Weekly Music Roundup: Olivia Rodrigo, Leenalchi, and Brazzmatazz

This week, Olivia Rodrigo channels The Cure. Plus, there are global sounds from Leenalchi and Brazzmatazz, as well as a new single from Interpol.

Olivia Rodrigo Channels The Cure on Her New LP
Olivia Rodrigo has released her new blockbuster album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, and on it, she leans into the sounds of emo rock as well as something slightly older: the music of The Cure. None of this will surprise her fans – Rodrigo invited The Cure’s lead singer and only constant member Robert Smith to join her in singing a couple of the band’s early hits at the set at the Glastonbury Festival last year, and the two have joined forces on some recent performances as well. Her single “Drop Dead” references The Cure’s 1987 song “Just Like Heaven,” and there’s even a track called “The Cure.” But the most obvious result of this cross-generational collaboration is the song “What’s Wrong With Me,” which is a duet with Robert Smith. The sound is much more 21st-century pop than 1980s new wave, but the heart-on-sleeve emoting of both singers makes the collaboration feel natural.

Leenalchi Shows There’s More to Korean Music Than K-Pop
Leenalchi is a seven-piece pansori rock band from Seoul – pansori is the traditional opera-style theater of Korea, and normally a fairly forbidding prospect for Western listeners. But Leenalchi (pronounced EE-nal-chee, the first L being silent), marries this old storytelling style to funky bass – actually two funky basses – as well as drums and keyboards to create a hybrid music that is impossibly cool and sneakily catchy. With no guitars but four singers, there is plenty of sonic room for vocal melodies that invite you to sing along (and on the song “Hihi Haha,” where the chorus is simply that phrase, you actually can). The band’s new EP is called Here Comes That Crow and the title track sees the band evoking the dance-funk sound of Talking Heads circa 1979.

Brazzmatazz Cranks Up the Pressure, and the Fun
Brazzmatazz describes itself as an 18-piece “steampunk brass band” from Belgium. Their new album, Crank Up The Pressure, is out today and is full of hard-partying, dance-ready tunes that draw on brass band sounds from New Orleans and the Balkans, with perhaps a dose of Parliament/Funkadelic or Sun Ra’s Arkestra. Vocals, when they occur, as usually just song titles rhythmically chanted; that’s the case with the album’s title track. The focus remains on the energy created and maintained by the band’s sophisticated arrangements and obvious sense of fun. And if it isn’t obvious, there’s always the animated video to drive the point home.

Mexico City’s Diles Que No Me Maten Release New LP
Diles Que No Me Maten is a rock band from Mexico City. Their name, translated as “tell them not to kill me,” comes from a 1950s Mexican short story. And today, they put out an intriguing and often subtly dynamic new album called Escrito en Agua (“written in water”). The song “Viene el viento” (“here comes the wind”) is one of several tracks that look back to the psychedelic folk of the late 60s/early 70s. It begins with Jonas Derbez’s folk-rock vocals over some gently strummed acoustic guitar; simple enough, but with eerie threads of sound weaving in and out of the background. Then, where you might expect a bridge, you get a long instrumental, full of sighing electric guitars, restrained sax, and some beautifully downtempo percussion.

Interpol Announce New LP With Two Singles
Interpol has announced that they’ll release their eighth studio album and first in four years on August 28. It’s called This Mirror Weighs a Ton, and with the announcement came the release of two singles. One is the title track, a slow song with a hint of ambient sound design about it; the other is “See Out Loud,” which is much more in the edgy, driven sound that Interpol have made their own for over two decades. Singer Paul Banks manages to create harmonies that somehow feel unresolved, and guitarist Daniel Kessler also makes a rare appearance as a vocalist at one point.