Partisan Rec

Ezra Collective: Here Because of Hope [CD]

Violins, the third album from Blondshell, finds Sabrina Teitelbaum digging in. Following her acclaimed 2023 self-titled debut and 2025's If You Asked For A Picture, the 11-track Violins trades the veil of bad romantic relationships for something braver, asking how we balance the world's violence with its beauty across songs about troubled friendships, religion, the body, and the long, unglamorous work of healing. It's an album of grandeur, drama, and tragedy, built on virtuoso hooks, swelling guitars, and big lead lines, pulling in fresh touchstones from Gang of Four, Teenage Fanclub, The Go-Betweens, and Sade, alongside lyrical nods to Leonard Cohen and Pavement. From the anthemic frenemy portrait of "Heart Has To Work So Hard" to the sunny, insomniac daydream of "Lucky" and the disarming closer "Fur Elise," Violins captures the sound of an artist who has stopped overexplaining and started rendering art on her own terms.

Cameron Winter's Live At Carnegie Hall documents the Geese frontman's historic Dec 2025 performance. Alone at the piano, he reshapes songs from his acclaimed debut Heavy Metal and debuts three previously unreleased compositions, each one pointing toward where his songwriting is headed next. There is an undeniable sense of occasion running through the performance, capturing the momentous feeling of witnessing an artist stepping into the spotlight in real time. The release preserves one unforgettable night while cementing Winter's emergence as one of the defining voices of his generation, with the sense that this is only the beginning.