Kee-rist on a cracker, here we go again. Another week, another 20-something albums fighting to be at the top of the hit list. Either the music industry has been raising its standards or mine have totally gone to shit. In any case, here’s all the good stuff, in alphabetical order:
Anvil
One & Only
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Prepare to experience the relentless force of metal legends Anvil with their latest album, One & Only. As pioneers of the genre, Anvil have forged a path of uncompromising metal excellence for over four decades, and One & Only is a testament to their enduring power and influence. Their 20th studio album (!) showcases Anvil at their finest, delivering a relentless onslaught of blistering riffs, thunderous drums, and anthemic choruses that will leave you electrified. With tracks that resonate with the raw energy and passion that define their sound, One & Only solidifies Anvil’s place as true masters of heavy metal.”
Aloe Blacc
Rock My Soul Vol. 2
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc delivers the continuation of his latest covers project with Rock My Soul Vol. 2. This second instalment sees Blacc covering iconic songs with his signature soulful twist. Rock My Soul showcases Blacc’s exemplary ability to reimagine and breathe new life into beloved classics. Vol. 2 features a carefully curated selection of legendary tracks, including Seven Nation Army (originally by The White Stripes), Wonderwall (originally by Oasis), Song 2 (originally by Blur), Everybody Hurts (originally by R.E.M.), and Born Of A Broken Man, (originally by Rage Against the Machine).”
Johnny Cash
Songwriter
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In early 1993, the legendary Johnny Cash found himself between contracts in his then nearly 40-year career and recorded an album’s worth of songwriting demos at LSI Studios in Nashville of songs he’d written over many years. LSI at the time was owned by his son-in-law Mike Daniels and daughter Rosey, and he wanted to help the family financially while also record some songs special to him. Not long after the fruitful session, Johnny met producer Rick Rubin, and the recordings were shelved as the two embarked on an important and prolific musical partnership that revitalized the Man in Black’s career that would last the rest of his life. Some 30 years later, John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, rediscovered the songs and stripped them back to just Johnny’s powerful, pristine vocals and acoustic guitar. Along with co-producer David “Fergie” Ferguson, the two invited a handpicked group of musicians that played with Johnny, including guitarist Marty Stuart and the late bassist Dave Roe, along with drummer Pete Abbott and several others, to the Cash Cabin, a hallowed space in Hendersonville, Tenn. where Johnny would write, record and relax, to breathe new life into the tracks, taking the sound back to the roots and heart of the songs.”
Kyle Daniel
Kentucky Gold
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Firing twin barrels of classic southern rock and modern country, Kyle Daniel makes blue collar music for rock clubs, honky-tonks and everywhere in between. At the center of that southern sound is a guitar hero, storyteller and songwriter who has built up his audience the old-school way: By hitting the highways year after year, playing everywhere from dive bars in Tennessee to the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, taking in key U.K. festivals along the way. Hundreds of shows and thousands of miles later, Kyle Daniel reaches a new destination with Kentucky Gold — an anthemic debut album, filled to the brim with Gibson grit, Telecaster twang, plus the hard-won resilience of a road warrior who’s spent years paying his dues. Produced by The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston, The Lone Bellow’s Brian Elmquist, and songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Mike Krompass, a Canadian who has written and played on a host of Billboard hits, Kentucky Gold shines as brightly as its title, weaving its own path through the worlds of Muscle Shoals soul, Nashville twang, bluesy boogie-woogie and the slash-and-burn of Daniel’s electric guitar.”
Dirty Three
Love Changes Everything
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dirty Three ahoy! Appropriately disheveled, the Three emerge from the unending waves of time to pick up their guitar drum and viola/violin/piano/synthesizer/loops/percussion for their first album in a decade. Their playing encompasses ALL — from the original fury of their unlikely power trio to an impressionist cinema later on; mercurial, tumultuous to ambient to adagio, mood and emotion drawn up to dazzling heights from the humble human scale. Emerging once again from the unending waves crashing upon our fragile time-craft (adrift on the eternal ocean, and taking on water), Dirty Three are a) back, b) tangled in seaweed, rank with saltwater and possessed of three rather ominous thousand-mile stares (at least!), and c) not wasting another minute — as nothing is guaranteed. For their first album in over a decade, they flew in, got together, and started playing. Music’s their language, their true love; they never stop listening to that. And like the label says, Love Changes Everything. The Dirty Three — Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White — formed in Melbourne in 1992, to play with guitar, drums and violin or viola, and within a couple years, they’d broken out — out of Australia, out of anything else they might have been inside of, to boot — and got worldwide. worldwide.”
