Elton John and Lana Del Rey have a couple of things in common: 1 | They both have new studio albums coming out next week; 2 | You won’t find either of them in the list below. But you will find plenty of other great titles to keep in mind. Here’s the rundown (in alphabetical order):
Angel Du$t
YAK: A Collection of Truck Songs
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “YAK: A Collection of Truck Songs follows Angel Du$t’s 2019’s LP Pretty Buff, and sees the Baltimore group channeling an anything-goes philosophy into their tightest, most forward-thinking material yet. Recorded over a two-month period in Los Angeles last year, the album is a rotating smorgasbord of percussion, guitar tones, effects, genres, and influences, fashioned in the spirit of a playlist as opposed to a capital-R ‘Record.’ The album’s 12 tracks span jangle-rock gems, piano-spiked power pop, and a breezy duet with Rancid’s Tim Armstrong. Singer-guitarist Justice Tripp remarked on the forthcoming album sharing, “People get really married to the idea of making a record that sounds like the same band. If one song to the next doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the same band, I’m OK with that.”
Biffy Clyro
The Myth Of The Happily Ever After
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As the followup to the U.K. alt-rock giants’ most recent internationally acclaimed album A Celebration of Endings, the forthcoming 11-track record is a homegrown project that represents a rapid emotional response to the turmoil of the past year. Singer-guitarist Simon Neil explains, “This album is a real journey, a collision of every thought and emotion we’ve had over the past eighteen months. There was a real fortitude in A Celebration but in this record we’re embracing the vulnerabilities of being a band and being a human in this twisted era of our lives. Even the title is the polar opposite. It’s asking, do we create these narratives in our own minds to give us some security when none of us know what’s waiting for us at the end of the day?”
Clinic
Fantasy Island
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Clinic’s ninth studio album Fantasy Island, is a vibrant and eclectic LP. Over 12 tracks, the Grammy-nominated North West-based duo transport us to tropical climes. Fantasy Island was recorded in an old studio on Merseyside during the summer of 2019, with good vibrations seeping into the grooves, “Clinic look to a brighter future,” reveal the band in a soundbite. Their last album, 2019’s Wheeltappers and Shunters, found the band satirising British culture and wallowing in sleazy ’70s nostalgia. This time they are embracing the “the idea of looking at the future and the different ways it can unfold”, with their most electronic and pop record to date.”
Clockwise On Fire
Clockwise On Fire
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Sound flows freely like conversation. It unfurls in real-time, moving and changing with each subsequent statement and reply. Similarly, Clockwise On Fire mold a living and breathing hybrid of psychedelic rock, progressive, funk, and alternative, shapeshifting with each key change. The musical union of longtime friends and collaborators Tim Arnold (Good Old War, Anthony Green) and Brian Lynch consistently surprises as it blurs the lines between eloquent songcraft and instrumental fluidity, sitting still only long enough to incite chase. The Philadelphia duo channel a spirit of unbridled freedom on their 2021 independent self-titled debut album. “Our process is simply free,” observes Tim. “There are no wrong notes. There’s no pressure. There’s no negativity. There’s no template. It’s just such an expressive environment where anything goes.” “I totally agree,” smiles Brian. “We’ve always had chemistry, but we never hunkered down, focused, and done something original together until now. It’s happening organically after all of these years as friends. We’re pretty hyped about it.”
Deerhoof
Actually, You Can
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Think of all the beauty, positivity and love that gets deemed ugly, negative and hateful by the self-proclaimed guardians of ‘common sense.’ We’d hardly be destroying society by dismantling their colonial economics and prisons and gender roles and aesthetics. We’d be creating it. Actually, You Can is a genre-abundant record that uses technicolor vibrancy and arpeggiated muscularity to offer a vital shock from capitalism’s purgatorial hold. “These days, to be a moral person is to be a criminal,” clarifies drummer Greg Saunier of the album’s countercultural embrace of liberation. “That’s the spirit we were trying to express: an angelic, glamorous prison bust.” That glamour comes replete with thrashing twin guitar assaults from Ed Rodriguez and John Dieterich, and Saunier’s tuned-up, hyperpop-via-nu metal snare bombast. For new listeners and decades-long devotees, Deerhoof’s electrifying, generous approach to collaborative worldbuilding on Actually, You Can is an emboldening call to support our communities with renewed strength, infinite love, and the resilience to keep exploring.”
