Nia Strand
50 reviews and 11 musings for Only Great Music. Usually found somewhere near Indie Rock, Chamber Folk, Underground Hip-Hop, Experimental Electronic.
Reviews
Bimbo's 'The Bimbonacci Sequence' Is a Gleefully Unpredictable Masterpiece of Sibling Noise
A brother-and-sister duo from Marquette, Michigan make their full-length debut on Exploding In Sound: eight tracks of lurching, funny, genuinely unguessable noise rock, cut to tape at Dead River Sound.
Railcard's 'Two Steps At A Time' Sounds Like a Record You Already Own and Forgot About
Twelve songs of British jangle pop, out on Skep Wax in the UK and Slumberland in the States. The band includes Rachel Love of Dolly Mixture, Peter Momtchiloff of Heavenly, Ian Button, and Allison Thomson on trumpet and keyboards. God Is In The TV, Spectral Nights and Silent Radio all filed it as a keeper in release week.
Deady's 'HUNKA JUNK' Is Three Days in a Louisville Attic Studio and Eighty Takes of One Solo
The Louisville five-piece's debut full-length for Romanus Records, tracked mostly live across three days in July 2024 at guitarist Chyppe Crosby's own Makeout Mountain studio. Post-Trash premiered it and praised its wide dynamic range; LEO Weekly called the results spectacular and the record an absolute must-hear.
megiapa's 'Intentions' Is a Warm, Patient Masterwork of Beat-Scene Neo-Soul
The Ohio-born, LA-based producer, vocalist and linguist delivers her full-length debut on International Anthem: fourteen tracks of jazz-informed beat music built between Chicago and Los Angeles. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and called it a testament to her skill as beatmaker and sonic collagist.
Spread Joy's 'III' Is 17 Minutes of Art-Punk Calisthenics Executed With Mathematical Precision
Ten songs in seventeen minutes on Feel It Records, the Chicago quartet's first album in four years. Post-Trash called them the city's tightest art punks and heard a band with 'the vim of beginners with the chops of absolute experts.'
Slow Pulp's 'Melodie' Is a Shape-Shifting Triumph of Second-Gear Songcraft
Slow Pulp hand the wheel to an outside producer for the first time — Elliott Kozel — and come back sounding like four bands at once: shoegaze, power-pop, a go-go beat, a piano-and-banjo ballad. The Line of Best Fit says it hums with the confidence of a band coming into their own.
Emma Ruth Rundle's 'These Killing Times' Is the Full-Band Record She's Been Circling for a Decade
Eight songs on Errant Child, co-produced with Sonny DiPerri and mastered by Stephen Marcussen, with Jess Gowrie on drums and Troy Zeigler on bass. PopMatters gave it 9/10; it's sitting at 82 on Album of the Year.
HUG's Self-Titled Debut Is a Patient, Gorgeous Masterpiece of Three Guitarists Listening
Devendra Banhart, Gyan Riley and Noah Georgeson make an almost entirely instrumental record for Luaka Bop. Georgeson engineered and mixed; Banhart plays kalimba, Riley plays most of the guitars, and frogs appear. Dusted called it 'a balm for the patient listener.'
Mykki Blanco's 'CAFE PARADISO' Is a Devotional Dance Record With the Lights Down Low
Blanco's first album in three years, out on Transgressive, arriving three years on from 'Holidays in the Sun.' Funky, symphonic and unhurried, with Ian Isiah and Breakaway turning up on 'Little Feet.' Paste's Matt Mitchell called it a full-on queer flâneur tease.
All Hail Y.T. & DJ Manifest's 'Soul In The Mirror II' Is a Smooth, Big-Hearted Masterpiece of Encouragement
Fourteen tracks from the Delaware rapper and his longtime producer, built almost entirely out of Quiet Storm soul. It is a motivational record that never once raises its voice, and Bandcamp Daily's J. Edward Keyes says Y.T. is 'the perfect rapper to deliver this kind of uplift.'
