This week I’m going with a recent album and one from an artist I hadn’t heard of until said album’s release. I was browsing the social sites and saw a post from Consequence, Pitchfork or whatever hipster music aggregator when I saw a write-up for a new record from an act totally unfamiliar to me. Out of curiosity I pushed play and well, now here we are with a new album of the week.

Illuminati Hotties – Let Me Do One More

Released October 1, 2021 via Snack Shack Tracks/Hopeless Records

Favorite Tracks – Pool Hopping, Joni: LA’s No. 1 Health Goth, Kickflip

Illuminati Hotties is a band formed by producer and engineer Sarah Tudzin. The music could be described as along indie rock or pop punk lines (modern genre descriptors outside of metal are kind of beyond me).

Sarah and her band have already dealt with record label problems a whole two albums in and this album was a delayed release after fulfilling contractual obligations with a thrown-together effort in 2020. It’s nice to see the same old problems in the music industry take new forms all these years later.

Let Me Do One More is a fun album with a variety of songs to fit about any mood or atmosphere. Opening track Pool Hopping sets a fun and fast tone, which is carried forward with the totally copy-and-pasteable title MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA. Things turn toward the reflective and melancholy with Threatening Each Other Re: Capitalism.

The album offers a nice mixed bag of songs, showcasing a variety of styles and themes rather than honing in on one specific thing that works and running with it. It’s kind of a throwback to when more artists explored different areas of sound rather than just reinventing the same sound many times over.

There are a lot of interesting and subtle quirks about this album – from unconventional song titles and style-shifting breaks like the spoken conclusion of uvvp. It’s clear that this isn’t just a “pick up guitar and make some noise” effort – there was some clear focus on arrangement and atmosphere. I suppose that would be expected from someone who has spent time in every part of the music-making process.

In the end, Let Me Do One More is an engaging album with a lot of fun and some tunes for thought. It’s nice to find something out of my typical music circles to enjoy. Hopefully there’s much more to come from Illuminati Hotties, whatever obstacles record labels might throw in the way.