The Felice Brothers
Valley Of Abandoned Songs
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Felice Brothers first emerged from the Hudson Valley nearly two decades ago with a gloriously ramshackle sound that drew on everything from Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan to Walt Whitman and Flannery O’Connor. The band’s 2024 record, Valley Of Abandoned Songs, marks The Felice Brothers’ debut for Conor Oberst’s new Million Stars label and showcases the group at their most intimate and unvarnished. Balancing hope and despair in equal measure, the album explores the search for meaning and connection through the eyes of a wide-ranging cast of misfits and outcasts, and though the recordings here span several years of almost-lost tunes, the result is a thoroughly cohesive collection that manages to feel both utterly timeless and particularly attuned to the present all at once. “A few years ago, I started revisiting old demos that had never seen the light of day and recordings that hadn’t found a home on previous albums, and I started thinking of them as the Valley of Abandoned Songs,” explains Ian Felice. “At a certain point, I realized that I had a particular group of tunes that worked really well as an album, and so I shared it with Conor, along with my idea to post it online, but he immediately texted back that he loved it so much he wanted to start a new record label just to put it out.”
The Folk Implosion
Walk Thru Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “How the fuck are we going to turn this into a song?” That’s the question Lou Barlow and John Davis have asked themselves since co-founding The Folk Implosion in the early 1990s. Beginning with improvised jams featuring Barlow on bass and Davis on drums, the duo develop their beat-driven pop collages from the ground up. It’s the process they used on their debut cassette, Walk Through This World With The Folk Implosion, and one they’ve returned to 30 years later on their spellbinding, self-referencing reunion, Walk Thru Me. Separated from their homes in Massachusetts and North Carolina, Barlow and Davis collaborated remotely, flashing back to their early friendship as penpals. A sweaty bass and drums session went down in Barlow’s attic, before they booked studio time with producer Scott Solter (St. Vincent, Spoon, The Mountain Goats). “Because we’re so separate, part of this album is me desperately trying to telepathically communicate to John and Scott, who are 700 miles away from me,” Barlow concludes. “A big part of what I consider to be The Folk Implosion is taking disparate things and turning them into pop.”
Aaron Frazer
Into The Blue
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Into The Blue is the clearest portrait of who I am as an artist. It’s me through and through,” says multi-instrumentalist Aaron Frazer. A daring blend of soul, psychedelia, spaghetti western, disco, gospel and hip-hop, Into The Blue represents the impressive range of Frazer’s sonic talents. Frazer maintains the unmistakable falsetto and classic songwriting he’s known for, but plants Into The Blue firmly in the now with a hip-hop mentality at its core, weaving together genres and production techniques to form something new. Into The Blue was conceived, like so many classic records, out of heartbreak. Frazer moved cross-country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and embarked on a journey that’s reflected in the album’s themes of grief, loneliness, and searching for healing. “Into The Blue really means heading into the unknown. That has been the last year of my life and I’m still in the blue,” Frazer explains. “But there are also songs here that celebrate love and the giddiness of a new relationship and all that. That’s part of a breakup to me, processing the whole thing, remembering the things that were right as much as the things that were wrong.”
Guided By Voices
Strut Of Kings
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Guided By Voices (the ever-evolving act led by the prolific indie-pop wizard Robert Pollard) have announced their next LP, Strut Of Kings. Building on 40 years of GBV history, the majestic and triumphant Strut Of Kings is the 41st album by the indie-rock royalty. Largely recorded in Kings County, New York (Brooklyn), the album is perhaps a gesture towards the malevolent “kings” on the world stage. As The Serene King waltzes across the battlefield, Emperor Pollard evokes castles, King Kong and strutting roosters, a surreal yet regal journey. Alongside the album announcement, the band shared the record’s first single Serene King, which serves as Track 9 on the 10-song LP. Believe it or not, Strut Of Kings is the only new Guided By Voices album of 2024, and includes some of their hookiest nuggets in recent memory.”
Hiatus Kaiyote
Love Heart Cheat Code
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Melbourne band Hiatus Kaiyote announces their forthcoming album Love Heart Cheat Code, a snapshot of four musicians dancing together on the edge, 11 playful, exuberant tracks that shine light. Yet, for a band that made a name for itself with its complexity and received critical praise and multiple Grammy nominations for their embrace of maximalism, one of the most striking things about Love Heart Cheat Code is its simplicity. “I’m a maximalist. I complicate fucking everything,” Nai Palm laughs. “But the more you go through things in life, you become more relaxed and uninhibited. Sometimes you can still have depth and reach people and really stop dancing around the fact: What do you want to communicate to people? And I feel like this album is a result of that clarity for us. We didn’t need to spell out complexity if the song didn’t call for it.” On the forthcoming album, the band’s direction is not always attained directly; less deliberate, and more via deliberation and drift: in jam sessions that last late into the night and early mornings; in meals shared; in messing around with equipment and with each other.”
