One music lover’s famine is another’s feast. Which is to say: If you’re looking for new music from chart-topping superstars next week, you’re probably going to go hungry. But if you’re willing to look left of the dial, there are plenty of great new albums vying for your ears. Including these:
Allah-Las
Zuma 85
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For the last 15 years, Allah-Las have alchemically melded surf rock washes with folk rock jangle and rock. But a lot has changed since Matthew Correia (drums/vocals), Spencer Dunham (bass, guitar, vocals), Miles Michaud (guitar, organ, vocals), and Pedrum Siadatian (guitar, synth, vocals) first bonded over psych-rock vinyl in the back room at Amoeba Records in the late ’00s. Zuma 85 finds the quartet facing a new world with a wealth of new sounds, drawing from an eclectic mix of progressive rock, prog, kosmische, and Eno-esque art rock, scuzzy Royal Trux riffs, and detouring into tones and textures that call to mind-’90s and 2000s pop. There are kosmische zones, like the Popol Vuh-evoking Hadal Zone, anthemic and electronic boogies like The Stuff and Sky Club, and arch prog on tunes like GB BB and Smog Cutter. On the instrumental title track, Zuma 85, field recordings and chimes precede Manuel Göttsching (Ash Ra)-style guitars, which drift aquatically over a motorik rhythm and hazy synths. A decade and a half into their run, Allah-Las continue on an evolutionary path. Are you tired of the same old songs? So are they. So blow it up and let it rip.”
Årabrot
Of Darkness And Light
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Operating out of Djura Missionshus, their home studio in the deconsecrated church in rural Sweden where they live with their two children, Årabrot is the iconic duo of singer-guitarist Kjetil Nernes and his wife, singer-keyboardist Karin Park. Of Darkness And Light bursts with infectious melodies and shines with the massive production of Alain Johannes, whose work on Mark Lanegan’s 2020 album, Straight Songs of Sorrow, won over Nernes, and whom, as a musician, has performed with the likes of PJ Harvey and Them Crooked Vultures. Theatrical, bombastic, dancing on the line between the macabre and the comical, Of Darkness And Light is, among other things, a celebration of the hooks and swagger and almighty power of rock. The Birthday Party and Swans are still references, yes, but so are Queens Of The Stone Age and Ghost. Fittingly, the album’s title references Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a philosophical text centered on transcending our own limitations.”
CMAT
CrazyMad, For Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “There’s CMAT and then there’s Ciara. CMAT is just big Ciara: A very, very, very confident version of me. And who is the most competent person in the world and has never done anything wrong in her life, I will never accept that she’s ever done anything wrong,” explains the charismatic, characterful 27-year-old Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, otherwise known as CMAT. In either guise, her off-beat view of the world and gags she makes without missing a beat fill any and every room she’s in. “I don’t do the pop star thing all the time, because that’d be insane and make you go crazy, right?” When she is doing the popstar thing, CMAT is vibrant red curly hair, coloured dresses, volume and drama with a western flair. But her upcoming second album CrazyMad, For Me takes popstar CMAT through a reinvention of what came before: this is the grand statement of an ambitious mature sound, a textured sonic feel and details of a complex emotional and metaphorical landscape. Or as CMAT puts it: “It’s an abstract breakup album… about what happens when you are still angry about something that happened 10 years ago.”
Creeper
Sanguivore
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For their third full studio album Sanguivore, U.K. quintet Creeper made a blood pact to give full rein to those things that truly define them; to take a flaming torch to the more dimly lit recesses of frontman Will Gould’s ever-fertile mind. The album delivers 40-plus minutes of music, combining the grandiose and the epic with the punk rock spirit that has been a cornerstone of the Creeper sound since their 2017 debut: a ripped leather jacket wrapped in a plush velvet cloak — a cloak lined in red satin, of course. From opening statement Further Than Forever, a nine-minute, multi-layered tour-de-force capable of putting a smile on the face of the late Jim Steinman, through to closer Spook And Mercy, a late-night tale of ‘little Mercy’ and her ravenous exploits, Sanguivore is a hugely ambitious, loosely conceptual journey through the glorious and the graphic.”
+++ (Crosses)
Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chino Moreno (Deftones) and producer/multi-instrumentalist Shaun Lopez are about to release their anticipated new album Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. It includes notable features from rapper and Run The Jewels member EL-P and Robert Smith of The Cure. The arrival of Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. will follow the band’s critically acclaimed EP Permanent.Radiant, which recently received a new spin on the duo’s Permanent.Radiant.Remixed. The reimagined release contained remixes from a noteworthy list of electronic innovators including Hudson Mohawke, suicideyear, AWAY and Machinedrum. Wiht Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete., Moreno and Lopez embark upon a new chapter filled with merciless creations as they continue making music without compromise.”
