Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you're doing well. And it's time for some great albums, records that I loved and thought were great over the past month or so. I thought you might like them as well. I've reviewed them very positively, or an associate of mine has, and I thought they were, again, worth shouting out and reminding you guys that they are great. They should not slip through the cracks on you. And yeah, a review's an info for of these records linked down below, so you could check them out for yourselves. Cool? Cool. Let's get her done.

Starting off with a Brat, Charli XCX Brat. What do I need to say? What do I need to say in addition to what I've already said about this record? It's great. Mind-blowing, game-changing pop anthems. Just endless dance grooves, great lead vocals, strong hooks. I gave it a damn 10. It's a 10. Okay? That's all I'm going to say about it.

Mach-Hommy,#RICHAXXHAITIAN. I'm not usually a big Mach-Hommy guy, but I thought the lush instrumentation, the thoughtful bars, the colorful production all over this thing made it one of the strongest hip hop releases I've heard this year. Certainly the strongest that I've heard in Mach-Hommy's discography. Still lofi, still rough around the edges, still raw and rugged, but I feel like he's going for something that has a bit more of a wider appeal while still staying true to his artistic ethos and his usual lyrical vibe as well. Liking some of the conscious themes flowing throughout the record as well. Just very tasteful quality record. Mach-Hommy, #RICHAXXHAITIAN.

Vince Staples, Dark Times. One of the best records in his discography, in my opinion, we just got. Very thoughtful record from Vince. I mean, his music these days has tended to run pretty moody, but this time around, I feel like he's digging into a lot of deeper philosophical issues around depression and hopelessness and trying to overcome that and patterns of self-destruction. Some really great and surprisingly danceable and hooky tracks on this record as well. Vince, in my opinion, has never sounded so accessible and lyrical and dark, because the record does live up to its title, all at the same time, really liking the direction and the creativity on this record a lot. Shout out to Vince.

Beth Gibbons. Beth Gibbons of Portishead fame. New solo record, first solo outing in quite, quite, quite, quite, quite flinching lyrics about aging, moving on through the more twilight years of your life, and just enchanting and theatrical, powerful instrumentation, string sections, rhythms all over the record as well. It is intense, it is raw, but also very tasteful and refined, and yeah, just a really excellent, I suppose you could say, singer and songwriter record all around. But the arrangements all over the album really do elevate it into something in its own league, in my opinion.

All right, next we have Iglooghost. His latest full-length LP title, Memory XO, is one of his best and one of his most interesting and sonically conceptual records to date. I feel like Iglooghost backed off a bit from all of the very intense and intricate and jittery rhythms and details from his breakout album and has instead settled into something that is a lot more textured and fuzzy and scuzy, but covering a lot of stylistic bases, various shades of EDM and rave type music, some grime as well in the mix, as he essentially treats us to an album that flows like a DJ mix. I mean, I said this in the review. I'll say it again here. This album sounds exactly like its cover, and the cover is absolutely incredible. There is no denying that. But this record really does sound like a wild ass DJ set from some random ass dude DJing Ocean music, or at least like Dirty Ocean versions of popular dance music and electronic music styles that all of you should be very well familiar with. So yes, absolutely badass and very cool, neat, interesting record where he takes a cool vocal, different vocal approach, too, from his previous projects as well.

Also liking this new project from Galen Tipton, as well as Death's Dynamic Shroud. You Like Music is the title of this one. And yes, certainly I do. Too, especially when it is very groovy hyper plunderphonic jams in the way that Galen and DDS pull them together to be on this very short, to the point, but punchy and highly entertaining project. So yes, loved this one quite a bit as well. This one is chalk-full of personality, that's for sure.

Loving the new Knocked Loose record. my god, the Knocked Loose record. You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To is the title of it and everything about this album. The riffs, the blasphemy, the intensity, the way all the tracks weave together, the narrative concept of it all. I'm liking it a lot. It is one of the best hardcore and metalcore releases that I have heard in a long, long, long, long time. And damn, if we're not going to hear an album this heavy for quite a while. You could smash Adams with this thing. I'm absolutely convinced. But yes, this is a killer game-changing album for the loud rock lane, and everyone should absolutely be taking notice on this shit for sure.

All right, moving on. The Lemon Twigs, A Dream is All We The Lemon Twigs Bros, they're back with a bunch of quality songs, stellar instrumentation that calls back to those classic eras of sunshine pop and psych pop and garage rock. It's not quite the lush soft rock affair that everything harmony was. I feel like they're back in their Beatles and Stones bag and Beach Boys bag a bit more on this one. But that really is where the brother's skillset truly lies. And their knack for recreating those sounds as well as writing good songs with them is proven once again on this record over here that when you compare to every other album that is similarly in that lane, I feel like they've really honed things quite a bit on this one. They've really refined their sound a bit, and their playing and their writing skills on this one, and they've truly outdone themselves once again. That's really the most you could say about it.

Also digging quite a bit, this new Joey Valence and Brae record, No Hands. It is a little short. There are a few tracks in the tracklist that to my ears are just okay. But when it comes to bringing back just old-school hip hop and dance music, late '80s, early to mid-'90s, that era, they're just killing it and doing it with a ton of personality, a sharp sense of humor, amazing production, choruses that go for days, some really good features, including one from freaking Danny Brown. Some of my favorite tracks, period, this year have landed on this album, be that the title track, be that "Like A Punk," be that "Baddest Bitch." Man, I want to dance like I'm the baddest bitch in the club to that jam. That's this record in a nutshell. If you could do Jock Jams, but with better beats and made by funny nerds, that's this record, and it rules.

Okay, one more shorter release on the back end that I did do a formal review of, and that is the Twice Round the Sun record from this UK progressive indie art rock/folk outfit, UGLY. Yes, not really crazy about this horribly unsearchable name, but this is an excellent record loaded with really great, intricate, skilled layers of plucky instrumentation. Great vocal harmonies, a little storytelling on certain songs, too, that's pretty captivating. Interesting and progressive song structures that remain tasteful, not too like in indulgent or obnoxious or boring, anything like that. In terms of writing, production, performance, as well as size of the project, too, because while this is an EP, it's still not a scant release at about 30 minutes in length. Again, it's framed as an EP, but this is like an album level of attention to detail and effort going into this project. So if this is what they're doing on EP day, I'm pretty excited to hear down the road what ugly pulls off on album day. I'll I'll say that.

Okay, wait, hold on. Stop the presses. One more project I want to add that I did not anticipate I was going to love so much before I shot this video. That would be the latest LP from singer, songwriter, composer, conceptualizer, Miss Joanna Wong. Her new LP over here, Hotel la Rut, is this very interesting vignette style record. There's a fly in my face. This very cool multi-genre multi-everything, the short story type record that involves a lot of different scenarios and characters and esthetics and instrumental styles. It really covers the bases, doing everything from synthprog to ska, to singer-songwriter music to country. It's very fun. It's very full of character. It is very well-executed and performed as well. It's got the right amount of refinement, but also some fun cartoony chaos as well. I think the record has a lot of personality, very much worth your time. If you're a big Ween fan, Fiery Furnaces fan, definitely something you have to check out for sure. But even if you're not, give it a shot.

All right, you guys are the best. That's great albums. Give these albums your time and attention.

You're the best. Great albums. Forever.