Marcus Tidewell
48 reviews and 20 musings for Only Great Music. Usually found somewhere near Post-Punk, Indie Folk, Electronic, Noise Rock.
Reviews
AJJ's 'Dirty Old Power' Is a Furious, Funny Masterpiece of Hoping on Purpose
Ninth album, self-released, and a reunion with John Congleton a decade after Christmas Island. Twelve songs about artificial intelligence, empathy and the exhausting work of refusing to give up.
Hermanos Gutiérrez Trade the Desert for the Andes on 'Los Ojos Del Cóndor'
Ten instrumentals, the Swiss-Ecuadorian brothers' third record with Dan Auerbach producing at Easy Eye Sound in Nashville. The palette moves off Americana and onto Andean ground — Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Argentinean and Colombian traditions — with a charango and a nylon-string guitar their father gave them doing much of the talking.
Gurriers' 'Nobody's Coming To Save You' Finds the Light by Turning the Riffs All the Way Up
The Dublin five-piece's second album for Play It Again Sam, produced by Mark Bowen of Idles and Loren Humphrey, engineered by Chris Fullard and mixed by John Congleton across studios in Donegal and London. Four stars from DIY and Dork, 8/10 from Hot Press, and an 80 aggregate with no lukewarm verdicts in sight.
Gilla Band's 'Pugnello' Is a Deafening, Hilarious Masterpiece of Controlled Demolition
Four years and three Dublin studios later, the Irish quartet's fourth album lands ten tracks in forty-two minutes and gets scored 8.8 and Best New Music by Pitchfork, Album Of The Week by Stereogum, and five stars from both The Guardian and The Irish Times. Loud is the least interesting thing about it.
Jawdropped's 'Secret To Spare' Is a Sunlit, Songwriting-First Debut Worth Shouting About
Ten songs, about thirty-two minutes, tracked live by four Los Angeles friends with Colin Knight engineering and Alex Farrar mixing. No Ripcord gave it 8/10; Dork gave it 4/5; Paste called it bittersweet power pop about a city built on dashed dreams.
Kristin Hersh's 'Sugar on Blackstone' Is a Hushed Masterpiece of Cello, Memory and Nerve
The Throwing Muses founder goes quiet and goes deep: eleven songs rooted in Providence, cut at Stable Sound Studios with Pete Harvey's cello out front and Rob Ahlers' drums only where they're needed. Live4ever gave it four stars.
Curly Castro's 'Yaphet' Is a Masterclass in Curating a Room and Then Out-Rapping Everyone In It
Backwoodz Studioz rapper Curly Castro, produced almost entirely by Locust, with billy woods, Fatboi Sharif, Blueprint, SKECH185, AJ Suede, PremRock and Brian Ennals along for it. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and called the guest list a Murderers' Row. The guests do not win.
エミエミ's Self-Titled Debut EP Is an Unreasonably Joyful Masterpiece of Off-Kilter Pop
The debut EP from Emi Doi, a Tasmania-based artist recording as エミエミ. Eight songs, sung mostly in Japanese, with no label and no interest in the obvious route. Backseat Mafia scored it 88 and warned readers it 'should come with a government health warning.'
asia menor's 'Vaho' Is a Dense, Patient Leap Forward for Chilean Art Punk
The Santiago band's second album, out on Sello Fisura, produced by Víctor Muñoz and mastered by Chalo González. Eight tracks, two of them with Narval Orquesta, closing on a twelve-minute piece. Sitting at 81 on Album of the Year off nearly 300 listener ratings.
Pretty Sick's 'Anarchy' Is a Woozy, Fearless Masterpiece of Texture
Sabrina Fuentes's second Pretty Sick album for Dirty Hit, produced mostly by Oscar Scheller. She put the fuzz pedals down and rebuilt the whole band out of synths, club kicks and distortion. Clash gave it 8/10.
Misha Panfilov's 'Where the Birds Fly' Is a Sun-Warmed Masterpiece of Analog Patience
Six instrumentals from the Estonian composer, out on Funk Night Records. He benches his usual Septet, plays piano, lap steel, harmonium and Mellotron himself, and brings in guests including Tomo Katsurada of Kikagaku Moyo.
