esque analog “space pop” electronics but always serving Qudus’ pop songwriting.

74. Freakons – Freakons

Release date: March 25th
Record label: Fluff and Gravy
Genre: Folk, country
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Freakons is, naturally, a collaboration between Jon Langford and Sally Timms of The Mekons and Freakwater’s Catherine Irwin and Janet Bean (also of Eleventh Dream Day) with several ringers (Jean Cook, Anna Krippenstapel, Jim Elkington) getting in on the action as well. They have been playing together in some form for awhile now, but their self-titled debut record as a group is a must-listen for fans of protest folk music, as the two bands find solidarity in the shared coal-mining backgrounds of their states of origin (England and Kentucky). The American Chestnut Blight, railroad culture, deadly mining disasters, and organized labor all get their moment in the spotlight on Freakons.

73. Weak Signal – WAR&WAR

Release date: March 25th
Record label: Colonel
Genre: Psychedelic rock, garage rock, fuzz rock
Formats: Digital

March’s WAR&WAR follows up Bianca, Weak Signal’s sophomore album (originally released in 2020 and reissued last year), and on their latest, the New York trio of Sasha Vine, Tran, and Mike Bones still have it—”it” being quality guitar-heavy, psych-infused indie rock. There’s a cavernous quality to these tracks and vocal interplay that makes WAR&WAR sound like a fuzzier, edgier Yo La Tengo at times, and there’s also straightforward garage rock stompers like “Poor People” and “Don’t Think About It” that feel loose in a new way for Weak Signal.

72. This Is Lorelei – Falls Like Water Falls

Release date: February 7th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Indie pop, indie folk
Formats: Digital

Nate Amos may have been slightly less prolific as This Is Lorelei in 2022 compared to last year (“merely” a full-length record, a couple of EPs, and some one-off singles), but Falls Like Water Falls is perhaps Amos’ biggest statement he’s made under the name yet. The record (which Amos apparently found time to make in between full-lengths from the two bands he’s also in, Water from Your Eyes and My Idea) is a mix of weird airy minimalism (“Woof!”), Elliott Smith indie-folk (“He Was Leaving”), and sharp pop songs (“He Loves Me”) that feels like fully-realized in spite of the jumping around. 

71. Kiwi Jr. – Chopper

Release date: August 12th
Record label: Sub Pop
Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, 90s indie rock, synth rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital

Like many a guitar-forward 90s indie rock-inspired group does eventually, Kiwi Jr. have used their third record as their “pivot to synths” moment. It works better for them on Chopper than it has for most bands—instead of weakening and watering down their sound, their take on the genre is of the Cars-esque, garishly-accented new wave variety (probably aided by their producer, Dan Boeckner, no stranger to making forceful-sounding synth rock). The Kiwi Jr. songwriting of Cooler Returns and Football Money takes no hits here—“The Sound of Music” might be the most “Kiwi Jr.- sounding” song ever, and all ten of these songs feel fully realized.

70. Bad Heaven Ltd. – In Our House Now

Release date: January 28th
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, dream pop
Formats: Cassette, digital

Bad Heaven Ltd. is the solo project of Pennsylvania-based John Galm, and In Our House Now is his third album under the name since 2016. Galm is probably most famous for his cult emo group Snowing, but In Our House Now falls squarely into the category of “hazy, downcast indie rock” and sounds more like Hovvdy, Sparklehorse, and Grandaddy than anything else. Like the best records in this genre of music, Bad Heaven Ltd. avoids the common pratfalls of grayness and facelessness with memorable melodies and inspired instrumental choices from the get-go. Galm’s tender voice is a highlight throughout In Our House Now—it’s striking despite sounding humble and breathy, and is an essential part of these songs. (Read more)

69. EggS – A Glitter Year

Release date: November 4th
Record label: Prefect/Howlin Banana/Safe in the Rain
Genre: Jangle pop, indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Those of us who recall 1980s college rock fondly should do themselves a favor and check out A Glitter Year, the debut full-length record from Paris’ EggS. I read a Game Theory comparison for this band which intrigued me—I don’t really hear it, but the stuff it does actually remind me of (a louder Miracle Legion, Eleventh Dream Day with a saxophone) is all in the same ballpark and is bound to appeal to a similar audience (i.e., Rosy Overdrive readers). A Glitter Year is full of anthemic, loud indie guitar pop songs with just the right amount of vocal interplay.

