SOUND BITES

  While many expected the eighth Against Me! record to arrive in 2020, 2020 has had other plans for everyone. Rather than sit back silently, Laura Jane Grace decided to book a whirlwind recording session with Steve Albini; the result is the quickly recorded and quick-playing Stay Alive , its fourteen largely acoustic solo performances clocking in at just under a half hour that sometimes hearkens back to the DIY feel of early Against Me! As an album, Stay Alive doesn't offer a great deal of deviation from its aesthetic; as mentioned, the majority of these songs are simple acoustic guitar and voice performances, with the occasional appearance of an electric guitar and/or drum machine (most noticeably on SuperNatural Possession , the closest thing to a feasible radio single this album has).  I can't really complain about the bare bones presentation, though; some of this material may have suffered with the rawness stripped away. Besides, the solitary vibe is much more in step wit...

Designed to play out like a mixtape, Laura Jane Grace's debut album with backing band The Devouring Mothers is sonically restless to say the least; its fourteen songs rarely sound alike, with this familiar group of musicians (The Devouring Mothers are drummer Atom Willard, also of Against Me!, and recent AM! producer Marc Jacob Hudson) gleefully crate digging for inspiration and coming up with a host of influences. Naturally, a primary touchstone is Against Me!, with which Grace has been ringleader for twenty years or so now. That said, there is less of the tension and anguish present here, and Laura sounds liberated without the association to AM! and the expectations that come with every new record by the well established band. Bought to Rot , without any real precedent set, is loose, free flowing, often funny and always fun. Nowhere is this more apparent than on mid-album highlight I Hate Chicago , during which pretty much every Chicagoan institution is railed against as s...