Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who have recently upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what’s been in heavy rotation for me. This week kicks off an all-timer from San Fran’s Faith No More that sounds as good at 36 as it did on day one. We should all be so lucky! From there, we’re off to the Steel City for one from Ex-Pilots. They’ve got a new, limited-run release on the way, so keep an eye out for that! We’ve also got a cool take on an R.E.M. standby (a cover of a cover, if you will), and since it’s AOTY season, one from one of my top 10 of last year. We also head back to the Bay Area for a track I once eloquently described as an “absolute banger,” and a brand new one from Mountain Goats. The latest from Great Lakes (a 2025 AOTY short lister) rounds things out.
Side B: As some of you know, I was home in Oregon for a Ducks football game a couple of weeks ago. The team did a great tie-in with the Grateful Dead, and that sparked a re-listen of a few of their records for me, both on the way back and once I was home. From there. It’s a 1-2 punch from the Crutchfield sisters & MJ Lenderman—what our friend Matt Ziegler describes as a “sonic hydra”— before moving to Throwing Muses.
The home stretch is a mix of sonic comfort food and songs new enough to still have the window stickers on ‘em, featuring tracks from Smashing Pumpkins, Nightbus, and Of House.
The indie pop band stops by to talk about their latest record, what we should know about the Louisville scene, and what’s next.
Good morning!
We’re in for a treat today; Louisville’s Second Story Man stops by to talk about their latest record, how it came to be, and what’s coming next.
The pitch: A Louisville band forms in the late 90s, and over the course of the next few years, puts out several EPs and a long player. The next several years see another couple of LPs—and a comparison to Jawbreaker (!)—and more than a couple of lineup changes.
In a mark of incredible timing, the band started recording a new record in… 2020. COVID had other plans, and between that and real life, the record took five years to come to fruition. But all good things come to those who wait, and ‘Calico’ is proof positive.
With this record, we made a conscious effort to embrace simplicity, to not overthink, and to accept imperfections. The instruments were all recorded live with no punching in allowed.
~Carrie Neumayer
Having retroactively gone back through the band’s discography, I can say that this record is a delight. Any vestigial line to Jawbreaker has been erased, replaced by a (slightly) refined sound. The best groups evolve over time, and this is no exception. And it’s a sound that really can only come from the chemistry that comes from playing together for years. If you like punchy, well-built indie pop, Calico is for you. We’ve already seen a couple of tracks featured on the weekly playlists; now the entire record is available.
I recently had a chance to chat with the band via email. In our wide-ranging discussion, we talked about where the band has been and what’s coming next. Our chat has only been lightly edited for grammar and flow.
KA—
Congrats on the new record! For those that might not know, can you walk us through the backstory of how this project came together? Carrie: Thanks! We started writing these songs sometime around 2017/2018 and finally got into the studio to record them in March 2020 with our friend Anne Gauthier. Then the world shut down, and so did we! I ended up going back to school and made a career change, Jeremy became a father, Drew was raising a young child, we grieved some very significant losses, and we all just kind of focused on other aspects of our lives until last yea,r when we decided that the record was worthy of seeing the light of day. We are extremely grateful to our longtime friends at Noise Pollution Record,s who believed in it and offered to put it out.
A previous review described the band as “…a female fronted Jawbreaker, with angular-gang-vocals in the style of Sleater-Kinney and bittersweet noise a la Superchunk for good measure.” That’s a lot to unpack, but more than anything else: Is that an accurate take?
Carrie: I think most long-term relationships inherently have many deaths and rebirths. That’s certainly been true for Second Story Man. We’ve reinvented our sound many times, so I don’t think that description accurately captures our 27 years of creative partnership. We’ve always aimed to make something that is uniquely us. Also, Evan and I sing equally on this album, so “female-fronted” is only half true!
Photo courtesy of Noise Pollution Records
Doubling clicking on that, this is the first record in several years. How is Calico different from the earlier albums?
