merge

WHO: Teenage Fanclub WHAT: Nothing Lasts Forever WHY: Sometimes, things fall through the cracks. Last year, it was Nothing Lasts Forever. I had heard it, and enjoyed it, but it took a while to click. By the time that happened, we were already in 2024. If I were to tell you that Teenage Fanclub is a California band, you’d believe me. But I’d be incredibly wrong. Try across the pond and way north. They’re not even close to being teenage!...

Neutral Milk Hotel Collected Works (Merge Records) I confess I never listened to Neutral Milk Hotel before. I knew it was considered one of the great alternative bands, but I never heard anything else that made me want to listen to them. There were moments I definitely felt I should check it out, wishing, as I do, to be well informed about music. But I never made the move. Until now. Offered the chance to review their Collected...

WHO: Superchunk WHAT: What a Time to be Alive WHY: It’s not just that I love this album by Superchunk. It’s that I tried getting into them with their selftitled debut with marginal success, and decided to give this new one a chance, and put in the time, and it just snuck up on me one day and hit me, and now I can’t stop listening to it. What a Time to Be Alive is full of catchy punk tracks...