Each month, we as listeners are inundated with many new releases to absorb. It's a blessing in the grand scheme, to have so much to potentially discover and love, but it can be a lot to take in and sort through. To alleviate this stressor, I will be picking a few of my favorite albums each month released during the month prior that you shouldn't skip. As we get deeper into October, these are the albums from September that remain strong on my personal rotation.
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Anti-
September 6, 2024
The incredible rise to indie stardom MJ Lenderman has experienced during the release and roll-out of his latest effort, Manning Fireworks, is something I didn't predict, but it's certainly not undeserved. The Wednesday-guitarist and singer-songwriter, Jake Lenderman, has been releasing music under the moniker of MJ Lenderman since 2017. Developing his sound from low-fi tape recordings to full-fledged rock and country band arrangements, his voice as a songwriter and skills as a guitarist take full shape on his newest record. Lenderman as a lyricist sustains a rough-around-the-edges quality. He's blunt, but always honest. Even when a lyric could easily be interpreted as cynical or self-depreciating, there's always a raw feeling that feels like an admission of truth and vulnerability. This doesn't eliminate the space for humor within some of these heavy feelings, that is also present at many points during the record. One of my favorite tracks, "Joker Lips," includes the line, "Kahlua shooter, DUI scooter / With a rolling start down the hill 'cause this morning's tryna kill me." The beauty of this album is his straightforward sense of voice and sound; it only gets better the more it's listened to. The more space you give to that intricate balance that exists between the vulnerability and humor, the more it can be understood.
Favorite Tracks: Manning Fireworks, Joker Lips, Rudolph, You Don't Know The Shape I'm In
Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
Warp
September 6, 2024
To me, experimental jazz is always the best kind of jazz, and Nala Sinephro continues to be one of the most forward thinking musicians creating it. Throughout Sinephro's sophomore album, Endlessness, completely produced, arranged, composed, and engineered herself, we are able to fully immerse ourselves into her ethereal soundscape. She states that this album is a deep dive into the cycle of existence, celebrating cycles of birth and rebirth. This is evident throughout each track's arrangement and their cyclical composition. The common denominator and in ways, thesis and lifeline of the album, is her modulated synth arpeggios. A cast of musicians join to expand on these circular sounds including Morgan Simpson, James Mollison, Lyle Barton, Nubya Garcia, to name a few, as well as 21 string players. Each tracks grows as more instrumentation joins the picture, expanding upon the synth movements with saxophones, string sections, percussion, as well as ambient noise. Each track has a beginning, middle, and end, leading the listener through an entire story guided by both organic and electronic instrumentation. All in all, this album is entrancing and dream-like, it's all too cinematic. It's almost an album that's too good to be true.
Favorite Tracks: Continuum 2, Continuum 3, Continuum 8, Continuum 9
Nilüfer Yanya - My Method Actor
Ninja Tune
September 13, 2024
For an album tinged with uncertainty and sputtering bursts of anxiety, Nilüfer Yanya never sounds anything other than self-assured. The singer-songwriter and guitarist's newest album, My Method Actor, revolves around the idea of memory and how it shapes how we view each facet of our lives. In an interview earlier this year, Yanya touched on the significance of the title. "I was researching method acting – and from what I read, it’s based on finding this one memory in your life, a life-altering, life-changing memory. The reason why some people find method acting traumatic and maybe not safe mentally, is because you’re always going back to that moment," she said. The album's track list ushers us into her mind, where she serves as that method actor. Throughout each track, we relive those emotions with her, taking us back to how the experiences that inspired them were originally felt. The true juxtaposition of this album is how these songs, which elaborate on uncertainty, anger, and sometimes despair, can sound so cool. Led by plucked acoustic guitar, relaxed vocal lines, and organic and understated percussion, there's a sense of safety and escapism into her realm. Perhaps we are reliving anxiety and hardships, but Yanya showcases the experience and safety that comes from the ability to reflect on those experiences.
Favorite Tracks: Method Actor, Binding, Ready For Sun (touch), Call It Love
Allegra Krieger - Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine
Double Double Whammy
September 13, 2024
Allegra Krieger's songwriting has always felt unbridled and honest, but on her second album for Double Double Whammy, her sonic soundscape feels on par with the grit of her writing. I loved Krieger's last album, I Keep My Feet on The Fragile Plane. It contained everything that makes a folk album compelling, including a strong lyrical ability and no hesitation to showcase a raw sense of self. Songs like "Making Sense Of," and "Low" remain personal favorites and staples in her catalog. All the qualities that make Fragile Plane special and worthwhile are present on Infinity Machine in multitudes, including instrumentation that swells with power, the percussion and electric guitars wail at times, but always leave room for Krieger's songwriting to shine through. There's almost a math rock-esque riff on the track, "How Do You Sleep?" where she details the greed of man. She has a unique ability to hone in on interpersonal relationships and their intricacies, but also take note of her larger and more general surroundings and accurately pinpoint the truth of them. The more frank Krieger becomes, the more her worldview takes shape, and the more others realize how true her perspective is.
Favorite Tracks: Never Arriving, Came, Into Eternity, How Do You Sleep?
fantasy of a broken heart - Feats of Engineering
Dots Per Inch
September 27, 2024
fantasy of a broken heart's debut album, Feats of Engineering, is a breakthrough for members, Al Nardo and Bailey Wollowitz, who have been creating music together since 2017, working as touring musicians in bands like Sloppy Jane, Water From Your Eyes, and This Is Lorelei along the way. This record blends alternative rock, dream pop, and prog-rock elements into its 36-minute runtime. For an album so tightly packed, there is always room for moments filled with elongated instrumental breakdowns and musical rabbit holes that sputter with piano arpeggios, plunder-phonic guitar riffs and discordant string sections. Each leads to another movement the listener wasn't expecting. It's an album that feels so familiar in terms of its sonic palette, blending those classic 1970s prog sounds with current alternative rock, but somehow the culmination of these conflicting elements allows the band's forward thinking sound to be instantly recognizable. The difference between Nardo's soft soprano vocals and Wollowitz's baritone creates a sense of dissonance that only amplifies the theatrical elements of the album. This is particularly notable on "Doughland," and the title track. The heightened sense of reality and nonsensical visuals painted only further the emotional highs of the album, showcasing that even our most outlandish feelings are rooted in reality, even if that reality often feels otherworldly.
Favorite Tracks: Loss, Doughland, Ur Heart Stops, Catharsis