New Music Reviews (5/12)

Each week, Music Director Chris Sanley and Associate Music Director Alex Ruder share brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. These reviews help our DJs decide on what they want to play. See what we added this week below (and on our Charts page), including new releases from Alien Boy, AMORE, Deradoorian, and more. 

Alien Boy - You Wanna Fade? (Get Better Records)
The new album from Portland-based indie rock outfit Alien Boy is a potent, infectious set of hard-hitting power pop. Boasting infectious hooks, loud guitars, and emotive lyricism, You Wanna Fade? is a truly gripping collection. –CS

AMORE - Top Hits, Ballads, etc… (self-released)
The debut album from this project of Madrid-based musician María Moreno Martínez is a fascinating set of evocative, expansive Latin alt-pop that weaves together a myriad of influences – minimal art-pop, sleek club-pop, sultry alt-R&B, sweeping dream-pop, romantic trip-hop, bouncy reggaeton – into her forward-thinking pop landscape. Kicking off with a brief tone-setting “portal” of an intro featuring production from Canadian artist Loukeman, AMORE’s debut album glides with confidence, swagger, and an adventurous spirit with a trio of standout tracks found in the back half. -AR

Deradoorian - Ready For Heaven (Fire Records)
The fourth solo album from the NY-based multi-hyphenate (singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and self-described weirdo) is a bewitching collection of swirling, experimental, prismatic pop. With elements of noise, ambient textures, syncopated rhythms, and flourishes of saxophone, synths, and drum patterns, her pristine vocals guide listeners through the endlessly layered soundscapes of Ready For Heaven, leaving them begging for more. –CS

Erika de Casier - Lifetime (Independent Jeep Music)
Just over a year following her 4AD debut ‘Still’, Portuguese-born Danish singer, songwriter, and producer Erika de Casier surprise releases her fourth album of spellbinding, sultry, 90s-influenced R&B/trip-hop full of hazy lullabies and downtempo bops. Fully written and produced by Erika, Lifetime further cements her as one of the shining stars of the contemporary R&B landscape as she proudly leans into her distinctively dreamy, romantic, atmospheric, and alluring vision. -AR

Men I Trust - Equus Caballus (self-released)
Less than two months since dropping their smooth, soothing, folky album Equus Asinus, beloved Montreal band Men I Trust swiftly return with their sixth studio album and it’s a stellar return to their addictive dream-pop sound. While it’s still full of warm productions, nostalgic tones, Emma Proulx’s enchanting vocals, and the band’s effortlessly cool vibe, Equus Caballus at times splashes into propulsive post-punk-adjacent terrain, and features updated versions for their recent brilliant run of standalone singles, “Billie Toppy,” “Ring of Past,” and “Husk.” -AR

Night Heron - ESCAPISM (Literal Gold)
The second album from this Portland band led by former Radiation City frontman Cameron Spies cruises through a moody, nocturnal, slow-motion blend of R&B, synth-pop, and yacht-rock – or as they aptly bill it, “night-driving” music – distinguished by laidback beats, jazzy flourishes, dreamy melodies, and a light psychedelic touch. Portland rapper ePP appears on “MORNING CLOUDZ” for a distinctive hip-hop-leaning highlight. -AR

TVOD - Party Time (Mothland)
The debut album from this NYC band bounds boldly into a sweet intersection of punk and post-punk to deliver songs with big energy, bold guitars, lively rhythms, cool synths, and lead singer Tyler Wright’s “uncanny melodic sense and lovingly cranky approach to songwriting.” -AR

AtticOmatic - Fold the World EP (self-released)
The debut EP from this Brighton, UK band is an impressive showcase of their amorphous sound that blends arty post-rock and exploratory dream-pop with touches of jazz and electronic elements to create smart, stirring songs with a restless, unpredictable, magnetically meandering pulse. Centered around the relationship of core songwriting duo Kamran Kaur and Lorcan Forder and thematically touching upon their experiences with ADHD and Autism, Fold the World is a strong introduction from a young emerging band with early single “Wait” providing the EP’s most immediate, exemplary moment. -AR

