New Music Reviews (03/21)

Each week, Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by Morning Show producer Owen Murphy) shares 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 Rosalía, Stromae, King Hannah, and more.

Rosalía – Motomami (Columbia)
This Spanish artist’s third album is an expansive blend of hip hop, reggaeton, flamenco, dembow, champeta, bachata and much more, with a sample-heavy sound combining a variety of keyboards and rhythms with her powerful, elastic vocals and lyrics, which range from exuding sex and swagger to reflecting on the price of fame. — DY

Stromae – Multitude (Mosaert/Darkroom/Interscope)
This Belgian-Rwandan artist’s third album (and first in nine years) is an impressive set of folk-tinged electro-pop inflected with cumbia, reggaeton and other styles, combining bright synths, cinematic strings, percolating rhythms and a variety of traditional instrumentation from around the globe with sharp, character-driven lyrics often aimed at hypocrisy, prejudice and injustice. — DY

King Hannah – I'm Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me (City Slang)
This Liverpool-based duo’s debut album is a moody, atmospheric blend of dusky, blues-tinged rock and fuzzy shoegazer psych-rock, combining languid, occasionally erupting guitar lines, ominous rhythms and occasional keyboards and other instrumentation with Hannah Merrick’s smoky vocals and reflective lyrics laced with dark humor. — DY

PLOSIVS – PLOSIVS (Swami)
The debut album from this new San Diego supergroup led by John Reis (Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu) and Rob Crow (Pinback) is a potent set of driving garage-punk with dual lead guitars, energetic rhythms, layered harmonies and an abundance of catchy song hooks. — DY

Nia Archives – Forbidden Feelingz EP (HIJINXX)
This Manchester producer/vocalist’s second EP is a strong six-song set of jungle and drum ‘n’ bass inflected with UK garage, reggae, R&B and other styles, combining propulsive rhythms and looped vocal samples with her sultry, jazz-tinged vocals. — DY

Yumi Zouma – Present Tense (Polyvinyl)
The fourth album from this New Zealand-bred band (whose members are now based in New York, London and New Zealand) is a solid set of sleek, dreamy indie-pop with bright keyboards, warm guitars and breezy rhythms along with occasional strings, woodwinds and pedal steel combined with wistful melodies. — DY

Charli XCX – Crash (Atlantic)
This British artist’s fifth regular studio album is her most mainstream-leaning release of kinetic dance-pop, with a bright, widescreen sound that often references dance-pop hits from the past few decades with glittering synths, propulsive beats and sparkling pop melodies. — DY

Mattiel – Georgia Gothic (ATO)
The third album from the Atlanta-based duo of Mattiel Brown and Jonah Swilley is a diverse blend of stinging ‘60s garage-rock, blues-tinged folk-rock, trippy psych-rock and other styles. — DY

Barrie – Barbara (Winspear)
The latest Barrie album from New York artist Barrie Lindsay is an expansive set of indie-pop ranging from folk-tinged dream-pop to propulsive synth-pop, with the album’s lyrics revolving around love, loss, grief and joy. — DY

Midlake – For the Sake of Bethel Woods (ATO)
This Denton, TX band’s fifth album (and first in nine years) is a well-crafted blend of folk-rock, prog and psych-pop with imaginative, sometimes shapeshifting arrangements combining a variety of instrumentation with airy harmonies and lyrics of love, loss, isolation, hope and renewal. — DY

Familiars – Hand of Glory (self-released)
The second album from this Seattle band led by former Kithkin drummer/vocalist Ian McCutcheon is a well-crafted set of stylish New Wave synth-pop combining bright synths, atmospheric guitars and buoyant rhythms with McCutcheon’s sonorous croon and lyrics of love and loss. — DY

MALIA – What’s After ‘I Love You?’ EP (Black Sea Music)
This LA-based artist’s latest release is a solid EP of jazz-tinged R&B, featuring an often-spare, lowkey sound combining gently ringing guitars, atmospheric keyboards, melancholy brass and occasional other instrumentation with her warm, feathery vocals and personal lyrics of heartache and healing. — DY

Lavender Country – Blackberry Rose (Don Giovanni)
This Seattle band spearheaded by Patrick Haggerty released the first openly gay country album in 1973. Nearly 50 years later, they’re now releasing a follow-up, and it’s an engaging set of warm, folk-tinged country with lyrics addressing gay repression, bigotry and sexism. — DY

Son House – Forever On My Mind (Easy Eye Sound)
This album is a previously unreleased live recording from the Mississippi Delta blues legend that was made in 1964 in front of a small college audience in Crawfordsville, Indiana. It’s now been cleaned up by Dan Auerbach and sounds great, featuring just House and his guitar on a haunting set of mostly Delta blues standards, including two of the ones most associated with House, “Preachin’ Blues” and “Death Letter.” — DY

Blue States – World Contact Day (Memphis Industries)
The sixth regular Blue States studio album (and first in six years) from British producer/musician Andy Dragazis alternates between cinematic instrumentals and moody indie-pop songs sung by a variety of guest vocalists. — DY

Kraus – Eye Escapes (self-released)
The fourth full length from the former Brooklyn – now Dallas – based electronic/ambient/shoegaze artist Will Kraus is a collection of remastered demos from a scrapped album recorded mostly between 2018's Path and 2021's View No Country. Passed back and forth between friends and finally shared with the public, Eye Escapes reveals moments of serene ambience, melodic soundscapes and distortion laced freakouts. — OM