September 2025 Project Roundup (Big Thief, Sabrina Carpenter, Goose...)
- Andrew Doucette
- 14 hours ago
- 11 min read
Genre: Indie-rock; jam
Review
Even though the group had already dropped a 90-minute album at the end of April, they decided to surprise release another 90-minute album of arguably even better material! While I think their previous album has better highlights, I enjoy Chain Yer Dragon more as an overall experience. They also lean a bit more into the jam aspect on this album, with there being multiple songs that hit the 10-minute mark, including the closer that goes for over 16-minutes! While Goose does get a fair amount of hate from the jam-community, I think their brand of accessible indie-rock songs extended into jams will bring a lot of people to the genre! And like, sure, their music isn’t the most revolutionary thing out there, I still think it’s pretty good! I don’t know how you could listen to a song like “Empress of Organos” or “Jed Stone” and not have a smile on your face. In fact, Goose has become my comfort music over the past month or two! It operates both as enjoyable music in the background while doing other things, and enough musical and lyrical density to warrant in-depth listens. The more I listen to them, the more I think I might have to check out their show with Mt. Joy in a few weeks, just to see what they’re like live (Editor’s Note: I did and they were fantastic!) Either way, Chain Yer Dragon is another awesome release for the new jam stars!
Favorite Tracks: “Empress of Organos”, “Jed Stone”, “Madelena”
If You Like: Extended indie-rock
Genre: Americana; country; psychedelic
Review
After first seeing Daniel on pure coincidence while at UW-Madison and being impressed, I’ve seen him working his way up the venue sizes over the past few years. I hadn’t been keeping up with his output musically, but it would always be a nice little moment seeing his name on a venue website the past few years. That feeling only intensified when I saw him on the Bonnaroo lineup this year, so when this album came out a couple months after his fantastic set there, I had to check it out. While the 80-minute runtime is a bit intimidating, there’s plenty of fun to be had here! Daniel’s timeless and psychedelic brand of americana is perfect for people who dislike stadium country, but still country enough to be considered a part of the genre. His nasally voice is fairly unique, which is a big positive for me, but I see how others could be put off by it. The other part of this album is the jam-band aspect, which really shows itself on songs like “Down Bedford” and “Chore”, each of which stretch to over ten minutes long. While this seems like his most jam-oriented project, I would personally like a bit more of that in these songs, but that’s ok because the songs themselves are still fantastic! Even without jamming, songs like “Yonder” and “Sunshine in the Rain” have been in my head for weeks! I think most people could get something out of this, so I highly recommend it for some easy listening!
Favorite Tracks: “Sunshine in the Rain”, “Down Bedford”, “Yonder”
If You Like…: Hoedowns; americana jams
Genre: Electronic; alternative
Review
The sibling duo is back again after dropping two albums in 2023. Those two albums showed the two sides to the duo, one being blown out electronic bangers, and the other being a more straightforward indie-rock album. As I had hoped, Sister combines the two sounds really well! Sonically, the production here is a clear homage to 2010s dance music and indie sleaze. The songs have these euphoric drops filled with the stereotypical house drums. But when it comes to the vocals, it’s clear that they are inspired by indie and emo music. Just take the song “Electric” for example. The repeated chorus is “Body to body, we couldn’t get more electric”. When it comes to actually pronouncing those words, each line is punctuated with a flem-y “uehhhhh” at the end. It’s such a small detail, but things like that are what makes this from a pure homage to something more unique in 2025. I’m glad to say that this album was far from a let down, and that Frost Children continue to make fascinating projects!
Favorite Tracks: “Electric”, “Control”, “What Is Forever For”
If You Like…: Indie sleaze; Ninajirachi’s album
Genre: Hip-hop
Review
It’s no secret that this was an important album for Chance. He hadn’t put out any album in six years, and hadn’t put out a good album for nine years. Going six years after The Big Day nearly destroyed his career due to how panned it was, and then coming back with nearly 70 minutes of music was a bold choice. While Star Line isn’t fantastic all the way through, it’s a huge step up from The Big Day, and shows that he’s still got a lot of talent and important things to say. Lyrically is where Chance shines the most on the album. He’s talking about important things and usually handles it with quite a bit of grace. Even his bangers on here talk about social issues, like on “Drapetomania” how he says he has a chain that says fuck ICE. But it’s really songs like “The Negro Problems”, “Letters”, and “Speed of Love” where Chance really excels! These songs are completely introspective and almost more poetry than music. So while there are still quite a few problems with the album, I’m really glad that Chance is back to making good music. Hopefully it doesn’t take six more years to get his next body of work.
