Rumpistol "Nebula" (2025)

Nebula

release date: May 13, 2025

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

producer: Jens Berents Christiansen

label: The Rust Music - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Ascension" - 2. "Stargazer" - 3. "Nebula" - 4. "Pale Blue Dot" - 5. "Above the Horizon" - 6. "Celestial Awe" - 9. "Silver Seed"

Studio album by Danish electronic act Rumpistol ['Space Gun'], a solo project name by Jens Berents Christiansen, which has survived for more than 2 decades as he released his self-titled debut album in 2003. Since the debut Rumpistol has released an abundance of records and Rumpistol has taken part in various collaboration projects, also counting the Danish experimental world music band Kalaha. Nebula may be regarded Rumpistol's ninth regular installation, and here Christiansen has made use of several featuring instrumentalists, which include: Sven Dam Meinild on flutes, EWI, clarinet & saxophone, Maria Jagd on violin & viola, Emil de Waal (from Kalaha) on drums, percussion & bowed metal, Helene Tungelund on Celtic harp, Anders Stig Møller on bass, and Anna Roemer on guitar.

Nebula is an instrumental album, which for me, shares bonds with early Trentemøller - the idm / micro-house elements but it's not 'just' echoing other artists' works, there're obvious original traits and facets from his early releases and it basically represents a style palette that isn't entirely electronic. Rumpistol has been engaged in various genres and styles throughout the years, and in this regeard Nebula showcases elements from space rock, ambient and the world of jazz, which are scattered and more or less heard on these quite different compositions. At times you will find similarities, or say: bits pointing at early electronic synthpop and ambient, but in essence it's only showcasing the strengths of Rumpistol as an orginal shapeshifter, who employs whatever is needed.

Needless say, as an instrumental work, it's music for attentive listening and then it really unfolds the more you listen to it. Given the short time I have known of this new album, I only suspect it will grow on me.

I like it, it's really good. And if you do not know the works of Rumpistol, I leave you to check it out. The act is an international secret of sorts, and I really enjoy albums like Mere rum (2005), Away (2014), After the Flood (2020), and Isola (2022).

Recommended.

[ Nebula on bandcamp ]

Lorde "Virgin" (2025)

Virgin

release date: Jun. 27, 2025

format: digital (11 x File, MP3)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,02]

producer: Lorde & Jim E-Stack

label: Universal Music New Zealand - nationality: New Zealand

Track highlights: 1. "Hammer" - 2. "What Was That" - 4. "Man of the Year" - 6. "Current Affairs"

4th studio album by New Zealand pop artist Lorde, aka Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor. The album follows four years after the album Solar Power (Aug. 2024), which received positive reviews, some found it a shiny, yet formless affair, and others saw it as a potential masterpiece. In that regard, Lorde has devided fans and critics since her international debut with the album Pure Heoine (Sep. 2013), which attracted some attention, although, her follow-up Melodrama from 2017 is widely regarded as her actual breakthrough album, which both peaked on album lists world-wide and secured the artist various international music awards but also was such a massive success that Lorde vanished from the spotlight for a period of time. She has already experienced the kind of success many dream of but few ever experience and the short journey to the top in pop surely has its toll.

Personally, I'm not in the target group, and I have lukewarm feelings regarding the type of music she has produced, so far. Lorde is a name that is impossible to neglect and that's the only reason I listened to her albums. Again: I'm not part of the target group and I simply don't enjoy this album that much. To me, it's generic pop music, sounding like much else out there that I don't find any enjoyment in. It's definitely uptempo, it's lush, and it's primarily held in a positive vibe - there's just too many things about it, I don't like. The arrangements are too heavily crammed up - effects to fill in gaps to avoid boredom or blanks? Then: many tracks sound alike, and I guess that's a good parameter telling you, it's not your style like when I'm trying to understand a Wagner opera: I get bored and think it's touching on obnoxious.

Then why 3/ 5 instead of below 2,5, you may ask? Well, I acknowledge the inert qualities, I guess. It's not like I feel exposed to harmful matter and there's definitely good energy in the music, which I also find shaped for physical movement as I probably would even appreciate this at the local gym. Especially "Hammer" is a quite catchy electropop tune. Just as quite decent background muzak. And I'm not really on par with any of the critics, as they mostly praise this as her second best album. So, it should be good, only not for me, and if this is a genuine contender to her best ever, I kind of get the hint: I shouldn't look down this alley for hidden gems - possibly making this my only comment on the music by this contemporary giant pop star.

Not recommended.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, The Guardian, NME 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,6 / 10 stars ]

Bob Mould "Here We Go Crazy" (2025)

Here We Go Crazy

release date: Mar. 7, 2025

format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]

producer: Bob Mould

label: BMG - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Here We Go Crazy" - 2. "Neanderthal" - 3. "Breathing Room" - 4. "Hard to Get" - 9. "You Need to Shine" - 11. "Your Side"

14th studio album by grunge rock-forefather Bob Mould following 4½ years after Blue Hearts (Sep. 2020) is not surprisingly an album filled with much energy. The album is Mould's first on BMG after having released a long series of albums on Merge Records but with Mould himself in his usual roles as songwriter, composer, and producer, this new album shouldn't result in many raised eyebrows regarding style or themes. In the past, Mould has experimented with his soundscape and the use of instrumentation, however, since Silver Age from 2012, he has been quite consistently on an energetic alt. rock platform, boldly shaped via his preference for power pop and with hints to his more distant past in Sugar and Hüsker Dü in a more traditional guitar-rock setting. Comparing with his most recent album Blue Hearts, this is a wee bit harsher, slightly more direct, less politically oriented, and instead it's filled to the brim with sheer emotions. This both fits nicely with the applied amount of energy and a melodic drive, and then at times you could argue that it tends to touch on repetitiveness but we're talking about freak*** Bob Mould here!, and that guy should forever be granted every right and permission there is to go ahead and plug his electric guitar into his amplifier and have his fun at shouting and confronting whatever he feels like - be it the world, himself, his relationships, himself growing older, or the country's intolerable leader! Bob Mould is a sort of valve of modern times. Let the steam come out!

