Insider Monthly #9

Welcome to September’s belated edition of Insider Monthly, our supporters-only newsletter. I know, I know. It’s technically October, but the moment we decided to schedule all three of our regular monthly features at the end of the month, it became inevitable that we’d run a little late occasionally. Anyway, the plan remains the same:

💿 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:

I’ve been listening to lots of power pop—what’s new? It’s a simple pleasure that gets straight to the point whenever I need a quick fix. There’s plenty of those to whet your appetite, but how about a power pop double album that delivers twice the dose? Those are rare enough, and a masterful one like Never Hear the End of It, the 77-minute, 30-song opus from Nova Scotia’s Sloan, is rarer still. We’re getting scarily close to its twentieth anniversary next January, yet it hasn’t lost a bit of its lustre. If anything, I’m still genuinely baffled by how the Canadian greats managed to cram so much effortless songwriting into a single album without ever seeming to run out of ideas.

David:

I wrote a huge feature on 2009, which meant listening to a lot of Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear. I really don’t understand why I loved Veckatimest so much at the time—it’s a pretty joyless love letter to textures—but one record I did really enjoy revisiting was The xx’s debut, xx. The whole premise of the feature is that The xx wielded a far greater influence over the 2010s (and beyond) and I’m yet to hear a solid counter-argument in favour of Animal Collective or Grizzly Bear. I’m always happy to hear from Merriweather devotees who think otherwise though!

Were 2009’s Defining Indie Landmarks Ultimately a Dead End?

Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear defined indie music in 2009, but in hindsight both Merriweather and Veckatimest feel like the end of something special rather than the new beginning we were promised at the time.

No RipcordDavid Coleman

The xx – xx review | No Ripcord

The nocturnal pop of The xx is impossibly unique, yet quiet and low-key at the same time.

No RipcordNo Ripcord