Indiecast - Hoping For A Bradford Cox Comeback + Most Anticipated Albums of 2026's Q4

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

After a quick Sportscast on the bad fortunes of their respective NFL teams (1:56), Steven and Ian discuss the recent re-emergence of Bradford Cox and whether he might mount a serious comeback (13:40). They also discuss the state of the Q3 fantasy albums draft (25:57) before talking about the albums coming up this fall drafted in the Q4 draft (35:56). In Recommendation Corner they talk about Holidays In The United States, Greg Freeman, and Wishy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indycast is presented by Amazon Music. Hello and welcome to Indycast. On this show, we talk about the biggest indie news of the week, review albums, and we hash out trends. In this episode, we talk about a new fantasy draft and in the process preview the big release is coming in the fourth quarter of the year. My name is Stephen Hayden, and I'm joined by my friend and co-host. I can't tell if his football team is actually worse than mine. Ian Cohen. Ian, how are you?

All right, so picture this. It's fourth and 26 again. The Eagles have the ball and they're going against the Packers. Which team in 2026 is successful? Why did you have to drag fourth and 26 into it? Why couldn't we have had this scenario without bringing up the single worst play of my sporting fan life? I don't really, so what's the premise here? Yeah, like do the Packers give up the Fourth and 26 or are the Eagles able to get a 26?

yard pass. It's sort of like the resistible force, movable object sort of thing. Well, our defense isn't that bad. Okay. So even without Micah Parsons, I mean, we gave up 35 to Atlanta, but I really think that it's, well, I mean, it's really everything. Our defense isn't that good. Our offense isn't that good. I don't know. This is a very convoluted scenario. Are you trying to say that the Eagles would still get the play in this scenario? I can't picture a 26-yard gain in the same way that I also can't imagine the Packers not blowing it in the fourth quarter. This is like a mind-breaking like Schrodinger's cat sort of deal. Yeah, you're getting a little too psychedelic with me in this hypothetical. I mean, look, your team got humiliated

on national television. It was Monday Night Football. You got blown out by the Bears, led by Case Keenham, who I think was working at like a 7-Eleven or something. And then Got brought in by the bears. I'm exaggerating here a little bit. He's a backup quarterback. He's 38 years old. And he was looking like, you know, Joe Montana in the 80s against you guys. And then my team got embarrassed on national TV on Thursday night football against the Atlanta Falcons who, I think people thought was one of the worst teams in the league until we made them look like the 85 bears.

So both of our teams stink. Yes. My team probably stinks more than yours, though, still. Because the Bears are a good team. Atlanta's not a good team. Even with a backup quarterback, I would say the Bears are better than Atlanta. And I would say that if we were playing the Eagles, I would expect the Eagles to win. So I think we're worse than you.

But two storied franchises who do not look good at all right now. Yeah, I would say that I was thinking it's like which performance was worse. Like I don't care if it's Case Keenum or Jimmy Claw and if a 38 year old guy, I would say, oh yeah, he was at like a MJ Lendervin concert or something like that not working at 7-11. I'm kidding. But yeah, if it's Case Keenum, Jimmy Claus and Mitch Trubisky, like I expect a level of competence from the Bears, you know what I'm saying, that I never do from the Falcons. And so when the Falcons are scoring like, what was it, 35 to 7?

We had 14, I think. Oh, okay, cool. So we had more points than you did. It was a similar score, but yeah, it was still ugly. Yeah, because, like, I remember two weeks ago, there was the whole narrative of, like, the Bears scored 59 points, but they're going to have to do that

because their defense is so bad, and Bryce Young looked like Cam Newton reincarnated. The Eagles just look broken. Like, they have all their guys, and they still look broken. the Packers, I learned about their roster just from reading ESPN stories about who got injured this week. They had a guy out for the year with neck surgery, which I didn't think you could have in the NFL.

I would say that the Packers, like, it could just be, let's tank this year, get fire him out the floor and get the vibes going back again. The Eagles just look kind of broken and stuck with what they've got. See, but if we tank, we don't have a first round pick because of the Michael's a Parsons trade, so there's really no incentive to tank. I mean, the Packers, we're broken, too, because we have this ongoing thing going back to last year where we blow leads and we have no confidence at all. As soon as one thing goes wrong, it feels like it all goes to hell. I mean, against Atlanta, it all went to hell pretty early. I think we scored first and then Atlanta had

like the next, you know, 21 points or something like that. So we may not even get the lead now. We may just be sucking from the beginning, which in a way I prefer. Like that loss to Atlanta was easy. I talked about this last week. It was easier to take because I felt like aside from maybe the first quarter, there was no chance that we were going to win that game. So you mentally prepare yourself for the loss.

By the end, you don't really care. Whereas most of these games, the Packers lose, they look just good enough to think you could win until just about the end of the game and then they destroy your soul. And then you feel like you've just been spending three hours at the edge of your seat with no satisfying conclusion. So that is like the worst way to watch sports. We should say both of our teams are regional favorites in the baseball realm.

Oh, yeah. really well. Like the brewers, the brewers of Milwaukee are killing it. Hunter wins this year. They have the best record, I think. Yeah, they're the best team in baseball. Which means that we're probably going to go seven games against the Dodgers before we lose. But in the Padres, you're in the playoffs too. I just wish I cared more about regular season baseball. I feel like I was more invested. I feel like a bandwagon jumper. coming on the show and talking it all about the brewers, like I have been paying attention until now.