68. Delivery – Forever Giving Handshakes

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Feel It/Spoilsport/Anti Fade
Genre: Garage rock, garage punk
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digita

The debut record from Melbourne, Australia’s Delivery is a garage rock tour de force, sounding sharp and well-honed with a live-in-studio feel that reflects the five-piece band’s heavy gigging that predated its recording. Forever Giving Handshakes demonstrates impressive range as well—it contains synths without it falling cleanly under “synthpunk” and offers up power pop and post-punk moments without either tipping the scales. It all adds up to a full-on forty-minute record with little-to-no fat on it, which is particularly impressive in a genre known for its brevity and brief spurts. (Read more)

67. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Toast

Release date: July 8th
Record label: Reprise
Genre: Country rock, folk rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

I suppose that Toast should go on the album proper list instead of the reissue/compilation one, considering as it was never issued in the first place and it isn’t a compilation. This “lost” Neil Young & Crazy Horse album was recorded and shelved in the early 2000s, with most of its songs eventually ending up on the not-very-good Are You Passionate?. Toast goes to show that Young was, in fact, on to something with these tracks after all, with the delicate opener “Quit”, blaring rocker “Standing in the Light of Love”, and the ten-minute, ascendant “Gateway of Love” all standing as 21st-century Neil highlights.

66. Big Nothing – Dog Hours

Release date: February 18th
Record label: Lame-O
Genre: 90s alt-rock, punk rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

The members of Philadelphia’s Big Nothing have put their time in with various bands for a few years now; that is to say, they’ve earned their “indie punk band goes mellow alt-rock” moment. The ten tracks of Dog Hours evoke a very specific period of beginning-of-the-90s “college rock”—bands like late-period Replacements/early Paul Westerberg’s solo material, The Lemonheads, and Buffalo Tom. There’s a weariness to Dog Hours, but it doesn’t sacrifice hooks or pop songwriting either—it makes messiness and uncertainty sound simple and breezy. (Read more)

65. Kids on a Crime Spree – Fall in Love Not in Line

Release date: January 21st
Record label: Slumberland
Genre: Noise pop, indie pop
Formats: Vinyl, CD, cassette, digital

Bay Area noise pop trio Kids on a Crime Spree have been kicking around for a decade or so, but it took until 2022 for a full-length record of theirs to emerge, and Fall in Love Not in Line doesn’t disappoint. Plenty of fuzzy, reverb-y pop songs that reflect the Bay Area trio’s “singles band” past abound, including the opening one-two punch of “Karl Hardel Building” and the brisk “When Can I See You Again?”, although Mario Hernandez and crew also find time in Fall in Love Not in Line’s 25-minute runtime to expand their sound a little bit while still staying at the top of their loud indie pop game. (Read more)

64. Dazy – OUTOFBODY

Release date: October 28th
Record label: Lame-O/Convulse
Genre: Power pop, fuzz rock
Formats: Vinyl, cassette, digital

James Goodson’s Dazy exploded onto the scene last year with the contents of the 24-song MAXIMUMBLASTSUPERLOUD compilation, but OUTOFBODY is the one-man-power-pop band’s first attempt to present their sound in a dozen-track, one-statement format. Dazy’s debut record offers up big, hooky fuzz rock from the get-go (the opening trio of songs is as good a pop run as anything else from this year), and it also makes the requisite “probing a bit beyond their one (admittedly very good) trick” moves with the quiet “Inside Voice”, the melancholic “Motionless Parade”, and the multi-layered closing track “Gone”, among others. (Read more)

63. Options – Swimming Feeling

Release date: July 1st
Record label: Self-released
Genre: Slowcore, emo-indie-rock
Formats: Cassette, digital

The eighth album by Chicago’s Seth Engel under the Options moniker falls a bit closer to the chilly, serious indie rock of 2020’s Wind’s Gonna Blow and Window’s Open and further from the playful bedroom pop of 2021’s On the Draw, but there’s elements of that one here too, as well as songs that don’t fit neatly into either of those two camps. Swimming Feeling has a downcast but punchy alt-rock sound to it, with songs like “Toast” and “The Bend” chopping through solid Engel vocal melodies. Like most Options records, Swimming Feeling is a subtle one, but it reveals its distinguishing personality traits over time. (Read more)

