Insider Monthly #7
This month’s Insider features Wet Leg, Nia Archives, Charli XCX, Open Mike Eagle & Kenny Segal, and more!
Welcome to the (belated) July edition of Insider Monthly, our supporters-only newsletter. As ever, we’re talking about:
💿 A classic record we can’t stop playing
🎧 Our favourite album of the month
💔 Our biggest disappointment
🔜 The album we’re most excited for next
📝 Plus some personal notes and behind-the-scenes reflections from running the site
The opening section is free to read. Supporters receive the full edition each month.
💿 Old Favourites
Juan:
It comes as no surprise that I’m a big fan of jangle pop, especially the wave of post-R.E.M. bands that briefly caught labels’ attention as they hoped to catch the next college-rock cash cow. You can’t replicate a great thing, so naturally, most of those acts disappeared into obscurity. Every so often, I get the urge to spend hours revisiting them through YouTube playlists I’ve assembled over the years.
If you’re looking for something similar without doing all the work, I highly recommend Captured Tracks’ compilation, Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987. One band I’ve been particularly obsessed with lately is Los Angeles’ Downy Mildew, featured on the comp and responsible for an unsung four-album run. “Good Dream,” from their 1987 debut LP, pulls off a Smiths-meets-Sonic Youth fusion that few bands could make sound this natural.
David:
This isn’t “old” at all, but prepping for Tramlines led me to reappraise Wet Leg and especially last year’s Moisturizer, an album I’d unfairly dismissed on release. As a whole, it’s considerably stronger than their fun yet patchy debut, with slower/calmer songs like “pokemon” particularly standing out.
