My Week(s) In Music: 2-13 June

Turnstile drop an instant classic, Garbage are as good as ever, Matt Berninger turns in the best The National album, and Björk's Post turns 30

It’s another double-batch, and a few days late at that: during the week starting 2 June, I visited family in the Taranaki, then moved house later that week and over the weekend, so didn’t get a proper chance to actually put any thoughts down on paper screen. We’re still unpacking this weekend, hence the couple of days lateness getting this out to you. I will catch up this week, I promise.

So here, then, is another two weeks worth of listening and reviews. Enjoy!

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LET ALL THAT WE IMAGINE BE THE LIGHT (released: 30/05/2025)
Garbage

My history with Garbage stretches back to 1995: I think I’ve shared before that I didn’t get into them until my sister bought their self-titled debut, at which point I pinched it and then claimed it was mine. See, I’ve been an idiot all along.

(Sorry, sis.)

Fronted by Scottish singer Shirley Manson - often described as ‘fiery’ as a play on her hair colour; I would describe her as tenacious - and with a back-line boasting producer Butch Vig (Nirvana’s Nevermind, most famously), the group hit big in the post-grunge era, took a break after a few albums, then reunited in 2012 and have been releasing new music every four or five years since.

Has the music changed? Minimally, I think. The hallmark of a good Garbage song is an electro bass, rock drums, sparse but memorable guitar, and Manson’s vocal right out front, vocally expressing that she has no fucks to give.

Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is their eighth album overall (fourth since hiatus) and it sticks pretty close to the script: opener “There’s No Future In Optimism” lands as a statement of intention (‘There is no future that can’t be designed’ Manson sings to start the third verse), while “Hold” proves a dark, electro-rock track that evokes their second effort, 1998’s Version 2.0.

As you might have come to expect, Manson holds nothing back lyrically. ‘Hell hath no fury / like a Chinese fire horse with a 1966 birthday’ she declares on “Chinese Fire Horse”. ‘Do I have the mind to do it all again?’ she queries on “Sisyphus”, concluding ‘This little body of mine / is going to make things right’. ‘There's nothing I can do if you don't want it,’ she opines on “Love To Give”. It’s clear she is working through the frustrations of their career here.

And it’s arguably a fair subject to approach. Garbage have been one of the most consistently good acts to come out of the post-grunge era, yet they’ve rarely gotten the credit they deserve. Maybe it’s time to give them their flowers.

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NEVER ENOUGH (released: 6/06/2025)
Turnstile

A couple of weeks ago, I finished my review of the new Callous Daoboys album by declaring it my favourite album of the year to date. ‘The bar has been officially set,’ I wrote, imagining it would be months before I enjoyed something as much as I enjoyed that record.

Little did I know that Turnstile were waiting in the wings to drop their best album to date, and an album that - if not my favourite of the year - is tied in first place with the Daoboys. 1B to their 1A, if you will.

NEVER ENOUGH starts with the title track, an organ driven slow build leading to the hard rock guitars we’ve come to know and love; Brendan Yates’ vocal sounds better than ever as he wails against the trappings of the fame that has befallen the group since the success of 2021’s Glow On and its Grammy nominated singles “Holiday” and “Blackout”.

‘In the right place / At the right time / And still you sink into the floor,’ he admits in the pre-chorus, before exclaiming ‘It's never enough love.’

Second track “SOLE” covers some of the same ground, Yates singing ‘So high, there's nowhere left to lean / When everything is out of your control’, but at this point it becomes clear that the entire group have stepped up their game: drummer Daniel Fang turns in some of his best work on this record, and particularly on “SOLE”, while new addition Meg Mills pairs up brilliantly with Pat McCrory on guitar as the group hit their heaviest on songs like “DULL”, “SUNFLOWER” and “BIRDS”, the latter a personal favourite.

Meanwhile, bass player ‘Freaky’ Franz Lyons shines in something else that is new: as we move into third track “I CARE”, adopting something akin to a new wave/post punk/post hardcore style reminiscent of The Police, Lyons and Yates combining to create something of a Sting like influence on the sound. It ends up being another highlight, alongside “SEEIN’ STARS” later in the album.

NEVER ENOUGH is a brilliant record; it shows growth for the group both as individuals and as a collective, and turns in some of their best songs to date. And I can’t believe I’m saying this again but the bar has been set. Again.

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But wait, there’s more!

