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Wildfire Radio's Love at First Note - July 2026
[<- June 2026]
Tagging for notification purposes (if you would like to be tagged for future editions, please let me know!): @thecoolradcoffin
How do you do, fellow kids? Welcome to another installment of this monthly series in which I talk about albums I've listened to for the first time that I really, really liked.
HOT OUTSIDE. TOO FUCKING HOT OUTSIDE. I don't feel particularly keen on cooking myself medium rare in the sun, so let's listen to some good music instead. Also, I'm another year older now! I'll be booking my reservation at the local graveyard ASAP.
As always, feel free to leave any recommendations for new stuff to listen to in the replies or tags!
Kyle, tell 'em what they've won!
This Month's Picks
Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs (2018)
Abstract Hip Hop, Experimental Hip Hop, Drumless Glitch Hop, Jazz Rap
Pain is a sobering reality check. Pain can fester long after its immediate causes are dealt with and disposed of. Pain can also be a powerful motivator. And sometimes, just sometimes, pain has a twisted sense of humor.
Enter Thebe Kgositsile, aka Earl Sweatshirt, aged 24 at the time of the release of Some Rap Songs. Having been catapulted to fame at 16 years old, Earl has never been one to bask in his notoriety. Through a storm of prying eyes, lofty expectations and Internet sensationalism -- as well as his breakout 2015 LP I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside -- his mental health struggles have been well-documented and were the culprit of the self-cancellation of his tour in mid-2018. What's more, Earl's father and uncle passed away within a few weeks of each other that January. Although most of the album had been written before their deaths, their presence gave Some Rap Songs a veneer of nihilist gloom that past Earl projects lacked.
Some Rap Songs sounds like an abstracted and esoteric suicide note. Not only as if precipitating the death of Earl Sweatshirt himself, but so too the death of people's fractured perceptions of him as he challenges them to see him for his whole self; to take the good with the bad. Backed up by lo-fi production and jittery beats infused with eccentric samples, Earl deadpans self-destructive thoughts and fantasies ("Shattered Dreams," "Cold Summers," "Nowhere2go"), autobiographical struggles with substance abuse ("December 24," "The Mint," "Azucar"), and other musings on his past and his status as a famous rapper ("The Mint," "Eclipse," "Veins"). Tying back into the theme of familial strife, the track "Playing Possum" is a recording of his mother talking about him interspersed with archival footage of his father reciting parts of a poem; Earl had intended for his father to also be featured in a contemporary recording on the album as a conciliatory gesture toward repairing their strained relationship, but he died before the idea could be realized. The record ends with the instrumental "Riot!" which samples a song of the same name recorded by his late uncle, South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela.
Now, to revisit the beats: I've been underselling them in relation to the samples. Which is to say, on a number of Some Rap Songs, the sample is the beat. They're especially off-kilter, almost out of time, but Earl flows so seamlessly over them you wouldn't even notice if you aren't actually listening for it. "Nowhere2go" is a perfect example of this, as the sample is chopped and screwed into this glitched trance-like beat.
The bars on the record are also equal parts introspective and unassumingly cunning. Earl also really knows how to turn a phrase. On "Shattered Dreams," he could easily have used the saying, "Feeling froggy? Then leap" as a means of challenging someone to walk their talk. But he doesn't; instead he says, "Is you gon' ribbit or will you jump?" There's also a lyric on "Veins" that's so basic and elementary but still manages to carry the emotional curiosity of other, more complex ones: "Sittin' on a star, thinkin' how I'm not a star." These aren't even the best examples; there are loads more excellent bars I didn't cover here, but just know that you're not going to be disappointed if you're the type looking for lyrical phenoms in your hip hop.
Some Rap Songs was a slow burner for me. At first I thought it was good but ultimately low-energy, not realizing that the measured restraint was part of the appeal. Now I can definitely say this is my favorite hip hop record I've heard in a while from anybody not named Death Grips. A strong work of art on all fronts.
SCORE: 8.5/10 STANDOUT TRACKS: "Shattered Dreams", "Nowhere2go", "December 24", "The Mint", "Azucar", "Riot!"
Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)
Post-Rock, Experimental Rock Krautrock, Electronic, Minimalism, Math Rock, Ambient Pop
Many things in life are ambiguous to one degree or another. Chicago-based ensemble Tortoise's seminal breakthrough album Millions Now Living Will Never Die -- a record that effectively established the term "post-rock" -- is one of them. Before eventually further cementing themselves as genre legends from the release of 1998's postmodern cult classic TNT onward, Tortoise was first turning heads with this record here. And like any sufficiently ambiguous thing, Millions Now Living Will Never Die doesn't cleanly fit into any one box; their sound pulls from many different inspirations and their execution of this sound positioned them as a transitional act between post-rock forefathers like Talk Talk and Slint -- curiously enough for the latter, since their bassist David Pajo was also a member of Tortoise from 1995 to 1998 and appears on this album and TNT -- and second-wave post-rock torchbearers such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai.
What isn't ambiguous is the band's musical talent and creativity. The LP's liner notes credits all members of the band simply as "performers," which is sort of an understatement. The band members are known to play multiple instruments, sometimes swapping between each other. The album, like all of their other ones, are purely instrumental with no vocals. The resulting sonic textures sound contradictory, yet complimentary; minimalist, yet so lush. Millions Now Living Will Never Die begins with the first track which also happens to be the longest, "Djed." The 21-minute epic, responsible for over half of the album's runtime, cascades through mysterious time signatures with childlike wonder. There's a point just before the 14-minute mark where the rhythmic flow gets abruptly cut off and corrupted, which kind of floored me to be honest. There's also prominent use of vibraphones to drive the song and provide the foundational melody, a pattern that will be continued through the remainder of the album as well.
Next up is "Glass Museum," and-- you know what, fuck it, I'm not exaggerating or being hyperbolic when I say this might be one of the best songs I've ever heard. Clumsily as I'm sure this description is going to read, the song sounds like having a dream in which I'm ambling through, well, an underwater museum constructed in a mid-century modern architectural style and decorated with retro-futurist, glossy, skeuomorphic designs. The main riff is the stuff of pure beauty, buoyed by the vibraphones I mentioned earlier. If I had to choose a favorite part, it would certainly be the bridge. All the instruments recede for just a moment, then the bass comes in unaccompanied for a couple of bars, then the rest of them crash in for a relatively (heavy emphasis on "relatively") aggressive section with an ascending vibraphone lick. It eventually approaches a climax and, after simmering down and transposing back to the main riff, rewards the listener with it and rides it out through the rest of the song. Again, one of the best songs I've ever heard.
Afterwards, we get the interlude "A Survey" sporting a marching bass line. We then move on to "The Taut and Tame," probably the most in-your-face track of the bunch propelled by percussion that sounds like slapping your hand against a catcher's mitt. "Dear Grandma and Grandpa" is an IDM-flavored number that settles deeper into a mellow melancholy. And we finally close it out with the forlorn "Along the Banks of Rivers," a masterful craft in its own right.
Another thing I can praise the album for is its willingness to engage in and brilliantly execute creative subversion in playing around with sounds. Futuristic vibes with healthy doses of psychedelia, throwing in dub and jazz influences. It's like an expedited, idealized process of coming up with a whole bunch of ideas and seeing which ones stick and which don't. It just so happens that almost all of them stick.
Strange and unconventional, Tortoise birthed the Chicago school of post-rock with their self-titled debut in 1994. This album is that child grown into a teenage prodigy with a sprawling future ahead of him on whichever path he decides to take, even if it's not always obviously intuitive. Tortoise were yet to reach their greatest heights in 1996, but Millions Now Living Will Never Die is the canon event that they needed to ultimately reach the summit.
SCORE: 9/10 STANDOUT TRACKS: "Djed", "Glass Museum", "Along the Banks of Rivers"
Disillusion - Back to Times of Splendor (2004)
Progressive Metal Melodic Death Metal
TL;DR: System of a Down and Dark Tranquillity team up to make an Opeth album.
