Release Radar: January 2023
These are blurbs that I wrote for the series Release Radar. Read the whole listicle here.
Photos courtesy of Imogen Loop, Kate Killet, and Colette Aboussouan
SHINY SINGLES WE LOVED THIS MONTH
“Emily I’m Sorry” by boygenius
The long awaited reunion of the iconic indie star trio consisting of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker comes with the release of three new singles to tease their upcoming album, the record. Standout “Emily I’m Sorry” is a reflective ballad in which Bridgers apologizes to her past lover for the hurt she caused. This song gives fans a peek into the heartbreak they’re about to experience on their looming record release.
“Princess Diana” by Ice Spice
Rap newcomer, music’s Mother Theresa, and hip-hop’s Jesus incarnate Ice Spice, takes a note out of Lil Nas X’s school of PR and embraces the memes on new track “Princess Diana.” The title of the track refers to the trend of comparing Spice to the late Princess of Wales. On this short classic Bronx-sounding rap track, the rapstress talks her shit, and does it with the grace of the People’s Princess.
Image courtesy of Human Seasons Records
Gigi’s Recovery by The Murder Capital
Dublin-based band and haters of the label “post-punk,” The Murder Capital, took time to recover and must tell everyone about it. The quintet cries for help on sophomore album Gigi’s Recovery, a classic art-rock record showcasing life's ups and downs in full force. Vocalist James McGovern is accompanied by guitarists Damien Tuit and Cathal Roper, along with Gabriel Pascal Blake on bass and Diarmuid Brennan on drums to create a post-grunge, soft-rock record. Themes of existentialism, loss, love, and strength are wrought throughout the album. Opener “Existence” is a brief poetic track where the singer feels themselves dip into a pool of depression with the opening lyrics, “Strange feeling I’m dealing with / I can’t admit it I’d lose my grip.” The inevitable upswing following the established cadence of rock bottom surfaces in “Ethel,” where the record takes a turn for the better. The singer reflects on a past relationship, and of all the plans that they had together that inevitably faltered. Bittersweet, McGovern hits the listener with the line “I always wanted it to be like this for us / Having our first kid / Name her Ethel.”
The resolution of this arc comes with the album’s title track, which chronicles the moving on from a failed relationship. The ending repeating “Gigi, you never left me” indicates a healthy view of recovering from a breakup. Immediately after is the final track, “Exist,” which is a cheeky callback to the first track, in which the singer feels the strength to come out of recovery. This record is a journey of the struggles of a broken man attempting to piece his life together Gigi’s Recovery is a relatable piece of work with beautiful shoegaze-inspired production and classic soft-rock sound.