Album of the Week – 07/10/22

Our Album of the Week slot returns after a few weeks break. This week is fairly epic for new releases with bands and artists such as Courtney Marie Andrews (Loose), Will Sheff (of Okkervil River – Nothing Special) and Bonny Light Horseman (Rolling Golden Holy). I suspect at least one of those will make our end-of-year lists in just a couple of months’ time.

But yet, none of those has come out on top of the heap! We went with the band who have just changed their name but still continue to make a furious and wild sound! It is really, really hard to ignore…

Album of the Week — Gilla Band (aka Girl Band) – Most Normal

For their first album as Gilla Band, the foursome have redrawn their own paradigm. Most Normal is like little you’ve heard before, a kaleidoscopic spectrum of noise put in service of broken pop songs, FX-strafed Avant-punk rollercoaster rides and passages of futurist dancefloor nihilism.

The group also fell under the spell of modern hip-hop, “where there’s really heavy-handed production and they’re messing with the track the whole time,” says bassist Daniel Fox. “There was a conscious effort to be more direct this time, whether it was with the lyrics or the music and with the production – for everything to be a lot more ‘here’ and to feel more poppy, and then really try to mess with it and subvert it”.

The common thread holding Most Normal’s ambitious avant-pop shapes together is frontman Dara Kiely. Throughout, he’s an antic, antagonistic presence, barking wild, hilarious, unsettling spiels, babbling about smearing fish with lubricant or dressing up in bin-liners or having to wear hand-me-down boot-cut jeans.

Albums of Note:

— A.A. Williams – As the Moon Rests

— Bonny Light Horseman – Rolling Golden Holy

— Courtney Marie Andrews – Loose

— Fucked Up – Oberon EP

— Will Sheff (of Okkervil River) – Nothing Special

Albums Released on October 7th:

— A.A. Williams – As the Moon Rests

— Alvvays – Blue Rev

— The Bobby Lees – Bellevue

— Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros – Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros: Live in Colorado Vol. 2

— Bonny Light Horseman – Rolling Golden Holy

— Broken Bells – Into The Blue

— Bush – The Art Of Survival

— The California Honeydrops – Soft Spot

— Charlie Houston – Bad Posture EP

— Charlie Puth – CHARLIE

— CIEL – Not In the Sun, Nor in the Dark EP

— Chloe Moriondo – SUCKERPUNCH

— Counterparts – A Euology for Those Still Here

— Courtney Marie Andrews – Loose

— The Cult – Under The Midnight Sun

— The Cure – Wish (30th Anniversary Edition)

— Dayglow – People In Motion

— Disq – Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet

— Dungen – En Är För Mycket och Tusen Aldrig

— easy life – MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE…

— Flohio – Out of Heart

— Fucked Up – Oberon EP

— G Herbo – Survivor’s Remorse (A-Side)

— Gilla Band (aka Girl Band) – Most Normal

— Goatwhore – Angels Hung from Arches of Heaven

— Honey Dijon – Black Girl Magic

— Hugh Cornwell – Moments of Madness

— Indigo Sparke – Hysteria

— Jean Dawson – CHAOS NOW*

— Johanna Warren – Lessons for Mutants

— Jon McLaughlin – Indiana – 15 Year Anniversary Edition

— Joyce Wrice – Motive EP

— Keiji Haino & SUMAC – Into this juvenile apocalypse our golden blood to pour let us never

— King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava

— Kodak Black – Kutthroat Bill: Vol. 1

— L7 – The Beauty Process – Triple Platinum (Vinyl Reissue)

— L7 – Hungry for Stink (Vinyl Reissue)

— Lamb of God – Omens

— Lindsey Stirling – Snow Waltz

— Loraine James – Building Something Beautiful For Me

— Mark Knopfler – The Studio Albums 2009-2018

— Michigander – It Will Never Be The Same EP

— Moonalice – Full Moonalice Vol. 2 EP

— NNAMDÏ – Please Have a Seat

— Open Mike Eagle – Component System with the Auto Reverse

— Outkast – Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Outkast

— The Orielles – Tableau

— Peel Dream Magazine – Pad

— Quavo and Takeoff – Only Built for Infinity Links

— RECOIL (Alan Wilder) – Liquid (Reissue)

— RECOIL (Alan Wilder) – subHuman (Reissue)

— RECOIL (Alan Wilder) – Unsound Methods (Reissue)

— Say She She – Prism

— Soft Cell – Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret…And Other Stories: Live

— Sorry – Anywhere But Here

— St. Lucia – Utopia

— Stray Kids – MAXIDENT

— Sun Ra Arkestra – Living Sky

— Talos – Dear Chaos

— Thus Love – Memorial

— Tim Baker (of Hey Rosetta!) – The Festival

— THSA – Capricorn Sun

— Tim Story – Rust Smudges

— Tom Waits – Alice (Vinyl Reissue)

— Tom Waits – Blood Money (Vinyl Reissue)

— Toosii – Boys Don’t Cry EP

— WILDES – Other Words Fail Me

— Will Sheff (of Okkervil River) – Nothing Special

— WILLOW – <COPINGMECHANISM>

— Wunderhorse – Cub