Short and Quick - May 2025

In this month's column, I'll be sharing my thoughts on three of my most anticipated releases of the year: Model/Actriz's Pirouette, Car Seat Headrest's The Scholars and yeule's Evangelic Girl is a Gun, as well as an older Paysage D'Hiver song that I've only recently discovered. Enjoy !

Model/Actriz - Pirouette

Industrial Rock Dance Punk

Noise Rock

I was thrilled when this new Model/Actriz record was announced. Like many fans of the band, I was introduced to them with their 2023 record Dogsbody, which took the alternative music scene by storm and was discussed by basically everyone. While I liked Dogsbody a lot, and there are many songs on it, like Mosquito, that I've had in heavy rotation for a long time I always felt that as a an album, it lacked just a bit of something. To me, it always felt more like a collection of good songs, although there are some really cool transitions on it that you'll miss if you only listen to the songs. Pirouette changes this: since it's release just a few weeks ago I've listened to it in full 10 - 15 times. While this record loses some of the brutal intensity of Dogsbody and also their earlier work, such as No, it replaces it with a lot of catchiness and a more nuanced, subtle emotionality. This works in the record's favour in terms of flow and replayability, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being my favourite and most-played record of the year. 

yeule - Evangelic Girl is a Gun
Alternative Rock Pop Rock Indietronica

Trip Hop 

Softscars, yeules last album, was one of my favourite records of 2023. So, naturally, I was excited when Evangelic Girl is a Gun was announced with the release of the second single Skullcrusher. The first single, Eko, showed a much cleaner and accessible yeule, while Skullcrusher and Evangelic Girl is a Gun both had a very different sound, with the former being a trip hop influenced piece of industrial rock and the latter an electropop banger. The final single, Dudu, more closely resembled the pop rock of Eko. Given the variety of different sounds I was quite interested in which direction the rest of the songs would go. Having listened to the record in full it sort of feels like a continuation of the Softscars sound, but with less shoegaze. Skullcrusher and Evangelic Girl is a Gun are the only two songs that really deviate from the pop rock / alt pop sound, which is honestly a bit disappointing. While I don't dislike the record, and I'm sure I'll listen to it quite a bit, it just feels like a shorter, safer version of Softscars. I hope that, for their next record yeule takes a few more risks and pushes their sound more in the direction of the title track, which is by far the best song on the record. 

Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars
Rock Opera Indie Rock
Progressive Rock Art Rock

Car Seat Headrest adopt a less personal, more conceptual style on their new record The Scholars ,and I'm quite happy with this overall. As I mentioned in my short discussion of this record's lead single, Gethsemane, I was worried that the band could never quite live up to the expectations of their young fanbase. The band's most famous work, Twin Fantasy, was released when Will Toledo was 19; he is now 32. Naturally, the same teenage angst that informed their early work is no longer present, but I think this record found a good path forward for the band. Rather than focusing on the happenings of Will's life, it follows several people that are studying at a fictional university, each facing issues that fans of the band can relate to, such as identity. Musically the production is more cleaner and more polished than ever, fitting the new rock opera approach quite well. While I do wish the story was a bit more easily understandable, and I feel like it lacks a strong overarching narrative, I still enjoyed the record alot and I'm excited to see the band continue in this direction with future releases.

Now for some a Songs !

Paysage D'Hiver - Das schwarze Metall-Eisen

Atmospheric Black Metal

Ambient Techno

Das schwarze Metall-Eisen is a Paysage D'Hiver song that only appeared on the original cassette of Schattengang until it was released on a two song compilation together with another Paysage rarity, Das Gletschertor. Despite my long history with the band, I had not heard this track until i wrote my recent article on them. The track is so unusual that I thought it deserved a mention here. Creating at a time when Tobias Möckl hadn't quite settled on the signature Paysage sound, this song has a much more aggressive, battle-like atmosphere than his other songs, which tend to be more somber. The guitars are aggressive, and shouting samples fill the background. Another notable feature is that, for the last few minutes, the song transitions into an ambient techno song - a genre that was never revisited on any Paysage D'Hiver release. Aside from these oddities, it's also just another good Paysage D'Hiver track that fans of the band should check out.

 

𝑺𝑬𝑬 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑺𝑷𝑨𝑪𝑬 𝑪𝑶𝑾𝑩𝑶𝒀...