weekly spotlight
Combover Beethoven
Somewhere In The Freefall
Combover Beethoven have released four albums in two years, plus a handful of other projects - the excellent Lonnie & Donnie, a collection of reimagined Discharge covers called Blind Alleys, and some one-off singles.
It’s a dizzying pace, but spend a bit of time with the texts and it’s clear that the group is not forcing or rushing anything. It’s just that this is an age when things need saying, and how lucky that some of the people who need to say them have a bit of musical aptitude so it comes in a tastier package than simple social media screeds.
Somewhere In the Freefall feels a bit like the closing of a loop. In a purely musical sense, Combover Beethoven have refined their approach to the point where it feels locked in. There’s a consistently forward vocal mix, allowing Unit’s delicate but emotionally profound delivery and his devastating texts to cut through. It’s one of the only reproaches possible to the masterpiece of a debut album, Borders - the fact that you really needed a lyric sheet to understand how good it was. No such impediments exist on Freefall.
Jack Jose
Laughed At By Clowns
Cincinatti songwriter Jack Jose released one of our favorite albums of the last couple of years, 2024’s phenomenal A Sunlit Place, and in the time since he has released a series of singles that continued building on his reputation for sharp lyricism and folksy charm. His latest album, Laughed At By Clowns, is currently available only on Bandcamp, and we strongly recommend it as part of your wishlist if you’re a fan of Americana, indie folk, late era Replacements / Paul Westerberg, MJ Lenderman, Todd Snider, and the like.
Jose has a killer lyrical sensibility and an earnest delivery that makes you feel like you’re catching up with an old friend. On this latest batch of songs, he’s expanded his musical palette substantially and delivered a raw, but beautifully arranged, document of a singular American artist.
Dave Hawkins
Half Alive EP
Denver, CO multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Dave Hawkins is a true original. He makes rich, thoughtful indie music that zig zags across genres, touching on Americana and indie pop and shoegaze and more. The thread tying it all together is his endearing voice, everpresent wit, conscious lyricism, and deft arrangements.
He’s out on Bandcamp (and in the process of releasing the rest one single at a time) with the best work of his catalog to date, the impressive Half Alive EP, offering a 5 song meditation on “finding presence in a world that keeps pulling you away”.
In the process of exploring that theme, Hawkins gives us some quirky and memorable performances, veering from sparkly pop rock to groovy psychedelic pop to plaintive ballad to electronic power pop to jazzy piano bar anthem. It’s a dizzying tour through Hawkins’ mind as well as his dazzling array of competences, and every track brings something utterly unique to the EP, to Hawkins’ catalog, and to the indie music landscape.
Kid Lightbulbs
Infinite Normal
We talk a lot about AI “art” these days, but I defy any megamind hunk of metal to do what Kid Lightbulbs does on his fourth LP, Infinite Normal.
This isn’t easy music; even for those of us who’ve come to trust his artistic instincts, it often takes a few focused turns through a Kid Lightbulbs record before things really click.
Partly this is because the music is challenging, and the arrangements designed to convey maximum emotional clarity and punch rather than to keep you tapping your toes or muttering the hook.
But at least as often, it’s because he manages to be thought-provoking in real time in a way I don’t know anyone has matched for me. A Kid Lightbulbs song will often kick you off the edge of your concentration into a stream-of-consciousness spiral, like some sort of Internet-age Leonidas screaming “WE! ARE! PROCESSING SOME SHIT HERE!”
Western Jaguar
Kaleidoscope
Jeffrey Trainor (British Columbia) makes shimmering, confident pop music under the moniker of Western Jaguar. We’ve been enjoying the drip of singles all year, and now the payoff has come in the form of Kaleidoscope, a tour de force of indie pop/rock that contains some of the finest songwriting, the most skillful playing, the most tasteful arranging, and the most immaculate vibes of anything we’ve covered in 2025.
This album packs a staggering number of great hooks and should-be hits into a tight package, with a couple of bonus tracks included in the Bandcamp version.
“Holding On By A Thread” is undeniably the highlight of this record, and that’s not an easy bar to have cleared. It opens with a soft electronic groove under gentle synths, setting the stage for a text that is instantly unforgettable. I’m the reason your last stick of Nicorette is missing out of your tie-died sundress is such a phenomenal opening line. You’re plunged into an intimate conversation with the narrator as he paints you a melancholy picture, capped off with the hook I can’t get ahead, I’m holding by a thread.