My Week In Music: 5-9 May
A pair of brilliant new albums from Model/Actriz and Car Seat Headrest lead the way this week, and Chris Stapleton celebrates a birthday
PIROUETTE (released: 02/05/2025)
Model/Actriz
Formed back in 2016 in Boston, Model/Actriz made a name for themselves with a raucous post-punk sound, energetic live shows, and frontman Cole Haden’s willingness to address queer themes in his lyrics (‘as a gay person working in a genre that’s not very outwardly gay, the album is very gay’ he told Spin of their critically acclaimed 2023 debut Dogsbody).
Pirouette picks up where Dogsbody left off - though where the debut had an industrial, almost Downward Spiral-esque edge, this second album leans a bit more into alt-pop. Listening to openers “Vespers” and “Cinderella”, you’re struck first by the almost electro-sounding bass thrumming along in the background.
“Poppy” leads us back into the signature Model/Actriz as Haden’s disaffected vocal drones over a symphony of bass and guitar. “Diva” takes us on that journey as well; Haden sounds taut, like he is holding something back, making it even more shocking when his vocal jumps an octave in the chorus. Kudos to guitarist Jack Wetmore, whose work here adds exactly what each song needs, cleverly supporting the composition over simply making noise.
The back half of the album is strong too. “Audience” seems ready-made to cause a moshpit riot, while second single “Doves” arrives near the end of the album and (along with closer “Baton”) gives us Haden’s best vocal performance here.
A wonderful second album; we’ll be talking about this one on year end lists.
THE SCHOLARS (released: 02/05/2025)
Car Seat Headrest
For whatever reason, Car Seat Headrest - the full band, together since 2014 - has never managed to reach the creative heights of Twin Fantasy, the brilliant 2011 record from Car Seat Headrest - then the solo project of frontman Will Toledo.
From the first bars of the opening 8-minute epic “CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)” - the fourth-longest song here - it’s clear that Scholars is an improvement for the band, the performances energetic and more naturally collaborative, the compositional decisions landing as intended. Even Toledo agrees, telling Rolling Stone “I was more of an organiser than the composer.” For the first time, the writing is credited to Car Seat Headrest rather than just Toledo.
The Scholars is a concept album and ‘a bold new rock opera … [and] a spiritual rebirth’ (per the bands website). Musically, it leans more to retro rock, evoking the likes of The Who and Bowie, and even Tom Petty and The Killers, as the riffs go big, embracing the epic scale the moment requires, leading to the brilliant “Gethsemane”, the 11-minute heart of the album.
But big concepts aren’t new for Car Seat Headrest. The difference here is that The Scholars sounds full in a way their last few albums have not - and that is surely down to the change in approach to writing these songs.
WHO WILL LOOK AFTER THE DOGS? (released: 02/05/2025)
PUP
Fresh off a stint opening for Sum 41 on their final tour, PUP have dropped their fifth full length album, and first since 2022’s brilliant The Unraveling Of PUPTheBand. They’re currently touring Europe with Illuminati Hotties, and touch down in New Zealand for a couple shows in August.
Who Will Look After The Dogs is not quite as erratic or surprising as their previous, but still features the same energy, the same quirky sense of composition that makes their music so enjoyable you’ll be grinning for the duration. And this time they’ve dragged legendary punk Jeff Rosenstock along for the ride, featured on one track - the beautifully insane “Get Dumber” - and singing backing on a handful of others.
The album launches with the blisteringly fast “No Hope” and entertainingly heavy “Olive Garden”, the non-sequitors coming thick and fast (‘Let’s meet at the Olive Garden / It’s been too long / Last time, your grandma was in a coffin / It was weird to talk’ singer Stefan Babcock opines). It continues from there, songs like “Paranoid” and “Cruel” injecting bursts of adrenaline as needed.
While it leans heavily into the post-punk sound the group are known for, Who Will Look After The Dogs is a fuzzy, grungy, fast-paced album that is undeniably fun from start to finish. Love it.
IF YOU ASKED FOR A PICTURE (released: 02/05/2025)
Blondshell
The artist formerly known as Sabrina Teitelbaum began her career trying to break into pop music, before the pandemic led her to start exploring other avenues and working on her debut under the name Blondshell.