62. Expert Timing – Stargazing

Release date: September 23rd
Record label: Count Your Lucky Stars
Genre: Power pop, emo, pop punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Orlando, Florida’s Expert Timing make a version of self-described “bubble-grunge power pop” that’s emotional but catchy in a way that reminds me of 90s indie punk bands like Superchunk and Heatmiser. Stargazing is the group’s second album and first as a four-piece, and the group take advantage of the extra pair of hands to rocket through eleven sharp pop songs. Expert Timing remains led by the husband and wife duo of Jeff and Katrina Snyder, both of whom trade off on lead vocals and provide their share of highlights on Stargazing. (Read more)

61. Sarah Shook & the Disarmers – Nightroamer

Release date: February 18th
Record label: Abeyance/Thirty Tigers
Genre: Alt-country, country rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers broke through in 2018 with the excellent Years, and after some label troubles and pandemic-related delays, Nightroamer picks up where the group left off four years ago. A lot of Nightroamer finds the North Carolina-based band allowing Shook’s songwriting to stretch out just a little more than in the past, but there’s no mistaking the record for anything less than the work of more-than-capable country rockers. It’s not exactly an uplifting record, but Nightroamer can be a comfort both in soundtracking darker moments (“It Doesn’t Change Anything”, “Stranger”) and in delivering genuine surprises (“I Got This”).

60. Joan Kelsey – Standing Out on the Grass

Release date: November 11th
Record label: Dear Life
Genre: Indie folk
Formats: CD, cassette, digital

Seattle singer-songwriter Joan Kelsey’s newest album is an extraordinarily accessible and listenable indie folk record, carried heavily by their comforting, melodic vocals over top of humble-sounding but deftly constructed instrumentals. Standing Out on the Grass is openly a record about grief, written in the aftermath of Kelsey losing a loved one to suicide, the signs of which are present throughout the album—songs like opening track “Alone” are as pleasant of a listen as they are heavy lyrically and emotionally. Kelsey is the unambiguous center of the album, their voice always being complimented by the various instrumental flourishes rather than being drowned out. (Read more)

59. Young Guv – GUV III

Release date: March 11th
Record label: Run for Cover
Genre: Power pop, jangle pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

I greatly enjoyed GUV I and GUV II, the twin 2019 releases from Young Guv, the power pop project of former Fucked Up guitarist Ben Cook. I’m happy to report that GUV III is solid as well (as is its follow-up, GUV IV, which also could’ve made this list). Even for a record made by someone as clearly inspired by pop music as Cook, GUV III is wildly packed with could’ve-been hit singles. Every time I listen to GUV III, a different song sticks out—sometimes it’s the soaring chorus of “Only Wanna See U Tonight”, the melodic guitar washing-over of “Lo Lo Lonely”, or the zippy “Same Old Fool”.

58. Vundabar – Devil for the Fire

Release date: April 15th
Record label: Gawk
Genre: Post-punk, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital

I never think of Vundabar as one of my favorite bands or anything, but the Boston band deserve commendation for their recent string of solid post-punk-revival-indebted records delivered like clockwork every other year. The follow-up to 2020’s Either Light (which made my year-end list) finds Brandon Hagen, Zack Abramo, and Drew McDonald probing some surprisingly dark and atmospheric territory, but there’s plenty of classic Vundabar nervy pop music on Devil for the Fire, too. The opening duo of “Aphasia” and “Ringing Bell” starts the record off on a subtle note, but by the time “The Gloam” and “Nosferatu” roll around midway through the record, Vundabar are letting “loose” in the coiled way they do.

57. Superchunk – Wild Loneliness

Release date: February 25th
Record label: Merge
Genre: Power pop, indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

Wild Loneliness is, unsurprisingly, a good Superchunk album (I don’t think they make any other kind). Its mid-tempo, Portastatic-y surface make it a bit less immediate than 2018’s What a Time to Be Alive, but I think this one will have even more long-term staying power. Its ten tracks take me back to Here’s to Shutting Up and (especially) Come Pick Me Up, and Mac McCaughan’s lyrics keep just enough of the political-mindedness of What a Time to Be Alive, but here they’re tempered with a distance and from-a-remove analysis that fits well with the rest of the record’s pensive atmosphere.