I have followed his work since the final two albums with Hüsker Dü, and he has always been an artist whose work I've shared a particular soft spot for, and most of the time he has been able to enrich my life, which is why I remain a stable fan. He's not an artist who invent music any longer but he's a guarantee of quality and a voice that speaks up for humanity as well as being someone who takes a stand against stupidity, which is another good reason to follow this great artist.

Here We Go Crazy is basically what we have come to expect from Mr. Mould, and once again it's relevant and recommended!

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars]

Anna Ternheim "Psalmer från sjunde himlen" (2025)

Psalmer från sjunde himlen

release date: Jan. 17, 2025

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]

producer: Joakim Berg, Martin Sköld

label: Universal - nationality: Sweden

Track highlights: 1. "Kom tilbaks" - 2. "Nära dig" (4 / 5) - 3. "Orkanen" - 4. "Hit men inte längre" - 6. "Lämnar alla bakom" - 8. "Kalifornien" - 9. "Sjunde himlen" - 10. "Små mirakel"

[ Promo-video ]

8th studio album by Anna Ternheim following her 2019 album A Space for Lost Time offers something quite different from what she has so far released as a solo artist. Former Kent-frontman Joakim Berg is here credited as composer of all tracks, and former Kent-bassist and producer Martin Sköld is also credited as co-composer on half of these ten new songs. Berg and Ternheim are together 2/3 of the project-band Dead People who gave us the debut We Love in 2022, an album which reflects a style that blends folk pop and synthpop, and that's basically also what greets us on this new album from Ternheim. In that sense it marks a huge leap from her 2019 stripped-down folk release. Berg previously worked with Veronica Maggio on her Fiender är tråkigt (Oct. 2019) for which he co-composed 9 songs, and it's tempting to point to that album when listening to Psalmer från sjunde himlen. The vocalist has been exchanged but Berg's fingerprints are all over this album, and he really has a gift for writing melodic pop-tunes. To finish off the tempting comparison with Maggio's solo release, that one is held in more uptempo synthpop arrangements, which in many ways fits her vocal better, whereas Ternheim appears more of a vocalist, which succeeds in the blue notes. That said, this album is remarkably uptempo when comparing to Ternheim's discography, and it's her first to be exclusively with Swedish lyrics.

All in all, the album is a refreshing new move on Ternheim's musical path. At times, I sense references to the Kent back-catalogue, and some songs reek a certain simplistic naivity but then again, these are explicitly 'psalms from the seventh heaven', and shouldn't shock anyone as primarily positive melodies, and then it's mostly just honey for ears and mind, and at bottom line this whole album is like a blow of fresh air. And don't we all need that. Psalmer från sjunde himlen is up there among Ternheim's best albums, and it's a recommended listen.

[ Aftonbladet.se 4 / 5 stars ]

Mogwai "The Bad Fire" (2025)

The Bad Fire

release date: Jan 24, 2025

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]

producer: John Congleton

label: Rock Action - nationality: Scotland, UK

Track highlights: 1. "God Gets You Back" - 2. "Hi Chaos" - 4. "Fanzine Made of Flesh" - 6. "If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others" - 7. "18 Volcanoes" - 9. "Lion Rumpus"

11th studio album by Scottish band Mogwai following four years after As the Love Continues (Feb. 2021) sees a turn to hot producer name of John Congleton (Lana Del Rey, The Killers, Sharon Van Etten, Modest Mouse, St. Vincent,... to name a few) - a name that, imo, doesn't appear as a natural first choice, but hey, the band, or the managers may have thought they were in need of a distribution hack (?). Perhaps, Dave Fridmann didn't have the time? I think Fridmann have proved that he suits the band really really well, and he has always been a guarantee of a prominent production.

Compared to the excellent 2021 album, it's not a completely different release but it does feel like an inferior collection of compositions where the usual wide span has been narrowed in - confined - restricted, and the end result is of something where there's definitely steam but not enough coal to make the difference. The exceptions are "Hi Chaos", which sounds more like a left-over bonus track from the '21-album and "Fanzine Made of Flesh", which is the closest the band has been to switch to indie pop.

The Bad Fire is not a poor album and far from it, but after such a great achievement it does feel as inferior. What I miss here is a stronger direction - what is it really? It's obvious that the band has come a long way since Come on Die Young (1999) and that synths have by now become a more integral part of the band's primary instrumentation but where As the Love Continues showcased a fine mix that allowed for guitars to be fully heard side by side or together with huge electronic arrangements, this new outing sort of blends everything into one huge pot where new boundaries are no longer being pushed or new soil is investigated. To me, this is undoubtedly Mogwai, which means it can't be bad, and it never is. It's just that they sound like the music has been restricted from delivering as freely as it could.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, The Guardian, Mojo 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,4 / 10, Rolling Stone, 👍PopMatters 3,5 / 5 stars ]