Rock Finale with Elias Ronnenfelt, Japandroids, Poppy, The Cure, and Touche Amore

We're reaching that point at the end of the year where I'm grasping at any possible straw to put together projects I wanna cover before 2024 is out. This time we're taking the most meaningless of genre defiers, rock, and basing it around that to review 5 very different-sounding albums that I meant to cover earlier in the year, enjoy. <3

Heavy Glory - Elias Ronnenfelt

Iceage was one of the most innovative and electric post-punk bands of the 2010s and while their 2020 record Seek Shelter struck a chord with me, it didn't quite seem to make the same amount of noise as some of its predecessors. Regardless, their lead singer Elias Ronnenfelt has a pretty distinct voice and vocal style, which had me pretty interested in the direction he would take his debut solo album. That was confounded by a crop of singles I'm pretty fond of, highlighted by the most Iceage-sounding of the bunch, "Worm Grew A Spine." I've also grown more fond of the folksier Dylan-esque "Like Lovers Do" since I first heard it and I think it's a great way to kick the record off. 

Among my favorite deep cuts are some of the more sauntering tracks where the instrumentals get their jangle on and Elias develops the eerie charisma of a lounge singer. "Doomsday Childsplay" is an early example of basically this exact formula played perfectly. "Sound of Confusion" starts slow but eventually revs up into quite an energetic and electric guitar-tinged rambling jam. That isn't to say that none of the ballads here click, and the tracklist does the record a favor by separating some of the slower quieter moments. "Soldier Song" dropped as a single for the record and while I wasn't head over heels for it at the time, it serving as the exhale after "Worm" feels just right. "River Of Madeline" is another highlight among the deep cuts first and foremost because of the surprisingly raw presentation of the instrumentation which I find completely infectious. 

I wouldn't describe Hevay Glory as a particularly thrilling start for Elias as a solo artist, but it is absolutely consistent. His songwriting and lyricism has a bassline intrigue that's matched by a much more gentle approach to instrumentation than Iceage ever allowed him. Nothing he does is specifically flashy, but all of the little things are done right and they add up over the course of a full album to pretty strong results. 7/10

Fate & Alcohol - Japandroids

Canadian garage rock duo Japandroids have been a band for 15 years and this is just their 4th album, as well as being their final release before breaking up. The good part of that is that the bend's first two albums, especially their excellent sophomore album Celebration Rock, still hit as hard as ever. Sure, there's a vintage corniness and occasional dad rock flavors to their style, but they also manage to occasionally hit on a youthful freedom that still feels so intoxicating. Unfortunately the last time we heard from that band was in 2017 when they dropped their 3rd album, a pretty underwhelming effort that saw them feeling older than ever. 

I really wasn't sure how to approach this final album, especially after the first two singles. The project led off with "Chicago" a corny but admittedly pretty roaring rock tribute that I like quite a bit. But the second single "D&T" was a difficult to listen to chant-along piece of frat rock that reminded me of all the reasons why some people just don't like Japandroids. Thankfully there are some deep cuts that genuinely rock. "Alice" is this driving roaring piece of garage rock and even if the Alice In Wonderland metaphor at its core is a bit heavy-handed it goes in line with the almost adorable earnestness of all the lyrics on this song and the entire album. "A Gaslight Anthem" features a vocal performance that felt a little dramatic the first time I heard it but with repeat listens it start to feel more and more appropriate as the refrains also started to dig their claws into my brain. 

But ultimately even when these songs are at their best they exist in the really narrow scope of fist-pumping dad rock that Japandroids have transformed into over the years. I'm not too pretentious to point out the moments where I enjoy it, but the line between adorably earnest and the corniest thing I've heard all year is razor-thin and Fate & Alcohol is basically playing jump rope with it. In one sense, that may be a fitting finale for a band that sparked similar debate for their entire career. But I can't help but think this moment should be at least as triumphant as they were when they first broke through. 5.5/10

Negative Spaces - Poppy

It wasn't that long ago that I'd loved everything Poppy had ever done. She got started making mesmerizingly girlish synth-pop that's still stuck in my head 7 years later and across the span of two more albums and a truly spectacular and deeply underrated EP, made the transformation into full-on metal. But ever since 2020's surprisingly acclaimed I Disagree she's been up to some weird collaborations, petty Twitter beefs, and honestly kind of boring studio albums. That was the case with 2021's Flux despite how much I loved the title track and arguably even more the case with last year's Zig. But after some promising singles, I went into Negative Spaces pretty excited about Poppy's potential again. 

Poppy never stopped embracing heavier aesthetics, but this album is definitely a slip closer to the metal and hard rock that once piqued critical interest in her. Singles like "no way out" and "the cost of giving up" show off her melodic chops even as the intensity is ramped up, with the latter being a particular favorite of mine. In combination with a pretty strong opening track in "have you had enough?" the album gets off to a great start. Later on the album she combines it with fluttering electronic synths arpeggios on the deep cut highlight "nothing." 

But the album isn't a one-trick pony either. After an interlude in the first half, we get "Crystalized" a much sweeter and spacier track whose reservation seeps into a few other songs in the records middle section. Songs like the title track "negative spaces" also walk a fine line right down the middle and manage to be the best of both. The tracks on the album I do have an issue with are typically the ones with electronic beats that just come off sounding so flat and never reach anywhere as intense or triumphant or even as catchy on the hooks. For a girl who started her career as a computer it's weird that she seems to have lost her knack for sticky electro-pop, even if it only pops up once or twice on this record. 