When I lived in Milwaukee, I was a diehard, listen to Bob Uker, you know, every broadcast. I was dialed in. Since I've moved, I've totally fallen off. Can you claim any genuine like Padres fandom right now? Have you been paying attention up until now? I've absolutely been paying attention. I think a lot of this is due to the fact that San Diego is a one-sport town.

I mean, people do care about the soccer teams here, but yeah, the Padres, like, consistently have some of the best attendance in all of baseball. They are proof. And I think the Brewers are kind of proof as well that, hey, if, like, the owner actually spends money on the team, that's a good thing. I mean, the Dodgers are, like, the logical endpoint of that. But, yeah, people in San Diego love the Padres. The crowds are always awesome. If you watch the highlights against the Cubs last night, when Gavin Sheets hit that home run, the place went nuts. They are on a tear.

And I wouldn't be shocked. They just completely skunked the Bears. Or not the Bears, the Cubs. Yeah, like they gave up one run in two games. There are going to be some people picking the Padres to beat the Brewers in this upcoming series. I don't know about that. Like, the, I'm used to, like, every baseball season, I'm just, like, accustomed to the Phillies and or the Padres just kind of blowing it. in the divisional series.

But yeah, the Padres, they're a team that's, like, very easy to root for right now. Although I wish they were just playing the Dodgers now to get it out of the way rather than, like, having the seven-game series. But yeah, get interested in it. It's like Milwaukee versus San Diego. Like, what more do you need? And it's good content for the show, so you have that aspect to it. I do love playoff baseball. I mean, here in Minnesota, it's starting to get into the 60s,

every day, even like some upper 50s. That beautiful fall weather, it's just brisk, put the sweater on, get a cup of, you know, the pumpkin spice latte, sit down and watch a baseball game. Seems pretty good to me. So I think I am going to lock in. Yeah. It's going to be 100 degrees, by the way, this Friday. So I'm glad that the series is starting in Milwaukee.

Before we get deeper into the episode, I just want to plug a bonus episode that up this week. If you are an Amazon music subscriber, you can listen to a bonus episode that Ian and I recorded. It's another Indycast Hall of Fame episode. We each inducted two albums. That's four albums total into the Indycast Hall of Fame. So just a fun bonus episode. You can get more Indycast if this isn't enough for you. We also have interviews that occasionally go up there. We recently had a big This is Lorelei interview go up. I'm going to have an interview that I did. with a very big rock star, big in the stature sense, big in the physical stature sense. This person has an album coming out in October, and that was really exciting talking to that person.

So that's more bonus content that you can get if you are an Indycast Amazon music listener. So please check that out. Yeah, you get the added bonus of having me, like one of Steve's picks puts me into a legitimate dissociative state. And so if you want that, yeah, I can't, like, that's what the bonus content is for. Was that the second one? That was the second one. Okay. Yeah, you, I don't know.

You kind of had, it was like a Vietnam veteran. Yeah. Hearing the helicopters, because you were likening this band, I think incorrectly to Cold War kids. Because they are, you know, like an LA band of the 2000s, 2010s. I picked a different LA band that I think is more in the tradition of, the, you know, sort of 70s rock bands, you know, the kind of like a folk rock thing with a little bit of Beach Boys influence, like I think that I'm a sucker for. Not so much Cold War Kids, which is, how would you describe Cold War? A K-rockcore. That's like basically, you would hear it, like, I'm trying to think, like maybe like 2014, 2016, you would hear like a random song on the radio station in L.A.

And it's like, is this Cold War Kids? And it might not be, but it might be Fossar the People. It's, yeah. So every song is rockier, though, than Foster the People. Well, yeah. But I think they kind of changed later on. Like, I think they kind of did more of that sort of mono genre pop. I'm only bringing up Cold War Kids because, like, 2006, 2008, L.A.

is just like a very specific time that I just kind of lump everything together. Yeah. I mean, I think of Cold War Kids and no shots at them. I don't have a strong opinion. on them either way. But when I think about them in that era, I think of them as you know, the genre of radio-friendly indie rock.

Like, what do they sound like? They sound like radio-friendly indie rock. So like an amalgam of like other things that were happening at the time. I always think of them starting out as being like a poppy or spoon. That's the zone that they're in in my mind. And then I don't really know much what happened after that. You say they went in more of like a

foster the people direction? Yeah, just kind of of like, not like signing like pumped up kicks, but more in the sense that if you hear a song, like Young the Giant as well. Or like Portugal the Man, that group. Yes, that's another one. Yeah, not even sounding like that, but just more like, I don't know what this song is. Kind of like, not Kate, Casey Elephants, obviously more rocky, but it's just this, I, like, these songs get played on the radio.

I don't know who they are. And it's like, okay, cool. Yeah, Cold War Kids. Of course it's them. Well, Portugal, the man, I think of them as being, you know, they were more of maybe like a psych rock indie band. And then they moved toward this kind of... Narls Barkley sort of thing. Exactly. I was going to say R&B, but not really R&B, kind of like a throwback soul type sound that is great.

That song, feel it still. That's their big song. Yeah. Which, if you don't know that title, just look it up on YouTube. You've heard it like in a million commercials. Yeah. And movie trailers. It's just like a great song for that kind of, like if you just want something that communicates,

oh, coolness or swag or whatever, like for about 10 seconds, you put that song in your trailer and it'll work. All right. Well, anyway, Cold War Kids. Our blog rock PTSD, you know. It's funny. I feel like Cold War Kids were almost talked about as much as the band I actually talked about in that episode.

