New Music Reviews (4/27)

Each week, Music Director Chris Sanley and Associate Music Director Alex Ruder (joined this week by Albina Cabrera, Latin Partnerships and Editorial Manager and co-host of El Sonido) 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 Angélique Kidjo, TV Star, Another Taste, and more. 

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Angélique Kidjo - HOPE!! (Parlophone/Warner) 
Over four decades into her celebrated career, Angélique Kidjo continues to elevate her craft while spreading messages of hope, even if born out of moments of grief. On her aptly titled 18th studio album, Kidjo leans into her joyful blend of Afrobeat and global pop, led by her signature vocals, infectious polyrhythms, lively arrangements, and a knockout guestlist from Pharrell Williams to The Soweto Gospel Choir. It’s impossible not to walk away with a renewed sense of HOPE!! after immersing yourself in her kaleidoscopic warmth. She shares: “With this album I wanted to put some fire back in people’s hearts, and show how much we need that joy and hope to keep our humanity going.” –CS

TV Star - Music For Heads (Father/Daughter Records)
The debut album from Seattle-Tacoma five-piece TV Star is a portrait of a band that knows exactly who the fuck they are. Their sublime fusion of psych rock, shoegaze, and jangle pop creates an equally bright and gloomy soundscape, with lush, inviting arrangements featuring densely layered guitars, rolling drum patterns, and Ashlyn Nagel’s bewitching vocals, alongside flourishes of strings and harmonies. Music For Heads lives up to its name, resulting in a warm, organic collection that nods to their influences while maintaining distinct vision. –CS

Another Taste - Another Taste II (Space Grapes)
The second album from this Rotterdam, Netherlands-based outfit is another supremely groovy dip into analog-rich nostalgia-soaked grooves that mines inspiration from a soulful blend of obscure disco, boogie, R&B, and funk. With its warm, communal, infectious energy, recorded live to tape sound, and plenty of extended instrumental sections to just let loose, Another Taste’s second outing delivers another throwback reprieve to our increasingly digital-heavy modern-day soundtrack. –AR

Cadence Weapon - Forager (Six Shooter)
The seventh full-length album from Hamilton, Ontario-based rapper, producer, author, and Polaris Prize winner Cadence Weapon (aka Rollie Pemberton) is a sharp showcase of his clever underground rap persona that’s uniquely guided here by an organic, fashion-minded thematic arc. An album about “showmanship and craftsmanship, dedication, the pursuit of beauty and things built to last” and produced by fellow Canadian rapper/producer Junia-T, Forager finds Cadence waxing philosophical about life, fashion, and other referential-heavy musings over consistently sweet organic beats full of live instrumentation. –AR

fabric - Until We Are Free (Four Flies)
The debut album from this mysterious Italy-based collective is a strong set of soulful, funky, universal grooves that pairs the band’s tight, locked-in, analog-heavy productions with socially conscious messages delivered by charismatic, commanding female vocals reminiscent of Ibibio Sound Machine’s Eno Williams, Say She She, and Cleo Sol over SAULT’s most kinetic moments. –AR

Metric - Romanticize The Dive (Metric Music International/Thirty Tigers)
Indie rock darlings Metric return with their euphoric tenth studio album. Arriving nearly 25 years after their debut, Romanticize The Dive is quintessential Metric, highlighting their distinct blend of indie rock, synth-pop, and post-punk. With sparkling synths, shimmering guitars, and Emily Haines’ signature vocals guiding listeners through themes of strength, vulnerability, and living in the moment, this hook-laden collection reminds us just why the four-piece is so beloved. –CS

Miss Grit - Under My Umbrella (Mute) 
Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, and producer Maragret Sohn, aka Miss Grit, has crafted a complex sonic universe on their gripping sophomore album. With dark synths, driving drumbeats, intriguing vocal manipulations, and otherworldly production, ‘Under My Umbrella’ explores anxiety, heartbreak, and isolation, lifting the veil to reveal a deeply personal and innovative collection of electronic pop brilliance. –CS

Quiet Light - Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2 (True Panther) 
On her debut album for True Panther, Austin-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Riya Mahesh, aka Quiet Light, delivers a sensational exploration of pop, blending ambient, electronic, and experimental elements into a dreamy, trance-inducing body of work. Featuring synths, horns, strings, voice notes, and field recordings, Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2 finds Mahesh effortlessly shapeshifting, moving from dark corners into the bright light through her masterful production. –CS

