Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee

Yes yes yes. We know. It might have been available to dangle in your ears for over a year but this is the first opportunity that we’ve had to scream and shout about the physical edition of Patrick Flegel’s, let’s be frank, masterpiece. 

On the seventh release under the Cindy Lee moniker, the former Women guitarist’s expansive project has never sounded so diverse, so inventive or so incisive. It’s an epic of 60s heartbroken pop colliding with fuzzedout vintage psych on a spine of spindly funk. It’s rock and roll’s alternate timeline where hazy vulnerability and a knack for open-heart poetry kicked machismo right off the roost. It’s been a constant in the souls, thoughts, and words of Residents ever since it first crept out into the world and was a shoo-in for our album of the week back in May.

If you’ve ever sashayed to The Ronettes’ doo-wop, or lost yourself in the dream-like pop of Ariel Pink, this is one for you. And did we mention that this 2-hour opus is absolutely heaving with sultry hooks that’ll keep you locked in for the duration? That and you only need to go 5 songs deep to hear our Jon’s song of 2024.

Diamond Jubilee is one marathon you neither need to train for nor recover from, and its rewards, much like the timeless sounds throughout, will linger with you long after the last fuzz-caked chord rings out.