The fall harvest has kicked in majorly and this week I review seven albums: the fifth and best bar italia album yet; Soulwax‘s sleek, synth-driven All Systems Are Lying; the cozy shoegaze of Living Hour‘s fourth long-player; Jane Inc‘s joyous, house-inspired third record; the 11th album from Kiwi indie greats The Bats; cult legend Lawrence’s latest as Mozart Estate; and Manchester goth duo Nightbus‘ debut album.

With Bob Mould’s ’90s band Sugar surprise reforming this week for shows and new music (!), this week’s Indie Basement Classic is their perfect debut album.

Andrew has an even bigger week in Notable Releases, reviewing the latest from Good Luck, Sudan Archives, Militarie Gun, The Last Dinner Party, and more.

This week on the BV Interviews podcast, I talk with Gruff Rhys about his new solo album, Super Furry Animals, and lots more.

M for Montreal is coming up in about a month and if you happen to be going, be sure to hit the official BrooklynVegan showcase.

Head below for this week’s reviews…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: bar italia – Some Like It Hot (Matador)
A big step up and out of the shadows for this London trio, who deliver their most immediate, satisfying, hook-filled record to date

London trio bar italia say they “never meant to be mysterious,” but when your albums come without credits, your press photo looks like this, and your shows are played in near-darkness, the aura of enigma feels deliberate. Not that that’s a bad thing — a little mystique is a good thing in these days of oversharing — but the band began to open up on 2023’s The Twits, and now, with their fifth album and third for Matador, they’ve fully stepped into the spotlight.

You can tell right away Some Like It Hot is a leap forward. The toy piano that opens the album quickly derails, like a warped tape reel, before snapping into place atop an irresistible bassline. “Fundraiser” is the most immediate and hooky song bar italia have ever made, pairing a taut new wave riff worthy of early XTC with a melody that nods to The Cure. Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, and Sam Fenton still trade off on vocals, but this time the interplay feels intentional and kinetic, not a musical version of Exquisite Corpse. The swaggering, glam-infused “Cowbella” finds all three weaving around a shared riff, their parts colliding and feeding off one antoher.

Self-produced, Some Like It Hot is also their best-sounding record to date — the rhythm section snaps, guitars cut cleanly, and the vocals are clear and direct without losing atmosphere. Alongside infectious indie rock anthems like “Omni Shambles,” “Eyepatch,” and “I Make My Own Dust,” there are smoky, jazz-tinged slow burns (“Marble Arch”) and lush, cinematic ballads (“Bad Reputation,” “Plastered,” and the title track). These three have been evolving quickly, but with Some Like It Hot, bar italia have arrived.

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Soulwax – All Systems Are Lying (DEEWEE)
Sleek, sexy synth-rock abounds on the first album in seven years from the Belgian band led by brothers Stephen & David Dewaele

“I want to run free when I choose it, play the wrong chord, say something stupid,” Soulwax sing over a bed of gurgling synthesizer arpeggiations on “Run Free,” the opening cut on their first album in seven years. If you know anything about the immaculate, layered electronic music Stephen and David Dewaele make as Soulwax, the word “mistakes” doesn’t come to mind, but they have stressed that All Systems Are Lying is their attempt to make something less cerebral and more intuitive. It’s also their attempt to make a rock record — albeit one with no guitars but lots and lots of synths.

Soulwax used to be a more traditional indie band, but in the 2000s they transformed into the group they are now: making live-band albums with a DJ’s sensibility, a concept that also plays out more literally with the Dewaeles’ wildly creative 2ManyDJs alter ego. All Systems Are Lying is their most “rock” record since 2004’s Any Minute Now, but it’s rock in the way Gary Numan’s Tubeway Army were. The rhythms are made with real drums — they currently sport a three-drummer lineup including Sepultura’s Iggor Cavalera — but almost everything else here is electronic: thick, woozy low end, synthesizers that sound seasick with Doppler-style effects, and tightly interwoven lead lines.

As usual, the whole thing has been crafted into one long, continuous set with flawless, seamless transitions between songs. The best moments, like “Gimme a Reason,” let the Dewaeles stretch out their grooves and get wild while keeping the lyrics simple and hypnotic. All Systems Are Lying also plays like a live set, and if you’ve ever seen Soulwax in concert, you know how that translates — they may rarely hit a wrong chord, but they absolutely run free.

