Album Reviews: Janelle Monae, Amaarae, Jess Williamson & more

As you've probably heard or seen, it's a weird week in NYC thanks to the wildfire smoke from Canada that's given the city an orange tint and forced multiple outdoor events this week to be cancelled. In the music world, the biggest one this weekend is NYC's Governors Ball, which as of now does plan to move forward. Let's hope it's able to happen successfully and safely.

As for this week's new albums, I highlight 10 below and Bill tackles more in Indie Basement, including King Krule, Decisive Pink (Deradoorian & Kate NV), This Is The Kit, The Boo Radleys, Love and Rockets, and TEKE::TEKE.

On top of those, this week's honorable mentions: Jenny Lewis, Squid, The Dead Milkmen, Statik Selektah, Jayda G, Anna St. Louis, Geld, Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire, BabyTron, Stasis, Innerlove., HellCo (FOD), Nicholas Allbrook (Pond), Rob Grant (Lana Del Rey's father), Tightwire, Keaton Henson, Joe Armon-Jones & Maxwell Owin, East of the Wall, Dream Wife, Aja Monet, Pickle Darkling, Self-Immolation Music, Dudu Tassa & Jonny Greenwood, Emile Mosseri, Wobbly, BLK ODYSSY, The View, James, Jeff Clarke (The Black Lips, Demon's Claws), Queen of Swords, Natalie Rose LeBrecht, Lightning Dust, Big Blood, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, Torture Rack, Jimmy Whispers, Laura Cantrell, Jeremie Albino, Johnny the Boy (Crippled Black Phoenix), Andy Stack & Jay Hammond, Bendik Giske, Kiltro, Luke Sital-Singh, the Boldy James EP, the Olof Dreijer (The Knife) & Mt. Sims EP, the Oscar Bait EP, the George FitzGerald EP, the Glass Casket EP, the Wombo EP, the Minor Conflict EP, the Sarah Kinsley EP, the Tay Iwar EP, the Superbloom EP, the Michael David EP, the Braxe + Falcon remixes 12", the Darkside live album, and Christopher Bear & Daniel Rossen's Past Lives soundtrack.

Read on for my picks. What's your favorite release of the week?

Janelle Monáe - The Age of PleasureWondaland/Atlantic

Janelle Monáe is in her pleasure era. The titties-out version of Janelle we've seen all throughout the rollout for The Age of Pleasure is a much different look than the androgynous, Prince-inspired sci-fi Afrofuturist that graced the cover of Janelle's instant-classic 2010 debut The ArchAndroid, and the new look is reflected in the music. On The Age of Pleasure, Janelle is as ambitious and genre-hopping as she's ever been, but in a way that feels looser, freer, and more explicitly euphoric than ever. "I want it to be so specific to this Pan-African crowd who are my friends," she told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. "I want it to be a love letter to the diaspora." That's exactly what The Age of Pleasure is. It opens with "Float," a triumphant dose of horn-fueled funk-trap featuring Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, the former band of Seun's Afrobeat-pioneering father Fela, and the song introduces themes and motifs that reoccur all throughout the record. Janelle also explores Afrobeats rhythms on "Phenomenal," "Know Better," and "Paid In Pleasure"; classic reggae on "Lipstick Lover" and "Only Have Eyes 42"; experimental R&B on "The Rush"; and more. She peppers the tracklist with interludes that help tie everything together, and she ropes in guests that come from all different musical trails of the diaspora: in addition to Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, there's the crazed Tampa rapper/singer Doechii, Ghanaian-American pop experimentalist Amaarae, Nigerian Afrobeats star CKay, dancehall legend Sister Nancy, and the one and only Grace Jones. You can hear how all of their respective styles influenced this album, and it's a treat to hear that Janelle isn't just pulling influence from all over the world but working with artists from all over the world too.

