Alice Cohen - Archaeology (2025) [Hi-Res]

Alice Cohen has manifested throughout alternative music history in improbable ways, from MTV-era new wave with The Vels to Michael Stipe-produced grunge to 2000s hypnagogic pop. Her latest album, Archaeology, might be her most revealing work yet, which feels almost paradoxical given its prominent use of instrumental tracks. The record seeps through the accumulated layers of a 13-year Brooklyn residency, where her apartment has become something like an archaeological site. Cohen plays her father’s old Yamaha drum machine live rather than programming it, maintaining a tactile connection to family history. The songs bathe us in both intimacy and mystery, and when Cohen removes words entirely, something within the sonic shapes clarifies and offers some kind of answer.