As she’s navigated the various colours she could take her pop, Ashe feels the most at home on a country-tinged glam 70s feeling on her latest album. Where it can show its influences loudly, it often brings enough attitude and endearing honesty to set itself apart from the pack. Blending a bit of Elton John glam and modern pop vocalist swagger, “Stop the Wedding!” has a dynamic kick, with Ashe trying to give a mix of swing and inspiring rushes of energy in the mix. “Lasso the Moon” has a more colourful mélange of sounds, bringing a disco luster to a chagrin song with tons of punchy moments. The sound hits a folk-country pop blend with an equal dose of Elton-esque overtones again on “Love Bomb,” feeling like a modern return to tones that would feel just as at home at a roller disco as they would at a saloon. While she loses some of her more distinct flavours on “Funeral,” there’s a more personal touch to the lyrics and an intimate touch to the vocals that feel more subdued and charming.
Mixing an early- to mid-career Lady Gaga charge with synths and electronics fleshed out in ways only she can, Allie X takes us to a dark, eerie club on her latest single. Adding a little Halloween menace, the synths and vocals blend light autotune and minor keys to make a heavy and unnatural world around the whole track. The song is dripping with occultism, death and lusty dancing, making for a sound you feel dirty for loving. All this together feels like “Dead Man’s Party” for the goth club generation, with a dash of ecstasy and launchpad-DIY pop thrown in to make it feel more human.
For as many times as you hear a new punk sound that sets your soul ablaze, bands like Gurriers manage to find a way to do it again in a fresh way on their latest album. Angry, chaotic and loud, but deep in its production, this record is like a tornado on tape. As it teeters on a knife’s edge with its tense verse production, the heavy drops of “Nobody’s Coming to Save You” set the album off with concussive force, as every roar feels like a leap into the void. “Party Lines” mixes Idles and Franz Ferdinand punk with infectious dance beats in a way that would make DFA Records blush, and pushes both energies to their loud, frantic and deadly ends. This howl and shriek continue on the kinetic “Shades,” where the guitars are constantly burning so hot before the booming wails that it sounds like they’re branding scars into the tape as the song goes on. “Waiting for Fisher” is a breakneck shredder, constantly adding more jagged blades to its blaring assault, sending you into a moshing frenzy from the first note.
As they merge their latest London club sound with some of the more 90s-influenced tones of their mixtape, Confidence Man finds an interesting middle ground on “Higher.” The sounds are smooth and intoxicating, leading you through an exotic tunnel of rushing electronic wonder. The tempo gets you moving, but always feels just relaxed enough to lend itself to a “Jet Set Radio”-like glide on some roller skates. The only setback is that the production is polished so tight that it can often feel flat going into what should be raucous choruses, particularly with the vocals lean to a DJ-ready mid-range. Alternatively, that’s what makes the key change and howling kick into the finale so fun, as the track evolves from a daze to a full-on rave.
With every album, Caroline Rose has pushed more of an “I don’t care” attitude and slowly let her music follow suit to match that swagger. Her latest album feels like the full realization of this shift after years of steps and changes, resulting in a sound that feels like an artist as hungry and excited as ever to make music. Halfway between a country twang and a snappy garage-rock yowl, “Yip Yip Yow” feels like the snappy and glitchy rock you get from someone knocking out a hungry debut, and Rose nails it naturally. Rose finesses this sound into something with more radiating colours on “Chow Mein,” hitting a sprawling rush of a tempo while also hitting tones that feel like if St. Vincent was wearing a cowboy hat. “Valery (Please don’t be mad at me)” is dire and exciting, with Rose screaming out like the love of her life’s affection depends on it, and you want to shout back with her. Things slip into a DIY dance-punk on “Hello Again, Jim,” with Rose taking a bass-driven and stuttering vocal style to push an angry and rainbow pop track through your brain with force.