Duran Duran
Future Past
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Internationally acclaimed, multi-platinum, award-winning pop legends Duran Duran’s 15th studio album Future Past boasts esteemed producers Erol Alkan, Giorgio Moroder and Mark Ronson behind the board, plus special guest Graham Coxon of Blur on guitar, David Bowie’s former pianist Mike Garson, and guest vocals from Lykke Li, along with more exciting collaborators. Simon Le Bon reveals: “When we first went into the studio in late 2018, I was trying to persuade the guys that all we needed to do was write two or three tracks for an EP. Four days later, with the nucleus of 25 plus strong songs in the can, that all deserved development, I realized we’d be in it for the long haul … I’m not saying it’s epic, but well … yes I am.”
Every Time I Die
Radical
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Radical is 16 tracks of peak Every Time I Die, alchemized by a swampy summoning of southern rock and coarse poetry, the music swirls beneath sardonic and clever wordplay, cementing the band as leaders, not followers. While inspired by the unrest and upheaval around the world over the past five years, Radical focuses on humanity, decency, self-worth, and even a bit of spirituality more so than politics. “I’m dealing with difficult matters this time that isn’t only personal for me but are also universal and more communal experiences,” explains vocalist Keith Buckley. “The songs are realistic in that they acknowledge that things require a lot of work. But it’s ultimately a very hopeful and uplifting record.”
Sue Foley
Pinky’s Blues
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Pinky’s Blues is the followup to Sue Foley’s breakout album The Ice Queen, released in 2018. Foley’s new album is a raw, electric guitar driven romp through the backroads of Texas blues, with Foley’s signature pink paisley Fender Telecaster Pinky at the wheel. Foley and producer Mike Flanigin decided to make the album in the middle of the COVID lockdown in 2020. “Mike, drummer Chris Layton and I had just finished making Mike’s album West Texas Blues, and we needed another challenge to keep us busy,” Foley says. “And because we’d been hanging out together we were comfortable in each other’s presence, and this would be a very low-key closed session. I brought in Jon Penner to play bass, who was my first bass player and had been on all my early records. So just the four of us along with engineer Chris Bell went into the studio and recorded the entire album in three days. What you’re hearing is live, off the floor, in the moment the music was played totally spontaneously and, mainly, improvised. And, we wanted to make something representative of the Texas blues that we had been schooled on in Austin. So, we picked great songs and I wrote a few of my own to round things out. Everything on it is a labor of love.”
Guided By Voices
It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “It’s been just a few months since Guided By Voices’ faux rock opera Earth Man Blues garnered four-star and five-star reviews, with one source proclaiming that it “squarely hits all the marks that make Guided By Voices great — again and again and again.” Again and again and again, is perhaps GBV’s credo, with Robert Pollard’s never-ending supply of fascinating and supremely catchy rock. Just when one thinks one’s got them pinned down, album number thirty-four opens with bizarre percussion, mariachi trumpets, strings and acoustic guitar. The adventurous spirit pervades yet another killer album from the greatest and most versatile GBV lineup. The golden boys (Doug Gillard, Bobby Bare Jr, Mark Shue, Kevin March) can do no wrong.”
Kira
Kira
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Most conversations about Kira tend to start with her formidable history in punk rock, which is understandable, but it’s really just a portion of the big picture. Says the artist herself, “Bass player first and foremost — this is just who I am. Then a sound editor, dog mom, loving wife and loner.” Kira describes her songs as dark minimalism. As she points out, “these days most of my music is created alone in my room and then fleshed out with tasty additions from close friends I request virtual musical bits from. Then, to Kitten Robot Studio where my loving brother and co-producer Paul Roessler helps me polish each song. The goal is simple — express my inner essence and hope that others might feel a bit of their own by listening.”