But the band I actually talked about, I think is great. I actually already got a DM from someone on Instagram saying that they'd never heard that band and they love it. I love this record. So love to help point out records from the past that Indycast listeners might not have heard. So check that out in the Indycast Hall of Fame. One thing we need to talk about, this is a little bit of old news, but we neglected to talk about this last week, which is the return of Bradford Cox. the great singer-songwriter, artist, frontman of Deer Hunter, front man of Atlas Sound.

I'll just read a little bit from the pitchfork story that announced this. Bradford Cox, the Mercurial Deer Hunter Mastermind is set to the return of the stage for the first time in years at Making Time. It's a music festival, which I think is in Georgia, maybe? I'm not sure where that is exactly. Anyway, he performed there on September 18th. So this is like last week now. Actually, we're like, are we two weeks late on this?

Like, let's say one and a half. One and a half weeks. Geez, Louise. Anyway, he made a performance, or he made an appearance at this festival performing. And if you know anything about Bradford Cox and Deer Hunter, Deer Hunter hasn't put out a record since 2019. Bradford Cox has been really under the radar after being this pretty ubiquitous presence, I would say, in indie rock.

in 2000 and 2010s. Apparently he walked a runway at a fashion show for Gucci fairly recently. And I guess he did a set at Desert Days, that festival. But for the most part, he's been low-key and hasn't really put on any new music. I recently did a series on my substack

about Deer Hunter, talking about their records. That was really well-received. People were happy to revisit that period. I feel like Deer Hunter in general, when we think about bands from that era, 2000s into the early 2010s, the sort of the peak of a certain era of indie rock, the pitchfork era, let's call it. Yeah. The weird era, if you would. The weird era, yes.

That era, I feel like Deer Hunter to me has maybe the most mystique of any major band of that time. Because of the quality of the music, and you and I are big fans, I would say they have at least two masterpieces and all the other records are like very good to great. And then Atlas Sound on top of that. And I would also say like Lotus Plaza, the Lockett Punt side project is also outstanding. So there's a run I would say from like 06 to maybe 2013 or so where they are it. You know, pretty much an album every year, whether it's Deer Hunter or Atlas Sound or Lotus Plaza, a very high bar of quality.

And then there's some albums after that, but they start to fade. And indie culture starts to move away from bands like that. And I'm wondering, you know, let's say Atlas, let's say Bradford Cox puts out a new Atlas sound record next year, early 2027. How do you think that's going to be received? Because I'm of two minds on this. one, again, I think Bradford Cox now is like this elder statesman.

You know, people look at him as like a great artist of the past that they love in the same way that maybe people looked at Lou Reed when he was alive, like 20 years after the Velvet Underground. I mean, not as famous as Lou Reed, obviously, but I think for a certain kind of indie fan, Bradford Cox does have that allure not only because of the quality of his music,

but also just his persona. confrontational, outspoken, very, I think, anti-commercialism. anti-mainstream, not afraid. Also, anti-Indy rock. I mean, he made fun of indie rock as much as anything else. So he has that stature, I think, as a genuine, I'll use the word icon. I hate that word.

It's overused, but I think it's... Maybe I kind of classed. I think I'm going to give him an icon of like 21st century indie rock. If I'm thinking of the greatest artist of that kind of music, he is on the short list for me. So I think there would be anticipation for it. I also wonder, like with this current generation that we have, certainly like maybe in the music writing community, I wonder how they look at someone like Bradford Cox,

because there is, in some ways, he is an anachronism in terms of his attitude toward a lot of music that now just sort of is taken as a given as this is important music. And I'm going to make a little tangent here, but, you know, and we're going to talk about this a little bit more in a minute, but, you know, Taylor Swift, like, she put out another one of her, like, re-recorded album things, or maybe it's a special edition. I haven't.

News to me. She put out a new thing based on Life of a Showgirl, which I think is her last record. And there's some new songs on that album. The important thing here is that it was slammed by critics. Critics hate this record. And Pitchfork slammed it. of the 4.0. But the lead of that story is, or the lead of the review is, and I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but it's something like Taylor Swift has one of the all-time great songwriting

catalogs in history. And this is a lead in a pan of the review. But like that assertion appearing on pitchfork, it still shocks me a little bit, even though I know we're in a much different era. I know that that is the new normal. But I am old enough to remember the Bradford Cox era when pitchfork saying anything like that would have been like heresy, you know? And Bradford Cox, to me, represents that era, this era that is bygone that was more sort of confrontational of the mainstream in indie music. And I just wonder, like, if he came back, like, what kind of reception would that get? Like, would people say, this is cool, or would they go or would they resist it?

I genuinely don't know the answer to that, but I'm curious. Yeah, I mean, it's been seven years and counting, like, probably eight. Yeah, because, like, I remember the last Deer Hunter album came out, I think pretty early in 2019, but 15 years since the last Atlas sound album, which seems impossible. But, you know, you... So that's Parallax. Yeah, which is a great... That's a great album.

So good. But this just came to mind. our guy Larry Fitzmaree said, and I'm going to paraphrase here, this was a couple years ago where he said something to the extent of can you believe back in 2011 that was a year when Parallax would rank higher on a pitch for gear end list than Beyonce's album. And it's not say like one was better than the other, but it just kind of showed that was the mindset back then, right? Great microcosm of, yeah, the shift that happened.

Now you wonder Parallax would even make the list. I mean, or it would be at the bottom rung. And, yeah, the Beyonce record would be like number one. But yeah, in 2011, that was the mindset. Yeah. And I think that, I mean, it's tough to say what sort of mindset Bradford Cox is bringing to the current day because you brought up Blue Reed. I don't think this is a completely accurate comparison.