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Living Hour – Internal Drone Infinity (Keeled Scales)
Part shoegaze, part country, these Winnipeg indie rockers’ fourth album is warm and comforting

Is there such a thing as cozy shoegaze? If so — and I’m saying there is — Winnipeg indie rock vets Living Hour are its poster children. Like your favorite sweater or a bowl of pasta e fagioli, the band’s fourth album is warm and enveloping, full of fuzzy guitar tones, whispery melodies, and soaring, gloriously noisy choruses. Internal Drone Infinity perfects their particular mix of comfort and catharsis, where descending chord progressions, twin leads, and Sam Sarty’s wistful voice wrap around you like a blanket.

As on 2022’s Someday is Today, the band worked with producer Melina Duterte (aka Jay Som), who ensures the textures and tones hit just right. Every guitar shimmer and bass thrum feels placed with care. But perfect sound alone can only take you so far — fortunately, Living Hour back it up with strong, emotionally resonant songwriting. They can slip from the gentle to the grand, from a country-tinted lullaby to a wall of feedback that somehow still feels tender. A little bit country, a little bit shoegaze, a little bit slowcore, Internal Drone Infinity is the sound of melancholy meeting warmth — and it really hits the spot.

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Jane Inc – A RUPTURE A CANYON A BIRTH (Telephone Explosion)
A near death experience inspired Jane Inc’s euphoric, house-inflected third album

While on tour with US Girls in April 2023, Carlyn Bezic was in a serious auto accident when a semi smashed into the broken-down tour van she and five other musicians were in. Miraculously, no one was seriously hurt, and they decided to continue the tour — but the experience changed her. Performing afterward with newfound joie de vivre, Bezic, who records as Jane Inc, carried that spirit through a year that also saw the end of a long-term relationship and a cancer diagnosis on her vocal cords. Two successful surgeries later, her voice — and her renewed sense of purpose — are intact, culminating in A RUPTURE A CANYON A BIRTH, an ecstatic concept album about life, death, and survival.

It’s also about dancing. This is the most joyous, beat-forward record Carlyn has made, owing a lot to ‘90s house — all bouncy piano hooks, rubbery synth basslines, and electro handclaps, with keyboards straight off a Crystal Waters or Inner City 12”. “Maybe I’m doomed / Or maybe this is a gift,” she ponders on opener “reborn (on the dancefloor),” setting the tone for a record that celebrates forward motion, resilience, and renewal.

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The Bats – Corner Coming Up (Flying Nun)
11th album from these New Zealand indie legends, who’ve boasted the same four-person lineup for more than four decades

Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean, and Malcolm Grant have been The Bats since forming in 1982 in Christchurch, NZ. Like the lineup, their style hasn’t changed much either: jangly guitar pop built around Scott’s steady strum and tenor vocals, Woodward’s melodic leads and harmonies, and a rock-solid rhythm section from Grant and Kean. It’s a resilient, winning formula that still works beautifully on Corner Coming Up, the Kiwi legends’ 11th album and first in five years. They’ve mellowed some over 40+ years, but all the familiar elements are here — especially that hint of minor-chord melancholy woven through their catchiest songs, of which there are many here. Long may they fly.

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Mozart Estate – Tower Block in a Jam Jar (Cherry Red)
Indie cult hero Lawrence, of Felt and Denim fame, re-records songs from his Go-Kart Mozart era with a higher budget

Lawrence, the man behind Felt, Denim, Go-Kart Mozart, and Mozart Estate, is an indie cult hero whose brilliance and dreams of superstardom have often been overshadowed by his many eccentricities. But the spotlight found him again last year with the release of Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence, Will Hodgkinson’s hilarious and often heartbreaking biography, which won the Penderyn Music Book Prize. It’s a fantastic read, and Lawrence is such a character that you don’t even need to know his music to enjoy it.

For many readers who discovered him through Street-Level Superstar (now out in paperback), interest in his music has never been higher. Some of the Go-Kart Mozart records were made on the cheap and aren’t on streaming, so Lawrence has cherry-picked a dozen songs from his post-Denim catalog and rerecorded them with his current Mozart Estate band. “This is an album for people who have never heard Mozart Estate or Go-Kart Mozart before,” says Lawrence. “It’s for people who picked up the book and got into me that way. If you’re one of those, then this record will knock your socks off!!”

