Record of the Day 2025: April

Lucy Dacus – Forever is a Feeling

Lucy is the under-appreciated Boy, if you ask me. This is lush and gorgeous, and a lovely companion to the Julien solo album which I also really liked (see below). A message to Bridgers - sort it out, you can’t release the occasional melancholic cover to keep me mollified forever, new material or you’ll get relegated within my personal boygenius ranking (a horrible fate, as I’m sure you’ll agree.)

My Morning Jacket – Is

I love that My Morning Jacket are still going, and somewhat astonishingly manage to execute a retvrn to purist alt-rock Americana without sounding dated. Having said that, I suppose that if you put in enough intervening years, anything dated becomes vintage, then add a sprinkle of plagiarism and it’s Tribute or Homage

Lucy Liyou – Every Video Without Your Face, Every Sound Without Your Name

Melancholic vocals against mournful soundscapes – lovely and haunting

Sharp Pins – Radio DDR

More Beach Boys-via-Beatles stylings, enjoyed very much

Mumford & Sons – Rushmere

I listened to this out of morbid curiosity as much as anything else, and it’s quite funny that the signature sound does appear to have been Winston Marshall’s. (I do not wish to be controversial, but I simply don’t believe that you hate “Little Lion Man”, I think you think you’re meant to hate “Little Lion Man”. If “Little Lion Man” was released by [HEAVILY REDACTED WILDLY OVERRATED ACT] you would have a lovely time listening to it. You know what, stick “White Blank Page” on, let’s have a laugh.) Anyway yes, this isn’t very interesting, and there are definitely no cheerful sing-a-longs. Did you know that they did a collab record with Pharrell Williams in 2024? That’s odd, isn’t it?

Spelling – Portrait of My Heart

Fun and nostalgic alt-pop, with influences from all over, from histrionic goth pop to nu-metal and early-pleistocene Madonna

Florist – Jellywish

Sounds like Kimya Dawson (complimentary)

Skrillex – F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3

I admire Skrillex’s commitment to making records with titles that you’re embarrassed to even think, let alone say out loud. I also admire this record, which is a good approximation of the 100 Gecs sound but also relatively frequently drifts squarely into the Vengaboys zone.

DJ Koze – Music Can Hear Us

A smorgasbord! A fun and interesting electro record, and always a particular personal delight to hear The Notwist’s Markus Acher’s entirely distinctive voice as a guest spot. Not familiar with The Notwist? Fix that, immediately

Sacred Paws – Jump Into Life

Perfectly nice singer-songwriter. When I started listening to this, the music was incredibly out of step with the semiotics of this pair – two people looking dreamy in amber light, one with a fringe, seemed very atonal with the jumpy party music I was hearing, then I realised that the web player was lagging and I was simply just listening to Skrillex again

Great Grandpa – Patience, Moonbeam

Dreamy swoony indie pop, cinematic and lush, simply delightful. A good record to put on while doing some Remembering – this will probably show up in my AOTY list.

Bon Iver – SABLE, fABLE

This is a huge victory lap of songwriting and harmony, surprisingly understated and definitely never overbearing, even for me, a surprise Bon-skeptic (well, not a skeptic, I like him, just not as much as you’d expect me to given the rest of my preoccupations). An inner circle pal whose opinion is trusted beyond all measure said “to be clear, I like it, and think it’s his best work in a decade, but there’s something about it that makes me think of Bob Geldof”, and you know what, obscure as a remark though this may be, she is right

Black Country, New Road – Forever Howlong

The first record with the new vocalist so is totally totally different from the last record. I definitely am a BCNR-skeptic, to be honest, and even though I liked this more than I liked the last one that everyone was going on about when it was out, I still didn’t like it especially

The Waterboys – Life, Death & Dennis Hopper

A country rock album about Dennis Hopper. A bit non-plussed, truth be told

Momma – Welcome to My Blue Sky

Was looking forward to this one, but apart from the obvious stand out tracks (“Rodeo” and “Stay All Summer”) the rest felt a little underbaked. Disappointing!

Jane Remover – Revengeseekerz

Was also massively looking forward to this, because I thought the last one was very exciting, but this one tended towards the histrionic and irritating (as opposed to histrionic and interesting)

Duendita – A Strong Desire to Survive

Fashionably contemporary soul, very good

Barker – Stochastic Drift

Pared down dark electronica. Liked

Craig Finn - Always Been

More singer-songwriter, too country-adjacent for me, really

Chy Carter – No Bring Ins

Ebullient girlie grime, liked a lot

Lullahush – Ithaca

Traditional Irish music inflected with glitchy electronic production. Quite good, or at least interesting in ambition, but not really for me

Men I Trust – Equus Asinus

Dreamy indie pop, liked a lot, sort of what I would have liked the new Girl in Red material to have been like but wasn’t

Real Lies – We Will Annihilate Our Enemies

“North Circular” still riding high for me as one of the most atmospheric tracks of the last decade, so was looking forward to this. It’s typically euphoric listening, but if I’m being scrupulous here, lyrically a little embarrassing

Julien Baker & Torres – Send A Prayer My Way

Historically I’ve been less persuaded by Julien’s solo material, but this is goooooorgeous. I say again: Bridgers, where is your new record? You’re being shown up by the other Boys, Bridgers

Tunde Adebimpe – These Black Boltz

Your man from TV on the Radio making records that sound like TV on the Radio again: hoorah! Hoorah to that!

Beirut – A Study of Losses

Beautiful, despairing multi-instrumental cosmic folk record, covering entropy, extinction and ageing. Beirut represents a gap in my musical knowledge, and for some reason I had totally conflated them with Bastille, and I’ll tell you what. Absolutely nothing like Bastille.

Sleigh Bells – Bunky Becky Birthday Boy

Mishmash of frantic beats and high-pitched airy synths. Doesn’t really work, does it?

Dirty Projectors – Song of the Earth

It sounds like a silver screen musical, but it’s about environmental collapse. Interesting!

Ken Carson – More Chaos.

This is a good hip-hop record. It needs editing, because it’s far too long, and I don’t think I’d return to it, but it was enjoyed

Zoe Basha – Gamble.

A nice enough modern folk record, but without much heft or bite. I like twee, but not too twee. Do you know what I’m saying?