But I just think of the fact that, you know, the Athens, Georgia connection, the kind of disappearing from public life, there's a little bit of Jeff Mangum in it. but and also I think he's like kind of wearing a mangum style hat. But I think that if he did come back, I mean, it would be well received, but it would be like kind of a contained burn, you know? Like people like us would be super stoked. I don't know how much they'd, I don't know how much they would be received by a younger generation. I mean, there was like a time not that long ago where it seemed like one out of every three

bands in Chicago kind of sounded like cryptograms era Deer Hunter. But none of them really broke. through. I mean, I would love people who rediscover them. They are in addition, like you said, to having just an incredible catalog from, yeah, from cryptograms up and two, and I would include Fading Frontier as a really good album. That was back in the day, like, if you want to talk about how things have changed. I remember, I think I like turned that review in with an 8.0 and they're like, yeah, this should be best new music. Okay, cool. That was the kind of a rep they had. Definitely a pitchfork.

They were a signature man of pitchfork. I mean, Ryan Triber, who has a memoir coming out where he writes about the history of pitchfork. It's called Weird Era. So that tells you how central rapper Cox was to that era of pitchfork. And it is interesting. If you want to be thinking of this in like the documentary terms, that the last, well, I guess it's not the last picture, Deer Hunter album, but the album Fading Frontier 2015, the same year that Pitchfork had sold a Kande Nest. You know, there is a sort of symbolic thing happening in that year where it feels like,

oh, yeah, this is done. And, you know, there's another Deer Hunter record after that in 2019. Whatever happened. Why hasn't everything already disappeared? Yeah, that was like a Kate LaBond production, very much of its time. And it kind of, I don't think it quite hit. I mean, I don't remember loving that album a lot. But I think the other interesting thing about Bradford Cox is that not just like, you know, Deer Hunter albums would be, or Atlas Sound Alas would be what we'll see, but like he was a newsmaker. Like, this was like a way to generate headlines because he'd always be like saying wild stuff in interviews.

He had that performance of monomania on some late, what was it, Kimmel or something? The monomania was Fallon. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, he would just be a guy who would create the, like that era of news, right? you know, they're up there with like panda bear and grizzly bear, but they're not like headline makers. Like Bradford Cox was just that guy. And, you know, I'm sure, like, I've been, I'm to understand that COVID did a number on him. So maybe he comes out the other side. What does that mean? What does that? I would say that like he's been, I, I've just been told

that he's like not, he kind of became like a recluse. Well, he's had health issues in the past. I could imagine that was, that was frightening for someone. to be going through that. Exactly, yeah. It's mostly like health-related stuff and just like not really wanting to be out in public, not really wanting to like perform live. I think he did one thing in Athens before,

but I think overall as far as like how I would personally receive a Deer Hunter album. Or Atlas Sound. I mean, I think Atlas Sound to me. Yeah, totally. Because that's just Bradford. Yeah, like Deer Hunter, I wouldn't even count on that. I mean, Lockett Punt, I think is doing

some sort of like, like software design or something like that. And from what you can tell you, he's also not been in the public eye, but it feels like he's probably settled into like a family life and he may not want to, I mean, I couldn't even speculate on what he would want to do. But I'm not even thinking of a Deer Hunter record.

I'm just thinking of like an Atlas sound or a Bradford Cox solo record of some kind. I mean, that would be exciting. I don't know what the expectations for that would be, if it would maybe be more in line with what the last couple Deer Hunter records were. I mean, that would be my expectation versus, you know, these intense psychedelic backwards records that he was putting out in the 2000s that were incredible. But who knows? Maybe he's become a big Taylor Swift fan in the last five years.

That seems like something I think would be more likely outcome than him coming out and like going against that stuff. Yeah, I don't know. Either way, it's great to see him back and hope to hear from him soon. If not, hope he's happy and living his life. And they've given us a lot of great music. So I would never be so greedy as to demand more. But if it does come, that would be fantastic. Yeah.

Hey, Ian, could you make sure you pump in this Deer Hunter song, Living My Life after Steve said, I hope he's living his life? There you go. Although we'd have to get permission for that. I don't know if that's going to work. Let's get to our fantasy album draft here One quarter is ending Or has ended I guess by the time this post

Because we're in early October And another one is beginning So we need to do a draft Which I told Ian this As we started recording I forgot to prep For the fantasy draft in Q4 So I am going to be

Going off the seat of my pants I'm actually well I guess Well let's talk about Q3 here because we have to determine who's going first. I would almost want you to go first, but that means I get two picks. Maybe you want to make me go first and just pull something totally out of my ass extemporaneously here. But the fantasy album draft here, it's a little unsettled because I'm still waiting on Empress of. That's my last album to have a Metacritic score. It doesn't currently have one now. You were kind enough. You went into the album of the year,

which is like the USFL, I guess, for us, or the Canadian Football League. She only has a 75, an album of the year. And right now you have 421 and I have 340. I thought I was winning this. Like what happened? I thought last time we were talking, it looked like I was going to win. And then Proto Martyr, was that the one that really turned the time? Yeah, Proto Martyr happened.

Because proto-martre now, which, by the way, congratulations to the publicist for proto-martre. We've had some conflicts, but you have ushered proto-martre to an, I think he did this actually despite me. The publicist. Because this publicist, I have a little feud going with the publicist. Going back to about four months ago, a review I wrote of one of his clients and created World War III a little bit. in my email box. The same publicist represents proto-martre, and he wouldn't send me the album.

