No Expectations 133: Arrow

Four albums for your week from Ratboys, Ulrika Spacek, and more. Plus, 'The Secret Agent,' Greg Grandin's 'America, América,' and yes, the Bad Bunny halftime show.

No Expectations 133 (Cover image by Zack James)

No Expectations hits inboxes on Thursdays at 9am cst. Reader mailbag email: Noexpectationsnewsletter@gmail.com. Daily Chicagoan, the local news newsletter I produce at my day job with WTTW News (PBS Chicago), can be found here.

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Headline song: Lala Lala, “Arrow”

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Thanks for being here. It’s the 43rd day of the year, and I still haven’t fully settled into 2026. It’s weird. I’m hitting my deadlines for both No Expectations and my day job, and I like how everything’s turned out. In my free time, I’m seeing friends. I’ve eased back into regularly going to shows, and I’ve already made it through a few books. I’m listening to more new music, exploring new-to-me genres, and have even managed to cram in a bunch of sports to watch so I can unwind. Everything’s great on paper, but the vibes are slightly askew.

I’m not alone here. From talking to my buds and reading my favorite newsletters recently, it’s clear that ambient dread and anxiety are permeating. Even when things might be going well, few people in my life seem to be doing well. In my case, it’s 100% because I’ve been on my phone too much. Even though I frequently write about being more intentional in how I spend time online, it’s still a struggle. News headlines bring unimaginable horrors straight to my notifications. Scrolling social media introduces me to a clownish parade of uber-confident pundits with a limitless capacity for self-delusion. Much of the rest is AI slop or endless vertical video content. I know it sucks to look at, but I can’t help myself sometimes.

I’m doing fine, but I’d be much worse off without this creative outlet. Sure, I have to use a laptop, and much of the research requires an internet connection, but writing this blog allows me to focus on the good things I experience every week. What made me feel alive? What interested me? What did I learn about other people from reading this book, watching this movie, or listening to this album? Can I put into words how this art moved me, and can I convince others it’s worthwhile? It feels healthy to think about these things every week. Writing it all down is grounding, too. While I’m inclined to make a “men will literally start a weekly indie rock newsletter instead of going to therapy” joke here (therapy’s great too!), I really think having some sort of artistic project or hobby is important. Nurturing your curiosity, surrounding yourself with things that remind you of your own humanity, and making something are balms for any time, especially when things feel overwhelming.

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 Old Style plus tip at Rainbo Club. Every bit helps, keeps this project going, and allows it to stay paywall-free. It’s rough out there, so it means the world you’re reading and supporting this writing project.

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4 Albums Worth Your Time This Week

Jo Passed, Away

Artists can and should take as much time as they need between records. It’s not a race, and these things take time. Musicians don’t owe their fans new tunes, and their health should always come first before a grueling album cycle. Jo Hirabayashi, the Canadian songwriter behind the adventurous indie rock project Jo Passed, released his debut LP in 2018 and followed it up in January with the spectacular full-length Away. Even with a six-year break, Hirabayashi’s atmospheric and unpredictable indie rock still sounds as invigorating as ever. On the Pixies-evoking “Too Much Tonight,” foreboding strings pockmark a jittery guitar riff as Hirabayashi’s airy croon anchors the nervy arrangement. As a singer, he’s a welcoming and soft touch, like Andy Shauf, Elliott Smith, or the dude from Silversun Pickups. But it’s his compositions and prowess as a bandleader that truly propel the material here. Single “Ico” boasts a wobbling electronic beat that’s both mesmerizing and pummeling, while standout “339” soars with saxophone skronk from Vancouver’s Andromeda Monk. This is a deeply rewarding and surprising record that shouldn’t go under your radar.

RIYL: Tasteful alt-rock, taking your time, spacey jangle

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Mandy, Indiana, URGH

No matter how many things are going on in a Mandy, Indiana track, it’s clear that this is a band where percussion is the lead instrument. Each song contains rhythms so dense and disorienting that it’s hypnotic. The Manchester-based band is somewhere between club music at its most caustic and noise rock at its most danceable. On URGH, their second LP and first with Sacred Bones Records, they add even more scorching intensity, harsh electronics, and off-kilter drumming to an already winning formula. On the single and live staple “Magazine,” skittering, jackhammer beats dissolve into a squall as Valentine Caulfield shouts in French. Elsewhere, “Cursive” features frenzied, boiling synths while “Sicko!” gets an assist from rapper Billy Woods. Beyond that guest appearance, the only time you’ll hear English lyrics comes in the snarling, righteous closer “I’ll Ask Her,” which is a searingly lucid take on sexual violence that turns rage into catharsis. Inventive, raw, and unrelenting, I bet I’ll revisit this throughout the year.

RIYL: Percussion as lead instrument, music that makes you want to run through a wall

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Ratboys, Singin’ to an Empty Chair

Ratboys might be Chicago’s easiest band to root for. I’ve been writing about them for over a decade, and witnessing them refine and expand their anthemic and sturdy brand of indie rock has been such a joy. Where the sonic shift from their 2015 debut, AOID, to this year’s masterful Singin’ to an Empty Chair is striking, each record in between has been a patient but tangible evolution. They’ve done everything right and should be a model for similarly-minded groups looking for longevity and intra-band chemistry over blowing up quickly. After over a decade, this record feels like a true breakthrough moment for the quartet, thanks to the compelling earworms that make up its 11 tracks. With production from Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), these songs sound massive from the lilting twang on “The World, So Madly” and the frantic shredding of the six-minute “Light Night Mountains All That.” As a frontperson, Friend of the Newsletter Julia Steiner is electric. She’s a warm singer and an earnest lyricist, who coos, “Will you look me in the eye / And promise that you'll stay with me / 'Til the sand meets the sky?” on the song-of-the-year contender “What’s Right.” This is how indie rock should be.

