Rivals, victims, villains and tin men; we've got a full house of everyday and fantastical characters with this week's edition of Exclaim!'s Staff Picks. We're also celebrating both still being here and the fact that everything is fleeting — hey, it's a new month! Time is a construct but we're going to have a bunch of complicated feelings about it anyway.
If you're still feeling existential, check out what else is new and exciting in the realm of being with our reviews section.
feeble little horse
"Tin Man"
(Saddle Creek)
Part of the fun of listening to feeble little horse's debut Hayday (originally released in 2021, and reissued by Saddle Creek last year) was imagining where they might take their music next. The answer, it turns out, is not too far from where they began. "Tin Man," the first single from the Pittsburgh quartet's upcoming Girl with Fish, turns up the saturation and sharpness on the band's digitized post-punk and shoegaze, riding searing waves of keyboard and guitar while frontperson Lydia Slocum dismantles a dude in a lilting deadpan. The song's vague country rhythm and unplaceable textures will be familiar to fans of feeble little horse's previous work, but the band is moving with a newfound sense of confidence and clarity — why fix something that's not broken?
Kaelen Bell
Sam Gendel
COOKUP
(Nonesuch)
An album of R&B staples done in jazz-leaning fashion was always destined to be more than an L.A. coffee shop soundtrack with Sam Gendel at the helm. On COOKUP, the prolific player's textural saxophone leads a trio in reimagining the sounds of genre favourites — without sacrificing the feelings elicited. Be sure to savour some Canadian flavour in the percussion of Philippe Melanson (Bernice, the Weather Station), a highlight of reinterpretations of Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody" and Mario's "Let Me Love You."
Calum Slingerland
Hannah Georgas
"This Too Shall Pass"
(Arts & Crafts)
The latest single from the singer-songwriter matches her feather-light vocals with both heavier-feeling themes and guitars. The lyrics about depression hit hard, as Georgas sings, "Some days feel so low and so fucking pathetic." Ultimately, however, the song is a self-assuring pep talk, with both the swelling dream pop textures and the comforting title phrase lifting this gorgeous song out of the gloom.
Alex Hudson
The HIRS Collective
We're Still Here
(Get Better)
Known to habitually release (near-) 100-track albums, queer liberation-focused lefty punk outfit the HIRS Collective reined in their free-wheeling sensibilities on We're Still Here, while keeping collaboration and their signature maximalism front of mind. The record's 17 tracks showcase a veritable who's who of modern alternative and hardcore, with features from over 35 musicians — including My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero, Garbage's Shirley Manson, Fucked Up's Damian Abraham, and members of the Body, Soul Glo, Converge, Touché Amoré, Thursday and many more. From the DIY ethos of soft-underbelly Melt-Banana team-up "XOXOXOXOXOX," to the blood-curdling "Apoptosis and Proliferation" with Nate Newton and Full of Hell, We're Still Here is a brash declaration of just that: "We always want to go the pessimistic route and be like, 'We're only here out of spite,' but really, we are spite," the Collective shares.
Allie Gregory
Alice Phoebe Lou
"Shelter"
(Independent)
A bright, double-tracked acoustic guitar carries Alice Phoebe Lou's latest single. While this foundational stone keeps "Shelter" grounded, its jangle-pop sensibility lends the perfect amount of melancholy. Lou's lyrics have never shied away from vulnerability, which makes her revelations on keeping her guard up to a fault ironically revealing. "I'm done seeing what everyone else sees in me / I just have to feel it for myself," she concludes, alluding to a version of herself as a room without walls.
Sydney Brasil
Musiq Soulchild
Victims & Villains
(SoulStar)
Musiq Soulchild reintroduces himself to a whole new generation of R&B fans with Victims & Villains, his first full-length release since 2017. Hit-Boy was tasked with the album's production, crafting an electrifying combination of drums, reverberating piano and funky guitar riffs to perfectly complement the Philadelphia troubadour's effortlessly smooth vocals. Musiq Soulchild embraces modern R&B across Victims & Villains, but takes moments to pay homage to his neo-soul hits of the early 2000s on standouts "your love is life" and the title track.
Ben Okazawa
Tommy Lefroy
Rivals
(LAB)
There's something about the exacting way Tommy Lefroy articulate a power struggle that invites revelation. The duo of Vancouver-born Tessa Mouzourakis and Wynter Bethel and their nimble pens are keyed into this more than ever on their aptly titled new EP Rivals, led by the medieval imagery of chiffon-grunge opener "Dog Eat Dog" and its critique of patriarchal pecking orders. Feminized perspective is central across the collection, including the standout fuzzed-out banger "Worst Case Kid," which confronts the toll of premenstrual dysphoric disorder with a fittingly all-consuming swell of sound. But even standing on common ground, Mouzourakis and Bethel realize their limitations: "We're looking for monoliths," they sing on closing track "Recency Bias," entwining their similar yet distinct voices, "Hey, there's nothing in Aisle 6."
