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Girl Noise with Scowl, Um Jennifer?, Lambrini Girls, Beach Bunny & Sleigh Bells: Rapid Fire Reviews

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This week's rapid fire reviews are, for lack of a better term, called "girl noise," which is the only way I could think to cover the punk, hardcore, pop punk, indie punk, and noise pop that makes up this group of artists. I've grasped at thinner straws than this for rapid-fire reviews in the past. Enjoy. Are We All Angels  - Scowl Scowl are a California hardcore band whose reputation as a ferocious live act preceded me ever hearing their studio material after their 2021 debut missed me. In fact, it was one of those live performances that first got me interested in the band, and that hype built alongside some of the singles from this record. In particular, it was “Not Hell, Not Heaven” that really grabbed me and worked as an excellent proof of concept of how the band can bounce between their most pop-friendly ambition and bombastic tension-inducing urges. That gave way to “B.A.B.E.,” which arguably executes the formula every bit as well.  If you follow the discourse su...
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Iris Silver Mist - Jenny Hval: Review

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Review by Lavender:  Jenny Hval is a Norwegian singer-songwriter whose career stretches back more than 15 years and is packed full of poetic, gentle, introspective, and often lightly conceptual projects. While she's had her hand in several side projects and collaborations, her best work comes in her core series of solo albums, which goes pretty much without a miss in the bunch. Listing the highlights would basically involve me telling you about each of the 5 projects she dropped between 2013 and 2022, all of which are absolutely worth checking out.  With a pedigree like that, there was no reason to go into Iris Silver Mist  expecting anything but continued excellence, and that's what I got with the brilliant lead single "To be a rose." It was announced alongside the reveal that the album would be smell-themed and even pulls its title from a perfume. That obviously shows up on "Rose" where Jenny begins to unpack how specific smells can evoke such vivid nostal...
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Pirouette - Model/Actriz: Review

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Review by Lavender: Model/Actriz are a New York industrial outfit whose combination of intimate whispered vocals and pulsating metallic sound has garnered more than a few comparisons to Nine Inch Nails. Back in 2022, they released one of the best debut albums of this entire decade with Dogsbody , immediately capitalizing on all the hype they built up. Now, 3 years later, they've returned with a sophomore effort on the back of some truly spectacular singles. On Pirouette , they build on all of their momentum to soar even higher than before with a record whose vulnerability only heightens the tension of its propulsive, masterful instrumentation.  Speaking of those singles which I liked initially, but became even more fond of within the context of the record. "Cinderella" kicked things off as a lead single and introduced a newfound vulnerability to the band's already existent candor. They pay it off in such dramatic fashion with eerie guitar tones and intimate whispers o...
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viagr aboys - Viagra Boys: Review

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Review by Lavender: Viagra Boys are a Swedish post-punk band who began a crawl up to critical darlings in the late 2010s. They broke through with a grimy, guttural intensity to their music and a lyrical style that gives new meaning to the word bizarre. The band had improved with every single release leading up to their third album,  Cave World , in 2022 . I'm still a HUGE fan of that record and its ability to weave together a coherent narrative about the dumbest and most degraded parts of society through a series of stories that are all kind of about being de-evolving to a monkey. That's the kind of shit you're getting into with this band. For that reason, I was pretty excited for this record, and even though the band doesn't quite one-up their excellent predecessor, I'm still very happy with what they delivered.  This album gets off to an absolutely remarkable start with its trio of singles reminding me exactly why I enjoy them so much in the first place. First up ...
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Indie Catchup With Destroyer, Spellling, Julien Baker/Torres, Panchiko, & DIrty Projectors: Rapid Fire Reviews

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It's time to loop back around on some indie music. At one point or another I absolutely LOVED all 5 of the artists we're going to talk about today, but in an already extremely busy 2025 so far, their newest material fell by the wayside. To amend artists who have made music I love so much, I'm covering them all here instead.  Dan's Boogie  - Destroyer In the early to mid-2010s Dan Bejar, AKA Destroyer, released a pair of albums that really should serve as benchmarks for indie pop and sophisti-pop. Kaputt  and Poison Season  are both staggeringly good albums that till sound as delightfully fresh and lush today as they did when they came out. Since then Dan has shared a few records I liked, most notably his darker 2020 record Have We Met , but hasn't quite reached the same highs he once did. That wasn't helped when the lead single "Bologna" was a huge letdown for me and one of my least favorite Destroyer singles ever. Thankfully, the era bounced back from...
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Forever Is A Feeling - Lucy Dacus (Guest Review)

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  Review by k tessa Melancholy sapphic troubadour Lucy Dacus could probably make a good song out of the ways I feel about her. I admire her immensely, both for her consistency as an artist and her courage as a soft, butch-y celebrity in our contemporary culture. I think she's an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter. But (and it breaks my heart to say this), much as I've tried to make it work, I don't know that I've ever loved her. Such emotions would fit right in on her fourth solo album, Forever Is A Feeling . Typically, my apathy would be unremarkable - but Dacus clearly expects her listeners to feel, very deeply, about this record. Its opening track, "Calliope Prelude", is a brief crescendo of soaring violins. It's named after the greatest of the Muses from Greek myth, the one who inspired The Iliad and other epic works. The cover presents Dacus herself inside an ornate gold frame, draped in golden silk like a deific Renaissance subject, the album...
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SABLE, fABLE - Bon Iver: Review

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  Review by Lavender:  Bon Iver is one of the most acclaimed indie folk artists of the past 20 years. Helmed by Justin Vernon, the band's first two albums were beloved folk darlings of the indie blog era. Their next two albums in 2016 and 2019 were much more divisive, largely on account of their interpolation of electronic elements. Personally, though, I MUCH prefer those two records to the band's colder, sleepier early work. Their 5th album SABLE, fABLE  brings these two styles together while also introducing a sunny optimism and saccharine sweetness they've never had before. The result may very well be the best crop of Bon Iver tracks yet.  I'll start this review off by saying that the album's first four songs are excellent. They include the wonderful single S P E Y S I D E  that dropped last year and was released alongside the other songs that start the record off as an EP. I'm skipping a full breakdown of the songs here because I reviewed that EP last year, ...
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