I’d argue Tower Block in a Jam Jar is for everybody, though it does serve as a perfect introduction to Lawrence’s singular post-Felt worldview and style, both firmly rooted in the ’70s. It’s a definite sonic upgrade, especially for the ’00s-era material like “Summer is Here,” “City Centre,” and “Glorious Chorus,” which all get budget–hi-fi makeovers with real drums, pedal steel, better synths, and rich harmonies. The results are kitschy, glam, and glowing in saturated technicolor. It’s his best-sounding record since Back in Denim and, even with songs spanning 25 years, it holds together beautifully. It might even knock your socks off.

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Nightbus – Passenger (Melodic)
Derivative but satisfying debut album from Manchester darkwave duo

Nightbus are the Manchester duo of Olive Rees and Jake Cottier, who mash up a few different dark-hued genres from the last 40 years — ’80s goth and synthwave, trip hop, downtempo electronics, trance, dreampop, shoegaze, a whole lot of The xx — into their own alluring sound. Like all good goths, they know how to give a good pretentious quote: “We’re travellers in our own bodies; there’s an alter-ego nurturing our secrets, fantasies, shame, and fears, lost in the underworld of humanity. A dreamscape of tabu existence, things that define us but wouldn’t come up in casual conversations. This album is that traveller, the passenger.” But they also have a way with hooks, melody, and atmosphere, and derivative as parts of Passenger are, it’s all extremely well done, getting those sounds just right. If you have a soft spot for the stuff they’re cribbing from, you’ll probably enjoy songs like “Somewhere, Nowhere” and “Angles Mortz” as much as I do.

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: Sugar – Copper Blue (1992, Creation / Rykodisc)
With Sugar back in action after 30 years, let’s look back at their perfect debut album

Surprise! Bob Mould’s short-lived, much-loved mid-’90s band Sugar roared back to life this week, with an announcement of their first shows in three decades and, even more surprisingly, new music. It seems like a good time to revisit their still amazing debut album. This originally ran for the album’s 30th anniversary in 2022:

Bob Mould has always worked best in power trio mode. After his iconic Minneapolis punk band Hüsker Dü fizzled out 1988, he spent a few years as a solo artist, releasing the well-regarded, acoustic oriented Workbook in 1989 and the louder but less successful Black Sheets of Rain in 1990. Released from his contract with Virgin Records and inspired by Nirvana’s Nevermind, Mould found himself wanting to make noisy guitar pop again. He recorded demos which led to him signing to independent labels Creation Records in the UK and Rykodisc in North America. Recruiting bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis to help record the album, he ended up forming a new band and while at at diner in Athens, GA, looking at the table’s container of sugar packets, they came up with their name.

With their roaring, punk-injected guitar pop sound, Sugar were definitely a more natural fit with a label of noisemakers like Creation (home to My Bloody Valentine and Ride) than Rykodisc (who were mainly known for being the first CD-only label). In any case, Sugar’s classic debut album, released September 4, 1992, is one of that year’s best, with Mould’s signature mix of rippers (“Changes,” “A Good Idea”), pop songs (“Helpless,” “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”) and even a little prog (“Hoover Dam”). Copper Blue was actually more of a hit across the pond first, reaching #10 in the UK album charts and getting named the Best Album of 1992 by NME; the record really caught on with American alt-rock radio and MTV in 1993. Sugar burned bright and hot, releasing Beaster (recorded during the same sessions as Copper Blue) a mere six months later, yet flamed out during sessions for their second album. Still, Copper Blue remains one of Mould’s best collection of songs. It’s a perfect record.

