BY TOM MURPHY FLOOKY – THIS MEANS WAR The title of the album is a bit curious until you delve into the lyrics. In the distorted guitar and garage rock/Americana fusion style, all these songs unfold as meditations on finding the will to struggle with your personal demons and their various forms. “The Prisoner” is a poetic description of the urge to run away from situations in life, only to realize in the end you can’t escape being yourself and the baggage that comes with that. And from there how those suppressed burdens affects all aspects of your life, from relationships to attaining your dreams. A fine example of songwriting as therapeutic processing. HEX CASSETTE – HEAVEN FORBID This project has consistently traded in catchy melodies and infectious dance rhythms with vibrant production. With their live performances hitting as playfully confrontational industrial dance music, these songs seem much more introspective, New Wave and disco in tone and rhythms. Themes of fearing the loss of one’s essential self when faced with soul-exposing challenges, the perils of being vulnerable even when necessary, and the potential tragic consequences of never realizing your worth until it’s too late lend the album a surprising heaviness. Set to irresistible dance music, it’s a contrast worth revisiting. ITCHY-O – SÖM SÂPTÂLAHN An immersive sound experiment in gamelan frequencies, an orchestra of minimalist percussion, synthesizer, cello figures and binaural tones. This album is an alchemical blend of ancient sound sources with modern, experimental electronic aesthetics and production, crafting a truly unique listening experience. Its expert use of space in the mix is not attempting the impossible task of reproducing the live experience of the full band. Rather it translates the effect of that in-person, analog headspace into an album that stimulates both hemispheres of the brain in a way a standard rock band, experimental electronic act or forward thinking dance music artist/DJ cannot. THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – SO LONELY IN HEAVEN The fragile humanity and sensitivity of Edward Ka-Spel’s vocals on this album seem to float and swim amid flows of melodic guitar trails and harmonic layers of ethereal synths. This intertwines with a vibrant evocation of how current society and culture have cast us all adrift in a paradox of endless engagement and opportunities for connecting with the emptiness of ample isolation via the illusion of access to all human knowledge and each other. The spectral folk psychedelia of this album is especially effective in eloquently expressing both a yearning for genuine, intimate human experiences over mediated and monetized ones, and the melancholy acknowledgment that such quaint desires may be a romanticized artifact of past cultures. One hopes not. The Legendary Pink Dots will perform a two night residence at HQ in Denver on October 31 and November 1 with Orbit Service and Dead Voices on Air. MELODIES NEVER LIE – THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS TOO MANY FLOWERS This might be described as protest ambient. But it is the kind built from solid melodies rooted in synth, guitar and vocals. The song titles suggest a narrative of cultivating a spirit of hope and perseverance. It is a celebration of life, even of dear friends who have passed with their ongoing essence serving as a legacy and memory of something inspirational and beautiful that contributed to the world in a positive manner. The gently warping guitar passages flow together with lo-fi electronics and minimal beats with interconnected themes throughout. And the epic pop track “Let Your Brilliance Unfold” is a full expression of this, serving as one of the most stirring, heartbreaking and transcendently beautiful songs of 2025. SUICIDE CAGES – LIVE WITHOUT Post-hardcore this, mathcore that, Live Without is the most distilled statement on the corrosively dystopian consequences of late capitalism on our civilization and on our personal lives. The relentless bursts of rage and despair in equal measure makes it feel like we can get through this even if we don’t know we will. How this kind of raw vulnerability is expressed at all, and with such precision, is no mean feat, and this extreme metal sound is the perfect vehicle for the important conversations this EP proposes. MORE CONTENT: QUEENCITYSOUNDS.ORG
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