💿 On Deck 1/23/26
New trip hop post-punk fusions, underrated alternative R&B, and '90s style indie rock were on deck this week at The New Sincerest.
New & Notable This Week
Genre: Trip Hop / Post-punk
Key Tracks: “Rain” / “Peel” / “Flood”
Listen If You Like: james K, Tirzah, Massive Attack
Drawing from recent trends in trip hop revival and melding it with their post-punk influences, PVA are as restless as ever on No More Like This. While Ella Harris’ vocals remain dead-pan and icy, the booming drums and the layered synth arrangements reveal the passion under the record’s cool surface. The album’s cover is a perfect reflection of No More Like This’ themes: intimacy and danger, vulnerable objectification and subversive abjection, the ways lust and loneliness cause us to contort ourselves to meet our own needs or the needs of another. While contemporaries venturing into the waters of trip hop have generally sought something ethereal or reflective, PVA aren’t afraid to seek out murkier, sludgier depths to challenge listeners, but that challenge is rewarding, a complex exploration of how we betray and protect our bodies in the wake of longing.
Genre: Pop / Eurodance
Key Tracks: “TRIGGER” / “EGO” / “LOVESONGS”
Listen If You Like: Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Slayyyter, Cascada
Two decades into her career after winning the second season of Swedish Idol in 2005, Agnes goes back to basics on BEAUTIFUL MADNESS, a love letter to strains of Eurodance tinged with darkness and fog machines. Despite its directness and simplicity, the record feels as bold as its caps-lock title, Agnes’ full-bodied vocals and simultaneously brash and reflective attitude elevating the songs when they edge toward the generic; a few too many interludes also detract from the generally strong sequencing. While it’s not rewriting the club songbook, BEAUTIFUL MADNESS is a confident execution of all the genre has to offer.
Genre: Dream pop
Listen If You Like: Muna, The Japanese House, HAIM
While Avalon Emerson is primarily known as an electronic music producer and DJ, she’s staked out a pretty fantastic dream pop career alongside her band & the Charm. Their self-titled debut record from 2023 was my sleeper hit of that year, a mix of subdued electronica and indie rock that reminded me most of The Postal Service and their watershed record Give Up. With new album Written into Changes coming out in March, Avalon Emerson & the Charm has given listeners a double dose of teaser tracks, “Jupiter and Mars” and “Eden”, emphasizing their dream pop influences while still maintaining a danceable groove. On “Jupiter and Mars” in particular, Emerson’s vocals and lyrics about letting go hit a beautifully bittersweet, like if The Sundays had received a dance remix. Keep an eye out for this record when it arrives March 20th.
Genre: Disco/ Nu-disco
Listen If You Like: Sabrina Carpenter, Beyonce, Teena Marie
The first preview for an as of now unannounced new album, Jessie Ware returns to the dance floor with this elegant, chic, and sultry nu-disco cut. Strings and drums cascade around Ware’s velvet vocals, the purr of the chorus as lux as an expensive glass of wine or the first kiss after a night out at a party. No one makes sex appeal sound as effortless as Ware.
Genre: Indie Rock / Emo
Listen If You Like: Soccer Mommy, Turnstile, Wishy
When Snail Mail burst onto the scene with the Habit EP in 2016 and the instant classic 2018 debut album Lush, lead artist Lindsey Jordan consistently received comparisons to mid-1990s Liz Phair, and for good reason: both artists’ early work is defined by a raw and nervous energy, crunching riffs and fiery solos stepping in for overflowing emotions when lyrics just won’t cut it. However, Snail Mail’s trajectory as a project has followed Liz Phair’s career in a less flattering manner: with each release, Snail Mail’s music has become more polished and approachable, teetering dangerously close to frictionless rock. The lead single for new album Ricochet, “Dead End”, starts out promising with jangly guitars, but by the time a wordless refrain ends the track, it feels like Jordan is still figuring out how to balance rawness and polish. Hesitantly anticipating this record.
On Rotation
Genre: Alternative R&B / Electropop
Key Tracks: “Badly” / “Like Fire” / “Over and Over”
Listen If You Like: Janet Jackson, FKA twigs, Caribou
One of the most underrated albums of the first half of the 2020s, Jessy Lanza’s third record is a gem of late night alternative R&B and electropop, its downtempo beats and spacey synths creating a luxurious atmosphere offset by the anxiety of its lovesick lyrics and Lanza’s airy vocals. From slow jam “Badly” to the footwork splicing “Like Fire” and “Over and Over”, All the Time manifests the cyberpunk lounge bar of your dreams.
Genre: Sophisti-pop / Club
Key Tracks: “Never Seen You Dance” / “Sound & Rhythm” / “A Dream I Have”
Listen If You Like: Harry Styles, Washed Out, Teen Daze
Shortening the wild name Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs to TEED for this 2022 release, When The Lights Go is a record of handsome and sleek low-lit club and sophisti-pop. While the BPM can increase to peak hours euphoria, more often than not TEED coasts on a glassy, neon glow vibe. “Never Seen You Dance” and “Sound & Rhythm” show the two sides of this record beautifully, evoking the romanticism of a late night out on the town and the dreamy drive home, either solo or with someone new. Make sure to check out the deluxe edition, which includes highlight “A Dream I Have”, a track that moves between ambient stretches and Italo-disco bliss.
12” Single of the Week
Genre: R&B / Downtempo
Listen If You Like: The Weeknd, Kelela, Erika de Casier
Receiving comparisons to Michael Jackson upon the release of his 1994 debut album For You, London Jones is an R&B artist who had his moment right as new jack swing was going out of vogue. On this 12” single version of lead single “Save Our Love”, the track is remixed by Carl “Groove” Martin into a downtempo, alternative R&B hidden gem, Jones’ swaggering vocal layered on top of itself and filtered through vocoder until it becomes something like what The Weeknd would execute on his breakthrough House of Balloons. Although Jones never broke through in his own time, the extended vocal mix of “Save Our Love” is a hidden blueprint for off-kilter contemporary alternative R&B.
