albums i listened to all the way through

posted this week and every week (24)

Jul 20, 2025

I went to a Men I Trust show in Park Slope on Friday night. It was held in the park and a welcome respite from the last time I saw them play the dreaded Terminal 5 back in 2023. We got to sit on a blanket on the lawn, enjoying the cool summer breeze and lime seltzer waters. Hoards of concert-goers surrounded us—dressed to the nines in their cutest summery outfits.

(It really is a No Bra Summer here in Brooklyn. More power to you, beautiful💜)

I also realized, rather suddenly, how many people now listen to this band I discovered a whole decade ago. What was once the music that filled my angsty late-night drives and college party days is now enjoyed by thousands, if not millions, of listeners around the world.

The petty gatekeeper troll that lives under the bridge of my soul looked around at all the early twenty-somethings with their baggy jeans, cans of Stella Artois, & stale joints and thought to myself, “Ugh. Posers. Do they even know the title of the album closer from the band’s self-titled debut album released in 2014?”

Then, my over-25-teacher brain kicked in, and I chastised myself for being so shitty to a large crowd of music lovers who found some deeper connection to the music I did all those years ago. How unfair is it of me, or anyone really, to appraise someone’s knowledge of certain bands, albums, and genres when all we’re there to do is enjoy the music together?

I once had this idea to make a zine series entitled “My Resentful, Gatekeep-y Personality” where I would write about all the bands I loved first. I would write about all the bands and artists I discovered circa 2014-2018 who have now become alt-rock and indie superstars winning Grammy’s and filling Madison Square Garden and Forest Hills Stadium.

For example—“I liked boygenius first—when Phoebe Bridgers still played bars, Julien Baker wrote about her religious trauma in Tennessee, and Lucy Dacus still lived in Virginia.”

As I’ve gotten older, this has happened more and more. For some of my beloved artists, their notoriety grows exponentially.

So when music Substack exploded after Gabbie published this incredible article about the band Wet Leg, I honest-to-God asked myself, “Who the hell is that?” Despite all my posturing about knowing the underbelly of new music, I hadn’t ever heard of Wet Leg before their new album graced the annals of Substack last week.

I am so glad to have found them. Better late than never, I suppose?

I listened to moisturizer more than a few times this past week. I loved how fun, sexy, and girly it is, but in a badass rock-and-roll, heavy hitter kind of way. It’s unapologetic in its energy bursts and horniness. Of course, we know how poorly some music critics and fans respond to women in rock who don’t take themselves too seriously, especially if they’re hot and/or playing with their own sexuality in a way that makes said critics and fans uncomfortable.

Personally, I love that shit. I think JB Minton 📺 said it best when he said, “It’s proper British noise rock.”

Fuck yeah, it is.

All these conversations about what music criticism is in the wake of streaming have thrown my own views sideways. I feel like I’m just now entering the conversation. Frankly, I felt I had no place in this world to begin with until recently. I certainly wanted to be part of it but felt locked out because I wasn’t trained or experienced in the ways other great music critics were.

But, if music criticism is headed in the direction of curation and hyping up the good stuff we love, I’m all for it. That’s been my approach to music for a decade now. To see so many greats start to embrace that here on Substack is as gratifying as it is humbling.

May we all be a bit more willing to curate and highlight the great stuff we love for the cool cats who read us.

Here are the albums I listened to all the way through this past week: