August 2024 Recs
The Return of The Softies, Ariana Reines, Juliana Huxtable, and more
Hello friends. An awesome month of great new releases :) There were a bunch of albums released in the last few days, which is why this post is a tad delayed (and tbh have a few more to listen to like Doechii). Got some hot takes this month! And adding a segment where I do a sydboyxxx monthly review round-up (you’ll see below). Hope you enjoy!
Fav Album That Came Out This Month: “The Bed I Made” by The Softies
The Softies returned after 24 years on 8/23/24 with a fantastic album, “The Bed I Made.” While this album didn’t get my actual highest review of the month (because I don’t love every song on here), it was the one I was the most impressed/profoundly touched by. I didn’t get The Softies hype before this, but I just fell in love with their lyricism, harmonies, and simple but beautiful guitar parts. You can tell Rose and Jen are writing from a place of wisdom, and I like that. Sweet and stripped back indie pop. Full review here.
Fav Album That Didn’t Come Out This Month: “Future Perfect” by Autolux
“Future Perfect” is the 2004 debut album of LA alt. rockers Autolux. Been obsessed w this album all month. I’d seen it on a lot of essential/best shoegaze lists but never gotten around to listening. I wrote about this on my blog review of it, but I feel like w shoegaze it can be easy to hide behind the noise, and what makes the best shoegaze bands the best is the vibrancy of their own idiosyncratic style. W Autolux, I really feel that. If you wanna know what the sound is like, though, I’d say the most comparable band would probs be julie. A near perfect album for me. Full review here.
Fav Live Performance I Saw This Month: Juliana Huxtable at RSO.Berlin
Serendipitously, Juliana Huxtable was playing a set for RSO’s Wall to Wall techno festival the weekend I was in Berlin. I’ve known about Huxtable for a while, being a trans poet/scolar and DJ, but hadn’t really read any of her stuff or listened to any of her sets. I did read the interview she did in Poetry Project’s winter issue, though, which I really fucked with (read it here), and since then I’ve wanted to see her perform. I thought that even if I hated her music, I’d be interested in comparing how she talked about DJ sets theoretically and then her set in practice. It was pretty amazing stuff. Dm me if you want to chat more about this bc I really would love to. Don’t have any pics cuz they taped my phone but here’s a pic of the club.
Fav Book I Read This Month: A Sand Book by Ariana Reines (poetry)
I feel like the words can speak for themselves but yeah wow this book (p. 2019) floored me. David wrote his undergrad thesis on it and won an award (ofc), and I can’t believe that that fact didn’t make me read this earlier. I am sure I would have benefitted from it. So so good. My interior world on the page.
Monthly Reviews Wrap Up
New segment: links to some of my highlight reviews of the month.
This Is How Tomorrow Moves, Beabadoobee (6/10), indie pop
Gull, Reed Winckler (7/10), indie folk
How It Feels (EP), decay (9/10), shoegaze
Disaster Trick, Horse Jumper of Love (8/10), shoegaze
Motel Cable, Ex Pilots (7/10), alt. rock
Big Sky (EP), Twye (6/10), indie rock
Triple Seven, Wishy (5/10), indie rock
YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING, SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (6/10), alt. pop
In Dreams, Duster (6/10), slowcore
Imaginal Disk, Magdalena Bay (6/10), indie pop (…sry)
Lilli Bolero, The Cleaners From Venus (6/10), jangle pop
And Finally… Monthly Playlist
Xoxo