Check out some of the top tracks of the week hand-selected by WRBB's General Manager Billy!

Avant-Folk and Art Pop artist Clarissa Connelly announced her new album, and first for Warp Records, 

last week, and along with it came this new single.The track starts subtly, with Connelly’s baroque-influenced vocals flowing along with a guitar motif and a bell chiming. As the song builds, the bell becomes louder, signifying some sort of impending doom that eventually reveals itself. Squealing guitars and Connelly’s screeching vocals at the climax grow into a moment of cathartic release. Along with November’s Wee Rosebud, 

 is nothing if not a reason to keep an eye out for more from Clarissa Connelly.

Fun fact about Chattanooga, TN hip-hop artist BbyMutha: She is in fact a mother, a mother of 4 children! As a result, she has no time for your BS, which comes across clearly in her music and in her new single for her album 

, which is out in April on True Panther. BbyMutha’s hard-hitting southern hip-hop bars bounce one after the other over a stellar trap beat from producer Rock Floyd. Stand-out lines include “Meet me at the church, pistol to my head I just might leave her in a hearse,” and “I can’t allow you to step on my heart, not when I bought the shoes.”

New York City electronic punk band Lip Critic create pumping and danceable tunes for a modern age of punk fans. Cynical and aggressive lyrics about dying for your sins are driven by heavy synth lines and pounding drums on their new single 

 The song makes you want to dance and jump around, then even start moshing when the chorus comes in. Some synth and dance-infused punk band comparisons would be fellow NYC band Model/Actriz, Hattiesburg, and MS band MSPAINT. 

 along with the previously released singles 

 (both of which go just as hard), will be featured on the band’s debut album Hex Dealer, which is out May 17th on Partisan Records.

With her first new music in 5 years, Jessica Pratt returned with a psychedelic and ethereal singer-songwriter banger last week. 

kicks off with a marching drum beat that keeps a steady pace through the track. Pratt enters with her distinctive nostalgic vocals, singing of insecurity around the trajectory of her life. As the song progresses, Pratt finds comfort in the unknowing and the passage of time, all while her life marches on just like the drumbeat. The song closes with a chant of “time is time and time and time again,” as the drums fade out. Pratt’s new album 

English Post-Rock/Art Rock band Maruja exploded onto the scene last year with their critically acclaimed EP 

 and they finished up the year with two more new singles. Their first new music of 2024 might just be their greatest effort yet, as the 6-minute epic 

 is filled with what makes the band so great. Dramatic and crushing melodies pave the way for poetic lyrics about a man suffering from trauma and depression. Band member Joe Carrol’s alto saxophone, something that makes Maruja stand out among their contemporaries, sounds as on point as ever, especially during an especially emotional sequence in the beginning over the course of a gradual crescendo and tempo increase. The rest of the band slowly joins in until a dramatic and cathartic release in which vocalist Harry Wilkinson repeats “The truth! It hides!” over and over. Maruja’s sect of technical and apocalyptic rock never fails to impress, and if the band’s output for the rest of the year is anything like this, they are definitely a band to look out for.

WRBB Selects #1

MGMT always seem to find a way to stay relevant, for better or for worse. Their 2008 hit song “Time to Pretend” has re-entered the public sphere after it was featured in last year’s blockbuster film “Saltburn.” In 2020 their song “Little Dark Age” started trending on TikTok among members of the Alt-Right. Now the psychedelic pop and indietronica duo of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser have returned with their fifth studio album and first for independent label Mom + Pop Music, titled Loss of Life.

On Loss of Life, MGMT diverges from the synthpop and psychedelically gothic sound of their 2018 record, Little Dark Age. Instead, they attempt to fuse the nostalgia of late aughts indie pop, the style from where they first gained an audience, with more modern progressive pop sensibilities. The first single and second track on the album, “Mother Nature,” does this best. Basic song structure, lush drums and guitars, peaceful vocals, and a catchy hook make for a radio-ready song, and one I believe to be the best out of the bunch. Unfortunately, the duo sputters out from there, with the majority of the songs slogging on far longer than their runtime warrants. “People In The Streets” is particularly offensive in this regard, clocking in at over five and a half minutes with multiple instrumental breaks that do nothing but lull one to sleep. “I Wish I Was Joking” is another half-baked attempt at a catchy tune. VanWyngarden tries to sing of the lull of daily life, but he doesn’t even seem to care about his subject matter, as his sleepy vocals demonstrate.	

MGMT struggled when they tried to switch up their sound as well. The band is joined by French alt-pop artist Christine and the Queens for a pastiche of 80’s sophisti-pop in “Dancing in Babylon.” The ballad is earnest, but the lyrics come off as kitschy when paired with an irritatingly dull piano. Chris of Christine and the Queens sounds nice on his own, but he is unfortunately paired in duet with VanWyngarden’s worst vocal performance of the record, one in which he sounds remarkably similar to Ed Sheeran. The song also vastly overstays its welcome; just when you think it’s over it jumps right back into the unmoving chorus.

The album isn’t all for not though, as the longest song on Loss of Life, “Nothing Changes,” is actually a beautifully arranged, multi-phased cut from the middle of the album. Well-timed backing vocals and a driving bass line create a beautiful atmosphere of reflection and acceptance of the present. An ethereal horn part appears in the middle of the track as well, one that almost sounds like it was taken from a lounge piece. When VanWyngarden’s vocals come back in he is accompanied by the horns and creates the most exciting and triumphant moment on the record. As good as “Nothing Changes” is, it gets lost in the track list and would have made much more sense as an endpiece. The following songs, “Phradie’s Song” (an especially boring song), the aforementioned “I Wish I was Joking,” and the title track closer all fail to live up to “Nothing Changes.”

MGMT is at their peak when they are catchy, energetic, and larger-than-life. The duo largely fails to do any of that on Loss of Life, and instead sound as lethargic and bored as ever. On the title track closer VanWyngarden sings of death and the difficulty in accepting an end, but by the sound of the track and album as a whole, MGMT accepted an end to their artistry before recording even started.

Billy Hessler