Megan's Staff Picks

Blunt Chunks Wrestles with Expectation on "High Hopes"
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Mar 6, 2024
Expectation will be the death of me. I think I’ve known this for a while; whether it’s what I unconsciously find myself expecting of others...
Lizzy McAlpine Uncovers Timeless Truths on "Older"
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Feb 13, 2024
McAlpine's third studio album, 'Older,' has been previewed with its cyclical title track...
Thermal Are Burdened but Alive on 'Plaster Girl'
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Nov 24, 2023
Thermal's music feels like a heaving chest, heavy with the weight of thick guitar fuzz, claustrophobic emotional landscapes and a racing he...
Pony Girl Release the Pressure Slowly on 'Laff It Off'
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Nov 8, 2023
Some just pop the balloon, others untie the knot and apply pressure to let the air out slowly. Pony Girl's new album is an exercise in the...
Flyte Are Light as a Feather on their Self-Titled Third Album
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Nov 2, 2023
Listening to this Flyte record on a drizzly autumn day, as feels intended, casts a warm glow across the room. Like the crackling embers of...
Mali Velasquez Embarks on a Series of Beginnings with 'I'm Green'
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PUBLISHED Oct 20, 2023
"I drive you to the ER / But don't feel old enough," Mali Velasquez observes on "Turn Red," the kind of meditation-in-an-emergency Frank O'...
Paramore Bring Some Friends on Board for the Invigorating 'Re: This Is Why'
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PUBLISHED Oct 6, 2023
Every Paramore song tends to be its own little existential plane. That's why This Is Why stood out to me as their tightest and most cohesiv...
Hillsboro's Self-Titled Debut Is a Sparking Live Wire
Exclaim! Staff Picks
PUBLISHED Sep 21, 2023
It's not everyday that a band shows up in your inbox with a debut album that sounds so fully formed. I don't know what I was expecting when...