10 Best Songs of the Week: Alex Lahey, boygenius, Jess Williamson, Hand Habits, and More

Mar 31, 2023 Mark Redfern

Welcome to the twelfth Songs of the Week of 2023. The pickings were a little slimmer this week, but we found enough singles (and one album track) to come up with a solid Top 10.

Death Cab for Cutie on “Asphalt Meadows”

Mar 31, 2023 Issue #70 - My Favorite Movie (Sharon Van Etten and Ezra Furman)

Over the course of a two-and-a-half-year pandemic thousands, if not millions of people across the country—and the globe—were forced into an extended, existential crisis, resulting in all kinds of self-reflection and reevaluation on our emotional and mental wellbeing, the importance of a healthy work/life balance, and how we even want to interact with the rest of the world.

First Aid Kit on “Palomino”

Mar 29, 2023 Issue #70 - My Favorite Movie (Sharon Van Etten and Ezra Furman)

It’s funny; sometimes the closer you are to something, the harder it is to remember how special it can be. It’s the root of the phrase, Absence makes the heart grow fonder. For the Swedish-born folk duo, First Aid Kit, they know this maxim well.

Heartworms on Her Debut EP, Her Love of World War II Aircraft, and Working with Dan Carey

Mar 24, 2023 Web Exclusive

Sometimes a song can literally stop you in your tracks. Heartworms’ recent single “Retributions of an Awful Life,” which arrived alongside a dramatic, cinematic black and white video, is one such track. Intense, compelling, moody, and magnificent, Heartworms is the project of UK musician Jojo Orme, who started creating the music she was destined to make when she began to embrace her dark side.

Under the Radar’s Top 100 Albums of 2022 Part 1

Dec 23, 2022

Are things back to normal in 2022? They are, aren’t they? Well not quite. In the past year we eased out of the pandemic, but COVID-19 is still around and still deadly to some (just look at what’s happening in China, now that their long national lockdown has lifted). The pandemic door has been left ajar, rather than fully closed. We put the chaos for the Trump administration in the rearview only for us to relive it via the very necessary January 6th Commission and the specter of the former president running again in 2024 (if he’s not barred from doing so or even in jail). And while Biden’s administration has been fairly steady and helped lead the Democrats to an unexpectedly strong showing in the midterm elections, over in the UK chaos has reigned with no less than three different prime ministers in one year (Liz Truss being the shortest serving prime ministers in British history), the death of the Queen, strikes across the country, and a recent poll having a majority of Brits admitting that Brexit was a mistake.

Those of us who grew up during the tale end of the Cold War and the beginning of perestroika have not been totally surprised that Russia has become a major adversary to the West again in the last decade, but it was still shocking when Russian President Vladimir Putin followed through with his threats to invade Ukraine. On top of the terrible toll on the Ukrainian people and its extraordinary President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the war has destabilized financial markets worldwide and helped lead to massive inflation, with all this talk from financial experts of a possible recession next year seemingly willing such a thing into existence.

After the last few years of the pandemic and all the political upheaval worldwide, the massive right and left divisions in this country and in others, it leaves one wondering if the events of every single year felt this monumental to our younger selves and to our ancestors. Certainly there have been other eras of even greater turmoil (World War II, the 1960s), but will things ever feel truly normal again?

Musicians continued to find their footing in 2022, with live shows and festivals pretty much back to normal and free of major COVID restrictions. Still, many musicians were finding it more expensive than ever to tour this year, in large part because of inflation, but also because of the unfair financial cuts some venues were taking of merchandise sales. With it being hard for indie artists to make much money from streaming or record sales in recent years, this year touring also became a less reliable source of income, with bands such as Animal Collective cancelling whole tours because they knew they’d lose money. 2022 also saw a slew of albums written and recorded during the pandemic, with some lyrics betraying their lockdown inspiration. Ben Gibbard, for example, sang about missing strangers on Death Cab For Cutie’s return-to-form, Asphalt Meadows, a lyric likely written at a time when interacting with strangers could prove deadly.

Asphalt Meadows lands at #12 on Under the Radar’s Top 100 Albums of 2022 list. Prior to June 2021, we had never even heard of the band that made it to #1 on our list, so meteoric was their rise. The rest of the list is filled with some familiar faces to be sure, but some other debut albums are peppered throughout our Top 100. To arrive at such a list, 23 of our writers and editors (including myself and my co-publisher/wife Wendy Redfern) submitted ballots of their 45 favorite albums of 2022, listed in order of preference from first to last. They were submitted via a Google Sheets spreadsheet that helped tabulate the eventual list. An album had to be picked by at least three or four writers to make the list (19 of our writers had our #1 album on their list and it was the clear winner of the vote, getting 100 more points than our #2). Then we worked out the Top 94 albums and held a separate vote to determine which albums should round out the bottom six, with our writers deciding between 21 albums that could make the bottom of the list. Some albums that almost made the list include (in no particular order) ones by GIFT, Tomberlin, Crack Cloud, Broken Bells, Skullcrusher, Sam Prekop and John McEntire, Just Mustard, Florence + The Machine, Warpaint, Cheekface, The Weeknd, Maggie Rogers, Craig Finn, The Orielles, and My Idea. Consider those honorable mentions.

As the next year dawns, I’ve already heard some January to March albums that will surely make our Top 100 Albums of 2023 list. It’s already shaping up to be another great year for new music. But it’s been exhausting living through history, so can 2023 please just be a boring year?

Weyes Blood, Vagabon @ Gothic Theater, Denver, Colorado, March 17, 2023

Mar 28, 2023 By Mark Moody

Weyes Blood and Vagabon lit up Denver’s Gothic Theater the other weekend and Under the Radar were there to see it.

20% Off Subscriptions This Week as Under the Radar’s New Issue is Shipping Soon

Mar 23, 2023 By Mark Redfern

Under the Radar’s new print issue (Issue 71) is shipping out soon and to encourage readers to subscribe or resubscribe before it’s sent out, we are offering 20% off subscriptions this week.