Monthly Report: August 2024 Albums
1. Lainey Wilson - Whirlwind
I've often said that Jay Joyce is my favorite country producer, my favorite producer in general, or my favorite producer who does the old-fashioned work of putting mics in front of instruments, amps and singers. And while Eric Church has made the largest volume of great music with Joyce, and Joyce has produced great albums by Ashley McBryde, Brothers Osborne, and several others, right now Lainey Wilson and Jay Joyce is the dynamic duo that can't beat. The three albums they've made together have turned Wilson into probably the biggest female star in mainstream country to emerge in the last 10 years, and maybe the best since Miranda Lambert, who appears on the stunning Whirlwind highlight "Good Horses." There's not a single bad or subpar track on this album, from the opening George Jones homage "Keep Up with Jones" to "Whiskey Colored Crayon." One thing I love that I didn't expect is the way the uptempo lead single "Hang Tight Honey" dissolves beautifully into the slow, funky "Bar in Baton Rouge." And I adore the Rolling Stones "Memory Motel" vibe of "4x4xU." Here's the 2024 albums Spotify playlist that I fill with all the new releases I listen to.
2. Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal
Since signing to Top Dawg Entertainment two and a half years ago, Doechii had released an EP and a bunch of singles. And it was starting to feel like TDE was once again keeping an artist on the shelf for way too long, practically sitting on their hands and doing nothing to capitalize on "What It Is (Block Boy)" becoming a big Hot 100 hit over a year ago. But Alligator Bites Never Heal, nominally a mixtape, is so good that it feels like timing doesn't matter so much, she's once again kickstarted her buzz. I feel like it's a little slow to get going but after the over-the-top but entertaining "Denial Is A River" she's just off and running, and "Nissan Altima" is so fucking good.
3. Sabrina Carpenter - Short n' Sweet
I like "Espresso," but I'm a lot less over the moon about its being "the song of the summer" than a lot of other people, and have very mixed feelings about "Please Please Please," so I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the album destined to cement Sabrina Carpenter's main pop girl status, or if it was possible I'd like it as much as Emails I Can't Send or Singular Act II. And I'm happy to report that Short n' Sweet is great, even "Please Please Please" works better in the context of the album than as a single. The acoustic track "Coincidence" is my favorite right now, but big shiny pop stuff has a lot of personality too, she's really having fun with words as a lyricist, to a greater degree than any of her top 40 contemporaries besides Taylor Swift. I posted a Sabrina Carpenter deep album cuts playlist last week.
4. Morgan Wade - Obsessed
I liked Morgan Wade's first two albums a lot, but I think this is really the keeper for me. And it's rare that someone's most downtempo album is my favorite of theirs, but this one just works for me. No songs I think about skipping, great sustained mood throughout with lots of open space and pedal steel, and occasionally she'll just land a great line like "There's two types of people...we hate 'em both." It's a shame country radio hasn't really taken any interest in her since given "Wilder Days" a try a few years ago, I'd love to hear "Walked On Water" featuring Kesha or "Department Store" on the radio.
5. X - Smoke & Fiction
I ranked X's albums for Spin last month, and I was pleasantly surprised that I wound up putting the band's farewell album Smoke & Fiction in the top half of their discography. Rob Schnapf knows exactly how this band should sound and capture's Billy Zoom's guitar tone perfectly, and it's just better song-for-song that 2020's Alphabetland, really feels like a rare instance of a band wanting to go out with a great album and succeeding. My favorite tracks so far are "Sweet Til The Bitter End" and "Face of the Moon."
6. Joe P - Garden State Vampire
A radio station I listen to, WTMD, has played Joe P's "Don't Wanna Love U" pretty regularly over the past year and I love it, massively catchy song. I was a little disappointed to find that it's not among the singles Joe P has released over the last year or two that appear on Garden State Vampire -- "Off My Mind" is the streaming hit that Atlantic Records seems to be betting on -- but it's fine, all his songs are pretty good. Joe P self-produces his records in his basement in Asbury Park, and there's a fuzzy slouchy slacker vibe to his lyrics, his vocal delivery, everything really, but he writes big choruses and clearly wants to be a big rock star, I kinda hope he succeeds.
7. Combat - Stay Golden
I just interviewed this band, so I won't say too much here just to save it for the article, but their 2nd album is really just brimming over with energy and personality and ideas. It's so exciting to hear a bunch of 20-year-olds from Baltimore make a record this ambitious and it feels like they're just getting started.
8. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Flight b741
I am sometimes wary of bands who do entire albums in a particular style, it can feel like they're trying on musical costumes. But King Gizzard are so prolific that I like that they tend to go off the deep end with entire albums that are all-metal or all-EDM or whatever, because it'd be boring if they made so many records and they all sounded the same. I didn't even notice Flight b741 as having a particular aesthetic distinct from their other records until other people pointed out that it's kind of a twangy southern rock record, and now it seems obvious, I love all the harmonica and big loose southern boogie grooves. "Field of Vision" and "Sad Pilot" are my favorites so far.
9. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Woodland
I've only ever been a casual fan of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, but I like their latest. Welch's voice is as always the star attraction, but I like Rawlings's voice a lot on their duet "What We Had," very delicate and emotive in a Neil Young way.
10. Muni Long - Revenge
Muni Long released her first album, under her real name Priscilla Renea, way back in 2009, when she was making more sugary Top 40-style pop. 15 years of kicking around the industry, writing hits for other artists, and reinventing herself as Muni Long with a more overt R&B sound has made her a sharp and adaptable writer. And after she made the beautiful ballad "Made For Me" with Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox and it blew up, she made an album following through on that '90s/2000s slow jam style really nicely, with more seasoned pros like Tricky Stewart, Brian McKnight, Theron Thomas and Tommy Brown. Interpolating "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" on "Make Me Forget"? Sure, absolutely, I'm always going to be happy hearing songs that sound like that. She dips into a clubbier midtempo vibe halfway through the album and it hits really well in that context, the song with GloRilla is fun, there's a little bit of a Baltimore club vibe on "Played Yourself," and the 78-second "Reverse (Interlude)" is extremely fun, she should just go ahead and turn that into a full song.
The Worst Album of the Month: Polo G - Hood Poet
People talk about how hip-hop moves fast and rap fans are fickle, but we've had so many artists at or near the top for 10 or 15 years now. And the guys who abruptly tumble down the charts after being inescapable like DaBaby or Roddy Richh stand out more because those cases are so fare now. Polo G, on the other hand, seemed to lose popularity so quickly that nobody even noticed. In 2021, he had a #1 album and a #1 single, and he seemed poised for superstardom. Instead, he made a terrible attempt at a crossover single with a Michael Jackson sample, and then nothing he's done in the last three years has caused a ripple, and his new album debuted at #28. Hood Poet checks all the boxes to be a successful major label rap album (Future and Lil Durk and GloRilla features, TM88 and ATL Jacob and Dr. Luke production), but it's all just so boring, Polo G is this sullen melodic rapper who sounds the same on every song and, for whatever reason, doesn't continue to resonate with people with his self-pitying sad songs like Rod Wave. A month after Hood Poet's release, only the Lil Durk feature is in Polo G's top 10 songs on Spotify.
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