The beginning of every year starts off slowly when it comes to new releases. Post-holidays, everyone’s trying to recover from the excitement, or the relatives, or an immediate future involving returning to work with no long breaks in sight. It’s a good season to reach back and gather some of the strays who were a little too rambunctious to wrangle during the previous year. 

I’ve got time and a large lasso. Let’s round ’em up.

Bully — Lucky For You

An incredible reproduction of early to mid-90’s alternative rock (but organic, never sounding labored). Not the stuff people were buying in droves, but the critically-recommended, small-but-fierce audience kind of music that flew a bit under the radar. Tight but ragged, a little noisy, heart firmly on sleeve.

AJR — The Maybe Man

Maximalist pop. AJR like to add bells and whistles to their bells and whistles, which simply means more hooks to catch your brain. Light-hearted melodies sugarcoat the deeper lyrics about working through some stuff.

Descartes A Kant — After Destruction

A small-scale concept album about depression and philosophy, short and sharp, getting the job done in a less than 30 minute blast of futuristic art-pop, and that’s including the interludes with the robot narrator. St. Vincent is a clear touchstone, which is made all the more apparent in the video where two of them play her signature guitar.