If You Asked For A Picture is the follow-up, named for a line from a Mary Oliver poem named “Dogfish” (‘If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile / under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin, / which was rough / as a thousand sharpened nails’), and it continues Blondshell’s knack for painting scenes through her lyrics; ‘I started taking my shirt off and facing the wall’ she sings on “T&A”, evoking the shame of the moment in a relatable way.
Blondshell’s lyrics are often funny, but that can distract from the vulnerability and sincerity present at times too. “What’s Fair” appears to explore her relationship with her Mum (‘You’d want me to be famous so you could live by proxy / You always had a reason to comment on my body’) while the single “Event Of A Fire” acknowledges how she hasn’t changed in some ways since she was a teenager (‘Cause part of me never left her in 2012 / Part of me is still getting all of my haircuts for someone else’).
Musically, the album is a bit rough at times - but to my mind, I think the lyrical work here more than makes up for any shortcomings in the instrumental. I enjoyed this one.
WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY EP (released: 02/05/2025)
Flume & JPEGMafia
Honestly, this one is more of an oddity than anything else. While we wait for new music from Australian DJ Flume - its been three years since his last album, and two since his last mixtape - and wait for Scaring The Hoes 2 from JPEGMAFIA (the in-the-works sequel to his Danny Brown collab album), the pair have linked up for a four track EP.
Track 1, aptly titled “Track 1”, accounts for more than a third of the run time and features the pair messing around in the studio, talking to each other through the monitors, and while it isn’t a cohesive song, it does feel like a glimpse behind the curtain. “Is It Real” is the first song proper, features a Ravyn Lenae cameo, and it has to be said, it goes super hard.
JPEGMAFIA takes the lead on the darkly funny “AI Girlfriend” (‘I ain't got time to play no games wit' you / So I'ma clear my cache 'fore I connect wit' you’ he raps over an under-stated instrumental) and closes out with “The Ocean Is Fake”; the EP ends a few minutes later with JPEG saying ‘eh, fuck it’.
Yes, the EP sounds like a collection of ideas rather than songs. And it certainly isn’t the best work by either artist, not even close. But there is something fun about hearing a pair of big names simply enjoying themselves. Consider me entertained as well.
Also released this week:
Auckland trio Otherwoman's Who Is The Otherwoman is an entertaining but unsubstantial showcase EP (their track “Circles” is worth a spin though).
Somehow, Norwegian alt-pop singer Jenny Hval’s Iris Silver Mist has a combined score of 86 at Metacritic and, honestly, I have no idea how.
Who knew Wanaka had a rock scene?! Lake district rockers Powder Chutes' Powder Chutes is a bit of fun, if a little derivative.
I found Gigi Perez's At The Beach, In Every Life a little bit too understated, a little bit too quiet for my taste.
I enjoyed parts of d4vd's WITHERED but the album didn’t grab me.
The “Luka”/”Tom’s Diner” singer Suzanne Vega's Flying With Angels is her tenth album, and that is all I’m interested in saying about it.
Critics love it but I found Lucius's Lucius a bit disjointed.
Lastly, Puddle of Mudd's Kiss the Machine is the surest sign we have yet that nostalgia has gone too far. I find it hard to believe anyone wanted this.
Happy Birthday:
TRAVELLER (released: 2015)
Chris Stapleton
Before I was working full time in television, I worked as a music programmer for a company that provided automated DJ systems to bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, speakeasies - anyone who wanted one, basically - and around 2010 the management made a move to enter the American market.
As the person responsible for the music selection and playlists, it meant a bit of research. Hip-hop music is a much bigger deal there, as is mainstream rock. But the biggest shock to my system was country music.
Country music is huge in America. Like, imagine what that might look like. Now double it, then double it again. And its probably still bigger than that. And the home of country, Nashville, is the centre of the genre - to the point that artists who don’t work in Nashville and embrace the sound are referred to as ‘outlaws’.
Chris Stapleton is not an ‘outlaw’ country artist. But its his ability to embrace that sound and that work ethic, and merge it into his material, that has made him a much bigger deal internationally than most country stars, as well as countless collaborations with the likes of Adele, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Snoop Dogg. And his debut Traveller was the start of that, behind the success of singles “Traveller”, “Parachute” and a cover of “Tennessee Whiskey”.
I don’t go in for country music much. But voice and style of Stapleton is iconic and undeniable. Traveller is brilliant.
Traveller turned 10 years old on May 5.
Thanks for reading this week everybody - see you next week!
Mā te wā, Chris