This album may not be a return to Poppy's admittedly very high peak, but it's certainly the best thing she's released since I Disagree. That isn't just because she's punched up the thumping intensity of the churning metal guitars and screamed vocals on her songs, though those are both true. She also honed in on her sharpest songwriting instincts and served up soaring catchy hooks one after another. The result is a listening experience that's even more satisfying than I expected and a bit of a return to form from one of the most interesting artists around. 7.5/10

Songs Of A Lost World - The Cure

The Cure are a great band, nobody can or is even trying to argue that. In the 80s alone their magnetizing journey through brooding goth music and sugary synth-pop made for numerous classic records and classic countless tunes. But even for legacy acts, it's been a LONG time since The Cure dropped an album I loved. Part of that is because the band hasn't released much material in the twilight of their career. In my lifetime the band had released just two albums, neither of which I'm particularly fond of. But there seemed to be a momentum swelling for this record from both fans and critics alike that had me thinking it could be different. That was helped by the singles, which led first with the epic and soaring "Alone" and followed with the shorter, better, and more focused "A Fragile Thing." Expecting Songs to touch some of the band's classic material was always a bit unrealistic, but I'm pleasantly surprised by what they were able to dish out this late into their career. 

The album features just 8 songs but several lengthy tracks push its runtime up to just under 50 minutes. Nestled between the two singles is "And Nothing Is Forever" a 6-minute cut that I think is unfortunately a bit undermined by its own patience. It's runtime sports some of the issues people claimed to have with "Alone" when it dropped as a single. I didn't really see it there, but I do with "Nothing." I'm also not head over heels for "I Can Never Say Goodbye" which does have some memorable moments of sentimentality but for the most part, is a surprisingly underwritten cut. Thankfully I'm more fond of the closer "Endsong" whose wiry guitar and epic drums make the long instrumental intro an absolute delight. 

Surprisingly some of the shorter tracks can reach just as epic conclusions. A great example is "Warsong" whose arena-sized vocal performance goes great with the reverberating synths that seem to widdle into space forever. It's a distinctly vintage sound but one the band feels just as well-equipped for as ever. "Drone:Nodrone" comes next and it's an absolute jam with this western-flavored guitar lick that absolutely kills. The song is packed full of these refrains where Robert Smith seems to be stream-of-consciousness exploring his thoughts in real time and it's bizarre but entrancing. While the album occasionally has a problem matching its own proposed grandeur, it's cut with plenty of exciting moments in between along the way. I'm happy to say I like the record more than I don't and The Cure are sounding much more impressive 40 years into their career than most. 6.5/10

Spiral In A Straight Line - Touche Amore

Touche Amore are a post-hardcore outfit who have defined the genre's more critically acclaimed wing for a while now. With beloved records like 2013's Is Survived By and 2016's Stage Four under their belt they came into the 2020s on a hot streak. The first chance I had to review the band was in 2020 when they dropped their 5th album Lament. While I liked the record at the time I've grown to like it more and more as the years went by and as I digested the singled from this album I was more and more looking forward to what the band had to offer. Lead single and opening track "Nobody's" is a thriller that grabbed me right away when I first heard it and is always an awesome start to the album itself. It's a more familiar embrace of the band's style of hardcore than any of the other singles, but it predicted a record full of intense highlights. 

On the album, it's immediately followed by the frenetic "Disasters" which oscillates between uptempo ferocity and anguished vulnerability fluidly. It's a deep cut that sounds better and better every time I hear it. And speaking of ferocious, "Mezzanine" is another absolutely ripping cut that hits the ground running only to eventually settle down into a slower chorus, but one with an absolutely shredding vocal performance I find completely entrancing. In fact, I like nearly every deep cut on the record as its second half featured tracks like "Altitude" and "Finalist" that also make for killer moments of raw post-hardcore angst. 

"Hal Ashby" is a single I wasn't crazy about, mostly because it's final minute left a bad taste in my mouth. But I think it got more and more palatable to me the more times I heard the record. I wouldn't call it a favorite track but the reference it's named after is just one of many enticing lyrics it pulls. The closing track "Goodbye For Now" also preceded the album and features an appearance from Julien Baker of all people. After carrying on largely as expected there's a breakdown of sorts where Julien's vocals get worked in and she eventually provides these distant cascading backing vocals to the track that work perfectly. Speaking of features the track "Subversion" features Lou Barlow on vocals and it's an interesting, if slightly deflating choice. Maybe there would be more to enjoy on the song if it had more backing vocals but even once Jeremy returns across the final minute and they serve up dueling melodies, something I normally like a lot, it still doesn't do much for me. 

In a short review like this I didn't get to touch on the themes and emotions of the record as much as I wanted to, but we prioritize. I will say that though the album is occasionally a bit heavy-handed, for the most part Touche Amore are as interesting lyrically as they've ever been. Though when all is said and done, the main appeal of the band is the gritty vocal performances and explosive instrumentals, something they consistently deliver strongly on throughout the record. This record isn't likely to completely reset expectations for the already beloved outfit or anything, but it is yet another worthwhile entry into their catalog. 7.5/10