But he sent it to you, and he sent it to everybody else, and if people love this record, this is like one of the best-reviewed indie rock records of the year. Yeah, it totally is. I mean, it's got a 90 right now. I listen to it. Some of it sounds like the horrors,

circa 2011. It's a good record. I did listen to it because it did come out. So I've listened to it. Yeah, it came out on Friday. Couldn't hear it in advance, but I did hear it once it was out in the world with all the rest of the people. And I think it's a good record. Yeah, it's, you know, they have, they're one of those bands that has like a sneaky big catalog at this point.

You know, where, like, five album test? Yeah, I mean, I feel like certainly for many middle-aged male music critics, they would win the five album test, like, smashing, like, not even, like, debating it really. But, yeah, so they have one, two, three, four, five, six. They have seven records that have come out in the last 14 years. So just like a very kind of consistent amount of output. But, yeah, I mean, they're definitely the kind of band where if they're going to get reviewed at this point, it's going to be by the critics who are our age who have been with them from the beginning.

I feel like that. But not us. But not, yeah, but not me, not actually me. But other gray-bearded critics who did not run a file of this publicist, who again, I'm big enough to say congratulations to this publicist, who does not like me, wrote very mean things to me, told me off because of this other thing. But I can say to him, hey, congratulations.

You ushered proto-martre to it. And even though this is screwing me in our fantasy league, because if Proto Martyr had just done like an 82 or something, which is what you would have expected, I would have been, I think, more in contention here. But now Empress of is doing the sort of opposite of Proto Martyr. Proto Martyr coming up big, Empress of coming up small here. Like, Pitchfork didn't really like this record at all or was very kind of meat on it.

I think it was like a 6.4. Yeah, and the C slot, man. Damn. Wow. So this is like my J.J. McCarthy. This quarter. I overestimated the pre-release career, and it just totally blew up in my face. Yeah.

I'm just wondering who the Conner Stallions is in this particular metaphor. I don't know, man. I don't know. I mean, I guess we'll give it a week. I'm tempted to give it to you, though. I mean, it feels like it's going to probably be you. Yeah. winning this time.

We're just going like ABS, like the automatic ball strike challenge at the end of the game or whatever, you know. Proto Martyr, you have your own history with them. I do. We've already talked about this. They wrote that song that is maybe referencing you. If they knew that they were the ones giving you this victory, I wonder if they would have made a worse album. If they just would have said, let's make this album about five points worse. So Ian doesn't win.

But they give you the victory. So life is crazy. You never know what's going to happen. So congratulations. I'm just going to give it to you. You won this time. Congratulations, Ian. Yeah, a real Packers-esque, yeah, real Packers-esque, like, collapse from you, man.

I thought with Phoebe Bridgers, like, this is a wrap. I know, I know. I'm like Matt LaFleur over here. Julia Jacqueline also kind of coming up shy, you know, 81. Yeah, 81. Yeah, that's another one. I mean, you know, Gillaband only doing it 86.

I feel like the praise for that was bigger than that. But I don't know. Maybe it was just at certain outlets. Because you had, yeah, Protomartor 90, Kalia 86, Lorraine 86. Tyla was your low one, 79. But Empress Sub is going to be lower than that, it looks like. Then Sweeping Promise is 80. I had Julia Jacqueline, 81.

This is Lorelei. This is Lorelai, too. Underperformed on Metacritic. I wonder if this has changed. Did you look this up? I did. It was an 83 last time we went over this. Now it's an 82.

Wow. So that I feel like it's underperformed a little bit. Yes. A record I love. But yeah, I wonder if that record, I wonder how people are going to feel about it at the end of the year. I feel like it came out and people love Box for Buddy Box for Star. And this album isn't as, I would say,

obviously excellent as that album is. Yeah. People, people are going to say that I'm, I'm being a, this is Lorelei Homer by not just saying it's not as good. But I do think it's good in a different kind of way. I think it's good in a way that's like more understated and maybe not as exciting, but will still sound great. Yeah, you're going to pull out the music critic terms. Like, I would say it's more accomplished. Yeah. It's a grower, ladies and gentlemen. It's a grower. It's like 10% more accomplished than his last album. But damn. Okay, well, yeah, that's brutal.

Congratulations to Protomartor for pulling that out. And Empress of, wish you could have come up bigger for me, but that's how it goes. What? Oh, we were going to talk about this quick. We mentioned Taylor Swift earlier just getting destroyed by critics this week. Like, if you are sick of Taylor Swift, and I know people hate it when I bring up Taylor Swift, Swift sometimes on this show. But I don't know.

It's like, you know, it's like not talking about the sun or something or not talking about water. It's just like a pretty big element in music right now. But if you hate Taylor Swift, this is your lucky day because this album has a 39. I'm Metacritic. And you actually crunch the numbers on this. Can you give us a sense of like how historically bad this Metacritic score is? Yeah, I have, I'm having a lot of trouble finding like the worst scores of all time.

but this one has like this is the sort of score you see for like movies that are really bad. It's got like the red, but like it's very rare to see a yellow, but a red in music is historic. For reference, you might recall Katie Perry's album from 2024. I think it was called 143 or like it was a wire album or something like that. But yeah, just like historically bad exists just for us clowning. That has a 37. Taylor Swift currently has two points higher than Little Wayne's rebate. birth. We haven't heard from Rolling Stone yet. They might do the Chris Paul hits a big three to cut the lead to

42 things. Yeah, what's up with that? They haven't published a review. So that means they hate it. Because it's crazy to me that they didn't publish a review immediately when the album came out, because that's what everyone did. And they are very quick on Taylor Swift stuff. So it is a little curious that they haven't posted any kind of review yet, unless we've missed it. Is it possible we haven't seen it? It's not a metacritic. It's not a metacritic. We know that.