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

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THE MOON & THE MELODIES: 12 SONGS FEATURING ELIZABETH FRASER

This Mortal Coil – “A Song to the Siren”

Most people want Elizabeth Fraser for her voice's more angelic qualities, but she's got quite the range, and her lower register can be just as transportive, as this spine-tingling cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" proves. This Mortal Coil was the recording project of 4AD Records founder Ivo Watts-Russell and producer John Fryer, and "Song to the Siren" -- Ivo's favorite song of all time -- was TMC's debut single in 1983. With guitar from Robin Guthrie, it remains one of the most unforgettable showcases for Fraser's emotive pipes. This Mortal Coil's version has touched a lot of people over the years, perhaps none more so than filmmaker David Lynch, who has called it his favorite piece of music ever. He was obsessed with "Song to the Siren" during the making of Blue Velvet, and wanted Fraser and Guthrie to perform it in the film, but usage rights were out of the film's budget. Lynch eventually got to use it 10 years later in Lost Highway. "That song does something to me, for sure," Lynch told The Guardian.

Jeff Buckley & Elizabeth Fraser – “All Flowers in Time (Bend Toward the Sun)” (demo)

Jeff Buckley loved This Mortal Coil's cover of his father's "Song to the Siren," and the musical admiration was mutual, as Fraser was enamored with Jeff Buckley's album Grace. Their mutual admiration grew into a short but passionate love affair somewhere around 1994, which was not long after her relationship with Robin Guthrie ended. (Cocteau Twins continued till 1997.) "I just couldn't help falling in love with him," she said in BBC documentary Jeff Buckley - Everybody Here Wants You. "I read his diaries, he read mine. We'd just swap...I've never done that with anybody else." While it didn't last, at least one song was written during their relationship. "All the Flowers in Time (Bend Toward the Sun)" is a gorgeous duet between Buckley and Fraser, with Jeff singing the chorus of "Oh, all flowers in time bend towards the sun / I know you say that there's no-one for you / But here is one." It's a rough demo that has never been commercially released, but you don't really need much more than their voices to have you wondering what could have been.

Elizabeth Fraser w/ Massive Attack at Radio City Music Hall, 2019 (photo by P Squared)

Massive Attack – “Teardrop”

Elizabeth Fraser's most popular song, Cocteau Twins or otherwise, is probably "Teardrop," one of three songs she sings on Massive Attack's 1998 album Mezzanine. It is the trip hop group's biggest UK hit, reaching #10, and it went to #1 in Iceland, and in the '00s became known as the theme song to TV show House. Liz says she learned of Jeff Buckley's death while recording it which influenced her lyrics. "I'd got letters out and I was thinking about him," Fraser told The Guardian. "That song's kind of about him – that's how it feels to me anyway." Interestingly, the track was almost given to Madonna. Massive Attack's Mushroom sent Madonna the instrumental and she really wanted to make it a single of her own. No disrespect to Madge but we're glad 3D and Daddy G won out. She can still belt it out, too.

Felt – “Primitive Painters”

One of the great UK indie singles -- and duets -- of the mid-'80s came about through happenstance. Felt, the cult band led by the iconoclastic Lawrence, hired Robin Guthrie to produce their 1985 album Ignite the Seven Cannons, the centerpiece of which was "Primitive Painters," with its hypnotic, cyclical riff. (You're right, it does sound a little like Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City.") Liz Fraser came to visit Guthrie in the studio while Felt were working on the song, and he had the idea to have her sing on it. Lawrence told Uncut: "He just played her the end section. I wrote the lyrics out for her on a piece of paper, she went in, listened to it once on headphones, and then just improvised around it. It was as real as that. It was a remarkable moment. When you listen back to something like that, we knew we’d got it." A classic was born.

photo by Barnaby Roper

Jónsi – “Cannibal”

One wonders if The Cocteau Twins didn't inspire all of what we think of as "Icelandic music" -- the kind that sounds like glaciers and waterfalls -- even if just through osmosis. Sigur Ros certainly got compared to the Cocteaus a lot when they first started, though the band always claimed they'd never listened to them. (Never?) "I really didn’t like that," says Sigur Ros' Jónsi of the comparisons. "I hated being compared to anybody. Then I got really into Cocteau Twins like two or three years ago. They’re so good. I understood the comparison then." Thankfully he came around as it's given us "Cannibal" from Jónsi's new solo album. It's the sound of two one-of-a-kind, unearthly voices meeting in the heavens.

Dif Juz – “Love Insane”

Dif Juz were one of 4AD's early signings, an instrumental post-punk group whose sound fell somewhere between Cocteau Twins' ethereal wash and Dead Can Dance's baroque orchestrations. (The mix proved influential on the '90s post-rock scene.) Their 1985 album Extractions features this beautiful collaboration with Fraser that pairs her voice with delicate piano and saxophone. The group's Richard Thomas would return the favor by playing saxophone on Cocteau Twins' 1986 album Victorialand.