56. The Tisburys – Exile on Main Street

Release date: September 16th
Record label: Sacks of Phones
Genre: Power pop
Formats: CD, digital

The third record from Philadelphia’s The Tisburys is an expansive album with a host of discernible influences that remains fresh-sounding. Containing shades of power pop, jangle pop, 90s radio-pop-rock, the heartland rock that seems to populate their home city, and Bruce Springsteen, Exile on Main Street (yes, they really called it that) provides an exciting backdrop for singer-songwriter Tyler Asay’s compelling lyrics. It’s an incredibly consistent record, with some of the less-showy, more-likely-to-be-overlooked songs popping out on repeat listens against the bigger, saxophone-aided “hits”. (Read more)

55. 40 Watt Sun – Perfect Light

Release date: January 21th
Record label: Cappio/Svart
Genre: Slowcore
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital

I was partially drawn to 40 Watt Sun’s Perfect Light because the album artwork and group name reminded me of Mark Eitzel’s 60 Watt Silver Lining, and, well—the record doesn’t disappoint on this front. Patrick Walker, the mind behind 40 Watt Sun, apparently has a doom metal past, but Perfect Light is all gorgeously ornate, heartbreaking slowcore. Most of the record’s eight songs stretch beyond eight minutes long, with Walker’s strong but vulnerable vocals finding and holding on to striking melodies over top of ebbing and flowing piano and guitar.

54. Guided by Voices – Tremblers and Goggles by Rank

Release date: July 1st
Record label: GBV, Inc.
Genre: 90s indie rock, post-punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Tremblers and Goggles by Rank is the fourteenth Guided by Voices album since Robert Pollard re-revived the name in 2016, and it’s the third in a row to point in the direction of more focused, longer, and denser songs. Tremblers only has ten tracks (a GBV first), meaning several of them stretch into levels rarely seen on their records. The album contains plenty of proggy buildups and detours (closing track “Who Wants to Go Hunting?” is a six-minute iceberg), although as the opening two tracks show, Robert Pollard and crew can still be quite catchy in this mode.

53. The High Water Marks – Proclaimer of Things

Release date: February 4th
Record label: Minty Fresh
Genre: Power pop, shoegaze, noise pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Proclaimer of Things came out less than a year and a half after late 2020’s Ecstasy Rhymes, but if The High Water Marks are trying to make up the thirteen year gap between that record and the one before it, then that’s fine with me. The Oslo and Kentucky band’s latest record is a spirited noise pop album, burying melodies in the lightly psychedelic fuzz of tracks like “We Are Going to Kentucky” and the title track. The High Water Marks’ two bandleaders, Hilarie Sidney and Per Ole Bratset, take turns delivering highlights in songs like “Jenny” and “The Best Day”. These original Elephant Six folks are still at it, and still have a lot left in them.

52. Russel the Leaf – My Street

Release date: January 22nd
Record label: Records from Russ
Genre: Power pop, indie pop
Formats: Cassette, digital

Even though My Street commits towards more of a “rock band” sound, Russel the Leaf’s first of two 2022 records contains plenty of the Brian Wilson-esque studio pop that marked last year’s Then You’re Gunna Wanna. Album opener “Listen to Me” and the violin-aided “Little Italy, Again” are both piano-led baroque pop as clear-eyed as ever, although Russel the Leaf’s Evan Marré also pulls out bouncy acoustic, almost folk-pop songs like the exquisite title track or the incredibly catchy “Catch the Spell”. The ironic grin of highlight “Oh, No” is the best example of Marré’s lyrical gift of creating catchy nosedive scenarios. (Read more)

51. Tin-Ear – Cadastral Maps

Release date: September 9th
Record label: Home Late/Gentle Reminder
Genre: Noise pop, indie punk, emo, twee
Formats: Cassette, digital

One of the more intriguing under-the-radar bands that Rosy Overdrive discovered this year, Tin-Ear is from Prince Edward Island (which is a very cool fact in its own right), and their debut record Cadastral Maps is a roaring, fuzzy emo record that could at various spots be called “math rock” and “twee”, not to mention the fact that it contains a nine-minute song at the end of the record. Tin-Ear’s pop songs are odd and unbalanced but still catchy—”Tin Life” gallops in a runaway manner, and “Fling Straw Man” opens up Cadastral Maps by sticking gems in its start-stop structure.

Click here for:
Part One (100-76)
Part Three (50-26)
Part Four (25-1)