{"id":110491,"date":"2025-08-01T14:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/110491\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T14:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:41:13","slug":"matthew-sweet-debby-friday-the-warlocks-everything-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/110491\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Sweet, Debby Friday, The Warlocks, Everything Else"},"content":{"rendered":"

The summer is speeding past as we say goodbye to July and hello to August. It\u2019s a very quiet week for new releases and I\u2019m only reviewing three: Debby Friday<\/strong>\u2018s follow-up to her Polaris Prize-winning debut, plus albums from LA psych vets The Warlocks<\/strong> and young UK shoegazers Everything Else<\/strong>. Plus: a power-pop nugget from 1991 as this week\u2019s Indie Basement Classic.<\/p>\n

Andrew also only reviews three records this week in Notable Releases<\/a>: Paramore\u2019s Hayley Williams, Wisp and The Armed.<\/p>\n

For a more robust read, also up is the Indie Basement Best of July roundup<\/a> which includes new track reviews, the month\u2019s best albums, a two-hour playlist and more.<\/p>\n

Things will be picking up soon, don\u2019t worry. Head below for this week\u2019s reviews.<\/p>\n

\"debby<\/p>\n

Debby Friday \u2013 The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life<\/strong> (Sub Pop)
The idiosyncratic Toronto artist follows up her Polaris Prize-winning debut and heads even deeper into pure dance music territory<\/p>\n

Following up your debut is always at least a little tough. \u201cYou\u2019ve got your whole life to write the first one, you\u2019ve only got six months for the second,\u201d as the saying goes. There\u2019s even more pressure if that debut was widely acclaimed and went on to win an award like the Polaris Music Prize<\/a>. Toronto\u2019s Debby Friday\u2014whose unpigeonholeable 2023 debut GOOD LUCK was all those things\u2014seems to be taking it all in stride, showing no weakness on a second album that makes her intentions clear: \u201cI want to be a starrr, I can\u2019t hide that desire,\u201d she said when announcing the record. \u201cBut what I don\u2019t want is to live someone else\u2019s dream or to follow a pre-set path.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time around, she teamed up with Australian producer and now bandmate Darcy Baylis (Holy Fuck\u2019s Graham Walsh co-produced GOOD LUCK) for a sound that embraces more mainstream textures. The album\u2019s opening songs\u2014\u201c1\/17\u201d and \u201cAll I Wanna Do Is Party\u201d\u2014are euphoric, neon-lit EDM bangers ready for Electric Daisy Carnival or Ultra Music Festival.<\/p>\n

For those who preferred the darker, more eccentric elements of her debut, Debby\u2019s personality comes through more on the rest of the album. \u201cIn the Club\u201d is a terrific dancefloor filler, co-produced by Hi-Tech, while the pulsating strut of \u201cLipsync\u201d is right in her wheelhouse. There\u2019s also the sexy, successful drum-and-bass workout \u201cBet on Me,\u201d and the slippery ballad \u201cHigher\u201d\u2014both highlights.<\/p>\n

Best of all, the album closes with \u201cDarker,\u201d a gothy jam powered by a Cure-esque bassline that feels more like Debby\u2019s natural habitat than where the album begins.<\/p>\n

The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life by DEBBY FRIDAY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"everything<\/p>\n

Everything Else \u2013 Another One Making Clouds<\/strong> (Big Potato Records)
Liverpool dreampop duo get a little help from Slowdive\u2019s Neil Halstead on their debut album that gets the sounds right but could use a few more good tunes<\/p>\n

Everything Else are the Liverpool duo of Herby Whittie and Charlie Holton, friends since they were six, who cite such influences as The Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, and The Jesus & Mary Chain. But on their debut album, they\u2019re making textural dreampop that doesn\u2019t so much sound like floating through clouds as being the clouds themselves. Early-\u201990s shoegaze\u2014Slowdive in particular\u2014seems to be the ur-text, and they even got that band\u2019s Neil Halstead to mix \u201cTwo Monkeys,\u201d which roars with overdriven guitars and is about the only thing that rattles the tranquil world they\u2019ve created. Everything Else have the vibe down, along with the sonic palette, but they could use a few more memorable melodies to keep things from floating away completely into the ether. There\u2019s lots of promise here\u2014they\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n