Le Ren's 'Don't Be Funny Without Me' Is a Widescreen Return Worth the Five-Year Wait
Lauren Spear's second album as Le Ren, her first in five years, made in a rural Ontario studio with a full band and no pre-written parts. Out on Royal Mountain. Exclaim! called it a reintroduction with 'a widescreen sound.'
Immersion's 'What Is Lost Will Return' Is a Buoyant Masterpiece of Post-Genre Optimism
Colin Newman of Wire and Malka Spigel of Minimal Compact, out on their own swim ~ label — eight tracks, five songs and three instrumentals, with Matt Schulz of Holy Fuck on drums. Bandcamp Daily made it an Essential Release and called it the sound of an icon adapting with grace.
Chat Pile's 'Who Loves the Sun' Is a Merciless, Deeply Soulful Noise-Rock Triumph
The Oklahoma City noise-rock band's third album is self-produced and mixed again by Ben Greenberg of Uniform, and it lands at an 82 critic average on Album of the Year. Ten tracks of corroded low-end and genuine tenderness — heavier and stranger than anything they've done.
![Olùsìn [Worshippers] by Ibukun Sunday — cover art](/covers/ibukun-sunday-olusin-worshippers.jpg)
Ibukun Sunday's 'Olùsìn [Worshippers]' Turns Devotion Into a Sound You Can Sit Inside
The Nigerian-born, UK-based producer and violist's Phantom Limb debut is eight pieces of ambient music with a specifically devotional charge — closer to a room lit by candles than to any post-Eno chill-out lineage. The Quietus named it Album of the Week.
Guiding Light's 'Fear On My Own Time' Is a Bilingual Post-Punk Debut With No Wasted Motion
Austin four-piece, debut album, eight songs sung in German and English, out August 21st on Dean Spunt's Post Present Medium. Bandcamp Daily's punk column called the opener an instant punk classic.
Dos Santos' 'Es Amor' Is Thirty Minutes of Chicago Cumbia With Nothing Wasted
The Chicago five-piece's fourth album and first in five years, produced by Beto Martinez for Otherly Love Records. Ten tracks in thirty minutes. Bandcamp Daily called it a record that knows exactly what it wants to be.
The Odyssey Cult's 'Vol. 3' Turns a Solo Project Into a Psych Cathedral
Ethan Miller's dormant solo outlet comes back after nine years as a full band — Comets On Fire, Carlton Melton, Sonic Youth and Osees personnel all over it. Eight tracks on Silver Current. Raven Sings the Blues calls it one of 2026's most surprising gems.
Melaina Kol's 'Okay that's a great idea because if I do that then' Builds a Sound Bath Out of Harp, Cello and an MPC
Logan Hornyak's fourth Melaina Kol LP and his debut for Philadelphia's Julia's War Recordings. Nine tracks of looped harp and cello, chopped vocals from Lowertown's Olivia O., and a house-adjacent pulse holding it all together. Made on a laptop and an MPC by a guy who taught himself two orchestral instruments to get here.
Frances Chang's 'been thinking bout confession' Builds an Orchestra Around a Hundred-Year-Old Piano
Written on a century-old baby grand and recorded between a Sunset Park apartment and a Maspeth studio, Chang's RVNG Intl. debut runs a string quartet, two saxophones and a lot of deliberate silence through her DIY instincts. Forty minutes, eleven songs, no wasted gesture.
Cloud Canyons Stretch 70 Minutes Into a Single, Hypnotic Held Breath
An Italian quartet's second full-length is a 70-minute trance state built from analogue synths, mantra-like layered vocals, and a patience most electronic records twice as short don't have. Deep-catalog Bandcamp obscurity that deserves way more ears.
Siavash Amini and Eugene Thacker Dissolve Language Into Pure Sound on Songs for Sad Poets Vol. III
Tehran-based composer Siavash Amini and Brooklyn theorist-writer Eugene Thacker dedicate three sprawling pieces to three 'cursed poets,' layering up to forty voices until words dissolve into pure texture. Bandcamp Daily called it seriously forward-looking, and they're right.
L'Rain's 'fata morgana' Is a Mirage You Never Want to Wake Up From
L'Rain keeps proving that 'experimental' doesn't have to mean 'unlistenable' — fata morgana swings from ambient hush to speed-metal wall-of-sound without ever losing the thread. It's disorienting in the best way, like waking up in a dream you don't want to leave.
