Rambling Fox

April 2026 Monthly Music Round-Up

Art by Sancoon

It's April - spring is making its moves, the plant gunk flying everywhere has brought the traditional hayfever fits with it, and I heard some new music and bought some less new music. Not as much as last month in the latter department, thank god.

New Music Immediate Impressions

American Football - American Football [LP4]

The on-and-off US indie legends return again after a long period of absence, and they're more tightly wrapped up in their own world than ever. LP4 is a dense listen: in its core it's a direct follow-up to the extended moods and soundscapes of LP3, but the time in between is represented by AmeriBall now frequently dipping close to post-rock and how the drums in particular have gone full math-rock in places. These are hefty, heady songs instrumentally and take so much to wrap your head around them just on that alone. Then you add the emotional charge of the record - I'm paraphrasing someone on a Discord I visit, but where LP3 was asking "guys, am I heading to divorcetown?", LP4 is on full-on divorced dad mode. Kinsella is also fully cognizant - rightfully or wrongly - that he was the reason for it and basically spends the album pouring his guts out what a mess of a human being he is, how he's all alone now, beyond any help, and other modes of laying out his miseries with brutal bluntness and honesty on tape.

It's all a lot to take in, and it makes me feel very awkward saying this but it also results in a really great, magnetic record. It's a whole soundworld to sink into, best brought out either with headphones or played out loud in a dark room where the rich sonics can wrap themselves around you in all their gorgeous detail. The songs aren't as immediate as last time, but they're awe-striking in their constant sense of swirling chaos that occasionally calms down enough to resemble something of a verse or a chorus. It's a towering monolith on top of a broken person; and in a strict music/fan sense, another evolution for this rarely-appearing group who always seems to take a leap into the unknown with each release.

Bon Iver - Volumes One: Selections From Music Concerts 2019-2023 Bon Iver 6 Piece Band

The title is awful (and incorrect - there's a song from 2017 in here!), but a live album from Bon Iver is long overdue. One of my favourite concerts ever was their gig in Manchester ca. 2022: the visuals were breathtaking and the live arrangements were phenomenal, leading to a truly special evening. The I, I songs in particular really benefited from the live circuit, as the album itself is my least favourite of theirs but the songs completely transform live to such an extent that many of them are real favourites of mine in that form. So, it's fantastic to have this side of the band officially catalogued and it's as brilliant as expected - every song here feels like a true moment and captures just how strong this line-up of the band was. My only critique here is that this really could have and should have been a full concert recording or at least a 2 CD collection of the best of the tour - ten songs does flow better as an album admittedly, but leaves so much out as well and having experienced a full set from them, I yearn for more.

A must for Bon Iver fans - don't skip this just because it's a live album.

WU LYF - A Wave That Will Never Break

If you're a fan of the UK 2000s indie wave and/or you were there in the first place, this is a hell of an unexpected surprise. WU LYF only ever released one album back in the day (2011's Go Tell Fire to the Mountain) but straddled between hype and notoriety so preciously that it left a lasting impact in the mind's of some aging hipsters like me. Armed with both a very eccentric flair to their music and a PR campaign that boosted them as much as it seemed to backfire when it went too far, WU LYF left us with one album that was good but moreso promised of further potential before frontman Ellery Roberts disbanded the group due to not being able to handle everything anymore, and seemingly cut ties with everyone else altogether. And now, 15 years later, WU LYF have reunited and finally bring about their second album. Wild; of all this generation's acts, this is one I legit thought I'd never hear more from.

Even though it's been fifteen years, it's mad just how much of a natural evolution this sounds like for the band. There are elements that hint at the years between: Roberts' vocals are no longer as OTT-incomprehensible and possessed as they were (you can actually understand some of these words), and the somewhat chaotic energy has noticeably calmed down. But in many other ways, you honestly can't tell how much time there has been in-between and the leap from the debut to here is closer to something that could easily have come a couple of years after the debut. The band still sound fiercely impassioned as they raise their fists towards the sky, rousing the audience as well as defying the forces that be - channelled through a series of anthemic moments that are as bold as they are crooked. But here they're more refined and more defined, each song building into a mini-epic that isn't afraid to bloom into something beautiful amidst the extended passages and initial ominousness.

It's a great album, and I daresay better than the debut. Most of all, it sounds like an album that could only have come from a genuine desire for these guys to play music together again instead of cashing in on any kind of perceived nostalgia for this era (who even remembers WU LYF anymore, anyway? Definitely not a group who's had any Tiktok resurgences or legacy cred with the younger indie crowd). Often it's even quite beautiful. And if you get the CD, you get a legit hidden track which honestly caught me by surprise - one of my favourite musical experiences of the year to date.

Hoard Updates

Just a bunch of CDs this month, no digital purchases - just didn't get around to any.

CD

A good chunk of this list is actually just delayed receipts - I tend to include albums here in the month they actually arrived, rather than when I bought them. That means that the physical pre-orders for both Cobalt Bloom's wonderful ambient experience Liminal (BC) and This Is the Glasshouse's ambitious art rock epic 867 (BC) finally arrived, and the copy of the Inter Galactica Dance Attack's Sonic-sampling Eurodance single that I ordered through a friend of mine reached me after a few months. Regarding the former two specifically, it's so wonderful to see more albums from the furry fandom coming out on CD and in both case the packaging is so wonderful too - thick booklets full of artwork, lyrics (in the case of 867) and thoughts from the artists. Really excited to have these in my collection.

There's also a few Finndie albums from the 00s to fill up the gaps. Hmm, I wonder if there's a reason why I'm suddenly gathering material from this era again... maybe there's an old mixtape project that I am thinking of updating... ? (the audience goes crickets)

Music reviews

April saw the conclusion of both the Chumbawamba and PMMP discography runs. I already posted about these before in their own entries, but here's the links again in case you may have missed the previous posts about these particular review runs finishing.

Most played song of the month according to Last.FM

PMMP's pseudo-title track from their last "proper" album became the top-scrobbling song of the month. It's one of my favourites from the album and perhaps the one I come to randomly play the most, so it's only befitting. A wonderfully bouncy song musically; an incredibly defeated narrative lyrically.

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