This is a new Bitter Melodies feature for 2024: a continually-updated monthly round-up of reviews for the most popular, interesting, and best albums released in that period. Read and share!

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21 Savage – American Dream [Epic/Slaughter Gang]

5/10

Six years between albums usually means we’re long overdue from hearing from the artist, but 21 Savage could stand to be less saturated in the culture. Of course, that’s six years between solo “studio albums” — when those and the mixtapes all release to the same platforms, do we really need to differentiate? Her Loss, 21 Savage’s late-2022 collab album with Drake, catapulted the Atlanta rapper to the widest popularity of his career, but outside of “Rich Flex”, that album had no cultural staying power. American Dream unfortunately does not buck this trend. 21 Savage’s ad-lib-heavy rapping style can still draw you in the same way it did back on the classic 2016 breakthrough Savage Mode, but the lyrics and beats here are often too perfunctory to fully hold your attention. Add a bunch of forgettable features and you get an album that never adds up to more than its parts. “Redrum”, the only track produced by London on da Track, is the highlight here. The repetition of the Elza Laranjeira sample makes for an addictive listen; give 21 Savage an interesting beat and he can still flex.

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Kali Uchis – ORQUÍDEAS [Geffen]

7/10

Kali Uchis is now 4 for 4 on making really good pop albums that undeservingly stay on the margins of pop culture. “telepatía” is the closest she’s come to becoming a household name, but she already should be when you consider all her albums are chock-full of well-produced earworms that would provide some legitimate artistry on any playlist/radio station. Uchis has been consistently-great enough to prove her star power, but it might be that same consistency that’s holding her back now. Standout tracks like “Me Pongo Loca” and “Te Mata” sound like immediate Latin radio staples, but under a more critical light, they could come across as risk-averse. Either way, they work beautifully in the flow of tracks 1-9 on ORQUÍDEAS, which taken all together is her best work yet. The wheels fall off drastically though when the lead single collabs with El Alfa & Karol G enter the mix; they feel like forced attempts to generate more buzz for the album and the flow to an otherwise-great album is thrown off.

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Kid Cudi – INSANO [Republic]

4/10

Kid Cudi’s music has commanded enough attention for 15 years that you would think there’s substance to back it up. His 2009 breakthrough Man on the Moon: The End of Day is a classic in certain corners (Rolling Stone included it on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time), but his severe lack of talent as a rapper and vocal presence shines through on much on that overrated opus. Apart from a few Kanye collabs, Cudi coasts on an unearned good will as a spiritual alt-hip-hop savant. I suppose adding a few synths and singing about weed in 2009 goes a long way. INSANO is part of a long line of Cudi albums to go straight into the disposables. His attempts at trap on “KEEP BOUNCIN'” and “A TALE OF A KNIGHT” are anemic. “ELECTROWAVEBABY” and “AT THE PARTY” work better as smoother pop-rap tracks. At the end of the day though, he’s a voice I tune out because it’s so uninteresting; features like A$AP Rocky and even Lil Yachty prove that his deadpan delivery just kills the vibe.

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SPRINTS – Letter to Self [City Slang]

6/10

This is the debut from Dublin post-punk rockers SPRINTS led by singer-songwriter Karla Chubb. Fontaines D.C. and Gilla Band are immediate comparisons; this features the same producer from Gilla Band’s (FKA Girl Band) early work. You get a lot of direct uncomplicated lyricism from Chubb, chant-worthy for a pub crowd from the repeated chorus of “Literary Mind” to all of the opener “Ticking”. Their brand of post-punk is produced slick with really no surprises if you’re familiar with the scene. The main draw of this band is Chubb’s vocals, engaging in lower and higher registers with no hiccups. Across each track, you can feel the angst manifesting in rage-filled choruses and more solemn moments. It’s a great personality to guide you through otherwise-copy-and-paste sounds that go down easy. It’s also a shame the lyrics aren’t more engaging; they rely heavily on rhetorical questions and vague depictions of trauma. The lack of specificity and character undercuts what makes the band stand out from the crowd.

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Green Day – Saviors [Reprise]

5/10

For multiple decades now, Green Day has been labeled as faux-punk to those who listen to Minor Threat, the Slits, Bad Brains, etc. (AKA music you won’t hear in a bar alongside the Killers). The label is fair, even as they were memorably on the front lines nationally making anti-Bush art and giving middle fingers on MTV. It’s more of an aesthetic critique; their music has always been immensely palatable to all age groups draped in its polished perfectly-spiked hair charm. Green Day is a pop band first-and-foremost, and they live and die by how many hits their album generates. It’s been a while since “Know Your Enemy” and “21 Guns”, and the offerings from Saviors offer no hope for that sort of success. The 1-2 opening of “American Dream Is Killing Me” and “Look Ma, No Brains!” has been hailed by some as a return to form for both the skater-punk styles of ’90s Green Day and the operatic political side of the ’00s, but neither truly packs a punch, thematically or melodically. Elsewhere, nothing really stands out on the album, good or bad — they hit the obvious notes and it all becomes a bit like background noise. For a “punk” band, that’s truly a crime.

