Cassandra Jenkins
My Light, My Destroyer
(Dead Oceans)
★★★

FOLLOWING her 2021 breakthrough album, Cassandra Jenkins maintained an intense tour schedule before heading to the studio to make the follow up. Dissatisfied with the results, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter ended the session, returning a few months later to record the songs that have become My Light, My Destroyer.

This new set seems a little more accessible than her previous work: on the surface Clams Casino feels like a relatively straightforward rock number, while Petco’s crunchy, chiming guitar work closely echoes The Bends-era Radiohead. Jenkins is very much a cerebral artist, evidenced by the spoken word French-language Attente Telephonique to her elusive lyrics and avant-garde sonics.

The stand out track for me is Betelgeuse, a field recording of a conversation about stargazing overlaid with gorgeous brass instrumentation and piano — echoing her equally beguiling story song Hard Drive from 2021.

Ani DiFranco
Unprecedented Sh!t
(Righteous Babe)
★★★

APPROACHING her mid-50s, Ani DiFranco has been busy. In 2019 she released her memoir, earlier this year she made her Broadway debut in Hadestown, and she is about to publish her second children’s book.

And now we have the US alt-folk icon’s 23rd album, Unprecedented Sh!t, comprised of songs written for various projects between 2011 and 2022. As these origins suggest, it’s a little disjointed, a feeling compounded by the stripped back-arrangements and dissonant sounds created by producer BJ Burton.

Fans will be happy to know DiFranco is still very much engaged with the world. Baby Roe concerns the famous 1973 landmark decision by the US Supreme Court, while on the spooky New Bible she warns of cancer-causing hidden pollution. 

“Oh, rise the proletariat/Red banners unfurled/Let’s mend the failures of history/And the manmade world,” she urges.

Good Looks
Lived Here For A While
(Keeled Scales)
★★★★

FOLLOWING their impressive, somewhat politicised 2022 debut Bummer Year, Texas four-piece Good Looks are back with their second album.

There has been some misfortune in between these two releases, including their lead guitarist Jake Ames being seriously injured after he was hit by a car following a hometown gig, and all their instruments going up in flames during a highway crash.

Full of melodic indie rock, Lived Here For A While really hits the spot. Written by lead singer Tyler Jordan in the shadow of a break up, single If It’s Gone addresses a former partner: “I hope you find true love and money, many orgasms and fame.” With its ringing guitar licks, Self-destructor is another standout track, apparently about parting ways with an ex-bandmate. 

Sounding like Tom Petty singing Whiskeytown’s more rocky material, there’s something gloriously cathartic about Good Looks.