MELT FM: August Round-Up
August is a strange month— at least in the Midwest. It’s brisk and cool when you step outside to have your morning coffee, but by the middle of the afternoon it’s as hot as it was in mid-summer. It’s a month of transition, and it’s one that often flows by for me like the deceptively languid movement of a drainage bed.
For music, it’s much the same way. You have the last of the pop-addled ‘summer’ albums coming out, while other acts are gearing up for fall or winter tours with darker and more melancholic works.
In between all of that, though, there’s been some great music. Below are 10 of my favorite albums from the month, listed in no significant order other than the one I wanted to listen to them in as I re-worked the list this weekend.
It Goes On — Westside Cowboy
The muted tones and earnest expressions of alt-country are attractive because they are an answer to the anxiety and the perfectionism that defines our world today. There is nothing (at least obviously) put on or constructed about acts like Westside Cowboy, MJ Lenderman, and Brown Horse. When Westside Cowboy sings about the passage of time, therefore, it feels as though an entire life has been laid out before us on a stained oak dining room table— with all of its blemishes, all of its wrinkles, and all of its earnest pain and hope scattered across the chipped edges of its narrative canvas.
Read our review of It Goes On here.
Molly picture — God of war
By the end, Molly Picture’s slowcore, shoegaze, jungle, breakbeat, drum & bass, and indietronica roots are all tied together into one convoluted, but uncannily immaculate thematic knot. It avoids the temptation to be overtly amiable, and while Hooky’s synth-laden lead lines keep the whole thing firmly above board at most points, there is an underlying dismalness— a vague sense of despair, of washing up in a vaguely remembered red-brick apartment after three days of heavy drinking.
It is constantly shifting, and each track offers a fresh re-invention of what god of war puts forth. molly picture is chimeric in that sense, but not in a confounding sort of way.
Read our review of Molly Picture here.
Whatchu Bringing? — Dinner Party
Dinner Party, the collaborative project of multi-instrumentalists and producers Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin, is well known for its laid-back grooves and caving infusions of jazz motifs. On Whatchu Bringing?, the vibe is so indelible, the grooves so undeniable, that it’s hard not to get enveloped in the project even in the course of its relatively short runtime.
The album doesn’t cover too much sonic ground— but it doesn’t need to. This is the type of project you can pop on while you cook dinner or drink your coffee in the morning, and it’s perfectly carved in that image.
Tiarn — Hanna Stretton
tiarn is a difficult project to describe. None of the tracks, on their own, hold some hidden meaning or narrative thread. It is a project about home— but not the conscious or even a particular memory as such. There is warmth, and there is a constant sense of forward motion in Stretton’s soft, beating and brushing rhythms. There are voices creeping up from the deep abyss of silence that is the pulsating heart of each track, but there are also swelling orchestras of sound hiding around each bend.
At times, the project sounds like how one would imagine The Velvet Underground’s early experimentations on degraded film— with Lou Reed and John Cale banging away at obscure ballads with the fervor and energy of hungry dogs.
Read our review of tiarn here.
Dollhouse — Slow Fiction
There’s a beautiful sort of fuzz that permeates most shoegaze-adjacent albums, and then there’s what Slow Fiction presents on their debut LP dollhouse. “turning down flowers,” the closing, 6-minute epic, crystallizes this approach— relying on an oscillating riff and a gentle rhythm to provide a bed for Julia Vassalo’s wistful social commentary.
But each track contains its own distinct folds and wrinkles, and each creates its own brand of melodic bliss before it comes to a cascading end. Vassalo’s intense vocalizations are the highlight of the project, but the sheer cohesion of each layer is what lends it its spacious, awe-inspiring status.
God gotta afro & gold hoops — Rapsody
As Rapsody has continued to mature as an artist, her output only continues to get richer and richer. Buoyed by deep, embellished production and her signature bouncing flow, God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops explores trauma, healing, and all of the turmoil in between with a narrative voice that’s as sharp and cunning as it is quietly restful.
This project, in some ways, feels like Rapsody coming fully into her own as a storyteller and a portrait-painter, and it’s quite possibly the crown jewel of a pretty stacked month in hip-hop.
Lost Weekend — Phoebe Bridgers
There’s a certain blend of melancholy and wistfulness that only Phoebe Bridgers is capable of harnessing, and Lost Weekend, which focuses on themes of her late father and the inescapable passing of time, is an almost unbearably perfect vehicle for that combination.
This is Bridgers’ first full-length release since her 2020 effort Punisher, and it’s everything you could hope for. It’s as cynical and biting as it is hopeful and, at times, comedic—and it’s an absolute masterpiece of an effort from one of our generation’s most moving songwriters.
ii — Denzel Curry & KennY beats
After a slew of projects in the past year, Denzel Curry is back in top form on ii, the follow-up to his 2021 collaboration with Kenny Unlocked.
But the real highlight here is Kenny Beats, who’s taking on a distinctly more MF DOOM, Special Herbs and Spices-era slant to his samples and carefully crafted loops. Over a bed of more laid-back production than what was featured on their last collaboration, Denzel Curry is given a chance to dial back the energy and truly lean into his more subtle magnetisms on the microphone. With features from JPEGMAFIA and Westside Gunn, this is one of the more tantalizing short projects from the month.
Herzsprung — GB
The third effort from Danish musician GB under this project, Herzsprung makes tactful use of many of the motifs we’ve seen become common in post- and experimental indie rock over the past few years— there’s delicate saxophones, springing riffs, and odd rhythms all across this album.
But it’s the subtle dynamics and pure expressiveness of GB’s hollowed-out vocalizations that do most of the heavy lifting here. Check out the seven-minute epic “Shit River” for a taste of what I mean.
A Sunflower garden in Harlem is hard to find — liim
If there’s one thing we know about the emerging Harlem artist Liim, it’s that anything he puts out is going to be undeniably fun, and his sophomore effort, while it dips into its self-reflective moments, is exactly what you’d expect on that front.
The influence from Tyler, the Creator (who listened to the finished album and gave feedback to Liim) is obvious, but Liim’s own blend of charisma and silky-smooth synth relaxation oozes through every moment of this project. You’d like to see him attempt a longer, more ambitious effort when he inevitably arrives at his third project, but that’s only because you’re left craving more when “Cyclistic” finishes blaring out of your speakers.