Now Reading: Notable Releases of the Week (3/20)
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Notable Releases of the Week (3/20)
This week we got the lineups for Lollapalooza and Just Like Heaven; Jay-Z announced shows, including 2 at Yankee Stadium celebrating 30 years of Reasonable Doubt and 25 of The Blueprint;’ and we learned that John K Samson of The Weakerthans may be done with recording music and touring. Hear us talk about all those topics and more in today’s episode of BV Weekly.
As for this week’s new albums, we highlight 8 below and Bill discusses 3 more in Indie Basement: Ladytron, Damaged Bug (John Dwyer of Oh Sees), and Anna Calvi. In addition to those, this week’s honorable mentions include Exodus, Filth is Eternal, Girl Scout, Colleen, more eaze, Radian, Haircut 100, Spencer Thomas, Luke Combs, BTS, Green-House, Whitney Johnson / Lia Kohl / Macie Stewart, underscores, Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso, the Mclusky mini-LP, the live Manchester Orchestra album, the live Hurray for the Riff Raff album, the live St. Vincent album, the live June of 44 album, the live Anthony Green album, the Dandy Warhols covers album, the 30th anniversary reissue of Rocketship’s A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness, the 20th anniversary reissue of Band of Horses’ Everything All the Time, the Mizery EP, and the Dylan Brady (100 gecs) EP.
Read on for our picks, and listen to the new episode of BV Weekly for more of this week’s new music and music news. What’s your favorite release of the week?
Poison The Well – Peace In Place (SharpTone)
The first Poison The Well album in 17 years touches on everything this band has ever done and then some, from their early days as melodic metalcore pioneers to their experimental later work.
Poison The Well reunited at the start of the 2020s, and they’ve spent a lot of that time revisiting their game-changing 1999 debut album The Opposite of December, an album that helped invent melodic metalcore as we know it, and an album that’s been very influential on a whole new crop of young bands. (Have you heard I Promised the World?) And for how important The Opposite of December is, what’s even more remarkable is that it’s just a small piece of the Poison the Well puzzle. Each of the five albums they released during their initial run were different from the last, and when you look at their catalog as a whole, Poison The Well are just as much of an experimental rock band as they are a metalcore or post-hardcore band. That brings us to their first album in 17 years, Peace In Place, an album that touches on just about everything this band has ever done and then some. At various points throughout this immersive, ever-changing album, it finds them at their catchiest, their heaviest, and their strangest. It might be the only Poison The Well album that shows off everything this band is capable of, and it really positions them as a band that doesn’t fit neatly into any category. The most CD-era thing about it is that it ends with a hidden track (a lost art!)–otherwise, Peace In Place finds this veteran band taking a massive step forward.
Gladie – No Need to Be Lonely (Get Better)
The reliably great, Augusta Koch-led band deliver more raw, no-frills, emotive indie-punk on this Jeff Rosenstock-produced LP.
Gladie are becoming one of the most reliably consistent indie-punk bands around. Ever since releasing their 2018 debut EP Everyone Is Talking But You around the same time that singer Augusta Koch’s former band Cayetana was slowing down, Gladie have turned into a band that you know is gonna deliver, and I’d argue that they keep getting a little better each time too. Their last album, 2022’s Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out, was my favorite album of theirs yet, and No Need to Be Lonely picks up right where it left off. Augusta’s rugged yet soaring voice is still out of this world, her observational lyricism leaves you hanging on even the tiniest details, and the band’s energy is addictive. Jeff Rosenstock produced this one, and it was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jeff collaborator Jack Shirley, both of whom make a great team with Augusta Koch & co. Everyone involved knows a thing or two about raw, no-frills, emotive rock music, and No Need to Be Lonely is plenty proof of that.
The Silver – Looking Glass Hymnal Blue (Gilead Media)
The second album from this Horrendous/Crypt Sermon offshoot goes even further into impossible-to-pin-down metal (and non-metal) territory.
When members of Horrendous and Crypt Sermon formed The Silver for their 2021 debut album Ward of Roses, their goal was “to do something rooted in black metal sounds without being a black metal band.” That very much came through on their uniquely genre-defying debut, and now five years later they’re back with another album, and it goes even further into impossible-to-pin-down territory. There are elements of black metal, prog, post-rock, art rock, and call me crazy but maybe a little emo, but it moves around so much that it’s tough to really call it any of that stuff. It’s a real trip.
