INSIDE NOISE Week of 8/18
Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s most noteworthy popular releases. This will get updated throughout the week!
Unreal Unearth by Hozier
Indie roots heavyweight Hozier has some new material for us this week. His new record Unreal Unearth largely sticks to Hozier's strengths, making a stew out of blues, folk, and mid 2010s antipop and seasoning it with his smooth tenor. The folkier moments of Unreal Unearth revealed more of Hozier's songwriting strength, but he of course had to follow all this up with some tearbait exaggerated grandiosity pulled straight from his glory days a decade ago. Overall, this one's worth a listen, but I'd hesitate to recommend it any more highly than that. 6/10. -Michael
Struggler by Genesis Owusu
We might be approaching the end of summer, but Genesis Owusu came through at the last second with an album full of bright and sunny bangers. STRUGGLER is an excellent followup to the Aussie-Ghanaian artist's 2021 debut album Smiling With No Teeth, showcasing Owusu's impressive ability to experiment with genre expectations and pull from a wide range of influences. Whether he's rapping over retro new wave synths or crooning in falsetto over jazzy neo-soul basslines, the result is an infectiously fun pop rap release with an indie rock attitude. STRUGGLER shows that Genesis Owusu still isn't afraid to color outside the lines. 8/10. - Kalen
AR by Addison Rae
I almost wrote off the new Addison Rae record when I was looking at new popular releases, and I'm so glad I didn't. AR shocked the shit out of me. Rae has moved the clock on pop energy back to the 2000s without making something that sounds tired or old, letting her unabashed narcissism ride the wave of her earcandy hooks and beats. We've finally reached the conclusion of the movement that started at PC Music and carried over into the alt scene explosion of hyperpop. At last, we have rebuilt the icon teen pop of our youth from scratch, and who's better to carry our torch but the woman who may be the most commodified person of our generation? 7/10. -Michael
