Hey, hi, and hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd, your favorite humble, simple music opinion boy.

Coming through with an end of the month recommendation as March is now very much over. We are digging into April now with our first release weekend of the month, but I thought I would remind you that some fire records dropped in March. So here we go. Great albums, March 2024. My favorite records are as follows.

Okay, the first one in the bunch is Kim Gordon with the record The Collective. Indie rock, underground rock, experimental and noise rock legend, known as the bassist for Sonic Youth, has been focusing in recent years on solo material. This is her latest effort on that front, and it's an absolutely killer album where she mixes together elements of trap style hip hop, of no wave music, of noise music, industrial hip hop, too, for a series of tracks that are cerebral, are heavy, are distorted, are crushing, that are quite psychedelic and surreal. Some elements of it are giving suicide vibes as well. Yeah, it's just an absolutely bold and daring album that it's just amazing that somebody like him can come through with such a banger, such an experimental and wild banger of a record.

At the age of 70. On the younger end of the career spectrum is this next record over here coming from California death metal outfit, Civerous, the album, Maze Envy. This is a death-doom album and one of the heaviest and deadliest records I have heard in quite a while. The mixes and riffs on this thing are thick and are hard as hell. The density of this album is something to behold, but simultaneously, it's not just heavy, it's not just ferocious. There is a a metaphorical narrative to this album that I think you will very much appreciate if you read into the lyrics, but also a lot of interesting, versatile, and dynamic, progressive song structures and genre combinations in the mix as well. Some eerie synthesizers and string sections, too, especially on the back-end. So it's a very versatile album with a lot of body and quite a bit of melody, too, despite it being such a vicious, ugly, horrific death metal vibe and esthetic across the album, generally. But it's a very tight seven tracks with some interludes and transition cuts. Very ambitious, very big, very hard-hitting, loving what this band is bringing on this record.

If you guys have heard of this other very obscure, very underground artist in the country scene these days. She's just starting out. Her name is Cowboy Carter. And yes, of course, I'm joking around. This is Beyoncé's newest record, the second installment in her ongoing trilogy, where she decided to go country. And while it is a little bloated, I think it is trying a little too hard to validate its stance as a country album in ways that it doesn't really need to. The core songs on the record, the vast majority of them, are incredible, are very well-produced and well-written. Of course, the vocals are killer as well. And as far as the content of the album, this is easily Beyoncé's most personal record since Lemonade as well. But great album all around, really enjoying it. Yee-haw to Cowboy Carter.

https://beyonce.lnk.to/COWBOYCARTER

Also bringing a cowboy hat to the okay corral is Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief Fame, who has just released recently a great solo album titled Bright Future. It is a quality, intimate, emotionally intense a little indie and singer-songwriter record with lots of beautiful, raw, tasteful, homespun folk instrumentation from front to back. Some of Adrianne's most moving songwriting today, and also a cool alternate version of the the Big Thief single, "Empire Empire." But yes, great album that all the indie heads absolutely need to be paying attention to.

Moving on from there, Moor Mother, poet, vocalist, songwriter, Moor Mother has come through with a brand new album. The Great Bailout is the title. It is a very dark, cerebral, heady, and harrowing release, which was not just an artful and enveloping listen for me, but also an exercise in history education. So incredible album with some collaborations that you absolutely must hear, absolutely for sure.

Then finally, one more full length, the new Julia Holter album, Something in the Room She Moves, which is another quality installment of Holter's very specific trademark brand of progressive, experimental, wondrous dream pop that is instrumentally lavish, that is stunning. Basically, any word that you could use that might land somewhere near otherworldly. It is focused and features some of Julia's best material yet. It's absolutely Absolutely a must listen for anybody who wants to be transported to another place through music.

All right, so these are the full lengths I really enjoyed over the past month.

Before I ended this video, I also want to shout out some shorter releases that I think you guys will enjoy as well. Starting with this latest project, from Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean, Massachusetts band. This is an EP, mini LP-style record that came out toward the tail end of 2023, and it is a heavy, crushing, vicious, death doom metal album. That's very sludgy, very stoner, very distorted. It's a killer record, very visceral. If you want some riffs and vocals and performances that are just going to completely blast you with the force of a hurricane, you're going to want to give this a shot.

Shout out to this new Mamaleek EP. The band has a new record coming out in August titled Vita Blue, but in the meantime, they've put out this shorter release titled Those Who Passed Between Fleeting Words, and it's a highly out there and experimental release for this anonymous duo of two brothers. Apparently, these recordings are just random extra session stuff that happened over the past 10 years, so there's not really any real consistency or macro picture or through line going throughout all these tracks. But there are some very wild and crazy and out there songs and records on this thing, wild by Mamaleek standards. If you're at all familiar with their music, you know how difficult to define their trajectory is. And on this EP, it gets even harder with touches of jazz, experimental rock, plunderphonics, too. You get a little bit of everything and more on this EP. And while maybe it's not going to be for everybody, it's pretty awe-inspiring, the creative range that this duo shows.

Next, want to give a shoutout to this new EP from Buffalo rapper, well-put-together, who has come through with four very thoughtful, lyrical, well-put-together rap cuts that run a little more on the abstract side. Some solid features as well from the likes of ICECOLDBISHOP, Evidence, Your Old Droog, and Ransom. Things get quite personal lyrically for Che on the track "Vanilla Skies," too. While, yes, it is a short EP of tracks, and there are a lot of features in the mix, I think what this project shows is that Che is somebody you absolutely need to be paying attention to if you are not already, because her flow, her delivery, and her wordplay, her pen game are absolutely worth your attention.

And finally, shout out to the band Intercourse, who dropped this project earlier this year titled Egyptian Democracy. This thing is a kick-ass, hard-hitting piece of Connecticut post-hardcore with great band chemistry and some very snide and hilarious lyrics with a lot of dark and gallows humor. Absolutely the thing that fans of Pissed Jeans or the Jesus Lizard need to be listening to.

Thank you very much for reading this Great Albums article. Hopefully, you got some good recommendations out of it. I will see you in the next one.

Anthony Fantano. Great Albums. Forever.