Ozzy and Santi, the Whigs and the other BTS, Dan Romano, GA-20, Sampa and more — your fall listening sesh starts here. And you’re in good company.
The Afghan Whigs
How Do You Burn?
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Afghan Whigs’ ninth studio album and first release in five years, How Do You Burn? finds the band in peak form, making the most vaulting and thrilling music of their lives. The album is virile, ready for action, and finds frontman Greg Dulli as swaggering, enigmatic and darkly charismatic as ever, and singing up a storm. The album reaches corners of sound that, 26 years after the band’s inception, find them at an apex. Referencing Warren Zevon, Prince and Led Zeppelin all while plugging in to the soul and R&B influences that have always set them apart, The Afghan Whigs are at a precipice of greatness. Says Dulli, “I’m beginning to see there are a million places we can go. I feel virile, ready for action, and I want to keep stalking greatness.”
Built To Spill
When The Wind Forgets Your Name
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Since their inception in 1992, Built to Spill founder Doug Martsch intended his beloved band to be a collaborative project, an ever-evolving group of incredible musicians making music and playing live together. “I wanted to switch the line-up for many reasons. Each time we finish a record I want the next one to sound totally different. It’s fun to play with people who bring in new styles and ideas,” says Martsch. “And it’s nice to be in a band with people who aren’t sick of me yet … Making When the Wind Forgets Your Name was such a great experience.”
GA-20
Crackdown
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “GA-20 are clearly is on to something big. It’s a movement, a new traditional blues revival. The dynamic, throwback blues trio are disciples of the place where traditional blues, country and rock ’n’ roll intersect. “We make records that we would want to listen to,” says guitarist Matt Stubbs. “It’s our take on the song-based traditional electric blues we love.” Stubbs, singer-guitarist Pat Faherty and drummer Tim Carman have been at the forefront of this traditional blues revival since they first formed in 2018. On Crackdown, GA-20’s third full-length release, the band creates an unvarnished, ramshackle blues that is at once traditional and refreshingly modern. Expanding on their previous releases (2019’s Lonely Soul and 2021’s Try It…You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor) GA-20 find inspiration on the edges of the genre. The album’s nine original songs include the loping Louisiana-flavored Dry Run, the dirty and bare-bones Easy On The Eyes and the melodic garage tinge of Fairweather Friend. With tight, propulsive performances and a brevity and punk energy, Crackdown is rowdy and fun, filled with instantly memorable and well-crafted songs.”
Ozzy Osbourne
Patient No. 9
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Patient Number 9 is Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Ozzy Osbourne’s new album and the first since his critically acclaimed, chart-topping 2020 release Ordinary Man. Produced by Andrew Watt (who handled the same duties on Ordinary Man), Osbourne’s 13th solo studio album is heavy, hard-hitting and historic — everything you’d want from an Ozzy record and maybe more. Osbourne welcomed a dynamic A-list supporting cast, including guitarists Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and longstanding right-hand man / six-string beast Zakk Wylde, who plays on the majority of the tracks. For the bulk of the album, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers held down drums, while the late Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters made an appearance. Old friend and one-time Ozzy bandmember Robert Trujillo of Metallica plays bass on most of the tracks, with Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses and Chris Chaney of Jane’s Addiction supplying bass on a few songs. For the first time ever, Black Sabbath co-founder, guitarist, and riff-lord Tony Iommi appears on an Ozzy solo album.”
Daniel Romano’s Outfit
La Luna
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Consisting of a single massive song in 12 individual parts, plus pulse quickening overture and truly grand finale, La Luna is an unprecedented artistic achievement by one of contemporary music’s most ambitious and consistently surprising practitioners. Daniel Romano sets his visionary poetry to exuberant tune — it is epic, immaculately and extravagantly arranged, and truly cinematic (a full-length film starring Julie Doiron in the lead role will debut in the fall of 2022). La Luna is a hymnal or scroll for modern seekers, brought to life by the impeccably skilled Outfit, (Julianna Riolino, Roddy Rosetti, David Nardi, Carson McHone, Ian Romano) with swagger and joy. Transcendently melodic, undeniably classic and shockingly contemporary, La Luna synthesizes teachings from the sacred texts of rock ’n’ roll and psychedelic-folk (Beatles, Fairport Convention, and even The Rolling Stones and Queen) into a new testament for a new time. It was recorded in a blast of radiant activity at the band’s own Camera Varda studios.”
Sampa The Great
As Above, So Below
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Relocating home to Zambia during the pandemic, Sampa sought to reconnect with a different side of herself, a side that is freer and closer in resemblance to the younger artistry she cultivated growing up in Africa. This process of discovery would become the gateway to revealing her highest version of self. Choosing to collaborate with creatives Rochelle Nembhard and Imraan Christian from South Africa, As Above, So Below introduces us to a 360° Sampa, unveiling her many sides for the first time. From the funny to the serious to the sensual, As Above is her outside’s self, and So Below, is the Sampa within, together uniting to reveal her most authentic version, without a mask or role to play.”
Santigold
Spirituals
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Spirituals is Santigold’s first full-length album since 2016’s 99¢, and was mostly recorded during the 2020 lockdown. “All of a sudden there I was with three small children out of school — just turned-two-year-old twins and a six year old — I was cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and changing diapers from morning to night, with three little kids coming in and out of my bed throughout each night like musical chairs. I was losing touch with the artist me, stuck in a part of myself that was too small. I felt the other parts of me were shrinking, disappearing … Recording this album was a way back to myself after being stuck in survival mode. It wasn’t until I made the space to create that I realized I wasn’t only creating music but a lifeline.”
Sudan Archives
Natural Brown Prom Queen
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Fittingly for a record named for a homecoming event, Natural Brown Prom Queen is all about home — both Sudan’s adopted hometown of L.A. and Cincinnati, where she was raised. The album takes in themes of race, womanhood, and the fiercely loyal, loving relationships at the heart of Sudan’s life with her family, friends and partner. Whereas Sudan came up as a violinist and loop maker creating beats in her bedroom, on Natural Brown Prom Queen she worked with producers including MonoNeon, Simon on the Moon, Hi-Tek and Nosaj Thing, and invited her family members to contribute lyrics and vocals. Over 18 tracks spanning hip-hop, disco-influenced R&B, Afrocentric soul, and much more, Sudan gets into character as Britt, the girl next door from Cincinnati who drives around the city with the top down and shows up to high-school prom in a pink furry bikini with her thong hanging out her denim skirt. On Natural Brown Prom Queen, Sudan Archives invites you to join in and embrace that shared joy.”