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Amaarae - Fountain BabyInterscope

Not only is Amaarae a guest on the new Janelle Monáe album, she's also got her own new album out today and it scratches a pretty similar itch. It's her sophomore album and major label debut, following 2020's The Angel You Don't Know, and it picks up where that diasporic, genre-defying album left off. Amaarae has lived in the Bronx, New Jersey, Atlanta, and Ghana throughout her 28 years, and she's just as influenced by Ghanaian polyrhythms as she is by American pop, hip hop, and experimental music. (And as you can hear on "Sex, Violence, Suicide Pt. 2," peppy garage punk.) All of those sounds swirl together on Fountain Baby, and the result is something that sounds like all and none of the above at once. The easiest way to describe Fountain Baby is just experimental pop music. These are catchy, fun pop songs that tackle themes like sex, religion, and escapism, and they challenge the notion of what "catchy, fun pop songs" sound like in the American mainstream. Production ranges from club beats to Afrobeats, Amaarae's delivery ranges from helium-voiced coos to melodic rapping, and she really never sounds like anyone else in American or African pop music.

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Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - WeathervanesSoutheastern

It's remarkable to think that, over 20 years since Jason first joined Drive-By Truckers and 10 years since he released his breakthrough solo album Southeastern, Jason is still searching for something creatively, still trying to write better songs than he wrote last time or the time before that, and succeeding at doing so. Every Jason Isbell album is an honest portrayal of where he is at that point in his life, and that's why every Jason Isbell album brings something to the table that the others can't. Weathervanes is no exception. Read my full review.

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Jess Williamson - Time Ain't AccidentalMexican Summer

Texas singer/songwriter Jess Williamson went in a slightly more countrified direction than usual on 2020's Sorceress, and she took that even further with Plains, her collaborative project with Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield responsible for releasing 2022's great I Walked With You A Ways. Jess now returns with her own new solo album Time Ain't Accidental, and it feels like she's picking up where her contributions to Plains left off. It's her most overtly country album yet, and it's also her biggest, cleanest, most confident-sounding album, taking cues from some of the same popular country acts that inspired Plains, like Emmylou Harris and The Chicks. Like the Plains album, it was produced by Brad Cook, and it's got a big, warm sound that's perfect for the kind of songs Jess is writing right now, fleshed out with banjo, piano, steel guitar, and more, and still using some of the iPhone app drum machine beats that Jess programmed for some of the demos. "My voice feels different now -- it's been liberated," Jess said in press materials for the album. It really does sound that way.

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Youth Lagoon - Heaven Is A JunkyardFat Possum

Trevor Powers played under a few aliases and in a few bands early on in his career (including the underrated Your Friend, Peter Giles), but it wasn't until he uploaded two songs to the internet in 2011 under the name Youth Lagoon that his music started to get the attention it deserved. Those two songs and six others made up Youth Lagoon's breakthrough debut album, an intimate lo-fi bedroom pop record called The Year of Hibernation, and Trevor continued to progress as an artist across Youth Lagoon's next two albums, the psych-pop of 2013's Wondrous Bughouse and the art rock of 2015's Savage Hills Ballroom. Then, Trevor put Youth Lagoon to rest. He started releasing music under his own name and put out the glitchy electronic pop record Mulberry Violence in 2018, followed by 2020's largely instrumental Capricorn. In 2021, Trevor was hit with medical issues that affected his larynx and vocal cords and left him wondering if he'd ever speak--let alone sing--again. After thankfully recovering, he decided to return to the project that he had won the world over with a decade earlier, Youth Lagoon. In true Trevor Powers fashion, the new Youth Lagoon album Heaven Is A Junkyard is like nothing else he's ever done yet distinctly the work of no other artist. This time, he's sort of working in serene, piano-led art pop territory, with a hint of Americana in the mix. Trevor's as restless as ever when it comes to stylistic choices, and as strong as ever when it comes to singing and songwriting. His high, boyish voice soars over Heaven Is A Junkyard's tender arrangements. His songwriting has matured a lot since The Year of Hibernation, and not at the expense of the passion and the emotion that's always driven his best material.

