We don't talk about music enough. Let's fix that.

Today I'm starting a series similar to something I used to do back in the day, which is a bi-weekly selection of music "reviews" for stuff I've really been enjoying over the last little bit.

The first post every month will be solely brand-new music that's come out within the last month or so that I've been enjoying, and the second will just be me spotlighting music I love, regardless of when it came out.

Reminder to all: the "new music" selections won't always diverse genre-wise. Sometimes a month is stacked with dancepop bangers, sometimes its a rock-heavy month with a lot of satisfyingly saturated selections.

So with that in mind lets dive into this month's selection of new music!

Ö by Fcukers

Last month the NYC dance group Fcukers dropped their first full-length album, and from the first few seconds of the first track I knew I was in for a good time, and by god did it deliver. I've been listening to this album non-stop and I think anyone who enjoys electronic music will find something to like here.

Unlike a lot of the hyperpop-tinged electronica that's been coming out recently, Ö owes more to the lineage of "right proper" English dance/club/pop music than A.G Cook's PC Music collective. For that reason its a bit refreshing to hear something a bit more comfortable getting into a consistent groove than the jumpy, on-the-fritz style that's been en vogue lately.

The album opener "Beatback" begins the record with a very rudimentary (but catchy) chromatically-focused bassline paired with a snappy drum beat, and a beautifully-disaffected female vocal on top asking to "run the beat back." When the first drop hits, thickening the bass even more and relegating the incredibly catchy lead melody to what sounds like a simple sine wave, the textural interplay between the complex bass and the infinitely-harmonically-simple lead melody, all on top of an incredibly head-boppable tempo set by the drums sets the stage for an album that will be at all times danceable, but with no shortage of textural excitement or engagement.

The next highlight for me is the third song, "Butterflies". The chord progression of the intro shows a good level of restraint, while also exhibiting a deceptively complex understanding of harmony. They clearly did their homework and understand how to build harmonic tension and release it economically.

But again, the textural contrast between the almost harpsichord-like main chord progression, the soft, whispery vocals, and the clappy, mid-focused snare drum is ear candy to me, who loves when catchy chord progressions and beats are paired with enough excitement in the actual sound to really get my ears tickled.

The third track I want to call attention to on this album is "Shake It Up" because this is one of the first parts on the record where Fcukers' NYC heritage makes itself very well known, reminding me a lot of the Pharell-produced bangers of the 2000s, with a cheeky horn-like synth and an eminently seductive vocal performance. The bass on this track goes low, but again, the arrangement is so simple that if the production choices for each sound weren't perfectly sorted, the song might sound too barebones. But it doesn't, it sounds intentional, spotlighting the perfectly disaffected vocal and the interplay between the transient melodies weaving in and out of the track.

Watch the video

Lastly, my favorite song on the record "Lonely" is what I'd call the obvious "pop" song on the record, reminding me more of NewJeans-style K-pop than the somewhat brutalist UK dance influenced electronica we find on the rest of the record. It's got an upbeat, playful beat, another beautifully-wistful vocal melody, and is simply pure fun.

Obviously these aren't the only good tracks on the album: "I Like It Like That" is another high-energy dance track with a super bouncy core melody, while the closer "Feel the Real" reminds me more of the european trip-hop stylings of someone more like Air or Zero 7.

But if you want a fun record, this is one I've been having a ton of fun listening to from front-to-back no matter what my mood.

Optimizer by Stuck

Stuck is a band I've been into for a few years now, and this record coming out took me by total surprise when I got the ping for its release (thanks Apple Music). They're part of a recent lineage of post-punk tinged punk music that takes more inspiration from bands like Wire or DEVO than say, Black Flag or The Clash.

Optimizer is what I'd call their most put-together, best sounding record yet. Their last record was plagued with a little too dark of a master, which was a fine pairing with their fast, immediate approach to punk music, but this record both sounds more polished as well as features a bit more diversity in terms of the "type" of song on offer here.

"Instakill" is the first track that really grabs me by the shirt and refuses to let go, opening with a weird stuttery drum loop and a Thomas Dolby-like synth plink, eventually relenting and cascading into a very DEVO-like mechanical march, building in anxiety and discord until the final straw breaks the camels back, and it devolves into a double-time freakout with fuzzy guitars and the vocalist howling "Instakill!" until the track completely falls apart into a wall of drones and mangled drums.

Watch the video

"Net Negative" starts as a very classically "post-punk" song that opens based on a wiry bass melody and extra-motivated, tight drums. The vocalist is set back a bit further this time around, letting the rhythmic and harmonic interplay between the disjointed guitars, the mechanically-perfected bass, and a drum part that sounds equally apprehensive and urgent dictate the arrangement of the track. I specifically love how the hard-panned guitars play against the rhythm section here, at times playing super weird stuff that still somehow works.

