Sunday, October 19, 2025
what do i sing for? who do i sing for? don't ask me anymore
Almost every review of a Skullcrusher release touches on the fact that, on first blush, Helen Ballentine doesn't make music that sounds like it was made by band called "Skullcrusher."
what do i sing for? who do i sing for? don't ask me anymore
Album of the week
Skullcrusher - And Your Song is Like a Circle
"Skullcrusher" sounds like it should be black metal outfit, which is sonically about as far as you can get from the actual Skullcrusher. But Ballentine's sparse, soft, and gorgeous music is still heavy as hell.
There's a grief that hangs over everything--a darkness. While it's not a ten ton riff hitting you over the head, the piano line at the end of "March," the one that comes after the lines "and now I feel forever pressing into me/beautiful, terrible," hammers down like it's trying to push you into the abyss. And even the lilting backing vocals on "Red Car" can't hold up the weight to keep the lead vocal afloat--it eventually fades out into the sound of waves crashing against the shore.
What a beautiful way to drown. I've been letting it wash over me all weekend.
Armand Hammer & The Alchemist - Super Nintendo
Wednesday - Game of Pricks (Guided by Voices cover)
Song of the week
We've been blessed by Alchemist beats for nearly three decades. And it seems like we're blessed by an Armand Hammer release every two years. What a time to be alive (minus the rise of American fascism, the impending end of the world accelerated by war and intense power use so the hugest nerds alive can talk to their AI girlfriend or make the worst "art" I've ever seen, and every-fucking-thing else).
Classic of the week
Obviously, I was going to love this, but Karly Hartzman really does sound fucking perfect singing it--one of the all time great pop songs.
She wrote an incredible piece for Vulture on "The Way Love Goes" from my current record of the year, Bleeds, that nearly broke me in two as well.
More heat
Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore - Melted Moon
For the forthcoming Tragic Magic, ambient music's version of billy woods and ELUCID got hooked up with their version of the Alchemist: the thousands of historical instruments housed at the Philharmonie de Paris’ Musée de la Musique.
"Melted Moon" is our first preview from the record, out next January, and it's soaring, expansive, and beautiful. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from these two.
runo plum - Pond
I find this song so sonically sooting even though:
This song came from feeling really stuck in a slump, feeling the height of the absence, the pain, and the loneliness. Wondering how there will ever be a time where it didn’t feel like this, and fighting with the internal voice that was telling me my best option was to not be on earth.
now playing: Wilco - Open Mind
