New Releases
- PONYS
I probably shouldn’t be recommending the M’s, since my girlfriend is their publicist, but their debut album–actually a collection of three EPs–is too good to ignore. A charmed collision of the Kinks, T. Rex, and even some of Sabbath’s trippier tendencies, it isn’t trapped by the limitations of the standard-issue power-pop platter. All four members write and three sing; they’ve got choral hooks big enough to snag a marlin and songs that build to some delirious highs–like the album’s centerpiece, the mini rock opera “Big Baby Bottoms”/”Break Our Bones.”
Believe | The Movement
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The bulk of the local hip-hop scene explores musically progressive, socially conscious rap, but this four-man west-side crew–Chicago Shawn, Preast, Shala, Optimyst–heartily embraces a hardcore ethos. The song titles on Believe tell the story: “Pimpaholic,” “We Are the War,” “So Mo Gangsta.” The album is a gritty, compelling snapshot of street life and death, and when it comes to politics they thankfully forsake partisan niceties (“Fuck Democrats, fuck Republicans, I got a ballot and bullet for shadow governments”). On the album’s 17 wide-ranging tracks they sample everything from Middle Eastern chants to 40s musicals, creating an inventive backdrop that underscores the power of–and bitter menace in–their rhymes.
- SCOTLAND YARD GOSPEL CHOIR
This eight-song, 38-minute album from south-side MC, DJ, and producer Thomas Martin, aka Thaione Davis, is an ambitious, densely packed parade of garagey beats and dubby workouts that nod to a century’s worth of jazz, blues, gospel, and soul. It’s a compelling document of sociocultural analysis that still makes sense pumping on the dance floor or out of a car stereo.