Carrie: I had a realization recently that before this record, I’d held onto a belief that if I wasn’t singing and playing guitar at the same time 100% of the time, then I wasn’t working hard enough. So silly! With this record, we made a conscious effort to embrace simplicity, to not overthink, and to accept imperfections. The instruments were all recorded live with no punching in allowed. In our past albums, we were much more maximalist (and neurotic!)
Louisville is a place a lot of people might not be familiar with. What should we know about the city? What’s the scene like there?
Carrie: All four of us were born and raised in Louisville. Our drummer Drew and I even went to first grade together! Louisville is not quite southern and not quite northern. It’s a small city/big town. It lives in the in-between. I think the Ohio River plays a big role in the collective unconscious and shows up a lot in the music that gets made here in ways that are difficult to put into words. The scene is both robust and fragmented— there are multiple scenes, many of which do not overlap. For example, the Black gospel music scene in Louisville is legendary. There’s a thriving intergenerational hardcore/punk scene that can draw like 800 people to some of its shows! Then there’s the ever-evolving indie/art rock scene that all of us grew up in. It has splintered out in a lot of directions over time but has always had a moody, dynamic, cerebral, psych/experimental sort of flavor (e.g. Slint, Rodan, Rachel’s, Shipping News, Evergreen, Parlour, Wombo, and a hundred others I could name here) or channeled that sensibility through more of a literary and folk/country lens (e.g. Will Oldham, Catherine Irwin, Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band, Grace Rogers, etc.) The older I get, the more deeply I appreciate what we’ve got here.
For anyone new to Second Story Man, what’s the one thing you hope they walk away with?
Evan: Our record!
What’s next for the band? What do the next 6-9 months look like?
Carrie: Our plan is to take things one day at a time. We all work full-time, and Jeremy and Drew are parents, so finding time to do things the way we did when we were in our 20s isn’t possible! It sure would be fun to try to get out of town and play some shows. We’ll see!
Last one, just for fun; I bump into you as you walk out of the record store. What records are you carrying?
Carrie: The most recent records by current artists that I’ve enjoyed have been Grace Rogers’ “Mad Dogs”, Michael Beach’s “Big Black Plume” Idle Ray’s “Even in the Spring”, and S.G. Goodman’s “Planting by the Signs”
Jeremy: Some recent favorites have been Ghost Woman’s S/T album, Wand’s “1000 Days”, and Richard Swift’s “Walt Wolfman”
Drew: I’ve been listening to Tangerine Dream’s “Thief” soundtrack, the “K Pop Demonhunters” soundtrack, and covers by The Middle Age Dad Jam Band.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
On to the music:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. And welcome to November. Hard to believe 2025 is already rounding third and heading for home, but here we are. Is it obvious that I’ve still got baseball on my brain? Trust your gut. Someday—in like, 10 years—I might be able to enjoy last night’s Game 7. Not yet, though. If you’re a Dodger fan, enjoy your time in the sun! You’ve earned it. To everyone else: spring’s comin’!
Anyway, like last week, this week’s listening cleaves closer to the fall weather than anything. Acapulco Lips are back to kick things off, followed by a 1–2 punch of fresh tracks from Joyer and The Convenience, before going back in time. Can you name-check the ’80s sitcom that referenced Scritti Politti in an episode and why it might (or how?) be relevant to the paragraph above?
Side B takes us to the Windy City and a new one from Ratboys. It’s a good day any time they gift us some new sounds! We’ve also got one from Cate Le Bon, thanks to Austin Kleon talking it up in a guest post for Jacqui Devaney . You never know where a new favorite might come from! This side also overindexes on sonic comfort food with The Fall, JAMC, and my all-time fave GBV track. They have a brand-new one out as well—because of course they do—but I haven’t had a chance to hear it yet.
There’s a common idea that “good” music—and the joy of discovering it—is a thing of the past. A relic from a bygone era that fits in with memes about drinking water from a garden hose. People like Dan Gorman prove that’s simply not true.
I first connected with Dan through the Rosy Overdrive community, and now we’re lucky to have his newsletter, The Discover Tab. If you’re someone who’s always chasing new sounds—and I’m guessing you are—it’ll check a lot of boxes for you. It’s a “never miss” for me.