Citizen's 'Halcyon Blues' Is a Career-Spanning Synthesis Done Right
Eleven songs in, the Toledo band folds its entire discography — raw early intensity, glossier mid-career hooks — into one confident, emotionally direct record. Halcyon Blues sounds like a band finally comfortable in its own skin.
Sweeping Promises Add Muscle Without Losing the Snarl on 'You Say I Romanticize'
Recorded in the Lawrence, Kansas home studio Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug share, this Sub Pop outing trades the thrilling-document feel of earlier records for a tighter, more intentional whole — with touring drummer Spensa Galler making her mark.
Manuela Ocampo's 'Ocasos y Albas' Finds Enlightenment One Live Take at a Time
The Colombian songwriter's sophomore record was road-tested on stages before it ever saw a studio, and you can hear the difference. Sunsets-and-sunrises poetics, recorded in one sitting, sung like she means every word.
Ela Minus & Nick León Turn Grief Into a Dancefloor on 'qué les pasó a mis amigos?'
Two of electronic music's sharpest minds process artistic burnout through minimal club music that's as intimate as it is danceable. A short EP that leaves a long mark.
Ceremony's 'Tell Me Your Dream' Proves Reinvention Doesn't Mean Retreat
Their first album in seven years, co-produced with John Reis (who also plays guitar and sings backup) and featuring Tørsö's Jasmine Watson on bass, finds the longtime hardcore band chasing new-wave synths and dance-punk grooves without losing the songwriting bite. Stereogum made it Album of the Week.
Rachel Chinouriri's 'One Song Away From Crying' Turns a Breakdown Into a Banger
The London singer-songwriter announces album two with a synth-soaked dance track that hides genuine emotional wreckage inside a whispery, club-ready delivery. Instantly infectious, quietly devastating.
venturing's 'Nowhere' EP Is Jane Remover's Most Devastatingly Catchy Detour Yet
Jane Remover's rock-band alias venturing trades hyperpop chaos for big hooks and bigger feelings on a three-song EP for deadAir. Retro-futurist heartbreak rock that earns every second.
Ezra Williams' 'Blight' is a Hushed Masterpiece of Comforting Dissonance
The Irish songwriter formerly known as Smoothboi pairs warm, nostalgic guitar with pedal steel and a set of lyrics about watching something end. Gentle on the surface, unsettled underneath.
IAN SWEET's 'Shiverstruck' Is Jilian Medford's Most Confident Record Yet
Jilian Medford's fourth IAN SWEET album trades studio experimentation for analog warmth and her most unguarded vocals yet, produced alongside Ben H. Allen. Northern Transmissions called it her 'most confident, whole album to date.'
Quicksand's 'Bring On The Psychics' Is a Riff-Monster Return Worth the Five-Year Wait
Walter Schreifels and company's first album in five years is 29 minutes of chugging riffs and shoegaze haze, produced by Jon Markson (Drug Church, Drain). Stereogum made it Album of the Week; Treble called it the band's heaviest work since Manic Compression.
Little Gold's 'Public Dog' Is a 15-Year Project Still Getting Better
Christian DeRoeck has been running Little Gold since 2009, and this Tall Texan Records release — recorded a day or two at a time over two years — is his most confident record yet, folding Dinosaur Jr. fuzz and lo-fi country twang into songs about rooting for the underdog.
Sam and Louise Sullivan Make This Decade's 'Tusk' on 'Love & Devotion'
Two Philadelphia teachers and ceramicists build a family-band folk record out of coffee-can percussion, exercise-ball thumps, and pure homemade devotion. Jeff Tweedy is a fan for a reason.
Nia Archives' 'Emotional Junglist' is a Boundless, Untethered Second Album
The jungle revivalist's self-produced follow-up to 'Silence Is Loud' fuses breakbeats with indie-pop songwriting, guest turns from Sampha and Jorja Smith, and a title that doubles as a mission statement. DIY called it a four-star evolution.
Parts & Labor's 'Set of All Sets' is a Glorious Overload of Noise-Pop Ambition
First album in 15 years, so they made it a 79-minute double with TWO drummers. Brooklyn noise-punk elders return sounding hungrier than bands half their age. Melody buried in beautiful wreckage.
