Four Out of Five Critics Agree, It’s Must Hear
Odetta vibes, Busta Rhymes after a hit of DMT, the wonder in the unknown, a quasi-reunion of anxious rockers, and more
Welcome to the latest installment of Five Albums, the weekly feature for paid Hearing Things subscribers in which we recommend a handful of new records that you need to hear. As music journalists, the question we get most often from friends is how to stay on top of what’s new and cool. This is our attempt to provide a practical answer.
Do you remember those toothpaste commercials that were like “four out of five dentists agree”? Weren’t you always curious about the one dissenting dentist? No, just me? Well, the headline here could lead you to believe we’ve got a dissenting critic among us, who can’t get down with an album the rest of us adore, but we’ve got something better than a hater: four critics sounding the Must Hear alarm for their picks, each declaring I LOVE THIS. These albums run the gamut from grungy indie rock for anxious girlies and art-folk channeling Astral Weeks / early St. Vincent, to Cowboy Carter if it were made by a working-class queer socialist and a Giving Tree-inspired LP featuring some of most heartfelt and hilarious rapping you’ll hear all year. Oh yeah, and there’s minimalist chamber music presented as if it’s giddy psychedelic rock—not technically Must Hear, but would we ever steer you wrong?