Dan recently launched a series called Digging for Something, where fellow writers highlight underrated records that deserve more time in the spotlight. I was excited to be included, and I hope one of my picks becomes your next favorite.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week’s Side A kicks off with a new single from The Lemonheads. Yep, they’re back. Evan Dando’s got a new memoir out as well. That’s followed by Eleventh Dream Day—a band I missed their first time around, and Ride who luckily, I didn’t. Winged Wheel might be putting out some of the most interesting music these days; their “Sleep Training” was one of my most played tracks last year. The side’s rounded out with the latest from The New Romantics. Synthpop from Knoxville? Yes please!
Side B roars in with Sugar’s latest. I promise it really is 2025. Like Dando, Bob Mould is as good as ever, and this feels like the band hasn’t taken any time off at all. ‘Course when you have a blast furnace for a guitar, the rust probably comes off easy. Anyway, your neighbors will like it too. After that is some power pop from Crossword Smiles and then a 1-2 punch of faves from the Blake Babies and Paul Westerberg, before we wrap up with the latest from Winter and Billie Marten, who’s Dog Eared LP is on the AOTY leaderboard.
Today we’re talking about AI. Or rather the crossroads of AI and music with our pal Chris Dalla Riva.
You don’t have to go far to hear about AI today. There’s everything from wistful think pieces to spicy takes and everything in between. It’s an equal opportunity target. If you’re anything like me, you’ve read a million takes both for and against its use.
Consider this the millionth and one.
Most of us have a strong opinion one way or the other; we either think it’s great or hate it. I’ve yet to see anyone say they don’t much care. Those strong thoughts are particularly divided in the art world/creator economy, where consumers are being overrun with slop and artists/authors are rewarded by having their work stolen and used to “teach” machines or compose hours of mindless music to be piped into fluorescent-lit hallways and your local Anthropologie.
Before we get too far, I want to be clear: I’m all for what has been referred to as the Three C’s: Consent, Credit, and Compensation. Those are largely self-explanatory, but the short version is this: if a tech bro is gonna hoover up an original idea, they should at least be paying the person whose synapses sparked it. A little credit would go a long way, too.
What does that look like in practice? I don’t know yet, but it’s not whatever we have right now.
I also want to be clear that most of the discourse so far has been binary. A lot of bandwidth’s been used in either/or discussions when it should be more of a “yes, and” or “yes, but” dialogue. For example, should a person take a 2-line prompt, generate a 750-word article “in the style of Kevin Alexander,” and pass it off as their own? I think most reasonable people would say no. What about non-native English speakers who use Grammarly to clean up grammar errors in their own words/ideas? Is that okay? I personally think it’s in bounds.
Much of the pushback has been because it feels like we’re being taken advantage of. We want to believe the person whose work we’re reading or listening to actually hammered it out on a notepad, keyboard, or instrument. Modern life never misses a chance to take advantage of us (or sell us more shit), and this often feels like one more in a long line of slights.
But what if the builder is transparent? Does upfront disclosure change the calculus? I think it does, if only because a consumer can then make a more informed choice. Pivoting back to music, that was a huge driver in the pushback against The Velvet Sundown earlier this year. The sting of catching someone trying to pull a fast one on you doesn’t wash away easily. If a singer tells you they’re using AI to give voice to their own words—now what?
Enter
Chris Dalla Riva. Chris writes the fantastic Can’t Get Much Higher which sits at the intersection of objective data and how it relates to the almost purely subjective world of music. He’s also the author of the forthcoming book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves, a data-driven history of pop music and a multi-year project that started with him listening to every number one hit in history. Put another way, he knows his stuff. I’m reading an advance copy, and can confirm it would make a great early Christmas gift.
Long-time readers may also recall Chris and me working on a project where he used Python code to extract data points from my Spotify history. He then used those to paint a picture of what I look like as a user, and share what I was “really listening to.” It was fascinating to watch come together. It’s also a situation where I think one could make a use case for using AI. After all, isn’t sifting through large data sets the sort of thing we want AI doing?
