Like the perfect weekend sundae, this New Music Friday is a triple-decker of highlights. It’s a treat with toppings and a cherry. We’re spotlighting three highly anticipated albums from The Smile, TORRES and Ty Segall. There’s even a bonus round with a myriad of other noteworthy records, EPs and singles from Justin Timberlake, Ice Spice and more. Keep scrolling to check out what else we’ve got highlighted. First, let’s get to the nitty-gritty.
The Best of New Music Friday:
The Smile – Wall Of Eyes
Find an intense rock fan from the youngest Gen X’ers to the college radio hosting Zoomers. Now ask their opinion on The Smile, the band made up of two Radiohead members, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, plus influential music producer and drummer Tom Skinner. The Smile was set to face judgment from their inception: Are they a Radiohead side project? Is Yorke the show? Who would listen if Yorke and Greenwood weren’t members? These questions, overheard from attendees at all of the group’s tour stops in the US, UK and EU since their first record A Light for Attracting Attention arrived in 2022, are irrelevant. The fans are there. The tunes are good. The members already have a legacy. Toss out these meaningless pop-quiz “gotcha” questions. The Smile is its own thing. Yorke, Greenwood and Skinner are the possessors of ultimate music ability. The showcase is something to behold.
Of all the unique traits The Smile carries, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly their sound is. Wall Of Eyes is ambient on “Bending Hectic,” distortive on “Under Our Pillows” (which even offers a full-fledged finger-picking freakout from Skinner on guitar, à la “Thin Thing” from their first LP) and soft-and-stringy on “Friend Of A Friend.”
Go enjoy The Smile for what they are, whatever that is, or if it even matters. These are talented musicians blowing everything including the kitchen sink out of their arsenal because they can. The result is enjoyable. Save the questions and listen.
TORRES – What an enormous room
TORRES’ sixth album arrives and kickstarts with an ear-tingling dance song. TORRES, aka Mackenzie Scott, the art-popper from Brooklyn, repeats these echoing high-key chimes on a synth while hitting remarkably pitched keys with her voice on the opener “Happy man’s shoes.”
TORRES played a role in most everything heard on this LP. In addition to writing all ten songs, she played guitar, bass, synths, organ, piano, and programmed drums, not to mention her charming voice showing a different dignified performance on each track. She matches the drawn-out distorted guitar tones with her lyrics throughout “Wake to flowers,” boasting tonality that ought to be celebrated. The drums accompanying this track are a slower four to the floor. It’s a song to roll heads with blissfully closed eyes and shake bodies along to the beat. It might make for a special live treat to catch TORRES ongoing world tour.
Until hearing it live, give What an enormous room a listen. It’s sure to be registered as a certified hit.
Ty Segall – Three Bells
Ty Segall’s 15th studio album Three Bells is heading back to the more electric-focused sound that went missing on his most recent acoustic-focused record, 2021’s Hello, Hi, but his tracks are as psychedelic as ever. Segall’s been dropping singles for Three Bells since August when he shared the noisy and crescendo-filled nearly seven-minute-long song “Void.” But before hearing “Void” on this studio release, listeners get treated to “The Bell,” which gets the recording room vocal treatment before a very heavy finish.
Segall’s always got an interesting approach to his music. Most of what’s heard on Three Bells is a simulcast of mind through memory, and awe-inspiring vistas of his natural world, experienced as a senses-overwhelming nightmare of mirage, illusion and dread-filled challenge. Those are Segall’s own descriptors. Pay attention to those terms, because while one song on Three Bells can’t be defined in one word, most of the tunes put out here embody those traits. Segall’s an artist with few bounds, if any. It’s business as usual on this new LP, and business is as good as ever.
New Music Friday Top Picks:
Blu DeTiger – “Dangerous Game”
Chicano Batman – “Fly”
Christian Nodel ft. Peso Pluma “La Intención”
Ice Spice – “Think U The Shit (Fart)”
Justice ft. Tame Impala – “One Night/All Night”
Justin Timberlake – “Selfish”
Mary Jane Dunphe – “Fix Me”
Militarie Gun – Life Under The Sun
Raffaela – LIVE, RAFF, LOVE (Act II)
Squid – “Fugue (Bin Song)”
Which of these tracks from New Music Friday will you be adding to your favorite playlists today? Any we missed? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!
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