By: Music Journalism Club

Every week our Music Director, Allison, chooses new releases to add to our music library. Here are some of the recent highlights, presented to you by WSUM’s Music Journalism Club.

Mirah, Dedication

HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “After the Rain,” “Catch My Breath” 

GENRE: Folk

RIYL: Jenny Lewis/Rilo Kiley, Neko Case, Julien Baker

If you’re anything like me, you knew Mirah from the iconic indie album You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This — now, 26 years older and wiser, she’s back with a new record called Dedication. It’s much folkier than her previous work: the first track, “Ballad of the Bride of Frankenstein,” builds from a soft beginning into a sweeping trumpet anthem. Over the course of the album, the beautiful instrumentals (like the piano phrase on “Beginning of Time”) perfectly complement Mirah’s reflections on adulthood. The lyrics offer poignant insight on loss, compromise and maturity — two of the last tracks, “Mama Me” and “Hummingbird,” are an ode to motherhood and a lullaby, respectively. 

Overall, it’s a landmark tribute to the spectacle of getting older, and will fit right in with any other righteous folk revival record in your set (looking at you, Florence + The Machine).

— Adriana Mathiason

spill tab, AngieAngieAngie

HIGHLIGHT TRACKS: “ASSIS”, “Athlete”, “Adore Me”, “Angie”, “Suckerrr”

GENRE: Indie Pop, Alternative Pop

RIYL: Magdalena Bay, ill peach, Devon Again, Hannah Jadagu

Claire Chicha, otherwise known as “spill tab” has come out with a deluxe version of their album, ANGIE, and she does a wonderful job of conveying what the experience of self growth is like in a wonderful alternative pop album. Each song on this record stands as a juxtaposition to the one before it and many of the songs will switch styles on the fly, but in such a satisfying way that it makes you say “how did she do that?” The instrumentation and mixing on this album is lovely as well. The lo-fi feeling makes the instrumentation all the more interesting and fresh. Chicha explores the journey of the constant self-growth we do over the course of our life. Our internal and external struggles, relationships, and more combine to form us into the people we are today and this album excels at describing such experiences. If you’ve been craving an experimental pop deep-cut that is a one-of-a-kind, AngieAngieAngie is the album for you. 

— Gabriel Salgado