This week’s New Music Friday features new album releases from Megadeth, Yungblud, Two Door Cinema Club, Cryalot, and Stereolab. Happy listening!
"Night Stalkers" by Megadeth ft. Ice-T
Album: The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!
Description:
“The Sick, The Dying … And The Dead doesn’t have anything as epic as “Holy Wars” or “Hangar 18” or a riff as instantly memorable as “Symphony of Destruction.” But from start to finish, it offers unrelenting intensity and an outlet to channel anger and fears from a world ravaged by a pandemic, war, and economic struggles into shouting and head-banging along with Mustaine’s somewhat-fictional tales of the same. … All these years later, the band’s music is as relevant as ever.”
– Glide Magazine
"Tissues" by YUNGBLUD
Album: Yungblud
Description:
“Three albums in, however, it sounds like Yungblud’s scrappy brand of indie-rock is attempting to clean up its act. Ultimately, self-titled release ‘Yungblud’ proves that sometimes the hardest act to follow can be yourself; while certain tracks are gold-standard belters, Yungblud shoots for maturity at the cost of the raw, chaotic charm that put him on the map.”
– Clash Music
"Everybody's Cool" by Two Door Cinema Club
Album: Keep On Smiling
Description:
“Recorded with assistance from the Killers/Bloc Party producer Jacknife Lee, a studio pro as synced to alt-radio’s wavelength as any, the band’s fifth album, Keep On Smiling, revels in the sounds of the moment, even as it ostensibly calls back to the New Wave funk of Talking Heads and INXS. It’s a record as efficient and impersonal as a frozen yogurt shop on the street level of a mixed-use condo development.”
– Pitchfork
"Labyrinth" by Cryalot
Album: Icarus
Description:
“As with all her music, Perry performs Icarus as if she were narrating a fairytale, albeit one much gloomier in tone. Conceived during a period when Perry was experiencing intense depression, Icarus is filled with references to angels and demons, to eternal spirals of damnation and redemption. The EP takes the form of a song cycle revolving around its titular Greek myth, but in contrast to the story’s origin as a cautionary tale, Perry recasts Icarus’ flight as a powerful moment of self-actualization.”
– Pitchfork
"Cybele's Reverie (Live at the Hollywood Bowl)" by Stereolab
Album: Pulse of the Early Brain (Switched On Vol. 5)
Description:
“Indeed, Stereolab’s sound, like the work of Franz Kafka, contains nuanced multitudes. And the latest entry in the band’s ‘Switched On’ compilation series—volume five, ‘Pulse of the Early Brain’; their ninth overall compilation—plays like it was compiled in response to this, and to the band’s reappraisal following their reunion in 2019. A crazy quilt of musique concrète, cosmic pop, and plink-plonk bossa, ‘Pulse of the Early Brain’ bares the band’s multitudes in their most unfiltered forms.”
– Clash Music