Favorite Tracks: “The Negro Problem” (Feat. BJ The Chicago Kid), “Drapetomania” (Feat. BabyChiefDoit), “Speed of Love” (Feat. Jazmine Sullivan)
If You Like…: Noname; poetic hip-hop
Genre: Folk; indie-rock
Review
I get why people are disappointed with the album, but this has more to do with the last couple Big Thief projects being incredible than it does with this one being bad. Big Thief’s 2022 opus Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is easily one of the best albums of the decade in that indie-rock/folksy sound, and then lead singer Adrianne Lenker released an incredibly moving album last year that has songs that felt like instant classics. It’s hard for me to think that a song like “Sadness as a Gift” won’t be talked about for decades to come! So when this new Big Thief album came out and it wasn’t mindblowing, I think some people wrote it off. Still though, I really enjoy this project for what it is! Little sonic things like the psychedelic guitar playing on “Words” and the unique vocals from Laraaji on “Grandmother” add quite a bit to Adrianne’s always-excellent songwriting. Adrianne uses a lot of repetition on the album, mainly to positive reactions, but it sometimes gets a bit too repetitive, like on “Happy With You”. Still, even though Double Infinity is far from perfect, I enjoy listening to this album quite a bit. Just don’t start with this one if you’ve never heard Big Thief before.
Favorite Tracks: “Words”, “Grandmother” (Feat. Laraaji), “Los Angeles”
If You Like…: Big Thief previous material; psychedelic indie-rock
Short Reviews:
It’s been four years since we got a Parcels album, and this one reminds yet again why I’m a fan! It’s very much in the same style as their previous two albums, just with less experimenting. The disco and danceable guitar melodies and basslines are everywhere, and the harmonies between the members have only increased. The album is, on average, a bit slower than the previous two, but it works. In fact, I’m not sure what they would do to make me dislike an album by them. All three albums are fairly similar, just with Day/Night being a bit more experimental. I don’t think they really need to do anything different, at least for me. Whenever they decide it’s time to drop another helping of danceable disco bops, I’ll be here!
I really liked this Dijon album, I just don’t have much to say about it. It’s another 12 song album of his super off-kilter combination of R&B, alternative, and pop music. I didn’t enjoy it as much as his debut album, but the songs themselves are still very enjoyable. The album just hasn’t gone from very enjoyable to incredible for me yet, but maybe soon!
The hip-hop duo Joey Valence & Brae are continuing to capitalize on their hype by putting out an album for the third straight year. This one shows them going more into a personal direction. Of course, there’s still plenty of straightforward bangers! It’s not a JVB album without bangers, but this one also shows them talking about growing up and losing the youth that they are in. I can’t say they dig too deeply into this message, or say anything that unique, but I always appreciate an artist trying to be honest. Still though, Joey Valence is a great producer and their Beastie Boys meets EDM style is always a fun listen!
The newest Dominic Fike mixtape is enjoyable enough. There’s a decent amount of ideas here, but most of them just feel like that, ideas. “Great Pretender” is the exception to this though, and it might be one of my favorite Dominic Fike songs! The chorus is just too infectious and the piano chords behind the loud drums are fantastic! As a project though, this probably isn’t worth more than a listen or two to find your favorites.
A surprise Kaytranada album is never a bad thing! Unlike any of his other albums, this one is almost entirely instrumental. I’ve always wanted a Kaytranada instrumental project, but I think I was unfortunately proven wrong with this one. Not that it’s bad, it’s not. It just gets a bit too similar around the middle of the album, especially when the vocal samples go away. Still though, this project is full of awesome, danceable tracks! Even if you have to be in a certain mood to play the entire thing at once, there are plenty of individual tracks on here that stand out no matter what! I’m excited to see how this all comes together at his show with Justice in early November!
