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Well, there goes the summer. Usually a holiday weekend there are no major new released but this week not so, with three albums that will for sure make my Best of 2025 list and the other three are excellent too: I review the latest from The Hives, Idles, The Beths, CMAT, Modern Nature, and Ganser.
This week’s Indie Basement Classic is a lost gem from one of the original shoegaze greats, Swervedriver.
Over in Notable Releases, Andrew reviews the new Blood Orange, plus End it, Rakim & Big Ghost Ltd, and more.
Have a great and hopefully long holiday weekend. See you in September.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: The Hives – The Hives Forever Forever The Hives (PIAS)
No really, this is the best album The Hives have made
After over a decade in hibernation, The Hives roared back to life in 2023 with The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons. Middle age didn’t slow them down one bit—their high-octane, braggadocious brand of garage rock sounded as fresh as it did when they dropped Veni Vidi Vicious 25 years ago, and their live show was like they never left. Then The Hives did something they’d never done before in their 30-year career: instead of taking a break after the tour, they rode the high straight back into the studio and immediately made another album.
You can feel that energy and momentum in The Hives Forever Forever The Hives, the Swedish quintet’s seventh album and, I’m just going to say it, their best yet. No, frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist has not stolen my laptop. This record rips. Some credit surely goes to co-producers Mike D (Beastie Boys) and Pelle Gunnerfeldt (Viagra Boys), as well as input from Josh Homme, but this is clearly the work of a band striking while the iron is hot. They haven’t changed their formula—big riffs, big drums, breakneck tempos, anthemic choruses, and heaps of attitude—but this album feels like the purest distillation of everything The Hives do best. Every song is precision-crafted, stuffed with memorable moments, delivering Maximum Hives Satisfaction.
The album opens with “Enough is Enough” and its pile-driver riff before Pelle interrupts with “Everyone is a little fucking bitch!”—a perfect kickoff. From there, the record doesn’t let up, though there’s plenty of variety: the groovy, go-go-ready “Path of Most Resistance”; “Born a Rebel,” which borrows more than a little from Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra” (and makes it work); the gear-shifting “Paint a Picture”; and the joyous title track, which sounds like a packed audience, arms linked, pogoing in unison. At a breathless 33 minutes without a dull moment, The Hives Forever Forever The Hives makes them your new favorite band all over again.
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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: The Beths – Straight Line Was a Lie (ANTI-)
This New Zealand quartet remains and the top of their sparkling guitar pop game on their fourth album
It’s been three years since The Beths’ winning Expert in a Dying Field, and their fourth album took a little longer to arrive than the previous three. Frontperson and songwriter Elizabeth Stokes had started taking SSRIs, which in some ways gave her more confidence but also seemed to block her usual creative pathways. “I was kind of dealing with a new brain, and I feel like I write very instinctually,” she says. “It was kind of like my instincts were just a little different—they weren’t as panicky.” It took time to reroute her circuitry and find her way back to the well of songs.
That process in part inspired Straight Line Was a Lie, but the title (and title track) is also a reminder that there are rarely shortcuts and sometimes the path less traveled is the most rewarding. “The straight line was a circle,” Liz sings. “Guess I’ll take the long way / ’Cause every way’s the long way / And I don’t know if I can go round again.” Stokes is an empathetic lyricist who isn’t afraid to put her vulnerabilities and foibles into her songs—and paired with her sharp-as-ever knack for instantly memorable melodies, it’s a hard-to-beat combination.
Few indie rock bands are working at The Beths’ level when it comes to sparkling, nuanced guitar pop. There are the buzzy, hook-laden power-pop jams you expect—“Take,” “No Joy,” and the title track—but the band also show off some new moves: the tender “Mother, Pray for Me,” the dark and simmering “Ark of the Covenant,” and the bongo-fueled closer “Best Laid Plans,” which takes a few skronky cues from Bowie’s Berlin period. The album’s standout, though, is “Mosquitos,” one of Stokes’ best songs to date, mixing vivid imagery (“I’m only here to feed mosquitos”) with a widescreen arrangement by guitarist/producer Jonathan Pearce and a muscular, locked-in performance by the band.
Liz may be unsure of her next move on a personal level, but she and The Beths have never sounded more confident than they do on Straight Line Was a Lie.
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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #3: CMAT – EURO COUNTRY(CMATBABY / AWAL Recordings)
Nobody else is making music like this Irish sensation and she’s utterly charming on Album #3
“This is making no sense to the average listener,” Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson tells the listener, interrupting her own song, “Jamie Oliver Petrol Station,” about a minute in. “Let me try to explain myself in a few words.” This is CMAT in a nutshell: singing about her disdain for celebrity chef Jamie Oliver (“that man should not have his face on posters”) but then catching herself—”OK don’t be a bitch / The man’s got kids / And they wouldn’t like this”—all against a twangy, orchestral pop backdrop.
EURO-COUNTRY is CMAT’s third album, and she says it’s her most “country” record yet. That’s true, in a way, though it’s an Irish version of country—more like The Waterboys circa Fisherman’s Blues filtered through a distinctly modern lens. Tracks like “Tree Six Foive” (that’s “3-6-5” with an Irish accent) and “When a Good Man Cries” lean most heavily into the genre, but for the most part CMAT remains straight-up pop. “I don’t know anyone that’s making anything that’s like my music,” she told MOJO recently, and she’s not wrong.