Smirk's 'Speculative Fiction' is a Jangly Joyride of Punk Restraint
Nick Vicario's L.A. project trades punk excess for melody and comes out swinging anyway. Jangly guitars, dueling leads, real hooks. The most fun punk record of the summer.
Auscultation's 'IV' is a Fog-Bound Masterpiece of Dub-Wise Ambient Techno
Joel Shanahan turns long Pacific Northwest winters into iridescent, dub-soaked techno. Icy bangers and hushed reverie in equal measure. Isolation has rarely sounded this beautiful.
Vince Staples Plugs In a Band and Levels Up on 'Cry Baby'
One of rap's sharpest writers raps over live rock instrumentation — and instead of a gimmick, it plays like a homecoming. Post-punk bones, West Coast blood, zero wasted bars.
GENA Serve a Feast of Black Musical History on The Pleasure Is Yours
Karriem Riggins and Liv.e commanding Afro-funk, gospel, and neo-soul like they invented the syllabus. Pocket perfection meets addictive footwork fusion. The pleasure is absolutely ours.
Avalon Emerson & The Charm Swirl Decades Together on Written into Changes
Eighties gothtronica, Bristol pop, and Nineties alt-rock woven into one seamless texture palette. Whimsy powers the swirly production, and the eclecticism spans the globe.
At The Gates Sharpen the Blade on The Ghost of a Future Dead
The Gothenburg pioneers return with razor riffs and zero rust. Melodic death metal from the band that helped write the blueprint. It slashes, it soars, it delivers.
Lip Critic Turn Chaos Into Cardio on Theft World
Two drummers, outlandish lyrical premises, and synth-punk energy that could power a city block. Theft World is a full-contact dance party. Stretch first.
Chalk Weld the Club to the Mosh Pit on Crystalpunk
Industrial rock, dance-punk, and industrial techno fused into one sweaty, strobing machine. Club energy welded to rock aggression — a record that wants you moving and slightly scared.
Slayyyter Levels Up Hard on WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA
Bloghouse, dance-punk, and electroclash synthesized into a cohesive 'dirtbag Americana' that goes impossibly hard. A major level-up with basslines that punch like it's 2007 in the best way.
Cryptic Shift Bend the Cosmos on 'Overspace & Supertime'
Technical death-thrash spliced with avant-garde detours and jazz fusion flourishes, all pointed straight at deep space. One of the year's highest-rated metal records, and it earns it.
Alter Bridge Plant a Flag on Their Own Name
Two decades in, Alter Bridge self-title an album and back it up with riffs the size of freight elevators and vocals that clear the rafters. This is veteran confidence pressed to wax.
Musings
- In Praise of the Long TracklistSep 25, 2026
- The Person at the Mixing Desk Is in the BandSep 19, 2026
- Singing Along in a Language You Don't SpeakSep 15, 2026
- The Split Single Is Two Bands Vouching for Each OtherSep 11, 2026
- The Handclap Is the Cheapest Magic in the StudioSep 9, 2026
- The Demo Deserves Its Own ShelfSep 5, 2026
- The Label Sampler Was a Free EducationAug 29, 2026
- No Shuffle: In Defense of Playing the Whole Album, In OrderAug 24, 2026
- The Mixtape Is Still the Best Love Letter We Know How to WriteAug 19, 2026
- In Praise of the B-Side (Where Bands Go to Get Weird)Aug 17, 2026
- The Guitar Solo Needs No ApologyAug 10, 2026
- Liner Notes Are Love LettersAug 5, 2026
- In Defense of the Key ChangeJul 30, 2026
- In Praise of the Interlude (The Best 90 Seconds on the Record)Jul 28, 2026
- The Last Song Is a PromiseJul 27, 2026
- The Deluge Problem: When Too Much Great Music Drops on the Same FridayJul 22, 2026
- The Cover Song Is a ConversationJul 19, 2026
- The Best Discovery Engine Is Still the Opening ActJul 17, 2026
- The Deep Cut Is the Secret HandshakeFeb 17, 2026
- This Is the Golden Age of Home RecordingAug 19, 2025