Hushmoney
Hushmoney
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Across their debut full-length album, Hushmoney paint the ridiculousness of existence so very right. Mixed and mastered by Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip (Code Orange, Turnstile, Mannequin Pussy) Hushmoney is a deft concept album about the faulty choices that bitter men nearing middle age can make, backed with the chances they have to redeem themselves if they know where to look. We’re all trying to figure out how to survive and make meaning — and to have a little fun in the process, too. If the band itself has been an escape hatch from mid-30s anxieties and disappointments for its members, its work here shows how much fun you can have and how good you can do when you start to turn that stuff on its head, to turn it all into a shout-out-loud rock song. The five-piece band pairs Chris Gaylor of All-American Rejects and Phil Matarese, creator and voice of HBO’s Animals, with three longtime friends. Matarese, guitarist Michael Iannatto, and bassist Brian Barbaruolo began playing together as young teenagers in rural New Jersey, forced to find social cachet outside of sports since their hometown football team won almost zero games during their entire adolescence. After they all found themselves in L.A. in their mid-30s, they started another band, recruiting Gaylor and guitarist Matt Martin.”
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
South Of Here
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Produced by Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Bon Iver, Kevin Morby) and recorded at Sonic Ranch outside El Paso, South Of Here reckons with a lifetime of pain and trauma and transforms it into a stirring, soul-baring rumination on love, loss, hope and resolve. South of Here seamlessly blends both sides of his immense talent: Emotionally potent, vivid storytelling and the rugged, R&B revivalism that has powered the band to world-wide acclaim over the past decade.Across 11 original tracks, all written by Rateliff & performed by The Night Sweats: Rateliff, Luke Mossman, Joseph Pope III, Mark Shusterman, Patrick Meese, Daniel Hardaway, Jeff Dazey and Andreas Wild. The band, in peak form, play with intuitive beauty while Cook’s production captures the group’s soulful fire with immediacy and purpose. “Brad was a great producer to write alongside. This album is a look into my own struggle with anxiety, insecurity and also stories of my life. He encouraged me to take responsibility for my own narrative in the songs and to write about what’s happening in my own life,” Rateliff notes. “These recordings were done together in a room with my closest friends. I hope these songs and stories give you an opportunity to better understand your own struggles whatever they may be.”
Redd Kross
Redd Kross
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In 1979, two schoolkids all hopped-up on punk-rock started their own group in their hometown of Hawthorne, California (birthplace of The Beach Boys) and soon found themselves opening shows for notorious scene pioneers Black Flag. Jeff McDonald was 15, his brother Steven only 11. But that didn’t stop their group from becoming one of the most remarkable, enduring and unique outfits punk ever belched up. 2024, then, marks Redd Kross’s 45th birthday — an important anniversary for any group whose heart pulses at 45RPM — and the brothers are celebrating the event with a veritable multimedia extravaganza. There’s a memoir, Now You’re One Of Us, due in November, author Dan Epstein telling the group’s story in the McDonalds’ unmistakable (and occasionally contrary) voices. A brilliant rockumentary, Born Innocent, directed by Andrew Reich, will premiere later in the year. Most exciting of all, a new album — an eponymous double-album, no less, packed with 18 of their sharpest, most addictive songs yet — will hit the racks, courtesy of In The Red Records. These years of joyful service to rock’n’roll have seen Redd Kross evolve into a killer pop-rock concern, dealing in dayglo power-chords, choruses as tall as skyscrapers and a lyric sheet thick with acid couplets and arch pop-cultural references their loyal following will gobble up like quaaludes.”
Robert Jon & The Wreck
Red Moon Rising
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In an electrifying surge of creativity, Southern rock behemoths Robert Jon & The Wreck are poised to unveil their most ambitious project yet, Red Moon Rising. This groundbreaking album, set for release via Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records, is a bold declaration of evolution and rebirth, capturing the essence of the band’s transformative years and setting a new course for their musical odyssey. The album’s lead single and title track emerges as a beacon of this new era. With its funk-infused rhythms and thought-provoking lyrics, the song represents a slight departure from the band’s traditional sound. “Red Moon Rising started out as a simple jam in the room and took on a life of its own,” reveals frontman Robert Jon. “It’s about all the beliefs, myths, and traditions surrounding a red moon, symbolizing rebirth and change, which perfectly encapsulates the spirit of our new album.” Following a whirlwind of activity in recent months, including the release of acclaimed singles, as well as their studio and live albums Ride Into The Light and Live At The Ancienne Belgique, Robert Jon & The Wreck continue to forge their path with unyielding momentum. Red Moon Rising is the culmination of their experiences, a testament to their resilience and a celebration of their collective growth.”