MORE (released: 6/06/2025)
Pulp

I’ll be completely honest:
I wouldn’t describe myself as a fan of Pulp. I used to think 1995’s critically acclaimed Different Class was wildly over-rated, its hit single “Common People” little more than a gimmick. And, as always, I slunk back to my Metallica albums.

Now I like them a lot more than I did then. I’m still not a fan but I can hear the appeal. New album More - their first in more than two decades - is much like this for me: I can hear the appeal on the album, and I think its probably more in my wheelhouse nowadays, but it still isn’t quite to my taste. I do like the opening track “Spike Island”, and “Grown Ups” has a real late-90s Blur vibe. But I won’t be rushing back to this one very often.

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL (released: 30/05/2025)
Miley Cyrus

The former Disney Channel star has turned into a bit of a good news story in the last five or so years; my impression of Cyrus nowadays ignores her past and is built around a track record of decent pop music. Something Beautiful continues this new tradition, bringing together the pop music she is now known for, and leaning more heavily into soul and blues influences.

“More To Lose” is a good example, a really strong vocal performance over a neo-soul instrumental. The title track morphs from R&B into a grimy rock break in a really exciting way. Elsewhere, Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard plays against type in a pop track, while highlight “End Of The World” will satiate Miley traditionalists. But make sure you listen to the rest of the album. Its pretty good.

NICKEL ON THE FOUNTAIN FLOOR EP (released: 30/05/2025)
Illuminati Hotties

There isn’t a lot to say about this one: its a brief EP with just five tracks, including the single “Wreck My Life” featuring PUP. Opener “777” is a grungy rock track that shows the Hotties - or more accurately songwriter Sarah Tudzin, the only full time member of the group - are moving in the directions they’ve established on their most recent albums (especially last years brilliant Power). Illuminati Hotties were one of my favourite new discoveries last year and, after this taste of some new material, I’m excited to see what comes next.

GET SUNK (released: 30/05/2025)
Matt Berninger

I’ll put this as plainly as I can: Get Sunk is the best The National album since 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me, and maybe 2010’s brilliant High Violet. The conceit, of course, is that its not a National album - it’s the solo effort of singer Matt Berninger, his second solo album to date. And its more of a condemnation of The National’s recent track record than the quality of this one.

That’s not to say Get Sunk is bad; far from it in fact. Co-writing with Sean O’Brien, Berninger has put together a collection of songs that are very typically Berninger, but also more laid back, more digestible. Even at their best, The National are not necessarily a fun band but it appears that isn’t the fault of their singer: early highlight “No Love” leverages a repeating piano chord and finds Berninger singer in a higher register than usual, while “Nowhere Special” is almost a spoken word track and is giving U2 vibes, and all points in between give the impression Berninger is having a good ole’ time. Feel the Bern, people!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY (released: 6/06/2025)
Finn Wolfhard

After all the exposes and drug overdoses and shit albums to come out of the Nickelodeon and Disney Channel set, my instinct is to straight up dismiss any album by a person who is more famous as a television personality; in this case, Wolfhard is one of the leads in Stranger Things, the spooky and uber-popular horror show on Netflix that has an ageing cast, is set in a very specific time period, and has yet managed just 34 episodes in 9 years or so.

It makes sense, then, that Happy Birthday would actually be pretty good; its not like Wolfhard has been hard at work on the show. It appears he put the time into his songs here, resulting in a lo-fi collection of tracks that sit on the border between retro rock’n’roll and alt-pop. “Choose The Latter” is a jangly pop track that shows off Wolfhard’s vocal talents, while “Objection!” rocks out a little harder and proves a solid composition. Later, “Trailers After Dark” slows down and incorporates a bit of blues rock into the mix.

Happy Birthday isn’t a perfect album; it could’ve used a bit more time on the mixing side, and some of the songs play a little twee. But its much better than it had any right - or indeed even needed - to be.

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Also released this week(s):

Okay, take a deep breath because there are heaps:

• It turns out caroline’s caroline 2 isn’t a new album from Caroline Polachek despite the obvious comparisons. I know this because Caroline Polachek guests on the third track, “Tell Me I Never Knew That”.

• If you like funky retro hip-hop then Aesop Rock's Black Hole Superette is for you; Armand Hammer and Open Mike Eagle guest.

• MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee help out on Ben Kweller's Cover the Mirrors, a solid, zeitgeisty alternative folk record.

• Y’know, for an album that features BigXThaPlug, Jelly Roll, Big Sean, Bono, Nicki Minaj, Future, Lil Baby, 2 Chainz and Andrea Bocelli, among plenty of others, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter VI is surprisingly bad.