Ibibio Sound Machine's 'Chopping Mountain' Is a Joyous Masterpiece of Studio-Jam Discipline
The London collective's sixth album, out on Merge. Saxophonist and co-founder Max Grunhard produces for the first time since 2019's Doko Mien, the band cut it at their own Vanguard Studios, and every track started life as a jam.
doseone, Wino Willy & Zetroc's 'sighting' Is a Filmless Score for a Bad Dream
Twelve tracks of abstract dread from a rap lifer and two producers who understand that restraint is the scariest setting. Out on HandsMade, Bandcamp and vinyl only. Bandcamp Daily made it Album of the Day and called the production 'a masterclass in restraint.'
Cyst's Debut Is a Gleefully Grotty Masterpiece of Glitchcore Worldbuilding
The debut from Cyst, a new duo of UK producers Iglooghost and daisy* (fka BABii), out on LuckyMe. Nine tracks of jungle rhythms, two-step and hyperpop. Bandcamp Daily's Joe Muggs made it Album of the Day and said the absurdist genius will charm you even if the beats don't.
I Will Die In This Jean Jacket Made One of 2026's Most Relaxing Records in a Cinder Block Basement
Jim Blaha of The Blind Shake spent three and a half years alone with a Tascam 388, a Minneapolis basement, and a quarter-inch of tape. Ten tracks, mixed down to cassette, out on Swami. Post-Trash called it 'somehow one of the most relaxing records of 2026.'
Sarah Davachi's 'The Will of Tongues' Is a Cathedral You Can Actually Live In
Davachi's triple LP for her own Late Music imprint — over two hours across thirteen pieces, made with historical pipe organs, a period-instrument choir, and a string trio commissioned by EMPAC and Louth Contemporary Music Society — is a culminating work by one of the most patient composers of her generation.
Chelsea Wolfe's 'The Dark' Is a Patient, Guitar-Lit Record That Finally Opens the Door
Ten songs, out August 21st on Loma Vista, produced with Jennifer Decilveo. It sits at a Metacritic 79, and The Guardian reckons it's the collection that takes Wolfe to a wider audience after two decades underground.
Westside Cowboy's 'It Goes On' Is the Loudest Argument for Guitar Bands All Year
The Manchester four-piece's debut, recorded with Geese producer Loren Humphry. Eleven tracks, all four members sing. Stereogum's Album of the Week, Paste called it the most brilliant rock release of the year, Beats Per Minute gave it 83.
The Afghan Whigs's 'Soft Control' Is a Late-Career Record With No Interest in Acting Its Age
Ten songs cut across four studios in Joshua Tree, New Orleans, East Hollywood and Cincinnati, with Patrick Keeler, Petra Haden and My Morning Jacket's Bo Koster guesting. Every single collected review scores it 70 or above — eight of them, averaging 80.
Elanor Moss's 'The Knife, The Needle' Is a Debut With Absolutely Nothing Loose About It
Nine songs, thirty-three minutes, produced by Pete Miles and out on Merge. Three years in the writing after two EPs, with a hushed English folk palette of classical guitar, fiddle, saxophone and flugelhorn. KLOF Mag called her a degree of magnitude above most of them.
Laura Veirs Recorded 'Temple Songs' in a Backyard Shed With Two Mics and Made Her Warmest Album in Years
Veirs' fourteenth album is her first entirely self-recorded one — two microphones and a laptop in a Portland backyard shed, over about three months. Eleven songs in twenty-nine minutes, mixed by Phil Weinrobe, with Veirs herself credited for the artwork and calligraphy.
Dent May Grows Up (A Little) on 'The Big One'
Dent May's seventh album trades bedroom-pop lo-fi for a fuller studio sound, without sanding off the melodic charm that got him here. A record about a night out on the town — the good parts and the not-so-good parts alike.
Julia Holter Reshapes Her Own Songs Into Something Newly Alive on Materia
A seven-track companion piece to 2024's Something in the Room She Moves, Materia reworks and reshapes earlier material into something that sounds entirely new. God Is in the TV called it 'a transformative experience' despite its short runtime — and they're right.
Kierrr's 'Frail = "me"' Turns a Japanese Summer Into Fractured Memory
This self-released second single from Tokyo's Kierrr is one of the most quietly unsettling things we've heard all month — distorted guitars, whispered vocals, and household-object percussion adding up to something that sounds both beautiful and about to come apart.