There's this little pet peeve I have. A teensy-tiny peeve, miniscule. Microscopic. But a peeve nonetheless. I do not like it when so-called "melodic death metal" is actually just power metal with growling. Has anyone seen my crunchy death metal riffs? Where are my tremolo pickings and blast beats? Waiter! Waiter! The chef put too many synth leads into my melo-death album!
But on this album I hear something different. I hear... actually melodic... death metal! Disillusion, unlike some of their contemporaries, actually understood that there need to be elements of death metal in your songs to qualify as being something like death metal. But the German band isn't satisfied with simply playing melo-death; what if they got a little proggy about it?
Their answer was Back to Times of Splendor, an hour-long epic with a wealth of balance between soft and loud. Distorted melodies carve deep into the soundscape with a methodical ferocity in juxtaposition against lighter moments, where the clouds part momentarily for an acoustic or symphonic respite. The time signature changes and dizzying chord progressions are splendorous (ha ha), and the melodic parts are genuinely lovely. I must highlight opening track "And the Mirror Cracked," as it combines all of these elements wonderfully and is home to one of the most hype choruses and payoffs I've heard in a death metal record.
Andy "Vurtox" Schmidt's vocals are a treat to listen to as well, very Serj Tankian-esque. He's technically proficient without dulling any of the dramatic luster he imbues into whatever he's roaring about, and with pleasing vocal harmonies to boot. Lyrically speaking, Back to Times of Splendor touches upon multiple subjects regarding passion, loss, regret, and longing against a loosely medieval European backdrop. I'd hesitate to call this a concept album, but the threads running through each song are there.
It's really a shame Disillusion didn't gain more notoriety for this record back in the day. Back to Times of Splendor can easily stand up to many of the prog-death classics that inspired it and it's a rewarding listening experience. If you're looking for underground metal albums, this is one I recommend.
SCORE: 8/10 STANDOUT TRACKS: "And the Mirror Cracked", "Back to Times of Splendor", "The Sleep of Restless Hours"
Honorable Mentions
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (1997)
Space Rock Revival, Neo-Psychedelia, Art Rock Dream Pop, Symphonic Rock, Shoegaze, Noise Pop, Post-Rock, Blues Rock
A slightly intriguing perspective on trippy melodic art/indie rock. Sounds like Failure on a budget and shifted two inches to the side, which isn't actually as insulting as I'm making that sound.
SCORE: 7/10 STANDOUT TRACKS: "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space", "Electricity", "Broken Heart", "No God Only Religion", "Cop Shoot Cop..."
Loathe - A Stranger to You (2026)
Alternative Metal, Alternative Rock Metalcore, Djent, Shoegaze, Dream Pop, Industrial Metal, Progressive Metal
Metalcore/shoegaze/djent veterans Loathe are finally back with a new album, and I can't help but feel a little bit let down. Obviously I wasn't expecting another I Let It In and It Took Everything but the first couple of singles ("Gifted Every Strength," "Revenant") got my hopes up that this would be a bounce-back effort. A Stranger to You could have been much more cohesive as a whole rather than being an inconsistent playlist. Oh, and the production sounds so over-compresssed.
SCORE: 6.5/10 STANDOUT TRACKS: "Block of Flats", "Revenant", "Fangs", "Gifted Every Strength", "A Stranger to You"
Today Is the Day - Sadness Will Prevail (2002)
Avant-Garde Metal, Noise Rock, Sludge Metal Mathcore, Sound Collage, Grindcore, Post-Hardcore
Definitely one of those albums you put on when you're in a really, really foul mood. Also one of those albums that's good but you would never ever recommend to somebody else. My biggest gripe with the record is that it's a double album clocking in at a whopping 2 hours and 25 minutes. That isn't so bad on its own, but it feels like there's so much filler taking up the runtime. I wonder how many of these songs actually needed to be here. Do not try to finish this in one sitting. Also, make sure you're actually in the right mindset to listen to this album because it will fuck you up if you're not prepared.
SCORE: 7/10 STANDOUT TRACKS: "Criminal", "The Descent", "Invincible", "Sadness Will Prevail", "Flowers Made of Flesh", "Never Answer the Phone", "Sadness Will Prevail Theme"
