Melody on Music: February 2025

I first started writing this column in 2012 at my collegiate newspaper. In late 2014, I moved it to The Young Folks. In between gigs, I've published it with little consistency on two separate blogs. Now, Melody on Music will be published at Pop Heist.

Obviously, I couldn't review every new album even if I wanted to, and a 1,500 word limit per column is a necessary deterrent from rambling too much. With so many records coming out every week, and more good music than ever, I want to prioritize releases that I find worthwhile. So, the capsules will be B+ or better. Cool? Cool.

Let's get this going.

Bad Bunny: Debí Tirar Más Fotos [Rimas]

If you grew up listening to Puerto Rican music, this may strike a feeling of overwhelming nostalgia mixed with the hope of a better future. If you didn't, it'll hopefully inspire you to explore further, as reggaeton's biggest superstar hops from style to style, embracing his home country's rich musical history — from "BAILE INoLVIDABLE"'s smooth salsa to "CAFé CON RON"'s bouncy plena to "DTMF"'s mournful fusion of the two. It's received praise for its exploration of the gentrification and corruption that's overtaken Puerto Rico, but it's the euphoria of the sounds that drives the words home, be they hilarious and personal ("I prayed to god but He ghosted me too"), crushing and socially conscious ("He didn't want to leave to Orlando, but the corrupt ones pushed him out"), or both ("You're like a pothole in Puerto Rico, that's why I avoid you"). A

Delivery: Force Majeure [Heavenly]

Like any post-punk band worth their salt, this Melbourne five-piece understands that strong basslines and riffs are only as valuable as the songs they're attached to. They have plenty of all three — check out "What For?," "Stuck in the Game," and "Put Your Back Into It" for proof. When it comes to social critique, they may be having a bit too much fun to completely sell it. If I want a leftist skewering of contemporary workplace politics, I'll probably pick Control Top's "Office Rage" or Lambrini Girls' "Company Culture" over "Operating at a Loss." A damn solid tunes band regardless. A-

Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta: Mapambazuko [Nyege Nyege Tapes]

Hailing from the Congo, soukous is, first and foremost, dance music. Sustained groove is as central to the genre as it is to funk, disco, and house. And though the sound goes back more than half a century, this collaboration between Peruvian electroacoustic composer Alejandra Cárdenas and Congolese guitarist Titi Bakorta, released in January, is presently the eighth most popular soukous album of all time on Rate Your Music. Its innovation? Centering textures while de-emphasizing groove. Is that sinful? Does it diminish what makes dance music so radical and joyful in the first place? Maybe a little. But there are enough weird noises here to keep you entertained anyway. B+

jasmine.4.t: You Are the Morning [Saddest Factory]

Though on indefinite hiatus as a band, Boygenius came together to elevate trans singer-songwriter Jasmine Cruickshank — she was discovered by Dacus, signed by Bridgers, and the album was produced by the whole trio. You can hear what drew them in. The key point of Jasmine's stage name isn't t, but 4.t, with queer desire as this debut's driving theme. This is music of yearning, pining, quivering at someone's touch. "Real love is the sweat on your back," "Two souls aching/Two lips shaking," "To place your hair behind your ear/To stroke your wrist from left to right/As you hold me in the mornin' light," "I'm sweet as liqueur/And your skin is velour under your clothes," gahhh. Although it's far from perfect, with some songs too sleepy for their own good, all that means is that there's room to grow, and I can't wait to see what she does next. B+

Lambrini Girls: You're Welcome [Big Scary Monsters EP '23]

A great punk rock band from the start. "Terf Wars" is the brutal skewering of transphobic bourgeois faux-feminism you'd expect from radicals who drew the ire of Glinner himself. Elsewhere, their anger is directed at men, though "I'll give you a safe space/I'll make you feel love, then take it all away" oughta speak to anyone who's ever been love bombed, regardless of the gender of whoever did it. "Boys in the Band" and "Lads Lads Lads" are anthems of justified misandry, while "Help Me I'm Gay" and "White Van" shove off male-gaze objectification with cathartic fervor. A

Lambrini Girls: Who Let the Dogs Out [City Slang]