Lonely Guest
Lonely Guest
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “If it wasn’t for the global lockdown, we might never have had the chance to hear one of this year’s most intriguing and inventive albums. Lonely Guest was conceived and put together over the last 18 months by one of British music’s true innovators: Tricky. But as he’s keen to make clear: This ain’t no Tricky album. Rather it’s a thrilling meeting of musical mavericks, with the likes of Lee “Scratch” Perry and Idles’ Joe Talbot all pitting their unique approaches to songwriting against Tricky’s otherworldly production. From an unsettling tale of isolation courtesy of Maxïmo Park’s Paul Smith to the grunge stylings of Marta, via the tense storytelling of London rapper Kway, these diverse statements come together as a bold artistic statement of their own.”
My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The band’s first new music since 2015’s Grammy-nominated The Waterfall, My Morning Jacket reaffirms the rarefied magic that’s made My Morning Jacket so beloved, embedding every groove with moments of discovery, revelation, and ecstatic catharsis. Produced and engineered by James over two multi-week sessions in Los Angeles, the album came to life after what looked like a permanent hiatus for the band. But after performing four shows in summer 2019 — beginning with two mind-blowing nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre — My Morning Jacket was overcome with the urge to carry on. That sense of purpose can be heard throughout the thrillingly expansive My Morning Jacket. For all its unbridled joy, the songs once again reveal My Morning Jacket’s hunger for exploring the most nuanced and layered existential questions in song form while simultaneously harnessing the hypnotic intensity of their legendary live show more fully than ever before.”
Parquet Courts
Sympathy For Life
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On Sympathy For Life, Parquet Courts’ thought-provoking rock is dancing to a new tune. The album finds the Brooklyn band at both their most instinctive and electronic,spinning their bewitching, psychedelic storytelling into fresh territory,yet maintaining their unique identity. Built largely from improvised jams,inspired by New York clubs, Primal Scream and Pink Floyd, and produced in league with Rodaidh McDonald and John Parish, Sympathy For Life was always destined to be dancey. Unlike its globally adored predecessor, 2018’s Wide Awake!, the focus fell on grooves rather than rhythm. “Wide Awake! was a record you could put on at a party,” says co-frontman Austin Brown. “Sympathy For Life is influenced by the party itself.” Historically,some amazing rock records have been made from mingling in dance music culture — from Talking Heads to Screamadelica. Our goal was to bring that into our own music. Each of us,in our personal lives,has been going to more dance parties. Or rather,we were pre-pandemic,which is when this record was made.”
The Replacements
Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Minneapolis legends The Replacements are ready to celebrate 40 years of musical mayhem with a new anniversary box set edition of the band’s debut album, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. Featuring the ’Mats’ original line-up — lead singer/songwriter and guitarist Paul Westerberg, drummer Chris Mars, and brothers Bob and Tommy Stinson (lead guitar and bass respectively) — the LP exploded with a wild and rollicking sound. The new set offers a remarkable document of the band’s formative years. Of the set’s 100(!) tracks, 67 have never been released before, including the first demos the band recorded in early 1980, as well as a professionally captured concert from January 1981. Along with a newly remastered version of the original album, it also uncovers many unreleased rough mixes, alternate takes, and demos from the band’s first 18 months together. The LP included in the set, titled Deliberate Noise, presents an alternate version of the original album using these previously unreleased tracks.”
The Rolling Stones
Tattoo You 40th Anniversary Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Forty years after its original release, Tattoo You returns with an all-new 2021 master, alongside nine new unheard tracks and bonus live cuts. This is a celebration of one of the Stones’ most iconic albums — which includes monster hits Start Me Up and Waiting On A Friend alongside fan favourites like Black Limousine and Heaven. “For Tattoo You,” recalls Ron Wood, “we realised that there was a lot of great music that we had recorded in the past that had never been released, particularly from all the material we had amassed during the Some Girls and Emotional Rescue sessions.” Keith Richard adds with a chuckle: “The music had to age like good wine.”
