Shearwater
The New World 
(Polyborus)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

SHEARWATER have been one of the most adventurous US indie rock outfits since forming in Austin, Texas in 1999.

Their frontman is Jonathan Meiburg, with his cerebral lyrics and singular voice.

Standing in opposition to the Spotification of music, The New World feels like an album that should be listened to from start to finish, its anxious grandiosity building within individual songs and across the set. Talk Talk are an obvious influence. Daydream Unbeliever employs ominous strings, while Anamnesia reminds me of the band Okkervil River, which makes sense – Meiburg used to be a member. The meandering spoken-word piece You and Your Dog closes the record, confirmation of how influential US singer-songwriter Cassandra Jenkins has become.

Seeming to engage with the polycrisis that is upon us, The New World deserves a bigger audience than it will no doubt get.

Florry
Smells Like… Florry Live as Hell 
(Dear Life)
⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

CURRENTLY only available on Bandcamp and cassette tape, Smells Like Florry Live as Hell is one of the best live albums I’ve heard in a long, long time.

There’s already a serious buzz around the Philadelphia six-piece, and this set of recordings from concerts in New Hampshire, Ohio, Chicago and Leeds, UK should mean the group’s rise becomes stratospheric.

Imagine Dinosaur Jr jamming with Crazy Horse and Lynyrd Skynyrd and you are getting close to the controlled chaos the young altcountry band produce on stage — eg First It Was a Movie, Then It Was a Book. Their secret weapon is frontwoman’s Francie Medosch’s seemingly all-over-the-place vocals, which somehow keep the train on the tracks even though many of the songs constantly sound on the verge of collapse.

Excuse the language but this rocks like a motherf****r.

Navy Blue
Sir Render 
(Freedom Sounds)
⭑⭑⭑☆☆

TWENTY-NINE-YEAR-OLD Sage Elsesser is something of a polymath, with Wikipedia listing some of his occupations as skateboarder, record producer, visual artist and model.

Working under the moniker Navy Blue, with Sir Render he has now released 10 albums of alternative hip-hop. Those who have media-driven preconceptions about the musical genre may be surprised: many of the tracks are what is termed drumless hip-hop, creating a hypnotic, chilled, arguably slightly cold atmosphere.

Overlaying this is the US rapper’s introspective philosophical musings, with guest spots from stars like Earl Sweatshirt and Armand Hammer. Interestingly, his cousin, the actor James Earl Jones, appears posthumously, acting as a kind of narrator across the set, speaking powerfully from the classic African-American novel Native Son by Richard Wright.

The album title pun points to a broad message of acceptance and inner peace.