This is a mixtape that Jane put out on a random soundcloud account for only an hour or two before they deleted it. While I definitely don’t think it’s bad, it does pale in comparison to any of their actual albums, so I’m not surprised why they didn’t want to officially release this. We did get an official version of the best song on the mixtape too in “Audiostalker”, so that was nice! To me, this just sounds like a slightly above average, slightly more electronic rage project. So if you like rage music and Jane Remover, you should definitely check this out! But if you haven’t heard anything from Jane Remover, don’t start here, unless you love the Opium/rage movement.
This just feels like Offset wanted to make something mature, and while I did enjoy a fair amount of it, he’s just not a good enough lyricist or songwriter to help sell all of these delicate subject matters. The straightforward bangers are definitely what helps sell it more. Overall, it’s still a decent project, just something that I won’t return to as a whole.
It only took 12 months, and Sabrina’s back again with another full length album! I guess it makes sense to strike while the iron’s hot, but this did feel a bit soon. Anyway, the project itself still feels to me like she’s not an album artist yet. There’s plenty of good songs on here, don’t get me wrong, but there’s too much filler. There are also a few moments on here, like her last album, where she sounds too much like Ariana Grande, in my opinion. I think she does well bringing in the slight twang to the 70s pop bangers, which is well executed again on the lead single, “Manchild”. I hope Sabrina eventually makes a great album, but it seems like we’re settling again for a few great songs.
Flume & Emma Louise - Dumb
This is the second collaboration project that Flume has done this year, and this one ended up being a full length project! While this is definitely better than his JPEGMAFIA collaboration earlier in the year, this also doesn’t live up to Flume’s solo material. Obviously, part of that is probably due to his cohort, Emma Louise. Her voice is really beautiful, but there’s not a lot of range to it, so it ends up growing a bit stale towards the end of the record. Still though, the album is a gorgeous listen! Emma’s voice does pair nicely with Flume’s soundscapes, no matter if it’s a more minimal or maximal track. I wonder if there’ll be another collaboration project from Flume soon, or if it’ll be a solo project.
I was just wondering where Duke Deuce was a couple weeks ago, and now he’s back with a new album! Is the album that good, not really. It’s not bad, there are definitely some highlights in the first half, but the songs get significantly worse when he tries to get away from his trademark sound.
I first heard of the band Die Spitz by watching them open Bonnaroo this year. The quartet of women screamed and sang their way through an hour so well, I made sure to check out what they did next. And here they are with their debut album, Something To Consume! And as if I needed another co-sign to check out the band, this album was released on Third Man Records, Jack White’s label. Overall, this is a pretty good debut project! The bangers are definitely better than the ballads, which include the lead single, “Throw Yourself to the Sword” and the blistering “Riding With My Girls”. These tracks are perfect for mosh pits and workouts to come! The slower songs are usually still pretty good, they are just nowhere as immediate. The songwriting also grows more abstract on the ballads, which I’m still listening to the bangers too often to fully digest the other songs. All in all, I think they knocked it out of the park with a fantastic debut project, and hopefully they continue to evolve from here!
I’ve never heard a solo David Byrne album before, but to my delight, this was just as wacky and joyful as I hoped for! It’s very wholesome to hear 73-year old David Byrne sing about how his apartment is his friend, or about how his wife gave him a facial moisturizer that made him look like a three year old. And especially when the world seems like it’s falling apart, sometimes it’s nice to just escape into a joyful world.
This is quite the weird little EDM EP. I can’t say I like everything on here, but there definitely isn’t much that sounds like this, at least that I’ve heard. It’s clearly inspired by the more aggressive types of dubstep and industrial, but the song structures are all weird. This is definitely someone I want to keep an eye on though, because even though there are plenty of glaring flaws, there’s still enough here to get semi-excited about.
This five-song EP took way too long to get, but the project is still entertaining. Instead of focusing on the cohesive feeling of a project, these are just extra songs they wanted to get out there. All five of them are bangers, I just wish it was released differently. I really like the project though, I just hope they put out something newer sooner rather than later, especially since three of the five songs here have been out for months.
This was a nice surprise! The immediacy of which the project was made is apparent, and I think it helped Fred not overthink anything. The whole project does flow together as a continuous piece of music, which is a nice little addition. While the two singles that bookend the EP are the obvious highlights, the rest of the EP is still really good. I especially like the personal bars of “21 Years”. I don’t know what else to say besides I’m loving this straightforward 5-song EP by two extremely talented artists!
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