Whether you’re exhausted from being cooped up in your house, trying to keep your kids from killing each other, working long hours, or just dealing with life right now — you could use some new tunes to rock out to. Our girl Sylvia June brings you recently released albums that promise to deliver.

Pearl Jam, Gigaton

Release Date: March 27, 2020

Why I Like It: Pearl Jam is one of my favorite bands of all time. I even have a tattoo based off one of my favorite PJ songs, “Black.” One may argue I can’t really be objective when it comes to them, but I genuinely enjoy this album more than I have some of their others. I have been really looking forward to this release (their 11th) because I love Eddie Vedder‘s thoughtful, poetic lyrics and I have been needing all the good things since we’ve been dealing with a freaking pandemic. Obviously he wrote this before he knew the kind of time we are in now, but it’s very fitting. A few anti-Trump lines as expected, and they even managed to work in some climate change references. Gigaton has been a great work companion the past week or so.

Top 3 Songs:

• “Who Ever Said” — This song kicks off the album with all the energy of classic PJ.
• “Dance of the Clairvoyants” — When I first heard this on the radio, I had no idea it was Pearl Jam (even though I should have recognized Eddie’s voice). More electronic-driven and poppy than their usual fare, but it’s good! Eddie’s growling on this song gets me places. And it’s like Eddie was being clairvoyant himself about the time we find ourselves in when he wrote these lyrics: “Expecting perfection leaves a lot to endure/ when the past is the present and the future’s no more/ when every tomorrow is the same as before.”
• “Comes Then Goes” — Arguably the most poetic song on the album, about the loss of love. We really all could use a savior from human behavior sometimes.

Honorable Mention: “Alright” — I found this tune oddly calming and reassuring. It’s OK to take care of and trust yourself.

“It’s alright to be alone
To listen for a heartbeat
It’s your own
It’s alright to quiet up
To disappear in thin air
It’s your own“

Deap Lips, Deap Lips

Release Date: March 13, 2020

Why I Like It: I have been grooving on this collaboration between Deap Vally, comprised of guitarist Lindsey Troy and drummer Julie Edwards, and The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd. The album’s stream-of-consciousness style, where one song blends seamlessly into another and lyrical ideas travel from one tune to another, is unique. They described the sound as “Joan Jett meets White Stripes meets Billie Eilish.” A pretty decent cover of Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher” on here, too.

Top 3 Songs:

• “Love is a Mind Control” — The longest song on the album at just over 7 minutes, but its my personal favorite. Awesome harmonies, soaring chords, lyrics lamenting lost love…I mean, this is like a wet dream to me.
• “Hope Hell High” — We all have a long way to go. This single is a nice bop.
• “Home Thru Hell” — The album opener revs things up, literally. “Oh, I think I tried too hard to shut the mouth of doom / Taking all my wisdom from the flaming lips of youth / Now I feel my rapper’s heart and think with my baby’s brain / And I still ride my Yamaha, but everything else is changed”

Honorable Mention: “There is Know Right There is Know Wrong” — These people know how to write some lines. What a great way to wrap up the whole album.

“from religion I’ve learned so much hate
I want to assassinate
The imitation Christ
That lives amongst us
And feeds off the desperate
Like thousands of maggots
Sucking out your love”