Chaos in the CBD - A Deeper Life (In Dust We Trust)
Chaos in the CBD, aka New Zealand-born, London-based brothers Ben and Louis Helliker-Hales, have been a steady presence on the underground electronic/club scene for almost 15 years now, originally unveiling their debut EP in 2011 and dropping their highly-revered Midnight in Peckham EP in 2015. Nearly ten years after that breakout moment, Chaos in the CBD coolly deliver their first full-length album and it’s a deep, delightful dip into lush, hypnotic, free-flowing Balearic grooves inspired by their nature-filled youth exploring the magical coastline and lush rainforest of New Zealand. UK rapper Novelist and New Jersey house vocalist Stephanie Cooke appear on vocal-laced highlight “Maintaining My Peace.”  -AR

Julia Mestre - Maravilhosamente Bem (Mr Bongo)
The third solo album from Brazilian singer, songwriter and Bala Desejo bandmember Julia Mestre is a transportive set of lush 80s-influenced MPB-disco-pop jams. An album that “pays homage to her love of classic female disco divas such as Donna Summer, Sade, Alcione, Lady Zu, and the Brazilian rock queens Rita Lee and Marina Lima,” Maravilhosamente Bem captures an undeniably breezy, groovy, nostalgic sound and includes a pair of standout highlights in early single “Sou Fera” and “Marinou, Limou,” the latter featuring influential Brazilian artist Marina Lima. -AR

Maia Friedman - Goodbye Long Winter Shadow (Last Gang)
The sophomore album from NYC-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Maia Friedman is a stunning display of captivating chamber pop. Her warm, enchanting vocals are rightfully the centerpiece, as the lush arrangements featuring strings, woodwinds, keys, and acoustic guitars delicately grasp listeners throughout the journey that is Goodbye Long Winter Shadow. –CS

Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke - Tall Tales (Warp)
The new collaboration between innovative producer Mark Pritchard and Radiohead visionary Thom Yorke is a dark, chaotic delight. With dizzying avant-garde arrangements that shift from pulsing electronic beats to droning noise rock to ambient soundscapes, accompanied by dreamy and haunting vocals, Tall Tales is a treasure that artfully defies genre. –CS

Melinda - Melinda (self-released)
Existing in a similar lane as Chanel Beads, Hovvdy, and Toro Y Moi, the debut EP from this Memphis-based project led by singer/songwriter Gabriel Hasty is an impressive set of homespun psych-pop featuring some downright dreamy earworm melodies, especially on early single “1x1.” -AR

Nell Smith - Anxious (Bella Union)
British Columbia-based musician Nell Smith made her debut in 2021 on Where the Viaduct Looms, a collaborative album that found The Flaming Lips serving as Nell’s backing band on nine Nick Cave covers. She had just completed her debut solo album Anxious last year when she was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 17. Now released six months after her passing, Anxious is a beautiful, bright, bittersweet posthumous collection of youthful, catchy, confident psych-pop songs featuring smart, colorful, kaleidoscopic productions, lyrics that “explore the highs, lows and uncertainty of teenage life,” and Nell’s wide-eyed sonic vision. It’s a truly impressive psych-pop album with a hopeful "The Kids Will Be Alright" energy, which makes the fact this will be her one and only album even more heartbreaking. RIP Nell Smith. -AR

Provoker - Mausoleum (YEAR0001)
The third album from this Bay Area-raised, LA-based band revels in a gothic New Wave lane. Gloomily catchy and with a steady undercurrent of darkness rooted in the band’s origin as a solo project of Jonathon Lopez to create scores for horror and sci-fi films, Provoker’s sad boy rock feels surprisingly at home on their longtime Swedish label YEAR0001 alongside the likes of Yung Lean, Bladee, and Viagra Boys. -AR