Inside Noise Week of 9/29
This was a stacked week on the major label side. Let’s see what vinyls you’ll be getting for christmas!
Again by Oneohtrix Point Never
If you know electronic music, you know Oneohtrix Point Never, and you've probably already given his new record Again a listen. Like a lot of OPN's work, this record brings a wide variety of sounds to the table, especially highlighting his more symphonic tendencies. We navigate this artist's mind as if it were a crowded hotel with highly essentric guests in each room, and we get a chance to listen in on each of the conversations going on in this baffling building. All this goes to say that this record may not be the most cohesive in OPN's catalogue, but every sound he introduces here further establishes his all-around mastery of the craft. 7/10. -Michael
Cousin by Wilco
Wilco is at that stage in their career where you're right to be worried about their new output, but in those regards their new record Cousin far outstrips expectations. Melancholy always has a role to play in Wilco's music, but on Cousin this dreariness gets dialed up to eleven, with whispery vocals and slow, deliberate guitar work that give us a collection of snapshots of a moment of intense negative emotion. Once again, the band has proven their willingness to step about as far from the "alt-country" label as you can get while still having it applied to you, and their forrays into indie and downtempo post rock (think Bark Psychosis) continue to pay creative dividends. 7/10. -Michael
Jailbreak by Nervosa
There's a lot of excellent metal music coming out of South America this year, and Nervosa's new record Jailbreak is keeping with the trend. Nervosa proves once again that they deserve much more respect than just being lumped into the "girl metal" genre, as this record really highlights their unique neck-breaking blend of thrash revival, speed metal, and death metal delivered with technical precision. This record does lean towards a more melodic sound than their 2021 release Perpetual Chaos, but never sacraficies the raw aggression that any good metal release requires. With unwavering ferocity, Jailbreak shows that Nervosa is still one of the best metal acts to come out of Brazil. 8/10.