At any rate, today Chris brings us two real-world examples worth consideration. The first is an artist using AI to “sing” lyrics she herself came up with. The second is a fantastic breakdown of how it can be used to remaster/rerelease songs long thought lost to time.
Neither of us makes a declarative statement or pretends to have the answers. In my opinion, Chris’s article reinforces that more than anything, we need to collectively decide what’s acceptable and what isn’t, rather than outsourcing that to companies that only see us as data points to extract ad revenue from.
And with that, I’ll get out of the way and let Chris take the wheel.
So, who is this rising star? I’m not sure. She doesn’t exist in the traditional sense.
Xania Monet is the first AI-generated artist to land a song on one of Billboard’s charts. Unlike other AI-generated artists in the news, nobody is claiming that Monet is a real person. “Xania Monet” is a project by Telisha Jones, says Billboard, a “Mississippi woman … who writes her own lyrics but uses the AI platform Suno to make them into music.”
Scrolling through the comments on Monet’s songs, you’ll notice that people connect with it. And most have no idea that this is not a traditional artist. As someone who works in the music business, writes songs, and spends most of his free time chronicling the music industry, I’m all for songs people can connect with. Music can have power independent of the technology used to create it. Still, I think there are some looming ethical issues with fully AI-generated artists.
First, is this music copyrightable? A recent report from the US Copyright Office noted that, according to existing law, “Copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material, or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements.” Furthermore, “Whether human contributions to AI-generated outputs are sufficient to constitute authorship must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.” Is setting human-written lyrics to AI-generated music enough human contribution to be copyrightable? It’s unclear.
Second, even if it is copyrightable, should the artists whose music was included in Suno’s training set receive royalties when Xania Monet is streamed? Given Anthropic’s recent settlement with book authors and pendinglawsuits against Suno and Udio, it seems that the underlying music will have to be licensed in some way.
But let’s assume all of the intellectual property debates get sorted out. (They will at some point.) Then, is there an ethical issue with generating music with AI in part or in full? In the abstract, I don’t think so. Generative AI is a new musical technology in the same way that pitch correction and drum machines were once new musical technologies. As I note in my book, new musical technology always faces backlash. Still, when you think about the specific consequences of music made like this, things become dicier.
The Ethical Issues of Generative AI Music
I know next to nothing about Telisha Jones, the person behind Xania Monet. But let’s imagine for a second that I created Xania Monet. For those that don’t know, I am a 30-year-old White guy. Xania Money is presented as a Black woman. I think most people would agree that a White guy using generative AI to make music as a Black woman would be a bad thing. But I don’t see any world where that doesn’t happen without some sort of regulation around the usage of this technology.
Furthermore, generative technologies allow music to be made at an inhuman rate. Since July, Xania Money has released 44 songs. It is certainly possible for a human to release that many songs in a matter of months (see Morgan Wallen). However, products like Suno make it easy for someone to generate thousands of songs quickly. Unless it was choked off at some point in the distribution process, there’s no way streaming services don’t become flooded entirely with musical slop.
Anytime I levy these criticisms about generative music, I am often met with some claim that companies like Suno are “democratizing creation.” I’ve never bought this claim. Though you could argue that music has been democratized since the rise of upright pianos and low-cost acoustic guitars, I think it’s safe to say that true democratization came in three parts over the last 25 years.
The proliferation of digital audio workstations, like Pro Tools and GarageBand, made recording at home incredibly cheap
The rise of digital distributors, like TuneCore and Distrokid, drove the marginal cost of distributing your music around the world close to zero
Mobile recording software, like BandLab, has made it possible to create musical masterpieces with nothing more than a phone
If I am such a downer on AI being used in the music industry in this way, then am I excited by any AI-based technologies? Of course. When I last wroteon this topic, I highlighted a few exciting tools. A year later, the most exciting use case remains stem separation.
On the Joys of Separation
One of the earliest known compositions of country legend Hank Williams is “I’m Not Coming Home Anymore,” a sad tale of lost love that sounds as complete as some of his more mature classics. The problem is that you can’t really hear it. Williams’ beautiful melody barely peaks through an avalanche of static. If only we could pull The Hillbilly Shakespeare’s voice out of that static.
