Yep, 32. Things are officially getting out of hand around here. And fall hasn’t even peaked yet. But hey, enough about my meaningless problems. Let’s talk about you: What are you going to listen to next week? You’ve got some excellent options. Read for yourself:
Abstract Crimewave
The Longest Night
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bjorn Yttling (Peter Bjorn and John) and Joakim Åhlund (Les Big Byrd, Caesars, Teddybears) have been making music together for over a decade, and this record is their third, after Phantom Island in 2022 and their debut, 2012’s A Flash In The Night. Then, though, they were called Smile, and it was only after they finished work on this scintillating third record that they realized a change of identity might be a good idea. “We never would have changed our name,” explains Åhlund, “but those guys from Radiohead, they stole it! And it looks like they aren’t going to quit, and they’re on some huge record label, so we were always going to be the other Smile if we continued. But our new name is way better than Smile, anyway. So they can have it.” Consequently, they are now reborn as Abstract Crimewave, and have their finest collection of songs to date to offer up as a first mission statement under their new name. The Longest Night streamlines the ethos of this band and boils it down to its purest essence; this is the sound of Åhlund and Yttling paying tribute to the many different styles of music they love. Where previously they would work loosely in the studio with a revolving door policy for friends of the band to come in and jam, this time they handled everything but the drums between the two of them.”
James Bay
Changes All The Time
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “James Bay is a musician’s musician: The U.K. singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer upholds traditions of timeless songcraft while confidently challenging himself and popular music in equal measure. He spikes a tried-and-true style with clever lyricism, honest confessions, and instrumental proficiency. This year, he returns with his thrilling fourth album, Changes All The Time. The album includes collaborations with Noah Kahan and The Lumineers on lead single Up All Night, and features writing collaborations with The Killers’ Brandon Flowers (Easy Distraction) and Holly Humberstone (Dogfight).”
Leon Bridges
Leon
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Leon is Grammy-winning Texas recording artist, songwriter, and performer Leon Bridges’ fourth full-length LP and first album in three years. “Leon has been a long-time coming,” he says. “I started writing pieces of it as far back as Gold-Diggers Sound. They didn’t fit what I was trying to do with that album and I tried moving on. But I couldn’t shake them because they’re part of me. And, if I’m honest, also because I think this is some of my most excellent work yet. In many ways, Leon has been in the works since my childhood. This record is about simpler days. It’s about time spent in my beloved Fort Worth and the experiences that made me the man I am today. It’s soulful music in the truest sense — it’s imbued with my soul.” Recorded and produced by Ian Fitchuk (Kacey Musgraves, Maggie Rogers) at El Desierto on the outskirts of Mexico City with co-production from Daniel Tashian in Nashville, Leon features 13 handcrafted tracks spotlighting Leon’s signature storytelling and organic genre alchemy. Leon unfolds as his most poignant, powerful, and personal body of work to date as the man himself takes you through the streets he knows best, the things he holds dearest, and the memories of the people and place that shaped him. This record is unmistakably Leon.”
Jake Bugg
A Modern Day Distraction
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “U.K. rock troubadour Jake Bugg returns with his sixth album A Modern Day Distraction. Recorded at Metrophonic Studios in London, Jake returns to his roots on the rock-driven A Modern Day Distraction — a record that turns up the noise while shining a light on the injustice he’s seen dealt to the family and friends he grew up with. Fiery and engaged, the record was born out of a frustration of societal inequality. Bugg found that a time had come when he just couldn’t look away. “People might say ‘What do you know?’ or ‘Just stick to music.’ I’ve got a bit of money, but we all know the people this affects. I was just writing it because it was the way I felt. It pisses me off — especially in a country like ours where we have the means and funds to take care of the people suffering the most, but we choose not to.” Now 12 years and six albums since he emerged with his streetwise and spritely, Mercury-nominated, chart-topping, self-titled debut, one might forget he was just 18 at the time. He’s put in the hours and achieved so much, but he’s only 30 and still seeing the front rows of his shows getting younger. In that spirit, Bugg still feels his best work is ahead of him: “You just have to put your songs out into the universe and hope for the best.”
Caribou
Honey
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Upon first listen, two things about Honey are immediately clear: First, it is an entirely new kind of Caribou record. Second, in being an entirely new kind of Caribou record, it is in keeping with Dan Snaith’s discography, each new album marked by radical thematic and sonic shifts. Honey is not a departure from the Caribou we’ve known up to this point but rather the product of a lifetime spent listening to and crafting immaculate pop music. After two intensely personal albums (Suddenly and the Grammy-nominated Our Love), Snaith now pulls himself away a little in search of music that isn’t about any one person and is relatable to everybody. It also brings Snaith’s two personas, Caribou and Daphni, closer together than ever before. On Honey, Snaith fuses their strengths into a record that grabs you and moves you like Daphni before it uplifts you like Caribou. Huge dancefloor tracks twinkle and surprise in a way only Snaith’s productions can, with a freshness that defines an artist who is too excited by music-making to ever truly settle into any one sound.”
Kasey Chambers
Backbone (The Desert Child)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “ARIA Hall of Famer and revered multi-platinum singer songwriter Kasey Chambers has unveiled an exciting suite of forthcoming new material — the book Just Don’t Be A D**khead, and her new album Backbone (The Desert Child). “I am so keen (and a little bit scared) to share these two real and honest representations of my creative soul, along with the inspiration I’ve found in unexpected places throughout my unique life,” she says. Never one to shy away from home truths, introspective storytelling and unfiltered honesty, Chambers’ distinctive brand of writing weaves through both the musically versatile Backbone and the thematically versatile book. Pressing play on the self-produced Backbone will take listeners on a journey through not only where Chambers has been over the years, but where she’s at right now. “Good and bad, this album is who I am,” she says. “I worked with my favourite musicians, and I sang about every beautiful, joyous, embarrassing and tough thing I’ve gone through. Everything that’s gone into making me this person. Even before anyone has heard this album or read the book, I feel like I’ve achieved something special.”
