Featured Crucial Releases for September 27

Big news! A new home for Crucial Tracks on Ghost and a great new album by Merce Lemon.

Featured Crucial Releases (Aug 30 thru Sep 20)

Another bulk load of good albums for you to check out. Almost a whole month’s worth, actually. I now realize the reason why I get off track – when there’s a week I don’t hear anything I love, I immediately get off routine of writing these posts. Not

Featured Crucial Releases (Aug 23)

What a super week for new music. Two top tier options in my mind (currently in my top 10 for the year), with four honorable mentions and probably a couple more that could have made it with some more focused listening time. YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING by Spirit

Featured Crucial Releases from Aug 16

Look at me! Working on a post ON release day and not two weeks later. 😄 A bunch of very good releases this week, so let’s’ dig in to the stuff we care about! Triple Seven by Wishy (Listen) Wishy is a shoegaze-adjacent band and this is their debut full

Featured Crucial Releases (Aug 2 + Aug 9)

Two weeks, two different themes! The first new music Friday of August saw an R&B/hip hop focus, while the second Friday was all about indie rock. I liked two releases from each week and each release offers something different for listeners. Let’s dig into each set

Featured Crucial Releases (Jun28 - Jul26)

The last few new weeks have been a blur. On the music front, it started out with a couple slow weeks and not much caught my ear… then the next two weeks were really solid. Then another dud to end the month. So let me dig in to each week

Featured Crucial Releases (June 21 edition)

There weren’t too many releases that caught my ear this week, but one in particular is a top 10 contender (as of now) and that one is Scream from New York, NY by Been Stellar (Listen). Been Stellar combines the sounds of early Radiohead, Catherine Wheel, Ride, Swervedriver, Iceage,

Featured Crucial Releases (June 14 edition)

Last week had a handful of releases I enjoyed. At first listen I didn’t think any one of them would qualify for a featured release, but I gave two a second listen and I’m glad I did. These two records are well worth your listening investment, not to

Featured Crucial Releases (June 7 edition)

Back at it with our first release Friday of June and I’m going to push to get posts out every week (maybe every other week), as doing a full month look back is a pain – so much music comes out it’s hard to pare it down to a

Featured Crucial Releases (May edition)

May flew by in a blink of an eye. On the music front, there wasn’t much that really stood out to me, though there are a handful of new releases that had some really solid moments. So with that said, I will give a brief blurb about each… May

Featured Crucial Releases (Apr 26 edition)

A pretty darn good week of music, considering the only record that was a must listen to start was St. Vincent’s All Born Screaming. I am glad I investigated other new releases, as I added two of them to my end of year consideration list, as well as two

Featured Crucial Releases (Apr 19 edition)

A certain massive pop star released a double album (quick listen: meh) this week, so I’d guess most mainstream artists avoided this week if they were able. The exception turned out to be Pearl Jam (quick listen: a pretty decent record!), though they too have a pretty avid fan

Best of 2024

Featured Crucial Releases (Apr 5 + Apr 12 edition)

Another two week edition for you. The kids were off for spring break last week, then it was eclipse day and travel hockey tryouts this week, so there was not enough time to finish this post before the next release day rolled around…however, I was able to listen to

Best of 2024

Featured Crucial Releases (Mar 29 edition)

Everyone is talking about it, so you can probably guess my choice for this week… Cowboy Carter by Beyonce (Listen). I’m not going to spend much time writing commentary, because it’s not necessarily my place nor expertise, but I will let the music speak for itself. And before

Best of 2024

Featured Crucial Releases (March 8 + March 15 + March 22 edition)

So. Where did all the time go? March has flown by and each week’s post only made it as far as draft status, so I am combining all three weeks into a March super post. Here we go… From March 15th: Deep Sage by Gouge Away (Listen) One of

Best of 2024

Featured Crucial Releases (Feb 23 and Mar 1 edition)

My favorite release from the past two weeks is by far I Got Heaven by Mannequin Pussy (Listen), which was released this past Friday. It is probably my favorite record released this year so far, it’s that good. The record oscillates between the sweet sonic melodies of 90s alternative

Featured

Crucial Tracks 004: Vic Lazar

We’re back with another Crucial Tracks feature – this time it’s talented musician Vic Lazar, who we met during college at the University at Buffalo. Vic played in the the legendary Buffalo hardcore band Union, as well as fronted many of his own indie leaning bands, including Grey In-between,

Best of 2024

Featured Crucial Releases (Feb 9 + 16 edition)

Busy, busy! I did not expect February to go like it has (so far), as all of my free time has been taken up with the travel hockey season winding down and my daughter’s high school hockey team going all the way to the state championship finals! Then Chris

Best of 2024

Featured Crucial Release (Feb 2 edition)

This week was a little light in terms of albums that immediately caught my attention, but Liquid Mike’s Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot (Listen) definitely won me over as the favorite. The album hits you hard with power pop earworms – 13 of them in just 26 minutes. It’s fast,

Best of 2024

Featured Release (Jan 26 edition)

Now we are talking! I added thirteen albums to my library to check out on this release day. I’m mostly through them all and while there wasn’t one release that absolutely blew me away, there were a lot of good releases this week. Let’s dig in! My

Best of 2024

Featured Release (Jan 19 edition)

New releases are starting to ramp up as we move away from the holiday season. This week had notably more new releases than last week and I see a lot of good artists on the horizon for the coming weeks. Looking at this week, though, I do have one standout

Featured

Crucial Tracks 003: Rachel Shelton

Buckle your seatbelts folks, the show is about to get really good. If you’ve been on the journey so far, we’ve covered the Crucial Tracks for both Chris and I, as well as some administrivia and end-of-year music picks. Standard fare…but NOW it’s time to dig

Best of 2024

Featured Release (Jan 12 edition)

Another typical January release day, however things are picking up a little bit as there were more new albums this week than last. There were two albums I enjoyed this week, one being Big Sigh by Marika Hackman (Listen) and the other being Penalty of Leadership by Boldy James &

Best of 2023

My Top Albums from 2023

I have to be honest: I had a different experience of the 2023 musical landscape than Jay – it was hard for me to find any anything to really settle into, anything that moved me, or anything that shocked me in a way that was wholly new. Some years are like