Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.
Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the very best of the indie releases from the past seven days. This week offered up great new albums from Empress Of and Cloud Nothings, a live record from Jason Isbell, and standout tracks from the likes of Thom Yorke and Julia Holter. It was a pretty great week for indie music.
Cloud Nothings — Last Building Burning
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Dylan Baldi has been quietly making great records with Cloud Nothings for seven years now, despite the fact that the output is anything but quiet. On his latest, Last Building Burning, the Ohio band crafted an album about “the slow destruction of identity of places,” as he told our own Derrick Rossignol. It’s not a surprising level of seriousness lyrically, but the energetic compositions also work on a purely visceral level, resulting in a multi-level experience that makes the indie-punks one of the best in their lane.
Empress Of — Us
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Whether singing in English or Spanish, the pop vision of Empress Of remains one that feels distinctly of the moment. It’s not the kind of music that feels instantly ready for big stages, but, rather, it’s an indie-pop presentation that packs the infectiousness of it major label peers while still feeling within reach of the average fan.
Neneh Cherry — Broken Politics
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Since 1989, Neneh Cherry has released just five albums. The fifth, Broken Politics, is produced by electronic trailblazer Four Tet and tackles issues ranging from the European refugee crisis to gun violence. As the title suggests, the state of the world plays a big part of what keeps her going creatively. In a statement about the record, she said, “It was one of the best writing periods I’ve had in a really long time. I got out of the waiting room and into the inner sanctum.”
Thom Yorke — “Hands Off The Antarctic”
The Radiohead leader has been steadily releasing music from his upcoming Suspiria score, but “Hands Off The Antarctic” is a different beast. The song is an exclusive to Greenpeace and its title says it all. But still, it’s hard to hear any of Yorke’s current wave of music outside of the horror tilt, it’s just that environmental terror is a little more real than that which comes from cinema.
Antarctigo Vespucci — “Freakin U Out”
Antarctigo Vespucci delivers a huge melody with a snotty attitude on their latest. Taking cues from pop-punk, the collaboration between Chris Farren and Jeff Rosenstock has become something much more than the side-project from two artists more successful on their own that the band began as.
Julia Holter — “Words I Heard”
Words like “musician,” “songwriter,” and “singer” fail to capture the complete majesty of Los Angeles’ Julia Holter. She operates on a level that incorporates all of those terms, creating full soundscapes that drift closer to the term “composer.” As our own Leah Lu writes, “Holter’s music bends genre, packing together intricate string instrumentals and restless, soaring vocals to create a work that could be compared to a sort of incantation.“
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit — Live From The Ryman
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The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville is one of the most prestigious venues in the country. Current Nashville resident Jason Isbell is well aware of this and has turned a recent six-night stand at the venue (as well as some previous performances) into a live album.
Speaking about the record to our own Corbin Reiff, Isbell said, “At this point we consider the Ryman really to be our home venue because we play there more than we do anywhere else. Most of us live in the area, and it just sounds great. I knew going into this, that we would perform as well at the Ryman, as we would anywhere else on earth, just because we go home, we sleep in our beds, we’re surrounded by our own family, and our friends. And the energy in the audience, I mean it really causes us to step up.”
Charles Bradley — “Can’t Fight The Feeling”
It’s been nearly a year since Charles Bradley died from cancer, and with his final collection coming soon, it’s impossible to listen to his music without profound sorrow. But anyone that knows Bradley’s story should mix that sorrow with equal parts joy, knowing that the musician finally got to live out his dream late into his life. “Can’t Fight The Feeling” puts his unmistakable voice on display, aware that the world feels warmer and more inviting when Bradley is on the stereo.
Sloucher — “Perfect For You”
Seattle alt-rockers channel the past on their latest, “Perfect For You.” Its power-chord blasts strongly evoke the ’90s, so it’s not a surprise to learn that the band was listening to lots of Blink-182, Sheryl Crow, and Elliot Smith while making their upcoming album, Be True. This song is far more angsty than those reference points, though if you squint hard enough, imagining Elliott Smith upping his Nirvana listening isn’t too much of a stretch as an analog.
Papercuts — Parallel Universe Blues
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Papercuts’ Jason Quever has quietly become an indie rock mainstay over the course of the last 15 years, both as a musician and as a producer. His latest shows why he’s earned such revere from both indie pop and dream pop artists and fans alike. The record finds Quever leaving his longtime home of San Francisco for Los Angeles, crafting an album that is “about starting over, finding a new life and new friends and new love in a new place.”
