New albums from Actors, Frankie Rose, Railcard and Perennial have been in my rotation at home this week. Maybe they’ll find their way into yours too. Keep reading for the reviews.
Actors
Our Love Will Live Forever
Out of today’s dark-whatever bands, Actors is one of my favorites, mainly because they manage to draw from the David Bowie and Roxy Music influence that was also huge for the bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but with a degree of separation, so the lineage is more like David Bowie and Roxy Music via Japan and Duran Duran. So, I think of Actors as more like the younger sibling band of ‘00s indie (Bloc Party, Editors, White Lies, etc.) than the current wave of Molchat Doma/She Past Away/Lebanon Hanover playlist strivers.
Our Love Will Live Forever, which came out on Artoffact Records earlier this month, is the Vancouver-based band’s third full-length album, was released earlier this month. More than half of the songs on here were released as singles over the past two years, so a good amount of the material here will be familiar to fans. “In Real Life,” the closest Actors gets to a slow song on this very clubby album, is where frontman Jason Corbett really goes for the Bowie/Ferry/Sylvian/LeBon croon. “I’m Not Here” also brings in the glam with a guitar riff that reminds me of Bauhaus covering Eno’s “Third Uncle.” TBH, “Dead Inside,” previously released as a single, also has a Bauhaus vibe. “Exploded View,” which, shockingly, has not been released as a single, is a total heater with a hint of an Italo disco influence. Overall, I think it would be pretty tough to outdo Actors last album, Acts of Worship, but Our Love Will Live Forever, comes pretty close. The songwriting and production is fantastic and the band finds a good sense of variety in their material while keeping their sound consistent.
Actors Our Love Will Live Forever on Bandcamp.
Frankie Rose
Hila
I don’t think I’ve ever wondered what it would sound like to smush together Chromatics Closer to Grey, The Cure Pornography and the Harold Budd/Cocteau Twins album The Moon and the Melodies. But, then, after the third or fourth time I listened to Hila, the new album from Frankie Rose, I thought, actually, that combination fits this album. Hila, though, is a little saxier.
This is Rose’s eighth full-length album, but I’m fairly unfamiliar with her work. (I only found out that she previously released a Seventeen Seconds cover album via Wikapedia after writing the Cure reference in the first paragraph.) What I think is most interesting about Hila is how Rose, who self-produced the album, finds a balance between synthwave, dirgy goth and ambient-tinged ethereal music. It’s never really all one thing or the other, it just mixes together in a way that works. For example, “Olo” sounds like a Cocteau Twins song made for the L.A. night drive scene in an ‘80s movie. Overall, the album has an anachronistic retro sound that is very cool. If you’re looking for an album that’s pure vibe, with a couple dance floor-friendly tracks in the mix, than this is it.
Frankie Rose Hila on Bandcamp.
Railcard
Two Steps at a Time
U.K. indie fans are going to love the backstory on Railcard. The band features Rachel Love of Dolly Mixture and Ian Button and Peter Momtchiloff of Heavenly, but they only met last year. They brought in trumpeter and keyboardist Allison Thomson, who played on the extremely underrated Trash Can Sinatra’s album I’ve Seen Everything, and started releasing music early this year. Two Steps at a Time is the debut full-length and it’s indie pop gold.
There are nods to ‘60s psychedelic pop and rock that carry throughout the album, although it’s probably most obvious on “I’m a Disaster.”More often, they play as a dreamier sort of flashback, ‘60s filtered through every decade that has passed since. Thomson’s trumpet brings a dose of Ennio Morricone whenever it appears, which adds another filmy layer to the sound.
Two Steps at a Time is a fantastic album from the start, but I appreciate that it’s an album that also gets weirder as it progresses. There are curveballs on it. I was not expecting the very space rock “Unstable Neighbour,” let alone the punky-funky “Runaround.”
Railcard Two Steps at a Time on Bandcamp.
Perennial
Modernism
I love a good commitment to the mid-20th century vibe and Perennialhas that down to the album art on their latest album, Modernism. The New England-based trio is mod af. I don’t just mean musical references to The Who here. I mean, from The Who and northern soul to The Jam to The Make-Up to The Mod Wolves. It’s all here. It’s that whole lineage that makes you want to dust the floor with baby powder and dance your way through all ten tracks. That they accompany this music with a cool, DIY take on mid-century graphics makes all the better.
Perennial Modernism on Bandcamp
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Follow on Instagram or sign up for the weekly, Beatique newsletter for updates on new stories and gigs.
Listen to the September, 2026 edition of Beatique, which also features music from Olivia Rodrigo, ear, Purity Ring, Brigette Calls Me Baby, Slayyyter and more.
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