So that's crazy to me. Just give it a three stars. Like, come on. Like, what's the big deal? Like, is there a problem not saying it's a five-star album? I don't understand it. It's okay if it's three stars. Or give it three and a half stars or even give it four stars.

That's right. You know, go, you know. Through the U-2 thing, you know. Yeah. Oh man, they have a new album coming out. We haven't talked about it. I can't wait. Can't wait.

Yeah, that's going to be good stuff. Okay, so I've been stalling here. I've just been like looking at what's even coming out here because I have not done any prep. So am I going to go first? Yeah, you go first. I love it. This is like in football where like the guy fakes an injury to try to get an extra time out. Oh, man.

Okay, so, okay, I'm just doing a, I'm scanning. Metacritic here. I'm just looking, because I have the first pick. And can we pick from today? Sure. Okay. I don't know if there's an album I actually want today, but I'm just curious. Ooh, there's a Nickelback album coming out. Okay, I'm going to say this. I don't know if this is like the best option, but I've picked this person before. And I'm just doing it based on the British press because I feel like this person always does.

well. I'm going to go Michael Kiwanaka at number one. He has a new record coming out called Fudge, all caps, called Fudge, October 23rd. Yeah. And, you know, Michael Kiwanaka, singer-songwriter, English of the English persuasion kind of works like in a neo-soul vein. I've enjoyed some of his records that he's put up in the past, but it's definitely the kind of thing that mojo and uncut, I feel like, is going to give a good review to, unless it's totally terrible, which it might very well be. But, you know, if I would have prepped, maybe I would have taken something else, but I think I'm going to go with this now. So Michael Kiwanaka is my first pick. I don't know if that's a terrible pick or not. It's what I'm stuck with. So now you get

two picksian. It was on my list, you know, for a, hey, if I can't think of anything else for the five. I think I picked them in a previous fantasy draft. So, um, so what I'm gonna, I did. Maybe. One of us did. I thought that was me. But, but yeah, anyway. Okay, so you get two picks now. All right. So I'm gonna go with, uh, what I thought you were gonna pick, uh, for the first one. And this could be kind of a risk, because their last album did so well, uh, Fontaine's DC dopamine chamber. Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Yeah, I don't know Like, I don't know if it's going to like top romance

With great record But I feel like it's a pretty safe number one pick It's like, you know, maybe your quarterback's not going to be as good as the offensive lineman you're going to pick But like you still need a QB. So that was as much of a defensive move because I know that one was probably on your radar I saw that and again, I was scanning very quickly here I just wonder if they're due for a little bit of a slip because they have, I would say, you know, romance and then skinty fab before that,

those two albums, I feel like, did really well. And I don't know if they're going to be able to pick it up. But again, the British press aspect to it, they're probably going to love it. I just wonder about Americans loving it as much. They're huge here. I think they're like one of the few bands that like the 38-year-old, if we're kind of like continue, like a show that Case Keenum would be at, that would be Fontaine's DC.

Yeah, maybe so. All right, what's your next pick? All right, so this one, I'm sure, well, I know you're going to love the record, but I think this is like kind of a sneaky pick. I'm going to pick Twisted Teens, Holy Cross Tigers, because I know it's their third album of 2026, but it's their first one on subpop. And I think this one is going to just kind of draft off the momentum of their previous two.

Yeah, I don't know if there are other ones were on Metacritic, but I just feel like it's their year, and this is going to be an opportunity for people. And I imagine it's going to be just as good as the other two. So Fontaine, D.C. twisted teens. I'm feeling pretty good about my first two. Yeah, that's another one I might have picked if I prepped it all for this episode. Yeah, I mean, it does have the feel of a makeup type situation where people that, Maybe didn't write about the first two records are not going to be writing about this one. And it'll be a way to make up maybe for not being up to date with the first two albums.

So I definitely feel like they're due for like a mid-80s type turnout for sure. Wow. Okay, so for my next pick, I get two picks now. I'm going to go with my next pick. I'm going to say Don Richard. She has a record coming out next week. See, I'm catching up here a little bit. because I was frantically looking as you were talking.

I was half listening to you, half looking at what's coming out. Her record is called Creole Culture. It comes out next week. Her last record, which was called Quiet in a World Full of Noise, got an 85, I'm at a critic. And I just feel like she's in that kind of indie R&B zone that we often talk about being a North Star for critics. I think less so now than it was, maybe five years ago.

But still, I think she has a lot of goodwill with critics. So I think this album would do pretty well. And this was on your list. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, she's always, like, she's always on my list. She's pretty prolific and, you know, it does a lot of like side projects. But, yeah, if Don Richards is putting out an album, I'm putting it on my short list. So good call.

Good, good, good call for you. So I'm going to go with a record that I like quite a bit. and I think we'll do well with critics. And that is Margo Silker. Her record comes out also next week. It's called Little White Cross. And she is in that Alt-Country Americana lane of singer-songwriters.

I actually, I wrote this recently in my newsletter, and I was cringing a little bit at my own description as I was typing it. But I do think there is a bit of a female Jason Isbell quality. to a lot of her writing. She's really fond of writing Friend I Used to Know type songs, which is like a stock, Jason Isbell trope to his songs.

