New Albums by Lana Del Rey, Boygenius + The Hold Steady, Plus: The Best Sophomore Albums Ever

At the start of this week's episode, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen try to come to terms with the fact that Ed Sheeran doesn't think music critics are necessary. Ultimately, they concede that the man has a point — after all, if music critics had any power, Ed Sheeran would not be a hugely successful pop star (:26).

In the banter segment, they talk about the upcoming tour by Smashing Pumpkins, Interpol and Stone Temple Pilots, which is like Pavement's "Range Life" come to life (7:02). They also talk about the new album by The Hold Steady, The Price Of Progress (14:17).

In the mailbag, a reader asks for their favorite sophomore albums. Can they interest you in a little record called Nevermind? How about The Bends? Actually, the letter writer stumps for Weekend In The City, because it is now Indiecast law that Bloc Party is mentioned in every episode (20:44). Finally, the meat of the episode reviews two big spring indie releases by Lana Del Rey (32:20) and Boygenius (44:11).

In Recommendation Corner (56:23), Ian talks about the American Football side project Lies, while Steve raves about the Irish folk (with a post-rock twist) band Lankum.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 132 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

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