Arun Sood & Angeline Morrison's 'Donn/Dubh' Is a Genuinely Singular Listen
A Scottish folk collaboration that threads a 1952 psalm recording and an old Uist song through tape loops, drone, and electronica. Donn/Dubh is dense, immersive, and unlike anything else released this month.
Kiwi Jr.'s 'Blowin' Up' Is Jangle-Pop With Something on Its Mind
The Toronto/Montreal four-piece's latest on Perennial refines their jangly, R.E.M.-indebted sound into something sharper and more assured, with frontman Jeremy Gaudet's clever-yet-rambling lyricism front and center.
Overmono Trade the Club Banger for the Comedown on 'Pure Devotion'
The Russell brothers go warmer and more analogue on their XL sophomore record, building songs for the comedown instead of the peak. Less about the drop, more about what's left after it.
Roy Montgomery & Martha Skye Murphy's 'Nebular' Is Too Beautiful to Pull Apart
A New Zealand guitar legend and a London vocalist built this record remotely, and you'd never guess it. Five tracks of shimmering, celestial atmosphere that reward getting lost in them.
Margaret Glaspy's 'I Am Both' Strips Everything Back and Says More
Produced by Joe Henry with just four musicians in the room, Glaspy's fourth album trades the guitar-forward attack of 2023's Echo the Diamond for something quieter and more exposed, turning relationship friction into plainspoken folk-pop. No Depression called it 'a masterpiece of simplicity and directness.'
abracadabra's 'peel away' Is Off-Kilter Psych-Pop With a Warm, Radical Heart
The Oakland duo of Hannah Skelton and Chris Niles blend dubby grooves, angular synths, and Talking Heads-via-Stereolab sensibilities into their most introspective EP yet — six songs about luck, privilege, and self-reflection that never stop being fun.
The Crying Nudes' 'DJ' Is a Haunting, Thirteen-Minute Masterclass in Restraint
A deliberately mysterious project tied to Dean Blunt's World Music imprint drops a surprise sophomore album that's barely thirteen minutes long and somehow says more than records three times its length.
Jack White's 'Frozen Charlotte' is a Guitar-Slinging Masterpiece of Pure Showmanship
White puts the guitar back at the absolute center of the mix and lets it do most of the talking. Fuzzy, amp-incinerating, and having more fun than he's had in years.
Josaleigh Pollett's 'If I Let It Quiet' Is a Long-Distance Fourth Album Worth the Wait
The Salt Lake City songwriter's fourth album was built across continents with producer Jordan Watko while the two were apart, folding lo-fi charm, distorted electronics, and Boards of Canada-tilted synths around songs about sleeplessness and self-reinvention. KLOF Mag called it 'a treasure trove.'
Sad13's '1331' Proves a One-Minute Song Can Hold a Whole Universe
Sadie Dupuis' first Sad13 release since 2020 is a DIY mixtape of thirteen songs, each under two minutes, written while recovering from a shattered elbow — and it might be some of the sharpest, weirdest songwriting of her career.
Mohamed Bourouissa's 'LILA' Turns a Visual Artist's Decade of Sound Into a Haunting Debut
The French photographer and visual artist's debut solo album, out on PAN, spends twelve tracks treating relationships as emotional landscapes rather than portraits. A Closer Listen called the title track 'one of Bourouissa's most affecting moments.'
The Healing Power of Horses' 'Summer Indoors' is an Elastic, Mysterious Dream-Pop Debut
A deliberately mysterious East Anglian duo — already a BBC 6 Music Breaking Artist and Loud & Quiet Track of the Week pick — releases four songs of brittle rhythm and blown-out texture on section1, Partisan's sister label.
MAQUINA.'s 'BODY TRANSMISSION' is a White-Knuckle Rush of Kraut-Industrial Power
Lisbon trio welds krautrock, industrial, and dance music into one relentless machine on Fuzz Club. Saturated to the redline on purpose. Warehouse techno energy played with drumsticks and grit.
Tracey Nelson's 'Hercules' is a Blissfully Melancholic Debut of Country-Rock Perfection
A debut that started life as a CD-R and grew into one of the year's warmest country-rock records. Produced by MJ Lenderman and Colin Miller, with half the Asheville scene pitching in. For the sad guys and gals — Paste's words, and ours.
