Album Spotlight W03
Ela Minus – DÍA
Colombian electronic artist Ela Minus’ sophomore album ‘DÍA’ proves that existential dread sounds better with a beat. After scrapping her initial lyrics for being too shallow (relatable), she spent three years crafting a deeply personal techno-pop odyssey across three continents. The album opens with ‘Abrir monte,’ conceived in the Mexican desert – because nothing says “penetrating dense foliage” quite like a barren landscape.
The record balances club-ready bangers (looking at you, skull-smacking ‘Upwards’) with darker introspective cuts, all built purely on hardware synths. Minus tackles everything from apocalyptic thoughts in Spanish (‘QQQQ’) to fear of failure (‘I Want To Be Better’), somehow making emotional vulnerability danceable.
While occasionally the lyrics venture into “broken” territory (she really wants you to know she’s broken), the impeccable sound design and creative production transform personal catharsis into universal club euphoria.
Mac Miller – Balloonerism
Mac Miller’s second posthumous release proves that even ghosts can drop better albums than most living artists. ‘Balloonerism’, recorded during his creatively fertile 2013-14 period, emerges from the vault with the kind of cohesion that makes most “lost albums” look like hastily assembled cash grabs.
It’s a reminder that some artists leave behind not just music but entire universes waiting to be discovered.
Less a collection of B-sides, more a carefully preserved time capsule of genius in motion.
The Weather Station – Humanhood
The Weather Station’s ‘Humanhood’ proves that even successful artists can find themselves face-down on the floor questioning everything – they just do it more eloquently.
The closing track ‘Sewing’ finds her stitching herself back together while casually dropping the observation that pain is ordinary – a comforting thought delivered by someone who just made an extraordinarily un-ordinary album about it.
You Are The Morning – jasmine.4.t
jasmine.4.t’s ‘You Are The Morning’ arrives with the kind of origin story indie documentarians dream about: Long COVID, couch-surfing, and a fortuitous car ride where Lucy Dacus played demos for Phoebe Bridgers. The result? Saddest Factory Records’ first UK signing and a debut that makes most “finding yourself” albums sound like they weren’t really looking that hard.
Between the Sufjan Stevens delicacy of opener ‘Kitchen’ and the grungier territory of ‘Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation’, Jasmine and her all-trans band craft a sound that’s incredibly intimate.
‘You Are The Morning’ suggests that jasmine.4.t isn’t just a new voice in indie rock – she’s a whole new dawn.