Ian McCulloch – “Candleland”

Here's another case of two iconic '80s voices coming together to make magic. Echo & the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch brought in Fraser to sing on the title track of his 1989 solo debut. "Candleland" has a bit of a Cocteau Twins sound to it, with a gentle melody and treated, arpeggiated guitars, and would probably be considered a pleasant but less impressive song without her. What really makes "Candleland" soar is the alchemy of McCulloch's smoky croon and Fraser, who is at her most angelic here. The call-and-response at the end of the song could go on twice as long -- three times -- and would not get old. McCulloch & Fraser worked similar magic on "Heaven's Gate" from his second solo album, Mysterio.

Medicine – “Time Baby 3”

Los Angeles shoegaze band Medicine were kind of America's My Bloody Valentine, not afraid to mix harsh noise, ethereal beauty and electronica in new and cool ways. The band appeared in the 1993 film The Crow, performing a rocking version of Time Baby II" in a club scene. The Crow soundtrack, however, featured a dreamy remix of the song by Robin Guthrie, dubbed "Time Baby III." Guthrie added some of his signature guitar stylings and brought in Liz Fraser for backing vocals. Most of what Fraser does is subtle, but then she unleashes her full power on some "no no nos," sending things into the stratosphere.

Elizabeth Fraser – “Moses”

Fraser hasn't made much music under her own name since the Cocteau Twins disbanded. She released a limited edition single, "Underwater," in 2000 (only 200 pressed); contributed a cover of Chic's "At Last I Am Free" to Rough Trade's 25th anniversary cover comp Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before; and she put out this 2009 single which she released as a tribute to her friend and Echo & The Bunnymen collaborator Jake Drake-Brockman, who died that year. Made with her partner, drummer Damien Reese (Lupine Howl, Massive Attack, EATB), "Moses" rides a trip hop vibe by way of the French Riviera, but Fraser's voice is really the main instrument, with layer upon layer of gorgeous harmonies.

Howard Shore – “Lothlorien (feat. Gandalf’s Lament)” (from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring)

When you're making movies out of some of the most beloved fantasy novels of all time -- say, The Lord of the Rings series -- it's good to have access to a "Voice of God" who is used to singing in invented languages. Director Peter Jackson and composer Howard Shore brought in Fraser for The Fellowship of the Ring scene where the Fellowship rests in Lothlórien, while the elves sing a lament for Gandalf. Needless to say, her Elvish is impeccable (skip to around 2:30 mark on the track to for Fraser's entrance). They brought Fraser back for The Two Towers'"Isengaard Uleashed" sequence. Speaking of heavenly voices: Fellowship of the Ring's soundtrack also featured Enya.

Yann Tiersen – “Kala”

Composer Yann Tiersen, who gained fame in 2001 for his Amelie score, released Les Retrouvailles in 2005 which found him collaborating with a number of great vocalists, including Jane Birkin, Tindersticks frontman Stuart Staples and Fraser, who contributed to two songs on the album. "I was a huge fan of [Cocteau Twins] and of her voice," Tiersen told The Beijinger. They wrote the fanciful, swooping and dramatic "Kala" together. "It’s like a very good moment in the studio we spent together...to see her working and see her ideas coming from nowhere. It was great."

The Wolfgang Press – “Respect”

Chances are you've never heard Liz Fraser like this before. Certainly not since, either. The Wolfgang Press were a dark and brooding band signed to 4AD, cut from the same cloth as The Birthday Party but with an interest in funk, dub and drum machines. Having become fast friends with Liz and Robin of the Cocteau Twins, TWP asked Liz to sing on their debut EP...for a cover of Aretha Franklin's "Respect." It's true. Liz provides the "Just a little bit!" backing vocals in the chorus. "Our version was too rigid," Wolfgang Press frontman Mark Allen said in 4AD chronicle Facing the Other Way. "It should have been thrashier, heavy, more tribal. It was almost comical by the end." It's probably the most comical song 4AD released in the '80s, and more of a curio than anything else, but it's nonetheless interesting to hear Fraser so outside her wheelhouse.