New Music Reviews (3/22)

Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Valerie June, Perfume Genius, The Horrors, and more.

Valerie June – The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers (Fantasy)
This Brooklyn-via-Memphis artist’s fifth album is an expansive blend of folk, soul, psych-pop, trip hop and more, featuring a warmly glowing, psych-tinged sound combining acoustic guitars, celestial keyboards, lush strings, soaring horns, woodwinds, pedal steel and other instrumentation with her elastic, soulful vocals and lyrics revolving around dreams and spirituality.

Perfume Genius – Immediately Remixes (Matador)
The latest Perfume Genius release from Seattle artist Mike Hadreas is a remixed version of his most recent album (2020’s Set My Heart On Fire Immediately), featuring remixes from an impressive lineup including Planningtorock, Jim-E Stack, Boy Harsher, Katie Dey, Jenny Hval, Actress, A.G. Cook, Danny Harle, and other notables. The remixed album’s diverse sound ranges from buoyant electro-pop to hard-hitting techno to experimental ambient.

The Horrors – Lout EP (Wolf Tone/Caroline)
This style-shifting British band’s latest EP dramatically recasts their sound into ferocious industrial metal reminiscent at times of Nine Inch Nails, combining pounding, distorted beats and scuzzy, noise-added guitars with fuzzy vocals and sledgehammer song hooks.

Really From – Really From (Topshelf)
This Boston band’s third album is an intricate blend of emotive rock, jazz and math-rock, with a dynamic sound combining knotty guitar lines, elegiac trumpet, shape-shifting rhythms and lyrics of identity and culture.

Jon Batiste – We Are (Verve)
This New York-via-New Orleans artist is joined by an impressive supporting cast for this vibrant, diverse album blending soul, funk, jazz, hip hop, blues, gospel and more.

Ghost of Vroom – Ghost of Vroom 1 (Mod y Vi)
The debut full-length from this duo comprised of Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing fame along with bassist/longtime collaborator Andrew “Scrap” Livingston hearkens back to Doughty’s ‘90s recordings with Soul Coughing, with a rhythm-driven sound inflected with hip hop, funk, jazz and other styles, combining atmospheric guitars and keyboards, funky breakbeats and occasional samples with Doughty’s spoken/sung vocals and surreal, sometimes sardonic lyrics of pandemic life.

Fimber Bravo – Lunar Tredd (Moshi Moshi)
The latest album from this Trinidad steel drum master is a seamless blend of calypso, highlife and other Caribbean and African styles with propulsive electro-pop grooves, combining percolating rhythms and bright synths and steel drums with often-politically charged lyrics aimed at repression, racism and corruption.

Denzel Curry / Kenny Beats – Unlocked 1.5 (Loma Vista)
The latest release from the Florida rapper and New York DJ/producer is a reworked version of their previous release (2020’s Unlocked), featuring reworkings from Robert Glasper, Georgia Anne Muldrow, The Alchemist, Sango and other notables. Some of the remixers tend to smooth out the combustible source material, while others accentuate its raw energy.

Lushlife – Redamancy EP (Fortune Tellers)
The latest release from this Philadelphia artist (aka Raj Haldar) is an adventurous six-song set of expansive hip hop inflected with jazz, R&B, shoegazer psych-rock and more.

Figmore – Jumbo Street (Fresh Selects)
The debut full-length from this LA-based duo comprised of vocalist/musician JUICEB☮X and producer/musician 10.4 Rog is an atmospheric blend of dreamy R&B, funk and psych-pop with shimmering keyboards, ethereal vocals and breezy melodies.

Chad VanGaalen – World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener (Sub Pop)
This Calgary artist’s latest album is an adventurous set of expansive psych-pop ranging from hypnotic post-punk, motorik prog and jagged power-pop to floating dream-pop, ramshackle folk-rock and ambient space-pop.

Izy – Irene (Hopestreet)
This Melbourne, Australia-based trio’s debut full-length is a fine set of jazz-tinged R&B with an often-spare sound featuring jazzy guitar lines, soulful lead vocals, warm harmonies and dreamy melodies.

Middle Kids – Today We’re The Greatest (Domino)
This Australian trio’s second album is a solid set of anthemic, folk-tinged indie-pop with a lush, dynamic sound combining acoustic and electric guitars, bright keyboards, horns, banjo and more with soaring vocals and lyrics of hope during troubled times.

Warren Dunes – Get Well Soon (self-released)
This Seattle trio’s debut full-length is a well-crafted set of buoyant indie-pop inflected with tropicalia, funk and other styles, combining ringing guitar riffs, bright keyboards, energetic rhythms, soaring song hooks and lyrics of struggle and healing.

DJ Muggs the Black Goat – Dies Addendum (Sacred Bones)
The latest release from this Los Angeles producer (and member of veteran hip hop group Cypress Hill) is an evocative set of dark, psych-tinged hip hop, with an ominous, cinematic sound combining fuzz-encrusted synths and eerie trap-influenced beats with a variety of vocal samples from vintage horror films.

Mint Julep – In a Deep and Dreamless Sleep (Western Vinyl)
This Portland duo’s second album is a solid set of hazy indie-pop with shimmering keyboards, fuzzy guitars, ethereal vocals and haunting song hooks.

Real Numbers – Brighter Then (Slumberland)
This Minneapolis band’s latest release is a solid EP of psych-tinged indie-pop with jangly guitars, atmospheric keyboards, glowing harmonies and wistful melodies.

Fit of Body – Punks Unavailable EP (2MR)
The latest Fit of Body release from Atlanta artist Ryan Parks is a solid 4-song set blending house and electro-pop, combining moody keyboards and propulsive rhythms with distant vocals and hypnotic song hooks.