Because of AI, we kind of can.
AI technologies have proven very adept at taking a mixed audio file and separating out all of the instruments. In the Hank Williams case, stem splitting technologies from LALAL.AI, Deezer, Serato, and a bunch of others could almost certainly get a clean cut of Williams’ vocal separated from the static and acoustic guitar.
We have already seen this technology used to great effect. In 2023, The Beatles released “Now and Then,” often noted as their “final song.” This was created from a low-quality home recording that John Lennon had made decades before. The Beatles’ team lifted a clean vocal from the recording using AI-powered technology. The living Beatles then completed Lennon’s demo.
This technology will become ubiquitous in the coming years. Not only will it allow us to preserve the past pristinely, but it will also make it easier than ever before for artists to remix, remaster, and reimagine other musical works.
As you can tell, I am much more excited by this musical technology than the technology that just allows us to generate songs for artists like Xania Monet. This new stem separation technology uses AI to solve a very hard problem. What Suno, Udio, and other generative products do is cool, but I don’t think it fundamentally alters the music-making process.
So what do you think? Are you all in, or are you on Team No F’in Way? In your view, are there acceptable carveouts? If so, what are they? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks again to Chris for his time, and thank you for being here.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions over the last several days. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week, we’re starting by heading back in time (and just a little bit south of here) to Rockford Illinois, for a dose of Cheap Trick. Are they Power Pop? Maybe. Do they rock? No doubt. From there we’ve got a deeper cut from JAMC, and a brand new one from
It’s Spooky Szn, so Side 2 kicks off with a trifecta of Fever Ray’s “Shiver,” Water From Your Eyes’ “Nights In Armor,” and something from LA Witch, before ending with fresh tracks from Massage, Joel Cusumano, and Petrov, the Hero.
Broken record alert: I know I’ve said it for several weeks now, but it’s true: 2025 might be is a hot mess, but not when it comes to new music.
Today we’re taking a quick look at the latest from Automatic, The Cords, and Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band.
Longtime readers may recall that I reviewed 100 new (to me) records last year. Because I’m a glutton for punishment love music, I’m doing it again this year. This is the latest in the series.
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at the latest from Automatic, The Cords, and Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band
The boilerplate intro: Every year, I celebrate all the great music we’ve been gifted while worrying that next year will see the other shoe drop. I first did that in December 2020 and have been proven wrong every month since. Not only are there a ton of releases steadily coming out, but it also transcends genre or any other artificial guardrail we try to put up.
In other words, a ton of good stuff is coming out, and there’s something for everyone. It’s almost overwhelming— but in all the best ways. Below are another trio that caught my attention recently.
Let’s get into it!
Automatic- Is It Now?
Cover art courtesy of Stones Throw Records
When we last heard from Los Angeles’ Automatic, they had us looking toward the stars. On this latest release, they’re looking at the world collapsing around them.
Is It Now? finds the trio deepening their sound while sharpening their focus. Formed nine years ago, the band has this time teamed with producer Loren Humphrey (Arctic Monkeys, et al.), who brings a lean precision to their already taut mix of minimalist grooves and pop-forward melodies.
When I wrote about Excess, I asked readers to “close your eyes and imagine Devo as a dance band—or a collaboration between the Go-Go’s and Wire—and you have Automatic.” That description still holds, but Is It Now? pushes further into darker territory. The group uses those perky, tightly wound rhythms as a vehicle to deliver commentary on automated warfare, mindless consumerism, and the political machinery of oil and power.
The grooves remain effortlessly cool, but the themes cut waaay deeper.
Of the single “Black Box,” Izzy Glaudini says, “The title ‘Black Box’ refers to the black box in a crashed plane. The repetitive synth is supposed to suggest a plane gliding as it crashes/ an alarm distress call. I was listening to the Leonard Cohen album The Future a lot around the time the lyrics were written. It’s a pretty straightforward critique of people that have sold out on a large scale, specifically within creative industries. Thierry Mugler said, “art used to tell money what to do, now money tells art what to do” and the world is a less interesting place because of it.”
Okay, then!