Yaya Bey - Fidelity (drink sum wtr) 
Yaya Bey carries a lot on her remarkable fourth studio album. Sonically, she continues to expand her seductive fusion of R&B, neo-soul, jazz, hip-hop, and dance with deliciously textured arrangements featuring syncopated rhythms, funky basslines, rich horns, and bright keys, while her smooth, sultry vocals serve as the album’s north star. Lyrically, the Brooklyn-bred singer, songwriter, and producer is grappling with profound grief, and what she’s defined as the “Three Deaths: the personal, the communal, and the loss of innocence.” Yet through this expression of grief, a certain lightness still emerges. Ultimately, Fidelity embodies love and resilience, a sentiment she captures on “The Great Migration”: “Love’s the thing that got us here, and it's love that'll take us home.”  –CS

Zookraught - Pressure (Den Tapes) 
Seattle trio Zookraught return with their ferocious sophomore album, and their infectious blend of punk, post-hardcore, and indie rock demands attention across ten hard-hitting tracks. With fierce vocals, pointed lyricism, intricate guitars, and pummeling percussion, Pressure delivers a palpable push and pull of tension, urgently capturing the chaos of the modern age.  –CS

April + VISTA - Traditional Noise (Third & Hayden) 
After refining their craft for over a decade, April + VISTA, the duo of April George and Matthew Thompson, finally unveil their debut album. With a genre-bending approach that fuses elements of R&B, soul, electronic, rock, and art pop, Traditional Noise is far from traditional. Rather, the duo’s vibrant, innovative arrangements propel April’s breathtaking vocals, offering atmospheric moments of reflection and release. They share: “This album is a multi-layered, amber-colored fossil passing down stories about the people and memories we hold dear; it’s an analog snapshot of the world from our vantage point and aims to serve as a proper introduction to who we are creatively.”  –CS

Friko - Something Worth Waiting For (ATO)
The sophomore album from Chicago outfit Friko is a solid set of early-aughts influenced indie rock. Expanding from a duo to a four-piece, their nostalgic, anthemic rockers are bigger and bolder, with theatrical arrangements, cinematic crescendos, and Niko Kapetan’s empathic, emotionally charged vocal expressions. –CS

Gia Margaret - Singing (Jagjaguwar) 
Following a vocal injury that left her unable to sing for years, Gia Margaret had to make a shift. Leaning into ambient music and the release of two instrumental albums, she now returns with her first vocal album in nearly a decade, revealing an artist who chose to grow and evolve through a trying and turbulent time in her career. On Singing, her angelic vocals are on prominent display, but it’s the whole picture that really makes the collection such a knockout. These tender, ornate ruminations feature strings, keys, horns, omnichord, harp, woodwinds, guitars, and more, proving Margaret to be a delicate force of nature who had the patience to be reborn while claiming every iteration of her remarkable artistry. –CS

Jorge Drexler - Taracá (Sony Music España)
EN: For the first time in two decades, Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler returns to his home country to record one of his most intimate works. Taracá, an onomatopoeia of the sound of the “tambor chico” and an expression meaning “to be here”, explores grief, but also the Latin American tradition of dance as a way of moving through pain. Three decades after leaving Montevideo, Drexler acts as a bridge between generations, bringing together candombe mainstays like Rueda Candombe, Américo Young, and Falta y Resto with contemporary voices such as Young Miko and Ángeles Toledano. Recorded across Uruguay, Puerto Rico, and Spain, the album includes standout moments like “Tambor Chico” and “Te llevo tatuada.” On “Ante la duda, baila,” Drexler revisits the history of banned music and dance traditions across Latin America and Spain. A record that reaffirms his craft: as he puts it, “people pass, but words remain.” –AC

ES: Por primera vez en dos décadas, el cantautor uruguayo Jorge Drexler regresa a su país natal para grabar uno de sus trabajos más íntimos. Taracá, onomatopeya del sonido del “tambor chico” y expresión de “estar acá”, explora el duelo, pero también la celebración latinoamericana del baile como forma de atravesar el dolor. A tres décadas de haber dejado Montevideo, Drexler actúa como puente generacional, reuniendo referentes del candombe como Rueda Candombe, Américo Young y Falta y Resto con voces contemporáneas como Young Miko y Ángeles Toledano. Grabado entre Uruguay, Puerto Rico y España, el álbum incluye momentos destacados como “Tambor Chico” y “Te llevo tatuada". En “Ante la duda, baila”, revisita la historia de la prohibición de músicas y bailes en América Latina y España. Un disco que reafirma su oficio: como él mismo dice, “la gente pasa, pero las palabras quedan". –AC

