Top Indie Album Picks of the Week [October 23, 2020]

"What's Love Anyways" is a reflection of Nia Ray's experiences with love. The 6-song EP takes listeners on a journey through the mind of someone struggling in their relationship. The EP commences with the funky, upbeat track, "Sober," which represents the butterflies felt when one first falls in love. It then dives past the honeymoon phase and continues down a slippery slope of emotions, ending with the [abbreviated] titular song, "WLA." "Relationships are hard, but people always make love seem so easy." Nia Ray continues, "I’m sure you’ve found yourself wondering, 'I thought love was supposed to be this and that, could this be love that I'm feeling?' Well...what’s love anyways?". To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, or BandCamp.

Tunisian-born/New York-based experimental singer Emel will release ‘The Tunis Diaries’ – a double EP that features a collection of newly recorded reworks from Emel’s catalog (‘Day’), paired with an eclectic selection of covers (‘Night’). Equipped with only a laptop, tape recorder, and a classical guitar she crowdsourced from a local fan via Facebook, Emel created ‘The Tunis Diaries’ entirely in Tunis after she was unexpectedly quarantined in her childhood home this Spring. The resulting project is a back-to-basics exploration of Emel’s roots, as well as a spontaneous and complex reflection on her relationship to her homeland. To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, or BandCamp.

Here we are in 2020, exploding like a dream. Processing today’s numbed nation, considering mysteries of growing up and being older (like a memory of the future from your youth (not how you expected, but still your life)), Magik Markers rub upon their roots, art-noise jamming their way into non-linear song-sense and raw, beautiful music all at once. To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, or BandCamp.

A second Loma album seemed unlikely but following a series of guests contributions to the trio’s absorbing soundscapes, Don’t Shy Away was born. In addition to members, Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski, and Jonathan Meiburg, the album features touring members Emily Lee (piano, violin) and Matt Schuessler (bass), Flock of Dimes / Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, and a surprisingly bass-heavy horn section. To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, or BandCamp.

Frankie Reyes (aka Gabriel Reyes-Whittaker) is back with Originalitos, his second album for Stones Throw. Throughout eight original compositions created on the analogue Oberheim synthesizer, Frankie Reyes draws on his Puerto Rican heritage and the sounds of everyday life. To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, or BandCamp.

In the words of Matt Wallock (American Songwriter), Party Favors is a nervy and reverb-soaked debut EP by Sir Chloe. To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, or BandCamp.

Karma & Desire by Actress is a well-rounded project featuring guest collaborations from Sampha, Zsela, Kara-Lis Coverdale and Aura T-09 and more. It’s “a romantic tragedy set between the heavens and the underworld” says Actress (Darren J. Cunningham) “the same sort of things that I like to talk about – love, death, technology, the questioning of one's being”. The presence of human voices take the questing artist into new territory. To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, iTunes, or BandCamp.

Storytelling isn’t merely a vehicle for self-expression, it’s a mode of transportation. A two-way mirror in which we process gilded dreams and grotesque nightmares, the transgression of cultural taboos and the upholding of ancient tradition. It’s also the animating idea behind much of the greatest popular music ever made. Consider Exotica, the new album from Houston iconoclast, Fat Tony, the latest brilliant entry in that fabled tradition. “This album is an ode to the art of storytelling through music,” the polymath born Anthony Lawson Jude Ifeanyichukwu Obiawunaotu says, distilling Exotica’s essence. To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, or BandCamp.

Ela Minus’ debut album is a collection about the personal as political and embracing the beauty of tiny acts of revolution in our everyday lives. Throughout, a sense of urgency and a call to arms is mixed with this love and appreciation for reality—because even revolutionaries need to leave space for simple human interaction. To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, or BandCamp.

After nearly two decades of engineering, producing and recording, band Dummy (made up of guitarist John Barnicle, bassist/vocalist Mark DeRosa, and drummer Scott Kinsey) has finally released their debut EP. Dumbo is a true gumbo of genres and musical techniques, a real sonic experience. To stream or purchase, visit Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, or BandCamp.