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Godflesh - PurgeAvalanche

It's been over 31 years since Godflesh released their sophomore album Pure, which took the groundbreaking industrial metal of their 1989 debut LP Streetcleaner and added in the grooves and rhythms of the then-exploding hip hop genre. Three decades later, Godflesh make an intentional return to the style of Pure on new album Purge. The recording quality is a little more modern, but otherwise this is classic Godflesh. The electronic drums are pummeling and primitive, and Justin Broadrick's screams are as bloodthirsty as they were in the '80s and '90s. (He also remains incredibly versatile; just a few months ago he put out the new Jesu record that found him really leaning into his slowcore side.) Purge doesn't mess much with the Godflesh formula of 30+ years ago, and it also doesn't sound outdated at all because--despite the band becoming so influential--there's still not much out there like Godflesh. They've been in their own lane for so long, and no one's passed them by.

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Feeble Little Horse - Girl With FishSaddle Creek

Pittsburgh's Feeble Little Horse stirred up some word-of-mouth buzz for their 2021 debut LP Hayday, which got picked up by Saddle Creek last year, and now they're following it with their first new album for the label, Girl with Fish. Like the debut, it finds the band pulling from noise pop, shoegaze, traditional indie rock, and folky songwriting--kind of like a cross between Wednesday and Spirit of the Beehive. On a stylistic level, the band reach all of their noisy, fuzzed-out aspirations, and what really makes these songs stand out from the guitar pedal-loving pack is bassist/vocalist Lydia Slocum, whose singer/songwriter vibes would command a room even without all the noise.

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Christine and the Queens - Paranoïa, Angels, True LoveBecause Music

Christine and the Queens drew inspiration from Tony Kushner's acclaimed play Angels in America for his expansive new album. Its three acts span over an hour and a half, with instrumental and spoken word interludes, guest appearances from Madonna and 070 Shake, an interpolation of Pachelbel's Canon, and a dizzying array of ambitious art pop. From gleaming synth-pop to smooth jams with elegant orchestration, atmospheric piano tracks to all-out pop bangers, Chris approaches all of it with a tendency towards the theatrical and a keen sense of melody. Paranoïa, Angels, True Love is a project to get lost in and relish over repeat listens. [Amanda Hatfield]

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7xvethegenius & DJ Green Lantern - The Genius TapeBroadband Sound

While Griselda Records is primarily Westside Gunn's baby, his Griselda partners Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher have both also been busy building their own labels/empires, Drumwork and Black Soprano Family, respectively. One of Drumwork's brightest voices is 7xvethegenius, whose guest verses always stand out and who's always a highlight when she appears on stage at Conway's live shows. Her proper Drumwork Records debut is expected to arrive this summer, but first she's dropping off The Genius Tape. It's entierly produced by DJ Green Lantern and it features Conway as well as Rome Streetz, Che Noir, AA Rashid, and TF. It's cut from the gritty East Coast boom bap cloth that most Griselda-related releases are, and 7xvethegenius uses these ten tracks to show off her ability for cold, hard rhymes that stand out from the pack.

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Dave & Central Cee - Split Decision EPNeighbourhood / Live Yours

Dave has become one of the most respected names in UK rap, and Central Cee is currently one of UK rap's fastest-rising stars--last summer's "Doja" became his biggest hit yet, reaching out #2 in the UK, going viral on TikTok, and cracking a few US charts as well. On their new collaborative EP Split Decision, these two rappers put their heads together for four songs, and they sound incredibly natural as they trade bars across their instant hit "Sprinter," pensive slow jams "Trojan Horse" and "Our 25th Birthday," and the shit-talking closing track "UK Rap." It's a very brief project, but the chemistry between these two and the impact of the songwriting feels monumental. Here's to hoping there's more where this came from.

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Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including King Krule, Decisive Pink (Deradoorian & Kate NV), This Is The Kit, The Boo Radleys, Love and Rockets, and TEKE::TEKE.

Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases archive or scroll down for previous weeks.

Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out our new episode with Drain.