Complain if you will about obvious, awkward, cringe. The era of subtlety is over. There's no time for beating around the bush in a quest for poeticism that offers little reward anyway. We've tried cryptic, and now fascism is winning worldwide. So say what you mean, be direct, be confrontational, and if it results in song titles like "Bad Apple," "Big Dick Energy," "No Homo," "Nothing Tastes as Good as It Feels," and "Filthy Rich Nepo Baby," so what? Sometimes, you need to make sure even those who scan the tracklist and move on get the point. But I pity anyone who skips this, because 21st-century feminist/queer/communist punk has seldom been this catchy or cutting. And if you insist on flowery language, the girl who lead singer Phoebe Lunny is actually totally homo for inspires, "Pre-Raphaelite, celestial true painting from Picasso/An angel otherworldly, trapped in purgatory/A test from heaven and I'm straight to hell." Sapphism can bring out the hippy-dippy shit in even the most militant. A

James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores [Anti-]

Always a jazz fan, though one ill-equipped to explain what does and doesn't work about it, I immediately got on board with this tenor saxophonist when I heard his collaboration with The Messthetics last year. And while this one's lack of that record's assertive punk energy might make it less immediately brilliant, it's plenty brilliant (and punky) anyway. From Josh Werner's heavy driving bass to moments where drummer Chad Taylor gives the kit a break to pay the mbira some attention, you can hear the elements of Lewis' taste that led to his collaborating with members of Fugazi. Part avant innovator, part traditionalist, all-around master. To prove it, he covers a '70s Ornette piece. A-

Ada Rook: UNKILLABLE ANGEL [self-released]

You've heard Black Dresses, right? They were like 100 gecs if they listened to way too much Skinny Puppy? If not, start with 2018's WASTEISOLATION; you'll marathon the whole discography if you're the right kind of fucked up. After their messy, prolonged split that started in 2020 and ended last year, member Rook is back with the depressive, angry, traumatized solo album you'd expect to follow the dissolving of a music duo that was also a romantic couple. The antithesis to her surprising semi-wholesome turn with 2023's Rookie's Bustle EP, this features some of the most calamitous and wounded industrial I've ever heard. Still, there are moments where her sense of humor shines through — especially on the one where she says she'd detransition if she got to be Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog. Abrasive, emotionally intense, certainly not for everyone, but please keep an open mind. For me. A-

Serengeti: Palookaville [CC King '24]

Last year's KDIV again resurrected Kenny Dennis, David Cohn's most popular and lighthearted creation, and one who's refused to stay dead. How attached Cohn is to the character is up for debate, but the dark layers to that record's additions to the KD canon hinted at a desire to stretch. Palookaville feels like a reward of sorts, the pitch-blackest Serengeti joint since 2012's C.A.R., submerged in a distinctly midwestern melancholy and isolation. Yet even at his most desolate, Cohn's knack for comical wordplay is infectious. Who was the last rapper to rhyme "Ashkenazi" with "Stasi?" How about "heathen"-"weekend"-"breathin'"-"semen?" Let me know if you find them. A-

SZA: LANA (Deluxe) [TDE/RCA]

I enjoy SOS, but this is something else. As skeptical as I am of entire new full-lengths being called deluxe editions, I can't deny that this is weirder, funnier, more inventive, and better on a song-by-song basis than the blockbuster album it appends. Go ahead and try to resist the line "I can't keep my panties from dropping" inserted into the "Girl from Ipanema" melody. For that matter, try to resist a love lyric as befitting of this desperate era as "You make bein' me less hard." Also, so you don't miss "Take You Down," be sure to listen to the deluxe edition of the deluxe edition (we live in a late-capitalist dystopia). A-

TWICE: Strategy [JYP/Republic EP '24]

Opening with the so-so title single that rode a Megan Thee Stallion feature to the K-pop nine-piece's highest-ever Billboard placement, this has nowhere to go but up from there (at least before it closes with the same song, sans Megan). They're always at their best with breakbeats, so "Like It Like It" and "Keeper" are the standouts. But also check out the tooth-rotting bubblegum of "Kiss My Troubles Away" and Y2K Radio Disney vibes of "Magical." B+