RIYL: Open-hearted indie rock, friendship, Wild Pink

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Ulrika Spacek, EXPO

Formed in Reading and based in London, Ulrika Spacek makes art-rock that gleefully and tastefully blurs the lines between psychedelic, post-punk, and electronic music. Their last effort, Compact Trauma, was one of 2023’s clear-cut standouts, and their latest, EXPO, is sure to continue the streak in 2026. Darting and dizzying percussion, along with a brooding, angular riff, buoy the woozy single “Picto” while breathy pops of synth illuminate the hazy “Weights & Measures.” Whether there are glitchy digital textures or organic live in the room instrumentation, it all sounds pristine and intentional throughout these 11 songs. For all the freewheeling sonic experimentation, there’s a graspable pop core here throughout, especially on the smoky and hooky “Build a Box and Break It.” Few bands since Stereolab and Sonic Youth are making songs as immersive, heady, and intricately rendered as Ulrika Spacek.

RIYL: The bleep-bloop Radiohead songs, Squid, Sonic Youth

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What I listened to:

The No Expectations 133 Playlist: Apple Music // Spotify* // Tidal

1. Conic Rose, “twist”
2. Mandy, Indiana, “try saying”
3. Robber Robber, “Watch For Infection”
4. Ulrika Spacek, “Weights & Measures”
5. Lala Lala, “Arrow”
6. Jo Passed, “339”
7. Suitor, “Factory”
8. Gia Margaret, “Everyone Around Me Dancing”
9. Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart, “dawn | pulse”
10. En Kernaghan Band, “Don’t Be Scared”
11. The Clearwater Swimmers, “Landline”
12. Natalie Jane Hill - Colors
13. The Fruit Trees, “Teeth”
14. beaming, “say goodbye”
15. Ratboys, “What’s Right?”

*Note: The Clearwater Swimmers are not on Spotify.

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Gig recap: Dean Johnson, Lily Seabird at Schubas (2/6)

There’s a new Lily Seabird record on the way. It’s fully written and tracked, and she played only new tracks while opening up for Dean Johnson last Friday. The Burlington songwriter has been a staple of this newsletter’s recommendations since early 2023, and this collection of songs is undoubtedly her strongest yet. She played some early versions of the tracks for my girlfriend and me before the show, and we were both floored. As she played them live in a totally solo context, we still could hum along even though we only heard them once. Headliner Dean Johnson, a Seattle lifer and folk crooner, released his debut record in 2023 at 50, and last year followed up with the excellent I Hope We Can Still Be Friends. Imagine if one of the Everly Brothers was also the funniest, most popular guy at your local dive bar, and you’ll get something close to the show. A true pro, a genius at stage banter, and a phenomenal crooner, he encored with a song that didn’t make the last album called “The Rapture,” which brought the house down.

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What I watched:

The Secret Agent (directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho)

Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho used to be a movie critic who has now become one of his country’s foremost auteurs, whose films highlight people trying to make do in oppressive conditions. His last narrative feature, Bacurau, was a thrilling and violent sci-fi western showcasing a village in Pernambuco fighting back against bloodthirsty tourists. In his follow-up, the Academy Award-nominated The Secret Agent, the violence is ever-present, even if it’s not always shown on screen. An electrifying Wagner Moura plays a university researcher in 1977, under Brazil’s military dictatorship, who ends up on a police watchlist and has to flee for his life in Recife. It’s a tense watch throughout, but it’s much deeper, playful, and affecting than a straightforward political thriller. If Moura doesn’t get the Best Actor Oscar, I’ll be mad.

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What I read:

America, América: A New History of the New World (by Greg Grandin)

I’m fudging this entry a bit: I actually read Greg Grandin’s excellent and sprawling book America, América: A New History of the New World over the holidays. It’s nearly 800 pages, and there’s no way I could get through it on a weekly deadline. Because the newsletter was on hiatus, I never got around to writing about it. I wrapped up a different book on Tuesday,* but Bad Bunny’s astoundingly good Super Bowl Halftime show last Sunday allows me to recommend this sweeping five-century chronicle of the Americas. It’s a book that argues how inseparable and enmeshed Latin American history is with the United States. After all, most of the historical Latin American revolutions were directly inspired by my country’s. From the horrifically brutal Spanish conquerors to the present day, from Simón Bolívar and the Mexican Revolution to the Monroe Doctrine and Cold War foreign policy, Grandin exhaustively details the hemisphere’s tumultuous evolution. It’s illuminating reading, both to learn more about how the USA’s past and futures intersect with our Southern neighbors and how what was then-called the New World became what we live in today.

With this context in mind, and as a genuine fan of his music, I found Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny’s defiant and joyful Super Bowl Halftime Show really moving. It’s honestly my favorite since Prince had the honor. Rich with imagery and symbolism, the performance moves from a casista to a boda and a bodega. He dances on exploding telephone poles, highlighting Puerto Rico’s energy crisis, waves his island’s independence flag, and closes the 13-minute spectacle with a “God Bless America” and a jubiliant procession of flags from the hemisphere. It’s a beautiful message and visual stunner alone, but it helps that all the songs are undeniable bangers. “The only thing stronger than hate is love,” indeed.

*= The book I read this week was Milton Mayer’s They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45. I skipped writing about it this week because I blurbed Robert O. Paxton’s The Anatomy of Fascism last time. It’s good to change things up.

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The Weekly Chicago Show Calendar:

The gig calendar lives on the WTTW News website now. You can also subscribe to the newsletter I produce there called Daily Chicagoan to get it in your inbox a day early.