Those familiar with this Queens/Brooklyn post-punk trio’s 2018 debut No Banter will instantly notice the tenfold upgrade in their attack’s tightness, speed, and muscle on this sophomore effort.

Attention: Keyboard genius at work.

In part inspired by the dissolution of a romantic relationship, Heartbreaker Please finds the British native/American resident presenting a set of songs equally inspired by real life and artistic co-option of same.

Montreal’s Bloodshot Bill returns with second album for Goner Records.

Along with RBM, Johanna’s House of Glamour, and Neurotic Cage, Underwater Kites is another of Boston-based experimentalist Bruce MacLeod’s guises, with one prior LP and six EPs going back to 1999.

Duncan Reid and the Big Heads return with a new album Don’t Blame Yourself, it is a good time album that blends power pop and punk

Along with gruff, Glenn Danzig/Dave Vanian-evoking bellower Evil Heim, and anchored by formidable 65’s guitarist/bassist Joe Pugsley and Ryan Struck (who play bass and drums here), it’s no surprise this New Jersey horror-punk quintet sound like a Misfits and Damned lovechild.

Fans of this three-year-old Chapel Hill, NC quartet’s 2018 debut mini-album Giant will immediately notice the silkier, more incandescent stylistic shift on this follow-up four-song EP’s first two tracks.

The third album from Los Angeles based Beauty In Chaos is their finest outing, The Storm Before The Calm is the inevitable slice of brilliance fans have been waiting for.

The second LP by Pittsburgh’s Full Counts – formed by 1990-94 Gumball bassist/singer Eric Vermillion and Cynics drummer Mike Quinlan, who were both also in FOOD – is even better than their otherwise superb 2017 debut, First Out.

As he did on his 2019 debut LP Couch, Seattle’s one-man EDM virtuoso Paul Furio rotates between Depeche Mode/OMD/New Order synth-pop/new wave and tougher, Front 242/Nitzer Ebb techno/industrial on this follow-up five-songer.

Kevin Burke looks at two key releases from Big Stir Records, both of which donate funds to the Sweet Relief’s Musician Assistance Fund

Singer and songwriter Mark Lanegan has, in his long career, moved through psychedelic grunge, gothic folk rock, stark balladry and electronica-infused alternative rock. Given his eclecticism, noting that Straight Songs of Sorrow is different than anything else he’s ever done is really saying something.

Mississippi’s Tyler Keith is back with a solo album on the Memphis label Black & Wyatt.

No Good to Anyone doesn’t make anything easy for anyone venturing into its realm, but it’s also an album suffused with hope.

Pianist Lara Driscoll reveals a magic touch on Woven Dreams, her first album as a leader.

With one hoof in the heavier end of the stoner rock pool a la Electric Wizard, and the other in the realm of postpunk headbangers like Killing Joke, the Newcastle upon Tyne outfit channels aggression into a tight-fisted series of disciplined explosions that are more punch than splatter.

Having backed Slim Dunlap, and opened for Tommy Stinson, it’s no wonder High on Stress evoke the rootsier side of hometown legends The Replacements; frontman Nick Leet’s emphatic, twangy drawl even conjures Paul Westerberg.

This three-songer blasts even harder than their 2017 “Wolves and Men” 7”, enhanced by the addition of second guitarist Ed Roessler to an already intimidating lineup of Joe Pugsley, Ryan Struck, and John Steele.

While the line between classical music and jazz seems to look more and more faded as the decades go by, Impressions of Debussy is still an unusual project.

On May 15th comes the debut long-player Woke Up In Hollywood by the UK’s It’s Karma It’s Cool. A stylish, and enjoyable piece of work.

Les Easterby’s latest writings from a once-shut-out heart are perfect sympathies for the physically shut-in masses.

German based Vlimmer release their latest Ep Pulmo. A recording of dark musings in a nightmare landscape

Brandi Ediss releases the unique Bees And Bees And Bees, a sultry, soulful, and jazz-inspired work of brilliance

The Piano Equation lives up to its name, not only as a great example of a modern solo piano record, but as a distillation of ideas from one of the instrument’s foremost contemporary architects.

A well-traveled Texas troubadour offers reassurance in tough times.

Combining highlife guitar lines with a swinging rhythm section playing in a difficult time signature, Lionel Loueke’s “Têkê” functions almost as the bible by which the group will adhere.

Oranssi Pazuzu is a Finnish quintet of blackened metallurgists who’ve little interest in blast beats, lo-fi shred, Satanism, corpse paint, or any of the other trappings of their chosen genre.

SPYGENIUS release the new single “Spite” on April 24, all proceeds will be donated to the Matthew Seligman Tribute Fund

Australian quartet RVG proved themselves expert practitioners of explosive, melodic rock & roll on their remarkable debut A Quality of Mercy in 2017. Three years later, Feral picks up exactly where its predecessor left off.

On Complications, the band’s third album, E explores the nooks and crannies of high volume guitar rock, rarely reducing themselves to mere butt-kicking.

Leeds trio back with Love, Blood & Monsters on Trash Wax

The New Fools sophomore release Mershmellow, offers nostalgia through a number of enjoyable stylistic changes.

If the music wasn’t so clearly sun-baked, we might think this was a long-lost artifact from the Germanic seventies.

A supergroup of sorts, Human Impact consists of Spencer, bassist Chris Pravdica (Swans), drummer Phil Puleo (also Swans, as well as Cop Shoot Cop) and electronicist Jim Coleman (Cop Shoot Cop).

Christina Schneider takes a journey to the center of the mind.

On April 28th, Cherie Currie releases her solo album Blvds of Splendor on streaming platforms, including an updated rendition of “Queens Of Noise”

Konrad Wert, a.k.a. Possessed By Paul James, returns with his first album in seven years,

Musician Iwan Gronow completes a hat trick of excellence with his latest single “Highest Symbol”

A brash Chicago quartet turns modern anxiety into snappy entertainment.

Joined by two drummers and two electric guitarists, Cohen draws from rock, pop, funk, electronica and ambient music for a blend that casts a net outside jazz while remaining firmly inside its value set – like a trip-hop take on seventies fusion.

The three-piece Castle Ruins are certainly not going to set the world on fire with musical evolution, rather their latest EP, You’re the Curse, is of the post-hardcore, late-period grunge style and that works well for me.

Portland’s Sellwoods offer dynamite instrumentals, more on new Chaputa 10”.

“This 69-song edition showcases artists from 10 different countries, doing just about every sub-genre of pop music, including power pop, pop/rock, folk/pop, psychedelic pop, garage, indie-rock, and so forth.”

The Well Wishers along with Big Stir Records stand up to the mark, and raise money for the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.

the black watch return with Brilliant Failures, an album which is anything but what the title suggests

Gigaton by Pearl Jam is a politically inspired, personally driven piece of mature, middle-aged grunge and it sways and erupts with a needed hopefulness

Katie Crutchfield delivers emotional shock therapy with devastating efficiency.

Trans-Atlantic supergroup Professor And The Madman drop the title track “Séance” from their upcoming album, summoning up the old school sounds of our youth