It’s been a long time since French Montana and Max B launched their Coke Wave mixtape series—17 years, to be exact. Now that Max B has been released from prison following a 16-year-long sentence, the close friends and collaborators have picked up where they left off in the form of Coke Wave 3.5: Narcos. For those keeping track, no, you’re not losing your mind about the chronology; their latest collaboration is the fourth mixtape in the series, following 2009’s Coke Wave and Coke Wave 2, as well as 2019’s Coke Wave 4.
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Winged Wheel: Desert So Green [12XU]
Everyone in Winged Wheel knows their grouping doesn’t make sense, least of all geographically; hence why members of Sonic Youth, Tyvek, Matchess, and more turned to remote file-trading from their different abodes to pull it off. All six members of the band—Whitney Johnson, Cory Plump, Matthew J. Rolin, Steve Shelley, Lonnie Slack, and Fred Thomas—poke and prod one another to keep their sound evolving through experimental indie rock, post-punk, krautrock, and beyond, often refining arrangements after tracking the music itself. Their third album, Desert So Green, is more aggressive than last year’s Big Hotel, yet it’s arguably the best jumping-off point for their discography, welcoming new listeners into the fold to see where and how they get where they’re going.
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Zach Bryan: With Heaven on Top [Warner]
