I typically listen to at least 30 new releases from a given month before I do these posts, and lately I've been taking a little more time with them, partly because some months there's just so many albums I want to hear before picking the best. And this is a good example of why, Easier Said Than Done was like the 50th August album I listened to and I was instantly grateful that I got to it after checking out so many other releases. I didn't know much about the Florida band Pool Kids other than that their first album was championed by Hayley Williams, but this, their third album, is just impressive as hell. The third and fourth tracks, "Bad Bruise" and "Leona Street," were about the point I really fell in love with Christine Goodwyne's voice and Caden Clinton's drumming. I went back and checked out the earlier stuff and it's a little more intricate and math rock, but there's a real purposeful clarity to the songwriting and production on Easier Said Than Done, it's a huge step forward, "Which Is Worse?" is a really moving song about grief.

Speaking of Hayley Williams! She initially released 17 singles with no official sequence or album title, and encouraged other people to make their own playlists of the songs. As someone who loves to make playlists and dream up ideal running orders for albums, I relished the challenge and am really proud of my playlist. So when she finally released the proper album weeks later, my first thought was kind of 'well, my version flows better.' The official version has grown on me, though, she make some choices I really like -- "Ice In My OJ" is one of my favorite songs on the album but it didn't occur to me to make it the opener, that's a ballsy choice. And I struggled with finding a song "Disappearing Man" sounds good following, and "Martazapine" was absolutely the right song. The title track also hits nicely in the second half, I feel like most of the rest of us had it pretty early in the album. When I ranked all the Paramore and Hayley Williams albums for Spin, I put this right below Petals For Armor, but it's close, I think they're both really impressive, engrossing albums. 

Earlier this year I heard the New Zealand band The Beths' 2020 song "I'm Not Getting Excited" and instantly went oh fuck, I like this band, and shortly after that, they began releasing singles from their fourth album that really got me anticipating this record. I love the way Elizabeth Stokes writes lyrics and sings them, a bit of a dry wit but also some earnest sincerity, and the bands' arrangements are so generously detailed and creative within a familiar jangly power pop package, I especially love the guitar tones on "Ark of the Covenant" and "Best Laid Plans." "Mother, Pray Me" is an incredibly heavy yet quiet song to drop right in the middle of the album, and then they gradually bring the energy back up over the next couple tracks, really good sequencing. Between this and the new Balu Brigada and Royel Otis albums, August was a strong month for Antipodean indie rock. 

Nourished By Time's Marcus Brown is another guy who's lived in both Baltimore and L.A. and other places and does idiosyncratic bedroom pop R&B that sounds completely different from what Dijon does but it is also really cool and justifiably acclaimed. The Passionate Ones is Brown's first full-length since signing to XL Recordings and it isn't entirely recorded in his parents' Baltimore basement like his last album, but it very much has that spontaneous, casual feeling to it. "It's Time" is my favorite track so far. 

My friend Anthony Miccio suggests that any aging band's longevity should be expressed in Rolling Stones terms to describe how far removed they are from their debut album. Superchunk is 35 years in, and thankfully they're doing a lot better than Bridges To Babylon. 2018's What A Time To Be Alive was, for me, the definitive angry punk album of the first Trump administration, and Mac McCaughan's palpable weariness at writing yet another set of protest songs for the second Trump administration is pretty relatable. Songs In the Key of Yikes is the band's first album since one of my favorite living drummers, Jon Wurster, stepped down to focus on his other gigs, and I'm happy to say that the new drummer Laura King is awesome and totally has that classic Superchunk bounce down, even if it's not a perfect match and there are occasionally moments where I miss Wurster's unique sense of forward momentum. 

Shazam is a pretty reliable app, as that kind of tech goes, rarely is it stumped. Every now and again, though, it'll falsely identify a song, and if I try again seconds later, it will change the result and tell me the correct song. One amusing example happened a few months ago when WTMD played a new song from the Baltimore singer-songwriter Enslow called "I Love You," and when I asked Shazam to ID it, I was told that it was Linda Ronstadt's 1995 cover of Tom Petty's "The Waiting." It felt like an appropriate glitch, given that Enslow has a voice as strong and clear and Ronstadt and covers a song by Petty's pals Fleetwood Mac on Crush. I put Enslow's debut Hello on my list of Baltimore's best albums of 2024, and was really happy to see her return with another great pop record on an indie budget, I think "Feels Like I'm Falling In Love" is my favorite on this one. 

I saw the Chance backlash coming and correctly predicted that people would hate The Big Day even if it was a perfectly good album, which in my opinion it was. But the damage was one and it took Chance six years to regain his confidence to release an album -- hilariously rebooting his image by simply trading out the fitted cap for a bucket hat but mostly making the same thoughtful, big-hearted, tightly written verses he always has. Like The Big Day, I think Star Line could've been better if he'd saved some of those great non-album singles for this, but that's just how hip hop is these days, go figure. I really appreciate Chance screaming "fuck ICE" on a track, although Beauty Pill still has the best song called "Drapetomania." 

Mainstream country operates completely differently from the rest of popular music -- major stars often release albums before any of the singles have hit big, and it might take a year or two for radio to really start playing the record. That being said, nothing on Bailey Zimmerman's second album has hit remotely like his double platinum 2023 debut, and it sounds a lot like a sophomore slump from someone who wasn't that good to begin with. Extra demerits for a title reminiscent of one of the best country albums of the last 20 years, Same Trailer Different Park by Kacey Musgraves.