Megan LaPierre
If you're still feeling existential, check out what else is new and exciting in the realm of being with our reviews section.
feeble little horse
"Tin Man"
(Saddle Creek)
Part of the fun of listening to feeble little horse's debut Hayday (originally released in 2021, and reissued by Saddle Creek last year) was imagining where they might take their music next. The answer, it turns out, is not too far from where they began. "Tin Man," the first single from the Pittsburgh quartet's upcoming Girl with Fish, turns up the saturation and sharpness on the band's digitized post-punk and shoegaze, riding searing waves of keyboard and guitar while frontperson Lydia Slocum dismantles a dude in a lilting deadpan. The song's vague country rhythm and unplaceable textures will be familiar to fans of feeble little horse's previous work, but the band is moving with a newfound sense of confidence and clarity — why fix something that's not broken?
Kaelen Bell
Sam Gendel
COOKUP
(Nonesuch)
An album of R&B staples done in jazz-leaning fashion was always destined to be more than an L.A. coffee shop soundtrack with Sam Gendel at the helm. On COOKUP, the prolific player's textural saxophone leads a trio in reimagining the sounds of genre favourites — without sacrificing the feelings elicited. Be sure to savour some Canadian flavour in the percussion of Philippe Melanson (Bernice, the Weather Station), a highlight of reinterpretations of Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody" and Mario's "Let Me Love You."
Calum Slingerland
Hannah Georgas
"This Too Shall Pass"
(Arts & Crafts)
The latest single from the singer-songwriter matches her feather-light vocals with both heavier-feeling themes and guitars. The lyrics about depression hit hard, as Georgas sings, "Some days feel so low and so fucking pathetic." Ultimately, however, the song is a self-assuring pep talk, with both the swelling dream pop textures and the comforting title phrase lifting this gorgeous song out of the gloom.
Alex Hudson
The HIRS Collective
We're Still Here
(Get Better)
Known to habitually release (near-) 100-track albums, queer liberation-focused lefty punk outfit the HIRS Collective reined in their free-wheeling sensibilities on We're Still Here, while keeping collaboration and their signature maximalism front of mind. The record's 17 tracks showcase a veritable who's who of modern alternative and hardcore, with features from over 35 musicians — including My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero, Garbage's Shirley Manson, Fucked Up's Damian Abraham, and members of the Body, Soul Glo, Converge, Touché Amoré, Thursday and many more. From the DIY ethos of soft-underbelly Melt-Banana team-up "XOXOXOXOXOX," to the blood-curdling "Apoptosis and Proliferation" with Nate Newton and Full of Hell, We're Still Here is a brash declaration of just that: "We always want to go the pessimistic route and be like, 'We're only here out of spite,' but really, we are spite," the Collective shares.
Allie Gregory
Alice Phoebe Lou
"Shelter"
(Independent)
A bright, double-tracked acoustic guitar carries Alice Phoebe Lou's latest single. While this foundational stone keeps "Shelter" grounded, its jangle-pop sensibility lends the perfect amount of melancholy. Lou's lyrics have never shied away from vulnerability, which makes her revelations on keeping her guard up to a fault ironically revealing. "I'm done seeing what everyone else sees in me / I just have to feel it for myself," she concludes, alluding to a version of herself as a room without walls.
Sydney Brasil
Musiq Soulchild
Victims & Villains
(SoulStar)
Musiq Soulchild reintroduces himself to a whole new generation of R&B fans with Victims & Villains, his first full-length release since 2017. Hit-Boy was tasked with the album's production, crafting an electrifying combination of drums, reverberating piano and funky guitar riffs to perfectly complement the Philadelphia troubadour's effortlessly smooth vocals. Musiq Soulchild embraces modern R&B across Victims & Villains, but takes moments to pay homage to his neo-soul hits of the early 2000s on standouts "your love is life" and the title track.
Ben Okazawa
Tommy Lefroy
Rivals
(LAB)
There's something about the exacting way Tommy Lefroy articulate a power struggle that invites revelation. The duo of Vancouver-born Tessa Mouzourakis and Wynter Bethel and their nimble pens are keyed into this more than ever on their aptly titled new EP Rivals, led by the medieval imagery of chiffon-grunge opener "Dog Eat Dog" and its critique of patriarchal pecking orders. Feminized perspective is central across the collection, including the standout fuzzed-out banger "Worst Case Kid," which confronts the toll of premenstrual dysphoric disorder with a fittingly all-consuming swell of sound. But even standing on common ground, Mouzourakis and Bethel realize their limitations: "We're looking for monoliths," they sing on closing track "Recency Bias," entwining their similar yet distinct voices, "Hey, there's nothing in Aisle 6."
Megan LaPierre
