While a massive spring and summer concert season gets ready to unfold, musicians across Nashville and nearby continue their parade of exciting releases. The Scene’s music writers have seven new recommendations for you, one of which is technically 40 years old — more on that later. Add ’em to your streaming queue, pick them up from your favorite local record store or put them on your wish list for Bandcamp Friday. This installment of our column comes a little earlier than usual: The promotion in which Bandcamp waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period returns March 3, and many of our picks are available to buy directly from the artists there.
Paramore, This Is Why (Atlantic)
Paramore is finally back, sounding more grown-up and better than ever. This Is Why builds on the art-punk- and New Wave-inspired grooves of 2017’s After Laughter, expanding further into post-punk and even exploring hints of dream pop. The title track serves both as the introduction and the album’s thesis, with each subsequent song exploring a different subject prompted by the titular single’s chorus, “This is why / I don’t leave the house!” The group’s reasons range from male chauvinists (“Big Man, Little Dignity”) to self-destructive behavior (“Figure 8,” “You First,” “Liar”) and fatigue from the barrage of awful happenings (“The News”). It signifies a shift from introspection to reflecting on the maddening state of modern society: This is why, and it’s exhausting. HANNAH CRON
Find This Is Why on your favorite streaming service, at your favorite record store or via Paramore's website.
Mya Byrne, “Lend You a Hand,” “It Don’t Fade,” “Autumn Sun” (Kill Rock Stars Nashville)
Rhinestone Tomboy, Mya Byrne’s first LP for the Nashville arm of famed indie label Kill Rock Stars, isn’t out till April 28. But the record has a trio of advance singles that showcase her songwriting skill as well as the record’s understated production by fellow country-rock-Americana songsmith Aaron Lee Tasjan. “Autumn Sun” appeared first, a power-poppy reflection on changing seasons of life. “It Don’t Fade” came next, pulling from old-school folk and country in a way Guy Clark or John Prine might have as Byrne sings about perseverance; the music video appeared in rotation on CMT, featuring what Byrne & Co. believe to be the first nationally televised kiss between out trans lesbians. She looks at that theme from the other side in the most recent single “Lend You a Hand,” promising her partner that she’ll be a source of strength in the dark times. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Find Byrne's tracks on your favorite streaming service and preorder Rhinestone Tomboy via her website or Bandcamp.
The Arcs, Electrophonic Chronic (Easy Eye Sound)
The Arcs — Dan Auerbach, Leon Michels, Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss and Richard Swift — came together out of a love of vinyl, especially classic R&B, garage rock and reggae. Their acclaimed 2015 debut Yours, Dreamily, drew more from garage rock and reggae, but their latest, Electrophonic Chronic, is a sonically delightful love letter to late-’60s and early-’70s soul and R&B. When co-writer and multi-instrumentalist Swift unexpectedly died in July 2018, the group had many unfinished recordings in the can. In 2021, co-producers Auerbach and Michels revisited those recordings and finished the dozen tracks included here as a way of honoring their fallen bandmate, who appears on seven cuts. Auerbach’s soulful lead-vocal work on the album, especially on the achingly beautiful “Heaven Is a Place” and “Love Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” goes beyond anything he’s released previously. DARYL SANDERS
Brian Brown, Two Minute Drill (It’sYoWorld)
At the end of January, on the third release anniversary of his excellent full-length Journey, stellar Music City MC Brian Brown released Two Minute Drill, a four-pack of tracks in which he gives himself less than 120 seconds to make an impact in each song. He covers a phenomenal amount of ground, both sonically and lyrically, in this short span. It feels like a snapshot of the city as we’ve tried to cope with the pandemic and all its various phases. As Brown raps in “NBA Jam,” the opening track: “Suicide bombers in my own city / Whole thing really look too suspicious / Only shit that’s certain, I don’t know nothin’ / But I’m pretty sure that they’re up to somethin’.” STEPHEN TRAGESER
Beth Nielsen Chapman, CrazyTown (BNC Records/Cooking Vinyl)
Beth Nielsen Chapman’s lyrical brilliance is well-documented, as is her ability to cross genres. But there’s something about CrazyTown that feels particularly fresh and freewheeling. It kicks off with the poppy “All Around the World” before jumping into the rhythmic anthem “Put a Woman in Charge,” which was co-written with Keb’ Mo’. “Hey Girl (We Can Deal With It)” and “Everywhere We Go” serve up plenty of bluesy goodness. But it’s melancholy ballads like “With Time” and “Walk You to Heaven” that remind us of Chapman’s uncanny ability to capture the aching beauty of life and loss through song. AMY STUMPFL
Find CrazyTown on your favorite streaming service, at your favorite record store or via Chapman's website.
Ida Mae, Live Under the Chalk Horse (Vow Road)
Ida Mae’s EP Live Under the Chalk Horse captures the essence of what makes the husband-and-wife duo of Chris Turpin (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Stephanie Jean (piano, synth, vocals) so special: superb musicianship, inspired original songs and a soulful vocal blend like no other. Recorded during a concert in June 2021 that was livestreamed from a studio in London, the EP features intimate, stripped-down performances of seven songs from their 2021 album Click Click Domino. As on the album, the duo was accompanied at the concert by Ethan Johns on drums and Nick Pini on bass and strings. Surprisingly, two of the performances included here even surpass the studio originals — the funkier rendition of “Learn to Love You Better” and the slower, longer, bluesier take on “Little Liars.” DARYL SANDERS
Find Live Under the Chalk Horse on your favorite streaming service or via this handy link.
Koro, Koro (Sorry State)
Punk history is full of stories about bands who went unnoticed when they were active, only to be canonized by collectors. Few bands have experienced this kind of renaissance quite like Koro, a group of five high-schoolers from East Tennessee who were just trying to play faster than Circle Jerks. Koro’s existence was a brief two years, and they left behind a lone self-titled EP (sometimes known as 700 Club after the title of the first song), self-released in 1983. A blur of early U.S. hardcore, the record was called “skin-ripping thrash chock full of blistering spasms” in illustrator and hardcore master chronicler Pushead’s 1984 review for Maximumrocknroll. Dave Teague, one of the band’s guitarists, went to L.A. and joined The Dickies, while other members eventually landed in Music City. The eight-song 7-inch isn’t quite seven minutes long, but copies from the original batch of 500 sometimes fetch four-digit prices when they pop up for sale. Constant bootlegging and YouTube documentation finally led the band to officially reissue the EP in January via the chain-punk eggheads at Raleigh, N.C.’s Sorry State Records. P.J. KINZER