• Their 17th record, Swans's Birthing is really good in a background music kind of way, but almost two hours in length is just insane.

• Ty Segall's Possession is one of the best I didn’t review this week; love the string use throughout this one, and the songs are great.

• Alan Sparhawk & Trampled By Turtles's Alan Sparhawk With Trampled By Turtles is beautiful in selected moments, but didn’t grab me the same way his work as part of Low (disbanded due to the passing of his wife Mimi Parker) always used to.

• Full disclosure: The Ting Tings’ Home is not a good record.

• Scottish singer Kathryn Joseph's We Were Made Prey is moody and vibey and beautiful, and felt almost like a dark companion piece to last years Beth Gibbons record, to me at least.

• Singaporean artist yeule's Evangelic Girl Is A Gun was fine.

• I know Foxwarren's 2 is getting plenty of great reviews but, man, I just didn’t get it at all. Sometimes things are too far out of my sweet spot. And thats fine.

• I still really dig the single “High Fashion” but Addison Rae’s Addison doesn’t know what it is; its like a bunch of disjointed ideas all in one.

• Intense as all hell, Death In Vegas’ Death Mask kind of bounces between ambient and pounding, and loses something in the process.

• It’s good but Shura's I Got Too Sad For My Friends doesn’t do enough to separate itself from the solo alt-folk pack it’s part of.

• I found Jacob Alon's In Limerence very downbeat and kind of boring at times. (PS ‘limerence’ refers to a ‘state of intense infatuation or romantic desire for another person’; I had to Google it).

• Fly My Pretties's Elemental. Yawn.

• I have fond memories of her song “Mother Mother” in the late 90s; Tracy Bonham’s Sky Too Wide is a very different vibe and I didn’t dig it.

• Dunedin electro-rock band Robots In Love's ACTIVATE! is upbeat and fun but I found it fairly hollow beyond that surface level enjoyment.

• I don’t know why Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe’s Lateral/Luminal albums exist, and at this point I’m too afraid to ask.

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Happy Birthday!

POST (released: 1995)
Björk

I remember when all the hype around Björk exploded in the mid-nineties, following the release of her debut album inventively titled Debut, and - to be completely honest - I didn’t like the cut of her jib, musically speaking. ‘Björk is weird and has this weird airy voice and sings weird songs and wears weird outfits,’ I thought to myself before going back to my Metallica albums.

So its a testament to the quality of Post, her second album, self produced alongside Nellee Hooper, 808 State’s Graham Massey, and Bristol electronic legend Tricky, that even I liked it. It was completely irresistible.

While I didn’t search Post out on release, I came to it through the video for “Army Of Me”, the albums first single produced by Massey and Hooper and accompanied by a music video by Michel Gondry which got heavy rotation on Juice TV in NZ, even as it was removed by MTV in the US due to its release coinciding with the Oklahoma City Bombing (the video contained a bombing).

“Army Of Me” kicks off the album, leading in to “Hyperballad”, maybe the best song on the record. But Post is full of delights: the trio of “Isobel”, “Possibly Maybe” and “I Miss You” in the back half of the record, and the cover of “It’s Oh So Quiet”, a song which dates back to 1948 Germany under the name “Und jetzt ist es still” (lyrics like ‘The sky caves in / the devil cuts loose’ take on a more menacing tone in that context).

Post turned 30 years old on June 12.

I PUT A SPELL ON YOU (released: 1965)
Nina Simone

When I look at solo pop artists, one of the things I look for is who wrote the songs, ascribing more value to pop artists who are credited with writing their own music, and sometimes outright dismissing pop artists who don’t.

What would I have done in 1965, then, when Nina Simone released this fantastic album without having written a single track?

Ordinarily a jazz singer in the Etta James/Ella Fitzgerald mold, I Put A Spell On You is generally regarded Simone’s most pop-centric recording (‘the closest you'll ever hear her come to pop’ says NPR’s Abbie Cornish).

But it succeeds because Simone has the kind of once-in-a-generation voice that just sounds good. Realistically, she could release an album of advertisement jingles, and it would sound like a million bucks. I’d recommend starting with GJ Gardner Homes’ ‘it’s a GJ / its a GJ’ theme.

Seriously, if you do nothing else, just check out the sauce she pours all over the opening to “Feeling Good”. It’s god-tier level stuff. Incredible.

I Put A Spell On You turned 60 years old on May 28.

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Thanks for reading, fam - see you tomorrow for Singles In Your Area!
Chris xo