All posts by msmith

Stereolab – “Transmuted Matter”

Joe Dilworth

Hey, one more new Stereolab song! The chic avant-pop legends have been whetting our appetites for Instant Holograms On Metal Film, their first new album in 15 years, with exceptional singles including “Aerial Troubles” and “Melodie Is A Wound.” You will not be surprised to learn that “Transmuted Matter,” the third and final advance track, also hits the spot. It’s got that often-imitated, never-matched “retro francophone lounge jazz of the future” aesthetic that Stereolab have been nailing for decades. You already know you love this song, but you’d better listen down below just to make sure.

For Those I Love – “Of The Sorrows”

Rich Gilligan

David Balfe, the Dublin multi-hyphenate who makes music under the name For Those I Love, has a new single out today. “Of The Sorrows” is the first For Those I Love track since the project’s 2021 self-titled debut, which won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize as the best Irish album of the year. Over top of an electronic slow-build that sounds like a city after dark, Balfe delivers spoken-word lyrics centered on the refrain, “Stay here in Ireland.” It sounds a little like the Streets and a little like Real Lies.

Fans Brought Their Own Pyro — And A Lot Of It — To System Of A Down’s South American Shows

I don’t have any firsthand experience organizing pyrotechnics for big stadium shows, but I know enough to know that you’ve gotta be careful with those. Maybe that’s why System Of A Down didn’t bring any of their own pyro on their recent South American tour, which wrapped up in Sao Paolo last week. But their fans are going viral online now for doing the exact opposite, bringing fire and explosives aplenty themselves.

Divisive Metal-ish Band Sleep Token Score First #1 Album With Even In Arcadia

Andy Ford

If you’re lucky enough to have never heard a Sleep Token song before, allow me to give you some context: They’re an anonymous British band who, by blending unexceptional metalcore with lots of nauseating soulful-white-boy vibrato, have become one of the most popular and defining heavy bands of the 2020s. They just put out their fourth full-length offering — that’s what they call their own records! — titled Even In Arcadia, and regular Stereogum contributor Eli Enis wrote such a scathing pan of it that I had to listen for myself just to see if it was really that bad. Eli’s right. It’s really that bad. And yet, Even In Arcadia is currently the #1 album in America.