Sour Widows
Revival Of A Friend
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson like to joke that they are delusional about Sour Widows, the Bay Area band they started seven years ago that is just now releasing its entrancing and powerful debut LP, Revival Of A Friend. After all, during those seven years, Sinaiko, Thomson, and Sour Widows have survived a litany of tragedies and tribulations. Sinaiko lost a partner to accidental overdose just before the band began. Thomson’s mother was diagnosed with a rare cancer, which she lived with for four years before passing away in June 2021. As they prepared to enter Oakland’s Tiny Telephone in 2023 to make an album partly of songs about navigating those losses and the lives they shaped, more troubles mounted, including a traumatic breakup and Thomson’s father’s sudden cancer diagnosis. Looking back, they can only laugh at these hurdles and wonder if they should have taken them as signs — to stop, to start over, to succumb to the hardship.”
Superfan
Tow Truck Jesus
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “From grappling with identity and relationships to navigating the complexities of adulthood, Superfan’s music delves into the raw realities of life with unapologetic candor. His ascent in the music scene is propelled by his confident, deadpan style, captivating audiences with his intimate storytelling and multi-modal musicality. Collaborating with producer Gabriel Wax, Superfan honed a pared-down sound that accentuated the grit of his diaristic writing style while showcasing his musical versatility. As Superfan’s voice evolved through Hormone Replacement Therapy, his music became a reflection of his personal journey, addressing themes of desire, dysphoria, and self-acceptance with poignant lyricism. Superfan’s narrative resonates as a testament to the universal journey of self-discovery and growth.”
Virginity
Bad Jazz
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The third record from Florida power pop darlings, Virginity. The group’s signature spirit, hooks, and pop-punk angst are as fiery as ever as they’ve learned to let go and embrace the chaos. The sound is big and bold and would sit perfectly in your collection to Weezer and Teenage Fanclub. It will be love at first listen.”
The Warning
Keep Me Fed
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Warning draw strength and power from a lifetime of sisterhood and music. They have logged thousands of miles on the road, generated hundreds of millions of streams, and left countless fans in awe. All of this tireless work and dedication has shaped and sharpened their sound with knifepoint precision, arming alternative anthems with universally catchy hooks and an uncompromising hard rock kick. They initially made waves with a string of independent releases, paving the way for their acclaimed 2022 full-length offering Error. Between performing alongside Muse, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Royal Blood, The Pretty Reckless and Three Days Grace, the band ignited MTV’s Extended Play Stage at the 2023 MTV VMAs. Representative of their cultural impact, Pepsi even notably chose them as the face of Pepsi Black in Mexico.”
Wilco
Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hot Sun Cool Shroud features six new tracks from Wilco that have a summertime-after-dark kind of feeling. “It starts off pretty hot, like heat during the day, has some instrumentals on it that are a little agitated and uncomfortable and ends with a cooling breeze,” says Jeff Tweedy. “There are tracks on Hot Sun Cool Shroud that are more aggressive and angular than anything we’ve put out in a while, and a song about love melting you like ice cream into a puddle of sugary soup. All the pieces of summer, including the broody cicadas.”
The Young Fresh Fellows
The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest 40th Anniversary Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Formed (conceptually) by Scott McCaughey and Chuck Carroll in Seattle in 1981, The Young Fresh Fellows, with the addition of Chuck’s mad-drumming cousin Tad Hutchison, began work on their debut effort in 1983. Friend Conrad Uno volunteered to produce and record the trio in his basement/garage Egg Studios (no money exchanged hands), and Uno’s fledgling label PopLlama Products insisted on pushing the record out into the world, beyond a small circle of friends. Now, for its 40th Anniversary, YFF co-founder and songwriter/vocalist McCaughey (R.E.M., Minus 5, Baseball Project) has remixed the album to (re)introduce it to the world. The idea was to put 40 years of music-making experience into the mix (push up the bass fader), without losing the naiveté and wonder that fueled its initial reception. The original album’s 15 tracks will be pressed on limited-edition, opaque Turquoise vinyl. The (now) double-CD and digital programs include a bonus disc — Merry Croutons Mr. Gulp Gulp — an ultra-rare party-in-the-studio 1984 cassette release of about 200 copies.”
Neil Young With Crazy Horse
Early Daze
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Early Daze is a collection of rare and unreleased studio recordings by Neil Young with Crazy Horse. The 10 songs were all recorded in 1969 with a Crazy Horse lineup of Danny Whitten (guitar and vocals), Ralph Molina (drums and vocals), Billy Talbot (bass and vocals), Jack Nitzsche (keyboards, tambourine, and vocals). This is the same lineup that played on the Live At The Fillmore East album (Recorded March 6 & 7 1970). Only one track on the album has been previously released (Dance Dance Dance) and none of the 10 tracks have been released on vinyl before.”
