No Expectations 155: Officially
Stellar new LPs from Neptune’s Core, Hana Stretton, and more. Plus, an Icelandic breakup movie and a fantastic and funny novel about Christian rock.
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Headline song: Way Dynamic, “Officially”
Thanks for being here. No Expectations is back with another round of weekly recommendations. I appreciate your patience with last Thursday’s brief hiatus. It’s been a busy summer, but fortunately it’s only been hectic because of fun things: shows, family and friends in town visiting, birthday parties, dinners, etc. I’m having the time of my life, but I’m also looking forward to hanging more at home, reading more, watching more movies, and listening to more great albums. It’s all about balance.
Had I not taken a short break, I wouldn’t have discovered most of the records featured below. They’re all gems in drastically different ways, and I’m sure you’ll find something to dig into if you’ve found new favorites through this newsletter. I don’t need to tell you that it’s a tough time for independent music and music journalism, so it means the world that you’re taking time each week to support this writing project and the deserving acts I try to champion.
Here’s the spiel for new subscribers: Each week, you get a wildcard main essay (often new album recommendations), a 15-song playlist, as well as updates on what I’m listening to, watching, and reading. Sometimes you’ll get an interview with an artist I love, and other times it’ll be a deep dive into one band’s discography. Since I’m a Chicago-based writer, this newsletter is very Midwest-focused. So, if you live in this city too, you’ll also receive a curated roundup of upcoming local shows to check out.
Here’s where I politely ask for money: This newsletter is something I write in my spare time after work. It does not have a paywall and won’t for the foreseeable future due to the generosity of my readers. I am not in the business of gatekeeping. If you have the means and like what you read, I’d encourage you to sign up for a paid subscription. If your budget is tight, telling a friend about a band you found out about here is just as good. You can also post about No Expectations and say nice things. That works too. It’s still $5 a month—the cost of one Hamm’s plus tip at Rainbo Club. Every bit helps, keeps this project going, and allows it to stay paywall-free.
Four Albums Worth Your Time This Week
Bullseye, Bullseye
I first came across the label Ever/Never Records when they co-released Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band’s Dancing on the Edge in 2023 and rediscovered them when they put out the latest LP from No Expectations favorite National Photo Committee this year. The label’s on a tear in 2026. Their recent signee and New York City quartet, Bullseye, released a self-titled album in April that’s one hell of a rock effort. It’s just hooky enough, just jangly enough, and just twangy enough throughout its lean eight tracks. Fronted by Jake Barczak, who oscillates between a swaggering alt-rock and casual crooning, the band excels at blistering power-pop and meaty choruses. Crunchy riffs anchor the rollicking standouts “Blue Eyes Blue” and “Dangers of the Heart,” while the anthemic closer “Everything Is True” captures Robert Pollard's boundless magnetism at his peak. Sometimes a rock album only has to rock, and this one truly does.
RIYL: The Replacements, Big Star, Twisted Teens
Hana Stretton, tiarn
One deep listen to tiarn, the latest LP from the Melbourne-based songwriter and sound collagist Hana Stretton, and you’ll think you’ve entered a dream. Delicate but immersive, these ghostly songs evoke the feeling of opening a window in springtime. It’s the album version of dew on fresh grass, of being temporarily blinded by sunlight, of taking in an expanse of nature through a passenger-seat window. It’s part folk, part ambient, part field recordings, and it’s all rendered cinematically through its half-hour runtime. The more traditional songs on the record feel out-of-time, like “stay involved,” which is carried by spectral harmonies. But the real joys here come through the unclassifiable tunes, ones pocked by transportive recording quirks that make you feel like you’re present with the musicians. If I transcribed what you’d hear on a song like “seagull theory II,” it’d read rote, repetitive, and inessential. But if you let the song wash over you, it might be one of the most transcendent listening experiences of your year.
RIYL: Dagmar Zuniga, Gia Margaret, Bon Iver
Mallory Hawk, Chinook
Philly’s Mallory Hawk has been one of indie rock’s foremost utility players. She’s a ceaseless advocate of underground artists, co-running the label Double Double Whammy for a long time, and has played in bands as disparate as Trace Mountains, Customer, and M(h)aol. This jack-of-all-trades skillset soars on her solo debut, Chinook, which is as eclectic as it is excellent. These 10 tracks traverse through so many moods and subgenres that it’d be overwhelming if Hawk weren’t such a confident bandleader and songwriter. “Cartetaker” is snarling alt-rock, “Superhighway” evokes New Order in its airy synths and pogoing bass thump, while the mournful “Rotten Man” is carried by palpable twang. Throughout, Hawk’s melodic playfulness and her charismatic vocals seamlessly tie these influences together. Shockingly, this is her first full-length, not just because of her sprawling music career so far but for how clearly at home she is throughout.
RIYL: Nilüfer Yanya, Snail Mail, Gang of Four
Neptune’s Core, Pivot
I’ve been writing about Chicago music for the last 14 years, and I’ve never come across a new LP that’s so in conversation with the albums I’ve covered throughout my adult life. Pivot, the latest LP from local quartet Neptune’s Core, is deeply indebted to their home’s indie rock community: they boast the melodic sensibility of Finom (“Bent Down, Loving More”), the explosive catharsis of Friko (“Easel”), and the breezy proclivity for rock earworms of Twin Peaks (“Calvary King”). They make these fantastic influences their own throughout: deep students of Chicago music who have found a way to set themselves apart. Though they’re still one of the city’s youngest rock bands, they’ve been making music together for eight years, and it shows throughout. Even if you didn’t know its members are composed of two pairs of sisters, you’d still be able to clock the lived-in chemistry in these unpredictable tracks. Thanks to the commanding singing of Sofie Richter, who effortlessly growls, wails, and croons with palpable range, there are few bands with a brighter future than this one. While this is technically Neptune’s Core’s third full-length (the first two are scrubbed from the internet), this is a spiritual debut and a reinvention for one of the city’s easiest-to-root-for acts.
