Typical of me to wait until the last day of June to finally put the finishing touches on my album roundup for May. It’s been a busy few months over here at IMTL HQ. I decided to sign up and train for a running a marathon this fall. Prepping and planning and making sure I’m doing everything smartly this time is more taxing than I remember.
Earlier in May I got to see my favorite artist of last year, Gelli Haha, perform both in Boston and in NYC at a very packed Bowery Ballroom. It was a blast to witness Gelli and the band as they played their debut album, Switcheroo in full. If you haven’t checked the album out, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
In addition to seeing Gelli Haha, I found my way in a glorified basement as I checked out Lip Critic, a band featured is this very same post you’re reading right now. It’s been a minute since I left a show soaked in sweat and in immediate relief with the help of the stagnant city air outside the venue.
Daði Freyr – Too Much Not Enough
The music video for “I’m Out and I Wanna Go Home” was recommended to me as I was doing my routine YouTube watching instead of doing other things. I was intrigued by the thumbnail as all I saw was a disembodied head on a patio. So I went with the clicking and was delightfully entertained by the stickiest sweet pop that delivered a message near and dear to my introverted/extrovert heart. Every time I go out I want to go home, because I hate when I make plans when I’m in a good mood. So I knew nothing about Daði Freyr before this YouTube recommendation as was happy to learn that the song was a single off his latest album that came out in May. Too Much Not Enough is chockfull of poppy goodness and pristine production. Album openers “I Don’t Wanna Talk” and “Me and You” set the standard of a fun listen. “Hot Damn” features a quick lyrical nod to the Prodigy that make me smile like a goober. Even the slower, down-tempo tracks help showcase Freyr’s voice and it really makes me feeling lucky that this is just the beginning of an amazing discography.
Ecca Vandal – LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW
[website // bandcamp // instagram]
Ecca Vandal had been grabbing my attention for the last couple years with catchy and punishing singles like “Molly” and “Bleed But Never Die”. It’s great that these songs were included in this official release. There’s an addictive nature to Vandal where her vocals grab your attention and there a magnetic presence in all her music videos. There’s a quality in her growling delivery that reminds me of Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust and I could imagine Ecca Vandal fitting right in with the music of that time. But thankfully it isn’t 1999 and this is a breath of fresh air, even if it is screaming at you inches away from your face right before pulling you in for a headlock. Nearly every track is anthemic in nature and it stresses not only individuality, but setting (and sticking to) boundaries that eliminates what doesn’t serve you. What really makes this such a joy to listen to is the sequencing of the album. LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW flows like seeing the band live and gives the songs so much life. Not a moment is going to waste here and it emits an energy that I want more of.
Genesis Owusu – REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE
[website // bandcamp // instagram]
2023’s STRUGGLER was one of my favorite releases and Genesis Owusu has impressed me in such a short time so naturally I was a more than a little excited to dig into his latest album. Fans were teased with tracks like “PIRATE RADIO” and “STAMPEDE” dropping late last year/early 2026 and was a taste for things to come. REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE takes the listener through the perils of living in this decade amongst the normalization of unchecked greed and prejudice while offering a beam of hope, as desperate as it may seem. The urgency on this album shine with the aforementioned two tracks along with “RUNNING OUTTA TIME” and “MOST NORMAL AMERICAN VOTER”
James Smith – Golden Age
Sometimes I really struggle to write why I like something that I’m listening to. Words and metaphors just escape you. I just wish it was easier for me to shout from my keyboard about how an album is just really good. Like something that sounds like my favorite songs from the radio growing up and had no idea why. Like how a song such as “For you, my love” sounds like how it felt when you took that first long drive home from a day at the beach and the road is pretty empty and the sun is beginning to set and everything just feels right for once. You just want to capture that feeling and hold it tight. So when you listen to an album like Golden Age and it rekindles those feelings and memories and everything crashes onto you. So you end up listening to “Dancing With You (Baby)” and how it felt like that next summer where you drove to a beach practically every day to try and get over someone and nothing is going your way and you just wanted to get right again. You’re older now and appreciative of how that broken heart led to a pretty nice life, but sometimes you need to remember how sad you were and how real it was. You take a breath and remind yourself that you are, indeed, alright.
I want to tell people how wonderful this album is. I just wish I knew how.
Lip Critic – Theft World
[website // bandcamp // instagram]
I was introduced to NYC’s Lip Critic as an unlikely comparison where what would happen if Death Grips was somehow fronted by Fred Schneider of the B52s. The vocal performance of Bret Kaser is as chaotic and it is compelling and it’s perfectly suited to accompany the blistering combinations of synths and samplers. “Jackpot” clings and clacks like a slot machine tumbling inside a clothes dryer before settling into a body moving dance punk bliss. The songs on Theft World take on multiple themes, ideas, and sounds and it meshes in a way that I can’t imagine can be replicated. Theft World is a lot to take in if you’re not all too keen with having your senses overblown, but Lip Critic finds a way to strike a balance like a flickering beacon of safety in a sea of madness.
Telehealth – Green World Image
Telehealth is the ability to receive health care through the internet, and it’s also the project of Alexander Barr and Kendra Cox. Today I’ve decided to focus on the second one. Telehealth’s Green World Image is a sharply fun album to get your body moving. Until proven otherwise and I can get my hands on their 23-and-me, Telehealth sounds like they’re the direct descendants of the B52s and Devo, both sonically and humorously. And if not them, at the very least it is like Tune-Yards found themselves in a Kraftwerk phase. Now I want to be clear that this is a wonderful thing. This style of offbeat pop rock is ageless and I’m all for jagged lyricism hiding under the sheep’s clothing of hypnotic crash-wave weirdness. The songs contained within Green World Image deliver chaotic imagery in a calculating way. The shuffling between the human and automated realms was so delightful to listen to while the Barr is channeling his inner David Byrne wishing for a “Cool Job”, or when Cox is tearing apart the commodification of self-care on “Yassify Me”.
ugly ozo – dive EP
What’s old feels new again, and ugly ozo deliver it in a delightful fuzzy experience on their EP dive. The nineties are alive on this effort as catchy poppy hooks are buried in a glittery grunge distorted cloud of noise that awoken my slacker sleeper cell. All I need is to grow my hair back into an unkempt bowlcut. This EP is an excellent offering giving the listener a quick hit of five songs that just knock you out. The same can be said for their EP, stargirl, which was released last year. “Hi, how are you?” growls like a power tool from the moment you press play and “MISERY” is reminiscent of Visions of a Life-era Wolf Alice to me and it sounds so effortlessly and formidably cool.
White Beast – DIE HARD EP
[website // bandcamp // instagram]
One of my favorite kinds of music is the two-piece sonic assaults that just fires you up. Growing up with bands like Orange 9mm and Local H and enjoying duos such as In The Whale, Royal Blood, and Death From Above 1979 in my adulthood, there’s a lot to be said with getting the most out of your equipment and talents. White Beast suddenly grabbed my attention with “Cooked”, the pounding first track from their latest effort, Die Hard. What follows is an ass-kicker of an EP featuring the wailing soul-bearing growls of Jeffrey Rettberg perfectly complimented with the ferocious drumming of Margaret Gordon. After just one listen to Die Hard and I am absolutely here for it.
imeanttolisten.com 