Las Cruxes - Las Cruxes (Million Stars)
Las Cruxes is an Omaha, NE-based project led by Los Angeles native and former Pastilla member Yayo Trujillo. Their third album marks their first for Bright Eyes’ Million Stars imprint and it’s a solid set of fuzzy garage rock, brooding garage punk, and stormy psychedelic rock distinguished by Trujillo’s Spanish vocals that soar within their gauzy jams. –AR

Loukeman - Sd-3 (September Recordings)
The third full-length album from Toronto-based musician Loukeman (aka Luke Fenton) is another masterful set of immersive, emotional, unpredictable electronic music distinguished by his magnetic beats, glistening kinetic rhythms, experimental pop vision, and an ability to create his own enigmatic, cinematic, worldbuilding sonic realm through his production wizardry. An array of sampled vocals flicker throughout each song, expressive Mk.gee-esque guitars are sprinkled intermittently, and Loukeman closes out his Sd trilogy with another captivating journey. –AR

lovetempo - There Is A Light (self-released)
Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Mattie Safer (of Poolside, The Rapture) properly introduces his lovetempo project with his full-length debut album There Is A Light. His supremely funky fusion of disco, jazz, and soul is intoxicating, boasting spacy synths, infectious grooves, and introspective lyricism that explores “persevering through personal difficulties: heartbreak, burnout, late-night regrets.” –CS

Madame Gandhi - Love Letters from Brooklyn (Gender Amplified)
The latest EP from Oakland-based artist and activist Madame Gandhi (aka Kiran Gandhi, former drummer for M.I.A.) is a touching set of warm, organic, tender R&B-pop. With its creation stemming from a women-led three-day songwriting camp at Hyperballad Music in Brooklyn, Love Letters from Brooklyn lyrically explores themes of queer love, intimacy, and partnership and is dedicated to Gandhi’s four-year-long-distance partner, gold-medalist boxer Lesley Sackey. –AR

Season 2 - Power of Now (Upset the Rhythm)
The debut album from this Melbourne-based five-piece band is a sharp set of spunky DIY pop, jangly post-punk, and scrappy indie rock that carries the “giddy thrill of snappy slap, catchy gang vocals and crystalline guitar refrains.” –AR

SOFTJAW - Softjaw (Dandy Boy)
Long Beach, CA-based band SOFTJAW craft classic power-pop that consistently delivers big bright hooks, sweet guitars, steady tempos, and infectious energy. Newly out on vinyl courtesy of Oakland-based label Dandy Boy Records, their self-titled debut album collects their previously digital-only EP and singles and adds two exclusive covers – Paul Collins’ “Working Too Hard" and Nick Simpson’s “Playing Bogart” – to fully showcase their top-notch throwback sound. –AR

Strange Fruit - Drips (Gentle Tuesday Recordings)
The second EP (and 1st in 11 years) from this Jakarta, Indonesia-based band fronted by Baldi Calvianca is a sweet set of cosmic, kaleidoscopic, and trippy jams that blend Krautrock, psychedelic, shoegaze, Madchester, and leftfield house flavors for impressive, hypnotic results. The EP features four stellar original pieces and a handful of complimentary remixes that shift Strange Fruit’s genre-blurring sound into cerebral dancefloor territory. –AR

The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Acknowledge Kindness (Fire)
The latest album from this prolific DIY project of San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Glenn Donaldson is a tender, touching set of melancholic indie pop with Donaldson’s trembling voice, poignant lyrics, and downcast tone grappling with a deep sense of nostalgia while seeking solace in the present moment. –AR

tofusmell - All My Time (Hardly Art)
The debut album from Winnipeg-based, Orlando-raised musician Rae Chen (aka tofusmell) is a promising set of gentle folk-pop that finds their hushed vocals and vulnerable lyrics paired across backdrops that range from spacious and sparse to sweeping and relatively robust. –AR