Baby Rose's 'YEARNALISM' is a Gloriously Cinematic Masterpiece of Neo-Soul
That rich contralto, wrapped in Hammond organ and gospel harmony. Baby Rose wears her heart on her sleeve for twelve tracks and dares you to look away. A bubble of optimism and emotional complexity.
LULU Suicide Weld Love and Death Into Shimmering Steel on 'Fiber Optic Lovers'
Fully DIY shoegaze from Poznań, Poland — one person tracking guitars, drums, vocals, and mixing the whole thing themselves. Heavy as Whirr, dreamy as Slowdive, and completely invisible to the music press. Eleven tracks about love and death that glow like cable-light.
Cécile McLorin Salvant Makes Every Note Count on With Every Breath I Take
One of jazz's most acclaimed vocalists doing what she does at the highest level: interpretive mastery, jaw-dropping control, and repertoire curated like a museum exhibit you never want to leave.
Beth Orton's 'The Ground Above' is What Creative Peak Sounds Like
Intelligent folk built on piano and strings, with a superb looseness of improvisation held inside immense control. Thirty years in, Orton is somehow still ascending.
Tasha's 'You Are Spring!' Is Choral Pop as an Act of Generosity
Expert choral writing, lush instrumentation, and a compositional command that never crowds out spontaneity. The exclamation point in the title is earned.
Kelsey Lu Refuses to Sit Still on So Help Me God
Experimental chamber folk that genre-jumps like a parkour athlete and sticks every landing. Chameleonic vocals over ever-shifting sonic landscapes, with collaborators who clearly showed up inspired.
Bill Callahan Invites You Into the Living Room on My Days of 58
A living room record that builds whole atmospheres from minimal arrangements. Callahan proves again that intimacy, done right, is its own kind of grandeur.
Aldous Harding Keeps It Beautifully Strange on Train On The Island
Harding's strangeness endures, and thank goodness for that. Minimalist arrangements, economical lyrics, and a tightrope walk between control and abandon.
Dry Cleaning Find the Profound in the Peculiar on Secret Love
Florence Shaw's interior monologues have never been more compelling, and the band's arrangements have never been more intricate. Cryptic, poignant, and quietly devastating. A secret worth sharing.
Wendy Eisenberg's Self-Titled Is a Quiet Revelation
Chamber folk that asks questions and lets the silence answer. Spacious, hopeful, and bittersweet all at once. A record about becoming yourself, produced with room to actually do it.
The Twilight Sad Turn Heartbreak Into a Cathedral on IT'S THE LONG GOODBYE
Scottish post-punk masters fold shoegaze, darkwave, and gothic rock into one towering wall of feeling. Emotionally devastating in the best way — the kind of gloom you want to live inside.
Robyn Dances Through Midlife on Sexistential
Robyn tackles motherhood and middle age with disarming candor, set to gleaming machine-pop. The title track alone — intimate voice over mechanistic synths — is vintage Body Talk-era magic.
Ana Roxanne's 'Poem 1' Says Everything With Almost Nothing
Sparse piano, hushed whispers, jazz-brushed drums. Ana Roxanne strips everything to the studs and the result is remarkably devastating — stark music that sticks like a pop hook.
Musings
- Learning a Song by Ear Is How You Actually Meet ItSep 21, 2026
- The Live Album Is a Different Record, Not a Worse OneSep 17, 2026
- The Soundcheck Is the Most Honest Show You'll Never SeeAug 17, 2026
- The Liner Notes Still MatterAug 14, 2026
- The Bassline Is the Quiet MVPAug 12, 2026
- The Mixtape Never Really Died, It Just Changed FormatsAug 3, 2026
- The Reprise Is the Only Callback That Actually WorksAug 3, 2026
- The Handwritten Staff Pick Is Still the Best AlgorithmJul 25, 2026
- The Cover Art Is the First Song on the RecordJul 22, 2026
- The Cassette Comeback Makes No Sense. Perfect.Apr 14, 2026
- In Praise of Track OneOct 14, 2025