#CurrentSpins – #MaryTimony – Untame the Tiger (2024). #IndieRock guitarist/ singer-songwriter Timony hasn't cut a solo album in 19 years, remaining active in a gaggle of groups, including Ex Hex. Here, Timony shows herself as one of the best-kept secrets in rock.
The album combines power pop with sparse acoustic material, lyrically touching on grief (both her parents died during the making of the album) without sounding aggrieved. Ex-Fairport Convention Dave Mattacks drums on several tracks.
#CurrentSpins - #TheLemonTwigs – A Dream is All We Know (2024). Long Island multi-instrumentalist brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario play an almost perfect facsimile of Beatles and Beach Boys-styled pop rock. This, their fifth album, refines these gestures with solid songwriting that often lives up to the brothers' inspirations. For those who miss Jellyfish or the Raspberries, The Lemon Twigs deliver uncomplicated confectionary for the ears. Sean Ono Lennon guests on one track.
#CurrentSpins - #NeilYoung & Crazy Horse - Fuckin' Up (2024). Young's latest revision of the past is Fuckin' Up, an interpretation of nine of the ten songs from his and Crazy Horse's 1991 album Ragged Glory. Recorded live at Toronto's Rivoli Club in November 2023, the album finds Neil and company in fine, rambunctious form – gleefully powering through amiably sloppy renditions of the old songs.
#PickOfTheWeek - #SleaterKinney – Little Rope (2024). Completed in the wake of personal tragedy (Carrie Brownstein's mother and step-father passed in 2022), SK's latest sounds less aggrieved than determined to forge onwards in a complex world. "Hell" sounds its bells at the start, before "Say it Like You Mean It" and "Hunt You Down" meld SK's bristling indie rock with new wave textures. "Untidy Creature" is one of those tunes I'll play on repeat, feet planted by the stereo.