With Y2K-nostalgia in full swing, it was only a matter of time before somebody seized on the aesthetics of the turn-of-the-century internet-obsessed. That band is newcomers Magdalena Bay. They teased their debut, Mercurial World, with a host of retro websites, music videos, and surreal and hilarious Tik Toks, adding to their ranks of terminally online pop fans through copious amounts of fish-eye lenses and neon colors.

Part of Merge’s reissue series for the seminal and influential New Zealand group The Clean, this came out on the same day as the long-awaited reissue of their 1981 debut 7-inch, the New Zealand Top 20 hit “Tally Ho.” By later in 1981, they had already completed and released the oddly-titled Boodle Boodle Boodle 12-inch EP, five songs of jangly indie-pop far more advanced than the comparatively primitive rush of “Tally Ho.”

Merge has been slowly but surely reissuing the back catalog of Dunedin, New Zealand’s incredible The Clean since the 2003 release of the two-CD Anthology compilation introduced American indie rockers to the weird, wonderful world of the brothers David and Hamish Kilgour (on vocals/guitar and drums, respectively) and bassist Robert Scott, who would later go on to start The Bats, another crucial and important Flying Nun band.

The collective skills of bassist Stephan Crump, pianist Kris Davis, and drummer Eric McPherson ensure that Borderlands Trio’s sophomore release is rich in both firm authoritativeness and freewheeling creativity, each note falling into place with a precision that feels simultaneously intricate and intrinsic to their collaborative process.

At the twilight of the pandemic—when live music was a memory as distant as the time you made a wish with a lucky Denver mint—Jimmy Eat World revisited three albums from their back catalogue for an exclusive concert film series. Recorded in the cavernous Icehouse art space in downtown Phoenix, the Phoenix Sessions have now hit streaming services as a Christmas present to fans.

Tim’s Twitter Listening Party was one of the few bright parts of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when the world was in full lockdown in early to mid 2020. Tim Burgess, frontman for the Madchester/Britpop band The Charlatans, came up with the simple idea—having musicians live tweet while fans collectively all listen to one of their albums at a preset time—after seeing actor Riz Ahmed spontaneously tweet along in 2011 to his film Four Lions.

The relief in Dave Gahan’s voice when he is working with Soulsavers is palpable. Without the weight of his formidable primary band, Depeche Mode, Gahan stretches to a much more vulnerable place with his vocals. And when he’s singing words penned by artists entirely unrelated to him, as he does on their latest album, Imposter, that freedom takes on a whole other level of release.

Twitter is the new back pages of the defunct Melody Maker and no-longer-in-print New Musical Express, where many a British group were formed through the musician-looking-for-other-musicians classifieds. Twitter is where Joe Goddard of Hot Chip found the golden-throated Amy Douglas, who is channeling the wonderful tones of Alison Moyet in the two’s debut album, the eponymously titled HARD FEELINGS.

The Doors’ sixth and final studio album with frontman Jim Morrison (excluding the posthumously-released An American Prayer), 1971’s L.A. Woman saw the group headed in a fresh direction, delving deeper into the blues than they had on previous releases, which worked well for them. Despite such creative success, the notorious Los Angeles foursome, who less than five years prior had emerged on the scene to deliver an ominous soundtrack to the escalating Vietnam conflict and increasingly pessimistic counterculture, had since begun melting down from within.