Aster Tracks

Chicago, IL’s Beach Bunny have kicked off a starry new era with their new track “Oxygen” produced by Sean O’Keefe. This is the follow-up to the Blame Game EP, which dropped in the first stretch of this year and has already seen live plays with their current string of shows. The band have stayed busy even in the quarantine era with that EP, an updated version of “Cloud 9,” a track that went gold after seeing Tik Tok success and even collaborating with MARINA in the past couple of weeks. Songwriter and front woman Lili Trifilio commented on the track by saying; “”Oxygen” is a song about the perils of navigating romantic feelings, the joy that comes with allowing love to happen, and the act of letting go of the anxiety and our inner voices that make us feel undeserving of love. I Wanted it to have a playful vibe with anthemic choruses and a big, blissed out ending.” A single guitar chord fades into an instrumental that sounds like it would have been at home on one of the band’s earlier EP...

Every Time I Die - Radical (Epitaph) Consistent, tight, heavy. Some of these songs go back to 2019 and Keith Buckley’s rawness and honesty about the dark times he’s endured in the past couple of years cannot be understated. If Every Time I Die’s name isn’t enough to grab your attention at this point I don’t know what to tell you. The Home Team - Slow Bloom (Revival) A record that sort of snuck up on me in a big way! Only caught one single but I really liked this and can’t wait to dive in again. If you like artists like Origami Button or Andres you will love The Home Team. Circa Survive - A Dream About Love (Rise) Another band that is consistent after all these years. I was on a bit of a down tick from Violent Waves on, but “Imposter Syndrome'' absolutely blew me away and the rest of the EP is just as good. Melody Charade - Sky Like This (Volitional Form) Wanted to point out these three tracks from an artist I’m not at all familiar with though it seems this is their only mater...

Massachusetts based metalcore outfit Ice Nine Kills have released Welcome to Horrorwood, their sixth record overall as well as the sequel to 2018’s The Silver Scream. The idea and concept here being that each song on both records is written around a certain horror film. Now, this band has gotten a pretty even divide between praise from fans for their campy, fun presentation and overall coherent tight metalcore as well as flack from the Metal Sucks crowd complaining about the band’s overall gimmick. I, personally, fall somewhere in between these two crowds. I am all for conceptual bands especially in a genre that can get so drap and repetitive that most of the time I can’t get myself to listen to it, nevermind cover it, but I think there’s a lot to nitpick out here. I will start with the most low hanging fruit here, the lyricism is so poor. I understand the desire to represent a film’s plot line in a song but I think there are more subtle ways to get what you’re trying to tell across th...

FINNEAS - Optimist (Interscope) Finneas has of course come up and become known through the Billie Eilish production. I haven’t really seen much discussion around this record or its singles and I think where it falls short is that he rides that production too much. Don’t get me wrong there songs sound his own, but there’s plenty of moments that were done on Happier Than Ever and it makes it really hard to enjoy an otherwise pretty good pop album. Ice Nine Kills - Welcome to Horrorwood: The Silver Scream 2 (Fearless) This is abysmal. I’m hoping to have some more full thoughts out soon but I wanted to mention it here. My biggest issue is track after track INK gets so close to a really strong release but take it away just when you’ve become immersed. I understand they have their fans but they keep digging themselves deeper into a hole but getting better at writing an instrumental. It’s a really hard pull in opposite directions. Remi Wolf - Juno (Island) Was really looking forward to this b...

Los Angeles’ Sarah Tudzin has released Let Me Do One More, the third in the illuminati hotties discography and first under her own Shack Tracks label. Tudzin’s music has been described as “punk pop” and “tenderpunk” and after diving in the back catalog a bit I would say that’s accurate. Pop punk is more pop leaning into punk a bit but I would say this project is the opposite, more punk with pop stylings. The singles were split evenly between both descriptors with two having a fun, silly yet personal punk attitude and the other with a more sad, real tender mood to them. This even split of moods sort of left me not knowing what to expect on the full length but either way I was really looking forward to diving into the whole thing. The first single, which is entitled “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA” (that’s also the chorus) or just “moo” as I’ve seen it be called is a chaotic nightmare and I mean that in the best possible way. It is a messy punk track that, while seemingly everywhere, has a pretty thoro...

Destroy Boys - Open Mouth, Open Heart (Hopeless) Never heard of this band before this week so this was a very pleasant surprise! Fun punk record with a lot of spunk and wit, easy recommend this week. Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World (Luminelle) Very strong debut from this electronic pop duo. My only wish is that I was able to experience tracks like “Secrets” more organically. All of the singles were great but I feel they are even better with their transitions on the record. The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die - Illusory Walls (Epitaph) This was a lot to take in at seventy minutes with two long tracks, one at fifteen minutes and one at nineteen. I know it’s good but it’s all too much to give you a full exploration in the first week. From Ashes to New - Quarantine Chronicles Vol. 2 (Better Noise) Covers EP from FAtN and this was hard to get through even at five tracks. First of all the awful take at Decode in a year where that track is being brought back to t...

The debut record from Spiritbox, “Eternal Blue” is finally here, yet in some ways, it feels like we’ve had a record from them for quite awhile. Canadian songwriting duo, married couple, ex-iwrestledabearonce members Courtney LaPlante and Micheal Stringer have been releasing music under the Spiritbox name since 2017 with a mostly single based focus. Those singles gained quick traction but nothing as major as just how viral “Holy Roller” was with its iconic Midsommer-influenced video and LaPlante’s live studio videos on the song. The success of these tracks landed the band not only notoriety and respect in their scene but also a number of festival and supporting tour slots as well. The rollout of this project goes as far as a year back and six singles, 50% of the track listing, were released before the actual release date. The first single, “Holy Roller,” though we didn’t know it at the time, may just be the perfect metalcore song. The track opens with mild strumming and the anticipation...