And Margot has the same thing on her record. You know, just these like great character studies of like, I knew this person 20 years ago and they started out like this and then they ended up like this and it's like a sad arc to that person's life and you feel like you get to know the person in the course of the song. I feel like she has that quality.

I think her previous record did well with critics, but it was still kind of under the radar. I feel like she's someone that could be like a sneaky critics favorite in the fourth quarter here. And I like her a lot too. So I'm going to go with her. Margo Silker is my next pick. Yeah, that's a good pick for you.

That was not on my radar. And yeah. So, and so what I'm going to do is kind of pull a page from your book and put a defensive move, kind of do something with an artist that has been celebrated, but I think is a bit of a makeup call. And I know you're a fan of it. I'm going to go with Greg Freeman. Oh, yeah. That one comes out this week. It is called.

And look, man, this is no fault of Greg Freeman. in but when I see the title of this album All Set the Bone, I just think of when Butler's saying, Who's going to reset the bone? And that's just going to color my experience. That, by the way, do we have to like get clearance to sing an

arcade fire song here? Let's hope that. Yeah, God, yeah, we don't want to run a foul of them. Yeah, I would say that like this album is probably going to I'm thinking like low 80s, pretty high floor pick. You know, the last album did well.

I think that I'm kind of surprised about like how much I'm enjoying this. I was expecting something quite different than what I heard on the songs that I've heard. But yeah, Fontaine's DC, Twisted Teens, Greg Freeman. This could be like, you know, like a, you know, like this is like a evil speakers. Very evil speakers coded team so far. I was going to say you are taking a lot of mine. Yeah, I thought about Greg Freeman. We'll talk about that album in a minute here when we talk about the week's new releases.

Um, you know, his last album, Burnover did really well with critics. I wonder what the ceiling is for him in terms of praise. You know, I think his last record did me, I'm guessing it was probably like low 80s. I don't think it was on Metacritic. That's why I think. Yeah. Wow. Okay.

So I think Pitchfork gave it an 8.3. And. Correct. I wonder. So you think there's going to be some makeup call? Rick Freeman? Make up call slash like, you know, to continue to belabor my sports metaphors, this is like when you're a playoff team that picks the 23-year-old guy in the draft who just knows you can

plug and play. He's going to give you a, he's going to give you 3 and D, you know, he's going to give you an 82 or an 83. So, yeah, I mean, I just wonder what the ceiling will be, but yeah, we'll see. I'm hoping that it does well. Yeah, there's not much of a ceiling, but like, I think the floor is super high. high. Yeah, good call. So I'm going to go with an artist that I feel like has historically been very well praised. I'm a little spooked, I think, because of social media activity around this man,

like just seeing younger critics roll their eyes at this group a little bit. But I think I'm still going to go with the avalanches is my next pick. Their record, no bad memories. I mean, I was looking at this record like Mike Patton and Rivers Cuomo are on this record as well as Haley Joe Osmit I mean seems like there's some wackiness going on with this album which again spooks me a little bit but I don't know I this is their first record in six years I feel like older people are probably going to like this album so I'm gonna go with it as my fourth pick what do you think am I am I crazy for that?

A risky pick um I mean yes they're ablvanches Wait, wait, wait, hold up. Did I jump the gun? I think you had, did you have one more pick? I don't think you did. Oh, no, I think we're both tied at three now. So, yeah, we're going to go one, one. I know, but I think you're supposed to.

Oh. Are we doing one, one, one? Because I think often you would do two here and then I would do two. Do you want, we'll do one-one-one, I guess. Okay, so I'll go with the avalanche. Do you think I'm over-selling on this? So, yeah. Since I left you is like one of my favorite albums of all.

time. Like literally you cannot make a record like that anymore just because of like the samples and everything. I know that like the it's not exactly like a board's a Canada thing that every time they come back it's going to be like super celebrated. Although that that was like a weirdly divisive album on Twitter. But yeah, avalanches, I think that the wackiness of what they do kind of outstripped the art of what they do. Like it was on my radar, but I wasn't going to pick that one. All right, well, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens with that one. Okay, so then what's your next pick?

All right, so I'm going to, like, kind of similar mindset, but very, very different circumstances. And boy, you want to talk about something that the old heads are going to come out for. The final Olivia Tremor Control album, the same place, Elephant Six Band. I don't think they put out anything in like 27 years. and who knows if this is going to be any good but you get people talking about elephant six like you're going to get the 55 year old guy talking like just given this like

they just don't make them like this anymore I think it's posthumous too so this one I don't know if this is on your radar but this is my like one for the old heads pick kind of like mirroring your avalanches one I wonder if there's going to be enough reviews of it to show up on Metacritic.

Like if there's even enough people that would know who that is at this point to review it. Because you're right. All you need is for. Yeah, I mean, because I think anyone that would care is going to be really excited about it. It's just, are there enough of those people to get it on the board? But yeah, I think that's a good pick. And maybe another one I would have considered if I did any research. But anyway, my last pick, there's a couple sort of indie.

records here that are in the running for me that I think could do well. I'm just trying to pick which one I want. I think I'm going to go with Dummy as my last pick. Their record, let's see, comes out October 16th. Do you love the color of the sky? This is an LA band, kind of like a sort of like a psychedelic dancey band a little bit,

some crot-rock influences. is another band that's drawing on like sort of that Mad Chester scene of the late 80s, which I've heard more and more bands doing lately, including a band that I'm going to be talking about in Recommendation Corner. But I don't know, I just feel like this band's been pretty well reviewed. And the singles I've heard from this record, I've liked quite a bit.