RIYL: Finom, Friko, Dehd
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 155 Playlist: Apple Music // Spotify // Tidal
1. The Drin, “Haven’t Lived It Yet”
2. Bullseye, “Everything Is True”
3. Mallory Hawk, “D’Anger”
4. Smidley, “Capstone”
5. This Is Lorelei, “Oh No Now My”
6. Way Dynamic, “Officially”
7. Lily Seabird, “The Afterglow”
8. Hollow Hand, “Heavy Metal T-Shirt”
9. Neptune’s Core, “Lemon Car”
10. Gash, “risking heaven”
11. Slow Pulp, “Spill”
12. Graham Hunt, “Getting Older”
13. Babehoven, “Three Reds”
14. @, “Punish My Mind”
15. Hana Stretton, “Seagull Theory II”
Gig recap: Dari Bay, Villagerrr, Options at Gman Tavern (8/5)
Two longtime favorites teamed up for a co-headlining show at the bar where I spent most of my twenties. There’s no point rehashing how often I’ve written about the Burlington, Vermont scene (Greg Freeman, Lily Seabird, Robber Robber, Dari Bay, etc) or Columbus, Ohio’s Villagerrr, but those acts have been featured heavily since the very beginning of the newsletter. (Zack James, the frontman of Dari Bay, designed No Expectations’ logo and is behind its weekly cover images, too). Over the past three years, I’ve seen both bands play Gman to maybe 20 people, but last Wednesday, the room was totally packed. Dari Bay’s set is spectacular, especially thanks to James’ astounding deftness as a drummer-frontman. His rhythmic complexity is what makes Surprise Wish one of the best albums of 2026, and it’s always so great to see him behind the kit live. Villagerrr also ruled, with a stripped-down trio setup that perfectly captured songs from their latest LP, Carousel (also an AOTY contender). There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a band you love lock in over time, win new fans, and get better and better. It couldn’t happen to more deserving people.
Gig recap: Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center Benefit at Empty Bottle (8/9)
One of my best friends and neighbors, Tessa, works as a therapist for the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center. While she’s not a professional musician, she might be more tapped into the local music community than I am because she got what felt like half the scene to play and support a Sunday night benefit show at the Empty Bottle. (If you know her, she’s an infectiously kind and thoughtful human being, so it’s no surprise everyone happily signed up.) I saw spectacular sets by Ulna’s Adam Schubert, Deeper’s Nic Gohl (doing his first-ever solo show as NA, HF), Free Range, FACS’ Brian Case and Jason Balla, Mass Text (Chris Sutter of Meat Wave’s newish band), and TV Union (TV Buddha and Current Union TM). Another perfect night at the Empty Bottle—this time for a good cause: it raised a few thousand bucks for an essential local organization.
What I watched:
The Love That Remains (directed by Hlynur Pálmason)
I often joke that my taste in film can be boiled down to “slow features where not much happens and there’s a lot of talking mixed with lush and patient cinematography where, uh, every shot’s a painting.” When I recommend a movie to a friend, and they come back with a review saying they found it boring, I might be disappointed, but I’m never shocked. I’m stuck in my ways. This is a long-winded way of saying that Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason’s latest, The Love That Remains, is almost impossibly up my alley. It follows Anna (Saga Garðarsdóttir), an artist, and Magnus (Sverrir Guðnason), a fisherman, as they navigate a separation and co-parenting their three children. It’s funny, sweet, and quietly devastating. Even if I didn’t love the surreal touches Pálmason injects into the final half, this might be my favorite film of 2026 so far.
What I read:
Recommended If You Like (by Adam Voith)
Adam Voith worked for years as a booking agent whose roster included so many alltimer favorites: Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Father John Misty, Kevin Morby, Damien Jurado, and more. We somehow never met each other when he worked in music, but we became internet friends through writing newsletters. Now retired from the industry, Voith runs the independent book publisher Little Engines and his own Substack, Adam Voith Memos. This month, he released a new novel called Recommended If You Like, which follows a teen growing up in the Midwestern Bible Belt during the ‘90s. He’s immersed in the Cornerstone-era Christian rock world but likes “secular music” too, and attempts to book shows for his youth group, which goes poorly. The more he grows up and dives into the world of live music, the more he doubts his faith and documents these thoughts in cassette-taped monologues. It’s fiction, but you’ll recognize real bands and maybe even some real people named in the book. Voith’s a breezy, conversational, and hilarious writer, lending grace and empathy to his fumbling protagonist. Even if you didn’t grow up in the evangelical milieu, the coming-of-age pathos of an awkward music obsessive figuring out their way should hit close to home. He’s “selling” the book for free on Little Engines, but you should send him a few bucks for this delightful and slim novel.
The Weekly Chicago Show Calendar:
The gig calendar lives on the WTTW News website. You can also subscribe to the newsletter I produce there called Daily Chicagoan to get it in your inbox a day early.
The classic mid-august in Chicago feeling. Fulfilled with the summer's activities but ready to relax a bit and enjoy the slower pace of the fall. Thanks for the selections...have some listening to do today!.
I'm stoked to see Mallory Hawk on here! 'Chinook' has quickly grown on me and has become one of my faves of the year. 'Superhighway' and 'Caretaker' are both fantastic pull tracks.