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Sleater-Kinney – Little Rope [Loma Vista]

6/10

Few bands had a run like Sleater-Kinney: 7 albums of no-bullshit rock across a decade, all critically-loved with at least two hailed as all-timers (Dig Me Out and The Woods), plus a hiatus with a formidable return in No Cities to Love. Looking back, their 2015 return seems to be the capstone on their legendary output. It’s hard to say if the departure of drummer Janet Weiss has permanently killed the vibe, but we’re now on the third straight album of middling returns and low-fanfare for Sleater-Kinney since 2019. Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein are incapable of making bad music, but that once legendary spark has passed them by. It takes half the album for a song to stand out; “Don’t Feel Right” is lead single material combining their iconic punk bounce with a catchy harmonic chorus. “Say It Like You Mean It” has potential with Tucker’s heart-rendering vocals but doesn’t progress excitingly enough instrumentally. Something’s always just a little off, and it seems to boil down to a lack of creativity in the mix. For an album just a little over 30 minutes, it makes for an underwhelming listen.

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glass beach – plastic death [Run for Cover]

6/10

At the onset of plastic death‘s shortest song “guitar song”, lead vocalist Classic J sings, “Afraid I’ll give you what we want will bore us / All verse-chorus / Green light red light I don’t know”. It’s a rare moment of direct self-awareness for the maximalist emo-prog rock band from Seattle. If they have fears creatively-speaking, being boring certainly shouldn’t be one of them. The effort of their entire band is on full display across the entire hour-long album. You get abrupt instrumental breaks and genre-shifting mood changes, especially on songs like “slip under the door” and “the CIA”. There’s an intentionality to the album flow as the aforementioned “guitar song” leads into “rare animal”; “puppy”/”the killer”/”the CIA” runs together uninterrupted. The lyrics can be dense and presented without obvious melodies; this is the type of album you pull the lyric sheet out for. This is no doubt a band that crafts their music thoughtfully and interesting and rewards invested listeners. However, the downsides of maximalist expression can be a showoff-y technical approach, try-hard lyricism, and an overall identity crisis, and glass beach just can’t quite fully escape those claims. Maybe if the melodies and choruses hit harder or the instrumental breaks were less math-rock-y, the lyrics about DB Cooper, coelacanths and mayflies would resonate as clever allusions and metaphors rather than another part of a stack of interesting-but-emotionally-impenetrable elements.

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Boldy James & Nicholas Craven – Penalty of Leadership [Nicholas Craven]

7/10

Boldy James is lucky to be alive. A year ago, James suffered a broken vertebrae in a car accident that required extensive surgery. It sidelined him for nearly half a year and stalled one of the most prolific runs of any rapper currently working. Boldy James released eleven albums in three years including acclaimed works like Manger on McNichols, The Price of Tea in China, and Bo Jackson. The latter two were collaborations with The Alchemist, one of the best producers currently working. Nicholas Craven is a lesser-known figure, but his soul-sampling loop style is in line with The Alchemist and perfectly-suited for James’ rapping style (their first collab Fair Exchange No Robbery is also a worthy listen). James and Craven have a symbiotic relationship for steady, unfazed, low-key hip-hop. This is late-night wind-down music, but James’ deeply-reflective lyricism keeps it from being labeled as sleepy or peaceful. Freddie Gibbs and Scarface are good comparisons: all low-voiced, no-fucks-given, gangster-but-solemn personas on the mic. James is not as electrifying as those two on their best songs, but you’re always glad and comforted hearing him rap, especially now.

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The Smile – Wall of Eyes [XL]

8/10

We’re currently in the longest break between Radiohead albums — if there is another one — but Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have released enough great projects to satiate one of the most devoted fanbases. Greenwood’s Phantom Thread score, Yorke’s Suspiria soundtrack and solo album ANIMA, and now two great albums from their new band The Smile. With A Light for Attracting Attention and Wall of Eyes, Yorke and Greenwood are operating in a less-demanding position of having to live up to the Radiohead moniker, and they also get to work with a stellar jazz drummer in Tom Skinner whose rolling tom-heavy work differs greatly from Philip Selway’s looping hi-hat patterns. The end result of these Smile albums are thankfully not spotlight-free jam session reprieves but rather the work of three hyper-professionals crafting the most meticulous art rock of our time. Wall of Eyes has no commercial ambitions like the most accessible of Radiohead’s work; nor is it an album you skip around for the highlights (though the 8-minute “Bending Hectic” is a showstopper). The 45-minute album grows in stature the longer you listen, as decisions in track-sequencing, outro lengths cater to the entire project in more holistic satisfying ways. Just listen for example to the drone back-half of “Under Our Pillows” acting as an intermission and for the album to lock back into place with the piano ballad “Friend of a Friend”. That ultimately makes this Smile album a more worthy listen than its predecessor despite they’re being less standout tracks. I’d say in the pantheon of Radiohead and all adjacent projects, The Smile’s two albums rank behind Hail to the Thief but ahead of Yorke’s best solo work.