Avalon Emerson & the Charm – Written Into Changes (Dead Oceans)
Catchy, songwriter-oriented synth-pop from the beloved DJ and producer.
DJ and producer Avalon Emerson also has a more songwriter/pop oriented project, Avalon Emerson & the Charm, and after releasing her debut under that moniker in 2023, she’s unveiled the follow-up, which is also her first album for Dead Oceans. “With this album, there was a new confidence of getting into writing lyrics again,” she told The Line of Best Fit, citing Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields and Morrissey as influences. Former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij co-produced, along with regular collaborator Nathan Jenkins (aka Bullion), and they helped her bring a palette of catchy synth-pop that’s far removed from her DJ material to life. [BrooklynVegan Staff]
Grace Ives – Girlfriend (UMG / True Panther)
The NYC alt-pop artist worked with Ariel Rechtshaid and John DeBold to make her biggest-sounding release yet.
Grace Ives told New York Times that working with Ariel Rechtshaid and John DeBold on her new album Girlfriend was “the level-up that I wanted.” It’s the follow-up to 2022’s more bedroom pop-oriented Janky Star, and it’s some of her biggest-sounding material yet. She made it after getting sober, and says, “Having some personal freedom made me realize that I’m allowed to take up space—to be social, to talk about how I feel, to try new things. This album is about giving myself room to fail, to experiment, and to become more honest in the music.” [BrooklynVegan Staff]
Footballhead – Weight of the Truth (Tiny Engines)
Late ’90s/early 2000s rock nostalgia and grunge-infused emo from the Chicago band.
Footballhead combine emo, grunge, other rock subgenres from the late ’90s and early 2000s in their sound, and you can hear that in their sophomore record, Weight of the Truth. Singer/guitarist Ryan Nolen cites “2000s alt-rock & butt rock bangers that you’d hear as a kid in the back of your mom’s SUV on the way to Dairy Queen” as call-backs on album track “Used to Be,” and says, “I don’t think we left a stone unturned with this new album. There’s something here for everyone in a way that was completely & entirely us: you’ve got your heavy flavors, some melodic hardcore moments, ballads, alt-rock, pop punk…and it’s all wrapped in self-discovery, denial, grief, learning, doing, & undoing.” [BrooklynVegan Staff]
OLTH – O. (Fill Thy Cup)
The NY screamo band’s surprise first album since 2023.
OLTH surprise-released a follow-up to their 2023 album every day is sOmeOne’s speciaL day on Tuesday. Great news for fans of the great NY screamo band, but also a sad one.They write that O. is “for Hallie,” the sister of guitarist Danny Evans, who passed away from a rare and aggressive form of cancer at the end of 2025. [BrooklynVegan Staff]
Witch Post – Butterfly (Partisan)
The Partisan debut from the duo of Alaska Reid and Dylan Fraser.
Los Angeles alt-pop artist Alaska Reid and Scottish singer-songwriter Dylan Fraser began releasing music together as Witch Post in 2024. After a series of singles and an EP, Beast, that came out last year, they signed to Partisan, and their first release for the label is their second EP, Butterfly. Their hypnotic vocal interplay is set against grungy, ’90s-inspired indie rock, and it makes for a compelling listen. “We’re trying to do something different from our solo projects with Witch Post,” Reid told Atwood Magazine. “We’re chasing the otherworldly and slightly fantastical.” [Amanda Hatfield]
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Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including Ladytron, Damaged Bug, and Anna Calvi.
Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases and Indie Basement archives.
Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out the latest episodes of our weekly music news podcast BV Weekly and the BV interviews podcast.
Pick up the BrooklynVegan x Alexisonfire special edition 80-page magazine, which tells the career-spanning story of Alexisonfire and comes on its own or paired with our new exclusive AOF box set and/or individual reissues, in the BV shop. Also pick up the new Glassjaw box set & book, created in part with BrooklynVegan, and browse the BrooklynVegan shop for more exclusive vinyl.