So I actually think that they could do well. I think this could be at least like a low 80 score here on Metacritic. so I'm going to go with them as my last pick. Yeah, they were definitely a band that I was considering. Yeah, I think they'll get well reviewed. The singles sound pretty good. And yeah, they're just like a band that draws on a lot of music critic tastes. So, yeah, just very tasteful.

I think it'll do well. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I'm going to go with something that's a little off the beaten path. I feel like if this gets enough reviews, it'll do really, really well. but it's an artist named Callie Malone. She is ambient but like plays organ. It's just like something that like pops up every now and again. It's like, oh right, like this is going to be number 38 on the year end list.

So yeah, her last album, All Lifelong, did really well. This one's called Burning Song. I think it's out October 30th. This is, you know, I don't want to say like token, but if you listen to one ambient a new classical indie adjacent album this year, that's going to be her. You've now reached the part of our episode that we call Recommendation Corner, where Ian and I talk about something we're into this week. Ian, why don't you go first?

So at the risk of bringing everything back to the book I'm working on, I'm at a point where I'm exploring why not a lot of bands from the 90s came from like the big cities, you know, like New York or Los Angeles. And, you know, part of its regular snobbishness and others that it's really, really hard to do all ages shows in cities like that and nemo's a young genre but that's why i'm really excited about this album from holidays in united states uh they've been getting a little bit of burn on emo twitter of late their album is out today it's called how to count to five and i mean this is a band that literally calls themselves n yco emo on their band camp uh and also uh i think chair members with

ae i o you another recommendation corner uh band i'd be interested to see if this one gets traction because they're from New York. It's a really cool album, very sixth wave. It's got the twisty guitars, the co-ed vocals, some scents, odd structures, and, you know, shout alongs more than choruses. So this is a cool album, regardless of where it's from. But I would be interested to see if it gets a little more traction out there in the world because they just so happen to be from Brooklyn and are in a bunch of other bands that people

will pay attention to. So holidays in the United States, how to count to five? So we already talked about the Greg Freebie. album a little bit that Ian drafted on his fantasy team. Just want to give that a quick shout out. It's a record I like a lot. I feel like he's been grouped into that alt-country scene, that M.J. Lenderman, Waxahatchie type sound.

And I think his early records were more akin to that. But this new album, I would say, you know, chucks the pedal steel guitar and is much more of like an indie rock sounding indie rock album. It actually, I think, is a pretty rocking and riffy. record. So if you're sick of the kind of old country thing, and you know, Greg Freeman sounds like a little like Jason Molina when he sings, so he still has that element. But I would say he's pretty much stripped that out of his sound on this record and presented much more of like a, again, old school

indie rock type record that I like quite a bit. But what I'm going to actually put in my official recommendation corner this week is a band from Indianapolis called Wishy. And this is a band that I started becoming a fan of in 2024 when they put out their debut album triple seven and at the time they were really looked at as part of this wave of like shoegays sounding bands that were really taking hold at that time on this new record again which is called nature's pill they still have some of those shoegazy guitars but there's also this like i was saying earlier this like mad chester element to the record stone roses happy mondays where there's like dance beats laced into a lot of these very infectious melodic rock songs.

And it really does remind me of like a record that could have come out in the 90s as, you know, this is like the dancey or more poppy follow-up to the more shoegaze record that came out as the debut. And it's an album that, you know, you can definitely talk about in those sort of backward ways referring to albums from the past. But to me, what makes Wishy really stand out among young indie rock bands is their attention to craft. This band is just really good at writing songs.

And I would say this record is pretty much floor to floor, like wall to wall bangers. I mean, super catchy songs. There's a song on here called Sensational that like should have been a hit in 1993. Like if it came out that year, it would have been all over the MTV Buzzbin. It should be a hit now. Just so again, infectious and fun and like super melodic and catchy. And I just think this band, I feel like there should be more heat on this. them. I don't know what it is. Maybe they need more of a, more of a publicity push or something. I definitely

know that they have a following. But I just think that they're one of the most appealing, accessible, enjoyable pop rock bands in the indie rock world right now. In this album, I really like it a lot. Again, it's called Nature's Pill. I don't know if this band's on your radar at all, Ian. I think they're like a really just fun pop rock band. Yeah, they're, yeah, they're a cool band. You know, shout to hoops. I think they were, came from the ashes of that band. And I've been hearing good things about it.

And yeah, with Greg Freeman as well, I came into that record expecting, you know, pedal, steel, Molina. And what I was hearing,

like, I was pleasantly surprised by how indie rock it is, like, circa 2003, four, like it would fit in with like Spoon or Walkman

or Ockerville River. Totally. Yeah, I can't wait to do. I can't wait to. Or like early bright eyes, I would say. Yeah.

Like 2002, maybe. that kind of thing. But yeah, the, the old country thing, it's almost like he realized, oh, I'm being grouped into this scene, and maybe I don't want to be a part of it. Because it feels very deliberate

as a move away from that. Because he's always had like an indie rock element to what he was doing, but like this album definitely emphasizes that and downplays or totally excises the old country stuff. Yeah, I was very happy to hear that. So I'm really, I mean, yeah, like, burn over, like look, man.

It's, again, not his. fall but I just remember hearing it and thinking like I don't give I don't care if it was didn't it rain part two I don't want to hear anything that sounds like this anymore so I'm excited to dig into this well that about does it for this episode of Indycast we'll be back with more news reviews and hashing out trends next week