Dirty Talons
Dirty Talons
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dirty Talons’ self-titled debut album compiles the first two recording sessions the band completed in 2021 and 2022. All basic instrumentals, as well as most lead vocals have been tracked live at Radiokulturhaus in Vienna, Austria in just a few days. While guitarists Marco and Zock, as well as bassist Bernie, have released several records together during their time in ASTPAI in the past, this album marks the remarkable physical debut of vocalist Jess Howells. Jess’ lyrics explore intra- and interpersonal struggles and connections from different perspectives and touch upon themes such as anxiety, love, insecurity, narcissism, anger, loneliness and regret. All tracks have been mixed and mastered by the amazing Peter Miles, who has previously worked with bands such as Architects, We Are The Ocean, Petrol Girls, Crazy Arm and lots more over at Middle Farm Studios in Devon, U.K.”
Dream Nails
Doom Loop
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Almost three years since their debut self-titled release, Dream Nails aren’t changing route, but broadening their appeal. In their slick, humoured new album Doom Loop, produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, Amyl and The Sniffers) the band tackle everything from incel culture to rewriting the available images of trans masculinity. It’s concise, powerful, and refreshingly disruptive. “Doom Loop is an exploration of the repeated cycles we find ourselves in,” comments vocalist Ishmael Kirby, “from political injustice and patriarchal systems to the negative spirals of our minds. A doom loop is a crisis that starts to feed on itself. It feels like there is no escape. But there is. This album is a reflection of ourselves, the world we live in, and the one we want to create.” Elaborating on the themes, guitarist Anya Pearson adds: “On the album we also celebrate masculinity by telling stories about butch and trans masculine identities. We show the shared responsibility we have in fighting misogyny. Empathy is hard to find in a divided world, but we seek it out, advocate for it, and ask how far it goes.”
Feelies
Some Kinda Love
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Some Kinda Love features the performance of an extensive retrospective set of songs by The Velvet Underground, recorded at a sold-out White Eagle Hall in Jersey City on Oct. 13. 2018. Produced by Feelies founders Bill Million and Glenn Mercer, the concert was staged in conjunction with the opening of The Velvet Underground Experience exhibition in the East Village at the request of its curators. Throughout the concert documented on Some Kinda Love, the group applied the entirety of their deep intimacy with the unique building blocks of The Velvet Underground’s artistic vocabulary, handling it with deceptive ease and obvious relish. That evening, they ran through a thoughtful mix of selections from all four Velvets studio albums as well as rare tracks that surfaced years after their demise, starting with Sunday Morning, the first song on the Velvets’ debut and closing with Oh! Sweet Nuthin’, the closing song on their last studio album together.”
Flamingods
Head Of Pomegranate
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Flamingods return with Head of Pomegranate, recorded in Atlanta by Grammy-winning producer Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, M.I.A.). The much-loved London quartet have now been crafting their distinctive genre-defying music for over a decade now. Stylistically and in typical nature of a Flamingods record, there are a lot of genres and sounds covered. Weaving through genres of psychedelia, new wave, electronica and punk — often within the same song — is a bit of a specialty for the band, as is their knack for blending in influences from their unique cultural heritages and love of ’70s British rock ’n’ roll. They say: “We’re a band of mixed-race boys making alternative rock music, something that’s quite rare within our scene. We’re very much influenced by our heritage but aren’t engrossed in making traditional or obvious rock music. We’d rather make it our own.”
Goat
Medicine
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “It is hard to know how many times the mythology and mystery of Goat’s backstory can be written about, but new release Medicine does away with any need to dwell on the past, returning with a more introspective, slightly mellower psych-folk sound that remains recognisably them. There is a consistently restrained, warm feel across the whole work, and the band suggest that the overall theme of the album is about “the impermanence of life in different ways: sickness, relationships, love, death and how our time is finite.” At times the album’s sound has nods to classic Swedish 70s psych/prog/folk acts such as Arbete & Fritid, Charlie & Esdor and Träd, Gräs & Stenar. The Medicine’of the title may refer to a number of salves, or the value of relationships and love: “For our families, friends, society, this could be done through the use of psychedelics, through meditation, through learning from other people, staying curious and never settling for a ‘solid’ identity.”
Spencer Krug
I Just Drew This Knife
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “One night, at some unrelated recording session, years ago already, handsome young Browning whips out his phone to show old Koop and even older Krug the instrumental recordings he’s made over the pandemic, saying that now that they’re finished, he doesn’t know what to do with them. The music coming from his phone is dark and sparse, but also slick; tight enough to feel like some kind of twisted pop. The two old ghouls’ mouths start to water and their eyes bulge. Krug rubs his greedy claws together and says, I might have an idea. At home, in his studio (lair), old Krug chops up one of young Browning’s works, rearranges the parts to suit his own freakish needs, then squawks out an ill-conceived incantation overtop. He sends the whole mess to creaky Koop, who, in turn, from within his own dank cave of gadgets and oddities, skronks onto the franken-song an eccentric idea of what a guitar melody might be. They deliver the concoction back to young Browning, its progenitor, and cringe in wait for his gen z insults that they won’t understand, but he is unexpectedly pleased.”
