If the intense heat Music City has experienced during the first little bit of summer is anything to go on, you’re going to want lots of options for stuff to do inside where it’s cool. Good news, then, that a ton of Nashvillians have released great records in the recent months. The Scene’s music writers have eight new recommendations for you — add ’em to your streaming queue or pick them up from your favorite local record store. Though the next Bandcamp Friday promotion (in which the platform waives its cut of sales for a 24-hour period) isn’t set to come back until Sept. 2, most of our picks are available to buy directly from the artists on Bandcamp, too.
Namir Blade, Metropolis (Mello Music Group)
Namir Blade’s newest effort conjures up futuristic imagery — fitting, as it’s inspired by 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis and its anime remake from 2001 — but it’s more of a top-down look at the world he’s built around him, and where he goes next. Like the films that inspired it, Metropolis looks at life behind the scenes of a glimmering city, and Blade is open about the physical and emotional challenges he’s faced. Some of the beats, all produced by Blade, show some electronic influences, and they coexist with more traditional rap beats like the one on his easygoing ode to hoopties, “Ride.” He makes his influences clear — “Monday Michiru,” featuring The Adoni, certainly sounds like a track from the acid-jazz pioneer, and “Shounen,” with Jordan Webb and Cashmere Crool, has the hard-hitting energy of a Dragonball Z fight — but he expands on those concepts, rather than letting them limit him. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ
An Army of Jasons, On This Bend (Lamb Speed Records)
Between 1999 and 2003, before Brett Rosenberg found his niche as the prolific pop savant Nashville knows and loves as Quichenight, the upstate New Yorker and his pal Geoff Hayton played beautifully bittersweet indie rock under the moniker An Army of Jasons. Details of On This Bend and why it’s coming out now are a bit hazy — two-decade-old memories tend to be — but at some point during lockdown, Rosenberg reconnected with the Northern Virginia-residing Hayton and, with an assist from Jeremy Ferguson at local recording studio Battle Tapes, revived seven Jasons tunes lost to time. “Dollhouses” and “Green Grow the Rashes” stand out; they sound, respectively, like the best songs Yo La Tengo and Teenage Fanclub never wrote. But the entire 23-minute set testifies to this music’s staying power. They’ll play it live July 22 at The 5 Spot, with support from left-of-center tunesmiths par excellence Trevor Nikrant (from Styrofoam Winos), Ziona Riley (Heinous Orca), Emma Swift and Ricki. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
Soccer Mommy, Sometimes, Forever (Loma Vista)
On her just-released Sometimes, Forever, Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy, follows her acclaimed 2020 gem Color Theory with 11 tracks that further establish her as a rising songwriting star. Allison takes a raw, unfiltered look at her life on the record, from the trials of her sudden rise to indie-rock fame to the highs and lows of young love and relationships posing as love. Producer/synth wizard Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never, helmed the production, and the result is a record that is both sonically broader and more adventurous than Soccer Mommy’s previous releases. The album is full of memorable melodies that range from catchy to haunting, and the arrangements crafted by Lopatin and Allison are heavily informed by British psychedelic rock, from late-’60s and early-’70s recordings by artists like The Beatles and David Bowie to the ’90s trip-hop sounds of Portishead, Tricky and others. DARYL SANDERS
Steve Dawson, Gone, Long Gone (Factor)
Canada-born singer-songwriter, versatile instrumentalist and podcaster Steve Dawson has been a formidable figure in Nashville since he arrived in 2013. And he didn’t let COVID slow him down. Dawson has completed three projects since the start of the pandemic, the first of which is Gone, Long Gone. The album showcases his witty, pungent and wry reflections and observations, as well as his crisp vocals, idiomatic flexibility and outstanding guitar work. The record incorporates everything from folk and country stylings to horn arrangements on “Dimes” that echo the best of the soul era, plus contributions from several of Nashville’s finest studio musicians. The poignant title tune, explosive and expressive instrumental “Kulaniapia Waltz” and stirring tribute piece “King Bennie Had His Shit Together,” which honors the magical Hawaiian street performer King Bennie Nawahi, are just some of the album’s highlights. There’s also fine harmony vocal support from Dawson’s daughter Casey, as well as from Allison Russell — most notably on the concluding “Time Has Made a Fool Out of Me.” RON WYNN
$avvy, Poor (Dadabase)
Rising rapper and singer $avvy had a pretty outstanding 2021 — his EP Boys Wear Pearls was one of the most exciting releases of the year — and he’s been working to make 2022 even bigger and better. He launched a clothing line called Poor and started an online radio show called Poor Radio, and in April, he released Poor, a tidy LP with lots of layers and nuances that reward repeat listens. The presentation is fresh, the beats are inventive, and the lyrics continue $avvy’s trend of being highly skilled at picking apart the layers of social interactions. On Boys Wear Pearls, the focus was on dating and sex, and while those are still concerns on Poor, class and other factors play a part as well. STEPHEN TRAGESER
Find Poor on your favorite streaming service, and follow $avvy on Instagram for updates.
Qualls, Until We Meet Again (self-released)
Chattanooga-born rapper Qualls has spent the past year working on himself, pulling apart his shortcomings as an artist and a person and stitching them back together into something new and improved. Until We Meet Again, Qualls’ debut LP and his first new music since 2020, manages to be heavy yet breezy. Songs like “Count Up” and the J Dilla-influenced “Ryan Montgomery” bounce and groove with the best of them, but are lyrically wrought with Qualls pulling on the strings of his persona to let an authentic self shine through. Until We Meet Again is a rewarding listen — not just as a showcase for Qualls’ thoughtful, easy flow but as a complete thought that’s meant to be listened to from “Inhale” to “Exhale.” LANCE CONZETT
Find Until We Meet Again on your favorite streaming service, and follow Qualls on Instagram for updates.
The Mango Furs, Brain Drain (Eye of the Eye)
If the heat wave has you down, The Mango Furs’ recent EP Brain Drain is the kaleidoscopic auditory popsicle you need to lift you back up. Throughout the record, the band offers an immersive blend of psych rock, shoegaze and a little surf rock — with plenty of shimmering reverb throughout its delightfully trippy package. At 10 minutes long, the three-song EP is short and sweet, a perfect bite-size summertime confection. KAHWIT TELA
Anne Malin, Summer Angel (Dear Life)
If you didn’t know Anne Malin was also a poet, her folk-rooted songs would clue you in. In service of emotional and sensory communication that consistently feels like it’s touching another plane of existence, the lyrics on her latest LP Summer Angel often break out of traditional song form and rhyme schemes. That’s not to say the album isn’t musical: Anne Malin and her partner Will Ringwalt-Johnson gathered a group of finely tuned musicians like multi-instrumentalist Trevor Nikrant and reed master JayVe Montgomery at local studio The Bomb Shelter to put it all together. Ace producer-engineer Andrija Tokic has experience aiding in the translation of complex expressions like these onto records, and the crew knocks it out of the park here. STEPHEN TRAGESER