Elsewhere, the woozy synths on “Mercury” are fantastic—coming in and out of focus, staying just long enough for you to find their rhythm before disappearing again. Those fragmented textures leave you slightly off balance in the best way.
“Lazy” is a chilled-out groove that I played three times in a row, trying to place its reference point before landing on Altered Images. I’m curious to hear if you hear it, too. And I’ll tell you this: “Country Song” doesn’t refer to the genre.
Last time around, I said the band had a bass sound that felt like it “came from the same finishing school as Peter Hook.” I meant that as high praise, and I’ll happily repeat it here, doubly so on the title track. The song is the album’s centerpiece—icy, chaotic, and alive all at once. It sounds like Movement-era New Order at their most up-tempo, and it absolutely hits.
Is It Now? is a record that makes you think as much as it makes you move. The beats are irresistible, the message impossible to ignore. Unlike Excess, this isn’t about escapism—it’s about working your way through the current moment, heavy as it may be. Luckily, Automatic know how to turn reflection into rhythm.
Good morning! Need an antidote for the algorithms? Looking for a place to share the music you love with like-minded people? You’re in the right spot.
As always, thank you to those who upgraded their subscriptions this past week. Your direct support fuels this community and makes a positive impact. Shares and reposts also help! Thank you!
When you’re ready, joining them is easy. Just click here:
For those of you who are new, we kick off every week by sharing what we’ve been playing.
The playlist below is some of what I’ve had in heavy rotation. This week, we’re starting by heading to Portland (the best city on Earth, in my extremely biased opinion) for a taste of “America’s best Krautrock band.” From there, it’s off to Nashville and some very-much-not-country music from palm Ghosts. The first three wrap up with the latest from Coast City Bus.
Side 2 kicks off with a little bit from The Church’s Starfish album, a brand new one from This House is Creaking, and a 1-2 combo of Dummy and Immersion. From there we wind things out with a lesser known SY track, a gem from Pąșśìóň Pïț and a jolt of jangle pop from The Radio Dept.
Broken record alert: I know I’ve said it for several weeks now, but it’s true: 2025 might be is a hot mess, but not when it comes to new music.
The flood of great records continues! Today we’re taking a quick look at the latest from Immersion and Kathleen Edwards.
Longtime readers may recall that I reviewed 100 new (to me) records last year. Because I’m a glutton for punishment love music, I’m doing it again this year. This is the latest in the series.
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at Immersion’s WTF?? and Kathleen Edward’s Billionaire.
The boilerplate intro:
Every year, I celebrate all the great music we’ve been gifted while worrying that next year will see the other shoe drop. I first did that in December 2020 and have been proven wrong every month since. Not only are there a ton of releases steadily coming out, but it also transcends genre or any other artificial guardrail we try and put up—
In other words, a ton of good stuff is coming out, and there’s something for everyone. It’s almost overwhelming— but in all the best ways. Below are another pair that caught my attention recently.
Let’s get into it!
Immersion- WTF??
Cover art courtesy of Swim
Not too long after I got my driver’s license, my mom signed me up for something called a “skid car” course. For those who don’t know, this is a course where they take a normal car—I’m pretty sure it was something like a Nissan Maxima—and surround it with a sort of superstructure. You drive a circuit the same way you would on any surface street, but the instructor is able to manipulate the handling of the car—for example, taking away control of the front or rear wheels (and later on, both). The idea is to teach you how to navigate the unexpected and literally steer through it. They also taught you how to take curves at high speed (this was held at a race track, after all), but that’s a story for another day.
So you’re driving along, and things are going the way you’d expect them to; your inputs cause the usual reactions. Then the instructor goes to work, and everything starts to feel surreal. You’re operating the car the way you know how to, but everything’s just a little off—the car takes longer to respond to your inputs, or doesn’t at all. On the surface, things are business as usual, but it’s very clearly not.
I’ve been thinking about that class a lot lately as we navigate these “unprecedented times” (sorry not sorry). On one level, life is normal—I go to work, I play with Gizmo, I spin records, etc. At the same time, things are very much not normal. As I type this, my hometown is prepping for an onslaught of federal troops. The economy’s about to fully go off the tracks, and all the things we’ve relied on to keep us on the pavement are being demolished. It’s almost as if America is in one big skid car.
