On Chris Stewart’s latest album as Black Marble, the Brooklyn producer handles vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, drum programming, synths, windchimes, tambourine, and piano. Unsurprisingly, an artist who does so much of it themselves has a thought or too about the evolution and atomization of the underground music scene, and Life in Small Spaces tackles working in the music industry with a healthy mix of realism and hope. “When I looked up to see a new artist on a billboard, I started to wonder, will I one day have to pretend to be something I’m not, in order to succeed?” Stewart shared in a statement. “I made Life In Small Spaces while thinking about that, and for me, it serves as my own ideal for living an artistic life.”
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The Afghan Whigs: Soft Control [BMG]
The Afghan Whigs’ fourth album since reuniting and first in four years burrows back into the darkly majestic, soul-inspired alt-rock of their early years. Titled after a David Bowie quote about the process of becoming oneself, Soft Control reckons with religious zealots, power, and mortality, spearheaded by the coarse rumination of disaffected sage Greg Dulli. “I was an angry young man, and it fueled my art, ambition, and my drive,” Dulli says in press materials of the journey to his new outlook. Now, “I know what I’m doing and there’s a quiet confidence that comes with being able to back it up.”
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Rapsody: God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops [Roc Nation]
