If you’re reading this later on, know that this post came in late, LATE June. It is way overdue. I’m not really sure what happened over the last two months. Even looking at my listening history, it just seems like a void. I got sick with a non-covid illness early on, and was really taken by that, along with planning for my first big trip since 2019. I dunno. Maybe it’s the world. Can’t be listening to new stuff all the time. Either way, here it is. Thanks to all the artists featured here.
Alright now THIS is what I’m talkin’ about. After a few quiet months, April gifted us with some truly great, memorable albums that I’ve been spending a ton of time with. One comfortably slid up into my Top 5 of the year (billy woods), some I’ve been binging heavily over the last week as I’ve written this (Evan J Cartwright, MJ Lenderman), and the rest have been steady favorites I’ve returned to time and time again when I don’t feel like thinking of something new to listen to. Lots of lovely stuff to usher in nicer weather. Thank goodness.
When I’ve listened to a song around 20 times over the span of a week, I think it’s only justice that the song gets its own post on the blog. This is the case with Maria Chiara Argirò’s “Clouds”, one of the early singles off her upcoming LP Forest City, out May 6 via Innovative Leisure. It’s hypnotic as all hell, and I anticipate if you’re into it you won’t be able to stop listening either.
Y’all know I’m a sucker for good, innovative and infectious synth pop. Primer, aka Alyssa Midcalf, paints those qualities in spades on her sophomore album Incubator, out today via Egghunt Records. There are a whole host of tracks I could have chosen to feature here in a standalone post, but I’m definitely a fan of the most recent single “Feel The Way I Do”.
It took some time, but I finally got through my to-listen-to list of records from March 2022 I wanted to check out before pressing submit on another installment of Recommended Albums. Of course, the unending predicament is that there are SO many albums that get added to the list as I get through it, so through a sheer numbers perspective, it’s like I’m making no progress. But these albums are not just boxes to check, they’re artistic statements. Clearly I enjoyed a great deal of music from March, as you’ll see below in my tracks section (which is very long).
To comment on the state of music in 2022 thus far though – I’d say that there is one album from March that I truly love, and another that is growing on me alarmingly quickly. The other eight are fantastic LPs that I’ve listened to multiple times, but I’m not sure if they’ll take the journey with me to the end of the year. Nevertheless, you should listen to everything here, from confessional folk, to heady French grooves, to exuberantly weird punk, to new records from Warm Visions forever-favorites Aldous Harding and Destroyer. And don’t forget to peep my favorite songs below that and follow my Spotify playlist.
This track has been stuck in my head for a week now, so I thought: might as well share with the dear readers of Warm Visions: The Blog: The Musical: The Remix. “Natural Actors” is the lead track from the upcoming debut EP from Blunt Chunks, the project helmed by Toronto musician Caitlin Woelfle-O’Brien. Woelfle-O’Brien also plays in Toronto band Jaunt, and the EP features players from other Canadian indie staples like Broken Social Scene, The Weather Station and more. But enough about the credentials, let’s get into the TUNE.
Keeping this one quick, although I’ll try and go into more of a deep dive soon. Monotonprodukt 07 is a record I came across in my 1980s digging process and bizarrely haven’t really seen much anywhere else about it. Granted it’s a weirdo, minimal synth record from the early 1980s, but I’d think this thing would be more recognized than it is now. Maybe it is and I’m lost.
You are now entering a pro-Joan Shelley zone. Be prepared to listen to some of the best contemporary folk music around. Joan Shelley is a pro at this, and she’s got a new record coming soon to prove it. The Spur is arriving June 24 via No Quarter Records, and features contributions from Bill Callahan, Meg Baird and more.
Realized I had never given this track its own standalone post – not once in the entire 12-year history of this blog. “Bermuda” is a track worth posting about, I think. A highlight of my early blog-posting days, but arriving a bit on the late side on the entirety of the era, Kisses’ were a pretty buzzy band that dropped their debut LP, The Heart of the Nightlife, in late 2010. I had “Bermuda” on my “Best Tracks of 2010” list allllll the way back then. It’s stuck around in my rotation of favorite 2010s tracks ever since.
Should I make Shoegaze Tuesday a thing? Nah, I’m too disorganized for that. Either way, I’ve got some white-hot dream pop for you noise addicts out there via Los Angeles band Mo Dotti and their new EP Guided Imagery, out now via Smoking Room Records. The opening track will give you all you need, but strap in to experience the rest.
Warm Visions 