5 new releases we love: A luminous rap record, a rejuvenating prelude to summer, and more
Four Tet, “Teenage Birdsong”
[Text, April 17]
In all the excitement surrounding Coachella weekend one—Donald Glover and Rihanna’s Guava Island, Aphex Twin’s mind-melting Mojave Tent closer, even Homecoming’s arrival on Netflix—it’d be easy to miss a quieter surprise like “Teenage Birdsong,” the new track Four Tet dropped this week alongside a recording of his own Saturday set. Though lower-key than the decimating Nelly Furtado edit that finally saw its official release in March, the new song finds the British DJ-producer at his wide-eyed best, blending organic and electronic elements in an absorbing arrangement; it could easily live alongside New Energy highlights like “Lush” and “You Are Loved.” “Teenage Birdsong” feels perfectly timed, too, as a rejuvenating prelude to summer: fleeting and sun-dappled, with a blithe mid-tempo groove and melodies plucked right out of the budding forest canopy. [Kelsey J. Waite]
PUP, Morbid Stuff
[Little Dipper/Rise, April 5]
Morbid Stuff’s been out a few weeks now, but the ringing PUP’s latest set off in our ears clangs louder with every spin. Drunk, hooky, and fucking furious, the Toronto four-piece’s third album is a torch-wielding mob crashing down on the toxicity of the industry, of codependency, of our own self-pity, the latter spewing like a split vein throughout. What Morbid Stuff gets so right, though, is the caterwauling joy of the downward spiral, the sense that self-destruction is fun as hell and self-rehabilitation is a total drag. As always, the band’s soaring, shout-along melodies pop like fireworks, Stefan Babcock and Steve Sladkowski trading verses as if they were lit cherry bombs. It’s a cleansing listen, honestly—especially in an era where anger floods our ears and eyeballs on an hourly basis—with tracks like “Scorpion Hill” painting a portrait of utter desolation before “Bloody Mary, Kate And Ashley” summons Satan to consume us in fire. “Sibling Rivalry” and “Bare Hands,” meanwhile, combine unmitigated fury and pop bliss in ways that nearly no other modern rock band feels capable. Burn it all down, for Christ’s sake, and never stop laughing. [Randall Colburn]