Another One Making Clouds by Everything Else<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Warlocks \u2013 The Manic Excessive Sounds Of<\/strong> (Cleopatra Records)
Long-running LA psych band play it loose on their 14th album<\/p>\n

Led by Bobby Hecksher, The Warlocks have been weaving psych, garage rock, and post-punk together for nearly 30 years. They were signed to Mute in the early \u201900s and ran in the same circles as The Brian Jonestown Massacre (Hecksher was briefly a member) and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. (Phoenix, from 2002, is worth giving a spin.) I haven\u2019t kept up with the band much since that era, but I was happy to see they had a new record out.<\/p>\n

The Manic Excessive Sounds Of is The Warlocks\u2019 14th long-player, and here at least, they\u2019re no longer chasing JAMC-style fuzz so much as misty, mystical folk rock. Hecksher says he wrote all the songs on the album in a single day, and you can feel that creative rush\u2014even as his six bandmates flesh things out around him. (The title of the album is accurate.) He hasn\u2019t lost his knack for a melody either, as the trippy ripper \u201cA Duel Between You and I\u201d and the swaying \u201cStars on Sunset\u201d clearly show.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Matthew Sweet \u2013 Girlfriend (Zoo Entertainment, 1991)<\/strong>
A near-perfect power-pop classic has lost none of its charm more than three decades on<\/p>\n

Paul Westerberg sang \u201cChildren by the millions sing for Alex Chilton\u201d in 1987 but it took a few years for\u00a0Chilton\u00a0to really become an influence on alt rock.\u00a0By 1991, between Teenage Fanclub and Matthew Sweet, Chilton\u2019s \u201970s band Big Star were being mentioned left and right. Matthew Sweet had been making records since the early \u201980s, having formed Oh-Ok with Lynda Stipe (sister of Michael) before going out on his own where he\u00a0soon became known as a musician\u2019s musician and an ace songwriter.\u00a0Sweet scored major label solo deals with Sony and then A&M, neither of whom really understood the music he was making, but once free of his contracts (and newly divorced), Sweet decided to finally do it his way. He put together a band that included Television\u2019s Richard Lloyd, The Voidoids\u2019 Robert Quine, Lloyd Cole, and Lou Reed sideman Fred Maher (who produced) for Girlfriend, a stripped-back, shit-hot power-pop record that let the songwriting and musicianship shine. The great songs just pour out, including MTV hits \u201cGirlfriend\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ve Been Waiting,\u201d but also \u201cDivine Intervention,\u201d \u201cEvangeline\u201d and the sun-dappled \u201cWinona\u201d (an ode to \u201990s crush Winona Ryder). Girlfriend at once sounded classic and modern in 1991 and still does.<\/p>\n

Matthew\u2019s been going though tough times<\/a> following his debilitating stroke last year and could use your help, whether it\u2019s giving his albums a play or donating to his gofundme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And check out what\u2019s new in our shop<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The summer is speeding past as we say goodbye to July and hello to August. It\u2019s a very…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[70282,70283,70284,70285,171,70286,70287,70288,70289,70290,70291,975,70292,70293,70294,70295,70296,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-110491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bills-indie-basement","9":"tag-debby-friday","10":"tag-debby-friday-the-starrr-of-the-queen-of-life","11":"tag-debby-friday-the-starrr-of-the-queen-of-life-review","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-everything-else-another-one-making-clouds","14":"tag-everything-else-another-one-making-clouds-review","15":"tag-hi-tech","16":"tag-matthew-sweet","17":"tag-matthew-sweet-girlfriend","18":"tag-matthew-sweet-girlfriend-review","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-neil-halstead","21":"tag-slowdive","22":"tag-the-warlocks","23":"tag-the-warlocks-the-manic-excessive-sounds-of","24":"tag-the-warlocks-the-manic-excessive-sounds-of-review","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}