Immersion is one of those projects that slips under the radar until you realize the pedigree involved: Wire’s Colin Newman and his partner Malka Spigel of Minimal Compact. WTF?? marks their fourth full-length and first since 2016’s Analogue Creatures Living on an Island. This time they’ve pulled Matt Schulz in along for the ride. So what’s it sound like? The easy answer would be something like electronic rock (or, if we’re going with Wire, something from more recent years), but that’s reductive at best. It’s a little of both, and it defies easy boxing.
The record kicks off with Defiance, an instrumental that gets things off to a strong start with uptempo beats but refuses to plant its flag in either camp: not synth, not pop, not really anything but itself. Immersion—and Wire before them—thrive in these in-between zones, especially when they let the music do the talking. I tried to categorize their last record, Nanocluster Vol. 4, and failed spectacularly. I know better this time around. It’s A Long Way to Brooklyn is a highlight, a track that doesn’t need words. But the whole thing opens up when they do. Spigel’s voice on Timeline is cool and almost detached, and Newman sidles in with a wry spoken-word counterpoint. Elsewhere, like onUse It Don’t Lose It, his trademark deadpan delivery turns a good track into a great one.
If this all sounds heavy, it is—and it isn’t. At least no more so than something like Talking Heads’ Life During Wartime was back in the day. David Byrne was singing about NYC’s Alphabet City, and Immersion is speaking on a much larger scale. Nevertheless.
WTF?? is an album about the constant low-grade anxiety of modern life, and an era where current events have you saying “what the fuck?” several times before lunch.
Things are bad, but we can still have nice things. Things like this record. The grooves are brisk when they need to be and pared back when called for. The production somehow manages to feel both retro (the analog textures are a nod to history) and way, way ahead of the curve. I’m biased, but most Wire records still sound like they’re from the future. This one sounds like the right record for the right time.
Writing about Geese, Steven Hyden recently noted that “Music critics like to do this thing where they point to an album or a song and declare, ‘This music captures how it feels to live in America right now.’ And, often, I make fun of this. And you probably do, too. It just sounds so foolish and pompous. Because it’s almost never literally true.”
Fair point, but if I may, I’d like to make a motion to exempt WTF??. It’s sharp, a little angsty, and a little bewildered. In other words, it’s a record that—at least to me—captures exactly what it’s like right now.
It didn’t take me long to get why people are so excited about this record. In fact, it took about 30 seconds of the opener “Save Your Soul.” I found myself nodding and saying, “Okay, then.” The line “Line your pockets with gold… Who’s gonna save your soul/When your money’s no good.” feels like a question a LOT of people should be asking themselves in 2025. And just in case Jason Isbell doesn’t already have enough fans here in the community, the solo on this track rips.
That was followed up with “Say Goodbye, Tell No One,” one of those rare tracks whose gorgeous sound is a thin cover for caustic lyrics. It’s incredible. I can almost guarantee someone’s going to use this to get through a bad breakup. They could do worse.
Edwards is a Canadian singer-songwriter who’s spent a lot of time away from the music business. Part of that self-imposed exile away from the grind (heh) was spent running the perfectly titled Quitters Coffee. She returned to the music scene in 2020 with Total Freedom, made a covers record earlier this year, and is in fine form here.
If there’s a weak link, it’s “Need a Ride.” Clocking in at six and a half minutes, it’s about three and a half too long, and frankly, it feels like a drag on the system. Fair play to Edwards here, though- the lyrics are (again) on point. She’s saying what a lot of people are thinking. “FLA” is an ode to the Sunshine State, shouting everything from Gainesville to Tom Petty to Pelicans. It’s one of the highlights on the record for me.
Towards the end, Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer stop by to add some vocals. It’s a nice touch on a record already overflowing with talent.
I’m many things, but an expert on Americana isn’t one of them—and maybe that’s the best part of Billionaire; you don’t have to be to get swept away by this record.
Kevin Sent 
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