Terra Lightfoot
Healing Power
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On Healing Power, Terra Lightfoot showcases her considerable clout as a pop songsmith, delivering a dozen stunning tracks that together represent a career high. The album is her third outing with producer Gus van Go, and it is tribute to her creative ambitions and capacity that the collaboration is yet another quantum leap in her artistic development. “There was a sense of freedom, both personally and creatively, that struck me while I was writing this record,” Lightfoot says. “Once I got back into the studio with Gus, having already made two records with him, there was an undeniable comfort and workflow that we just fell into. We are super-productive together in the studio. I also seem to get my best vocal takes with Gus behind the board. We built this record pretty quickly together with the band on call whenever we needed them.”
The Menzingers
Some Of It Was True
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “At this point, The Menzingers are an absolute institution. The Philadelphia punk legends’ multi-decade reputation as road warriors with an unbeatable catalog is cemented as hard truth— and their seventh album, Some Of It Was True, stands as their most immediate-sounding and energetic record to date. The follow-up to 2019’s sensational Hello Exile accomplishes the daunting task of capturing The Menzingers’ distinctive live energy in the confines of the studio, resulting in a sound that’s both rich, raw, and complementary to the group’s increasingly prismatic songwriting approach. More than 15 years in, The Menzingers are still holding their listeners square in the immediate present, and Some Of It Was True documents that power in thrilling fashion. The passage of time and how things change are, of course, topics that are always on peoples’ minds — but when it comes to Some Of It Was True, The Menzingers are kickstarting a new era in their already illustrious career by tapping into the energy that brought the band to life in the very beginning. “This record just feels different for us,” Barnett explains. “It’s a really important one in our catalog, and a pivotal moment in our history. We have the liberty of our fans growing with us now, and after writing these lyrical songs about where we are in life, we decided to take other peoples’ stories and make something bigger out of it.”
Mondo Generator
We Stand Against You
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Mondo Generator were formed in 1997 by Nick Oliveri, also known for founding the legendary stoner rock band Kyuss and playing in Queens Of The Stone Age. Initially intended as a solo/side project, the classic Cocaine Rodeo album was recorded that same year, but shelved until the summer of 2000. Since its inception, Mondo Generator has welcomed contributions from notable members of the Californian rock scene over the years such as Josh Homme, Dave Catching, Brant Bjork, Dave Grohl or Joey Castillo. The lineup officially stabilized in 2018 around Oliveri on bass and vocals, Mike Pygmie on guitars (who joined in 2012) and Mike Amster on drums, and has been relentlessly unleashing their rock ’n’ roll wrath on international stages since then. About the new album, Oliveri says: “We Stand Against You is nine songs of fire, fury and angst! Some of the songs reflect my personal thoughts, some are about family and close friends dying or committing suicide and some are about my experience with the Corona lockdowns. This is a record of real emotion and not for the weak.”
Margo Price
Strays II
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Strays II expands on Margo Price’s 2023 opus Strays with nine new songs, all recorded at Strays producer Jonathan Wilson’s Topanga studio during the same life-changing sessions as the rest of the album — and partially written amidst the formative, six-day psilocybin trip that Margo Price and Jeremy Ivey took the summer prior. On Strays II, Price is re-joined by collaborators Jonathan Wilson and Mike Campbell, along with new collaborators Buck Meek of Big Thief, and singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ny Oh. Together they dive deeper into the sacrifices it takes to find freedom, the grit it takes to make it, and the consequences that come with all of it.”
Squirrel Flower
Tomorrow’s Fire
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The music Ella Williams makes as Squirrel Flower has always communicated a strong sense of place. Her self-released debut EP, 2015’s early winter songs from middle america, was written during her first year living in Iowa, where the winter months make those of her hometown, Boston, seem quaint by comparison. Since that first offering, Squirrel Flower amassed a fanbase beyond the Boston DIY scene with several releases. The most recent, Planet (i), was informed by climate anxiety, while the subsequent Planet EP marked an important turning point in Williams’ prolific career; the collection of demos was the first self-produced material she’d released in some time. With a renewed confidence as a producer, she helmed Tomorrow’s Fire at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville alongside storied engineer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Indigo de Souza, Snail Mail). Working tirelessly through long studio sessions with no days off, Williams and Farrar tracked many of the instruments, building the songs together during the first week, and then assembled a studio band that included Matt McCaughan (Bon Iver), Seth Kauffman (Angel Olsen), Jake Lenderman (aka MJ Lenderman), and Dave Hartley (War on Drugs) lending their contributions.”
Waxlegs
Horny Tears From Hell
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Waxlegs are a feminist-charged four-wheeled monster truck speeding through a dark and de- serted town followed by beer cans attached by guitar strings, just in time to celebrate Lucifer’s second marriage. Their debut album Horny Tears from Hell unites a fusion of sounds from ominous genres that collide to- gether in a dark, hauntingly endearing manner. A raw unpolished beast for fans of real killer bands like Acid, Sacrilege, Girlschool or Discharge. It combines the best out of such loud genres as punk and metal. Heavy hard rock riffs that automatically will make your head bang against the wall into a bloody pulp with two fingers in the air. The doomy Sabbath-esque aesthetics will ava- lanche your body into a sweaty death pit at your local fave headbanger’s ball. This while feverish vocals scream proclamations against the unjust, but sing praise for the desired .. altogether fueled by a genuine DIY punk attitude.
