Chartreuse arrive with their second EP that builds upon previous work while adding heaping helpings of uniqueness and a burgeoning self-awareness.

Albums are difficult to pull off well, but The Killers have spent over a decade making singles look easy. 2007’s Sawdust is an excellent case in point.

Richard Fearless and his co-conspirators drew on an old and fundamental empathic response to create their debut album, and it all started with the LP’s first single.

(Blonde Dissected, pt 1)

New contributor Anne enters the maze of Blonde’s obliqueness and the pull of its gravity in attempting to sort out what makes Frank Ocean’s 2016 sophomore LP so prescient and timeless.

(Blonde Dissected, pt 2)

One of the ways to parse the meaning of Blonde is to look at the many voices present in the work. A mother’s voice rings out as one of the clearest and loudest for a brand of social justice that starts in the mirror.

One went electric, one went ironic. Where is the fork in the road between these two artists who beat their own paths through the artistic wilderness?

How important for a writer is the rush of inspiration in the moment? Maybe easing up and allowing in the comfort goes just as far. Maybe it goes even further.

Tobias Jesso Jr.’s 2015 debut (and only album so far) still offers waves of easy pop looseness to get lost in, but it’s not afraid of a little texture and confrontation.

Healing Potpourri is a Bay Area seven-piece who’s on the trail of that most elusive of feelings: wistful pleasure. Ride with them on the way there on their newest LP.

Everything is changing. Some of our music-related touchstones may be lost for good. But that’s probably not so bad.

I Slept On The Floor

7 August 2020

Flower of Devotion

17 July 2020

“Mr. Motivator”

19 May 2020

“A New Muse”

7 May 2020

Sawayama

17 April 2020

Fetch The Bolt Cutters

17 April 2020

Singles: “Broken Tamborine” / “Red Western Sky” / “Bad Feeling”

Spring 2020 (multiple dates)

The New Abnormal

10 April 2020

Album: Return Of The Rentals

Released: 1995

Album: I Heart Huckabees (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Released: 2005

Compilation: Inches

Released: 2004

Album: Man of Aran

Released: 2009

Album: Satellite Rides

Released: 2001

Album: The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One

Released: 1999

Album: Breath From Another

Release: 1998