The closer "GG" opens not dissimilarly to other punk dirges, focusing solely on the melody contributed by the bass guitar that will doubtlessly serve as the foundation for an angry, bitter song... 

...but then the guitars come in, and the key of the song changes entirely from D blues to A Major, and instead we get what sounds like a sweet, if slightly despondent expression lamenting the need to move on from a friendship. Eventually the more "punk" D blues section makes its way back into the arrangement, but I can't help but feel like the verses of this song sound a lot more "sad" than "angry" in a way that feels refreshing for a band I mostly associate with rage and anxiety than pensive reflections on relationships.

Overall, this is a great record that I've had a great time with, and I find it to be a lot more varied than their last record (which is also great/worth checking out if you like the more fast/anxious moments on this record).

u by underscores

We've saved the best for last. I've been following the singles for this record since last year, but I cannot stress how much the full record delivers exactly what I wanted and more.

underscores isn't necessarily a "new" artist, she's been around since the early 2010s, but u is almost certainly going to be her breakout record that puts her on the map... this record hits.

While yes, there are parts of this record that lean into the "hyperpop" aesthetic that is currently popular, I find a lot of this record to owe significant debts to the "dubstep" genre that reached its peak of popularity in the late 2000s/early 2010s. It's got all of the skittery, jumpy cues from more modern styles of electronic music, while retaining the focus on "bigness" and fiery, squelching bass that acts like Skrillex were so well known for back in the day.

"Music" is an all-time banger, pairing the exhilarating, quasi-romantic sentiment of "When I'm with you I feel like music" with insanely texturally satisfying, hard-hitting bass and drums. underscores pairs this drum/bass arrangement with Imogen Heap-level vocal layering, incredibly intelligent/economical use of controlling the decay and placement of samples, and one of the hardest hitting drops I've ever heard.

Building on the Imogen Heap-level vocal arrangement of "Music," "The Peace" is constructed on a foundation of chopped-and-layered synthesized vocal harmonies playing an optimistic-sounding progression, while underscores details the relatable story of wanting to share in the relative peace of sharing a cigarette with someone you actually want to be around. This song is maximalist in a way that reminds me more of Caroline Polachek than Skrillex, but its one of the more melodically-satisfying songs on the record for me due to just how well its arranged.

Speaking of which, "Lovefield" is arguably the melodic centrepiece of this record, sounding more like a Top 40 pop song from one of the established greats than anything I've actually heard from some of "the greats" over the last few years. The song starts with a gentle, bubbling stereo-panned synth playing an inviting melody, while underscores details the difficulty of feeling like she doesn't feel like she's naturally receptive to love.

Now, despite being a more emotionally-focused song bordering on a ballad, that doesn't stop it from also having an awesome explosion of uptempo drums and thick bass—among the more satisfying explosions on an album filled with them—but I love this song specifically because it feels like a really artfully crafted pop song, with a main melodic hook that feels expensive.

Watch the video

"Do It" was, if memory serves, the first single from the record, and I feel the same way about it as I did then: another all-time banger, destined for the Hot Girl Music Hall Of Fame. It has some of the most interesting production choices on the album, using strummed guitar as a crucial percussive element serving as a foil to disgustingly-distorted bass swells, and an overall arrangement that reminds me a ton of one of the other all-time pop bangers, "Slave 4 U" by Britney Spears.

This song just sounds badass from top to bottom, and if I had to recommend one song from this entire article that you HAVE to listen to, this is the one.

Lastly, the penultimate song "Bodyfeeling" reminds me more of the evocative, restrained energy present on "Lovefield," but "Bodyfeeling" is simultaneously even more restrained, while having arguably the hardest hitting drums on the record while not relying on tempo, textural aggression, or quirky sample switching to achieve it. They just hit crazy hard, which makes what would otherwise be a totally solid pop song with a super strong core melody into something that feels much more pressing, almost desperate in its need for you to feel impacted by what you're hearing.

Overall this record has no weak points; I could've waxed poetic about any of these tracks. This is probably my favorite record that's come out this year, and I'm excited to revisit it a bit later in the year, as we get into the warmer months where I can actually blast it in my car.

Final Thoughts

The best part—hell, the point—of putting thought into what headphones you buy or use is that if you choose right, your favorite music can sound absolutely incredible. But we must remember, the headphones are here as devices to reproduce and deliver the music enjoyably, and the music is the most important part of this equation.

So thanks for joining me as I take some time to re-center the music itself, and hopefully you'll join me as I continue on the path of taking time to remind us all to take time to discover new music and enjoy the music we already love, regardless of what gear we're using to listen to it.