The country-ness really comes through in Ciara’s lyrics, which are personal, emotionally rich, unexpected, and often laugh-out-loud funny (but never novelty). She’s got the same wit and attitude as Reba McEntire or Dolly Parton in their prime, and she’s just as quick to poke fun at herself. “I’m a writer, I don’t do crushes,” she sings on “Janis Joplining,” following it immediately with “I do problematic attentions.” She can also devastate with heartbreak, like this verse from “Lord, Let That Tesla Crash”:
My memories are loaded with what I wanted
But I couldn’t have with you
That picture’s burnt on my TV
Now I watch Coronation Street through ghosts of you all neon green
The hook quotient is just as high as the one for one-liners and there isn’t a forgettable song on EURO-COUNTRY. Produced by Oli Deakin (who also worked on her debut If My Wife New I’d Be Dead), the record is lushly arranged and a showcase for Ciara’s acrobatic voice, which can bellow, side-eye, or soar. Especially striking are the harmonies, which at times approach Kate Bush/Kirsty MacColl levels of gossamer, particularly on the Dusty Springfield-esque “Paint a Sexy Picture for Me,” the album’s most undeniable song.
CMAT may well win the Mercury Prize next year—and she’d deserve it. There’s truly nobody else like her.
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IDLES – Caught Stealing Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Partisan)
The Bristol band bring their dark/heavy postpunk sound to the big screen, soundtracking Darren Aronofsky’s latest film
I haven’t yet seen Caught Stealing, Darren Aronofsky’s movie adaptation of Charlie Huston’s novel (and not the Jane’s Addiction song everyone immediately thinks of when they hear the title), but IDLES’ soundtrack is pretty cool. The film is set in NYC’s East Village in the late ’90s, when it was still gritty and a little dangerous, and you can feel that menace in these tracks. The music was composed by Rob Simonsen but performed by the band, giving it their trademark intensity. In addition to score pieces, there are four proper songs, all dark and snarling with a foreboding sense of dread. The best of the bunch is “Rabbit Run,” with its blast-furnace chorus.
Also here is a cover of “Police and Thieves,” which impressively avoids sounding like either Junior Murvin’s original or The Clash’s iconic version. Instead, it comes off like an IDLES original, bristling with menace and bite. How will all of this play in the film? I’m looking forward to finding out.
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Modern Nature – The Heat Warps (Bella Union)
A new twin-guitar attack leads Jack Cooper back to Ultimate Painting territory
On the first three Modern Nature albums, Jack Cooper (Ultimate Painting, Mazes) seemed intent on pushing as far out there as he could with records that were gorgeous and experimental, drawing as much from spiritual jazz as from folk or rock. On The Heat Warps, Cooper circles back toward more traditional song structures and instrumentation, aiming more directly at the pleasure centers.
Part of that shift is due to new member Tara Cunningham, making Modern Nature a two-guitar band for the first time. “We have a very similar approach to the guitar and that extends to the way we sing,” says Cooper. “So it gives the music an interesting balance.”
The Heat Warps is gentle and warm, encouraging listeners to slow down and relax at its pace. For fans of Ultimate Painting, this is the closest Cooper has come to that sound—somewhere between The Velvet Underground, The Grateful Dead, and Television at their most tranquil—since that band unexpectedly dissolved in 2018. It’s a welcome return to a style that feels so natural to him, while still keeping the cosmic/earthy thematic vibes that have defined Modern Nature from the start.
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Ganser – Animal Hospital (felte)
Working with Liars’ Angus Andrew, this Chicago post punk band level up on their first album in five years
Chicago band Ganser’s last album, 2020’s Just Look at That Sky, delivered sharp post-punk that stayed fairly down the middle of the genre’s lane. Not so with Animal Hospital, which expands their sonic aspect ratio to IMAX levels.
Working with producer Angus Andrew of Liars, the band have added a wide array of electronics to their dark, slashing sound. This record sounds big—textural and atmospheric—sometimes ripping the sky open, other times dancing in the moonlight. It also makes for a great headphone album, where the details shimmer and crackle in the mix.
Ganser are still armed to the teeth with angular guitars, but on Animal Hospital they’re no longer just playing the club—they’re piloting a star destroyer.
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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: Swervedriver – Ejector Seat Reservation (Creation Records, 1995)
The UK shoegaze vets’ best but least heard album
Swervedriver were one of the best groups of the original shoegaze era, but by 1995 interest in the genre in their home country (and label, Creation) had fully moved on to Britpop. Unlike some bands (Ride, Lush), Swervedriver stuck to their guitar pedals while trying to expand upon their sound with their third album, Ejector Seat Reservation. It was still heavy, but there was an equal emphasis on melody and maelstrom, with elements of Bowie and Bolan added to the mix–not to mention a string and horn section. It’s Swervedriver’s best album and loaded with memorable songs, including pile-driver “Bring Me the Head of the Fortune Teller,” the poppy/heavy “The Other Jesus,” elegant first single “Last Day on Earth,” and soaring closing cut “To the Birds.”
Unfortunately there was no time to celebrate: Creation Records dropped Swervedriver the week after Ejector Seat Reservation was released and deleted the album from their catalog, making it for years the band’s hardest-to-find album. Thankfully, it has been rescued and reissued a couple times since and is on streaming services.
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