Chubby And The Gang
And Then There Was…
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Charlie Manning is Chubby And The Gang. The 30-something-year-old Londoner kicked off the project in 2019 with the intention of blending hardcore punk with the most infectious elements of ‘70s rock ’n’ roll and doo-wop. Charlie brought in a “gang” of rotating instrumentalists performing on the albums Speed Kills (2020) and The Mutt’s Nuts (2021). And Then There Was… is 16 songs written and performed by Charlie, produced by Jonah Falco, and recorded and mixed by James Atckinson. It’s a mix of control and chaos, love and loneliness, rage and vulnerability. The songs scream to be heard in a live setting, but feel just as at home playing over the speakers of a dimly lit local pub. Throughout And Then There Was… Charlie exposes his prowess for melody and exposition of true self.”
Eric Clapton
Meanwhile
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Guitar hero and blues-rock god Eric Clapton’s new studio album Meanwhile features collaborations with Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Bradley Walker, Judith Hill, Daniel Santiago and Simon Climie It has six brand-new songs and eight previously released singles.”
Coldplay
Moon Music
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Coldplay’s highly anticipated 10th album Moon Music was produced by Max Martin. In tandem with the groundbreaking sustainability measures on their current tour — which has so far produced 59% less CO2e emissions than their previous stadium tour — the band have gone to great lengths to make the physical release of Moon Music as sustainable as possible. This will be the world’s first album released as a 140g EcoRecord LP, with each copy made from nine recycled PET-plastic bottles recovered from post-consumer waste. This will prevent the manufacture of more than 25 metric tonnes of virgin plastic, and provide an 85% reduction in manufacturing process CO2 emissions/kg compared to traditional 140g vinyl. Moon Music is their first album since 2021’s Music Of The Spheres, which spawned the No. 1 single with BTS, My Universe, and was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards.”
Cumgirl8
8th Cumming
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Like a scantily clad Creature From The Black Lagoon, Manhattan four-piece cumgirl8 have emerged from their primordial goo. After coming-of-age with their self-titled EP (2020), experiencing their own end with their RIPcumgirl8 EP (2021), and witnessing a twisted vision of the afterlife through their EP phantasea pharm (2023), cumgirl8 are on the cusp of their 8th cumming by way of their long-awaited debut LP of that name. Described as a utopian, chaotic ‘Greta Thunberg fever dream,’ 8th cumming (recorded live, entirely on analog) is rooted in a philosophy close to the band’s heart: Cyberfeminism, which addresses the relationship between human and machine, nature and technology. Within this context, the record aims to examine our relationships with the online and physical world from an apocalyptic vantage point, even down to its artwork in which the band adorns slime-covered futuristic garments in a muted, murky landscape (representative of an inevitable ‘post-reality’ consisting of our deteriorating natural ecosystem and the dissolution of consciousness at the helm of artificial intelligence).”
Fever 333
Darker White
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Grammy-nominated genre-bending rock outfit Fever 333 have proven consistently that they are one of the most captivating acts in modern music today. Now, in 2024, Fever 333 are set to embark on their most exciting chapter yet with a plethora of new music on the way. The band includes drummer Thomas Pridgen (Mars Volta, Thundercat, Trash Talk), bassist April Kae and guitarist Brandon Davis joining frontman Jason Aalon Butler to accentuate the band’s visceral live performances. “Darker White is the intersection we will all find ourselves in at some point in our lives,” says Aalon. “It is the struggle we will inevitably face when identifying our metric for good or bad. Wrong or right. Dark and light. All based on our environment, social construction and cultural/psychological conditioning. It is the eagle-eyed observation of said intersection and the removing the shame after realizing we all experience it and it is up to us to find use of this taboo so it can be offered to the world as a beautiful story, piece of wisdom or a perspective that ironically changes your life for the better. Darker White is a sonic and social experience.”
Finneas
For Cryin’ Out Loud!
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Grammy and Oscar-winning artist, songwriter, and producer, Finneas returns with For Cryin’ Out Loud!, his second studio album. The self-produced solo album was born out of a series of live studio sessions in Los Angeles, bringing together some of his closest friends and peers into one room. In contrast to his debut album Optimist, which featured instrumentals written and performed solely by the artist himself, For Cryin’ Out Loud! sees Finneas expand his creative horizons to a classic studio/band environment, freeing him and ultimately resulting in his most uplifting and raw body of work to date. For Cryin’ Out Loud! follows the release of his sister Billie Eilish’s third studio album Hit Me Hard And Soft, which has further cemented him as one of the most critically acclaimed, award-winning producers and songwriters of his generation.”
God Bullies
As Above, So Below
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dive into the dark and gritty world of God Bullies with their latest album, As Above, So Below. This record captures the essence of their noise rock roots, delivering a raw and powerful experience. With haunting melodies and intense rhythms, God Bullies push the boundaries of their sound, creating an album that is both unsettling and captivating. Get ready for a sonic journey like no other. God Bullies are a Detroit touring band fronted by Mike Hard on vocals. Originating in Kalamazoo, Michigan, home of the state’s largest mental facility, these dark-edged satirists warped minds in the ’90s by taking rock and garage-punk conventions and injecting them with massive overdoses of mental sickness, Midwestern perversion, backwoods hatred, and completely whacked out speech sampling. Imagine Flipper crossed with Link Wray, fronted by a prison-bound Jim Bakker and you might be close. This is a dark, crude, and menacing attack that should appeal to fans of Jesus Lizard, Melvins, Tomahawk, Easy Action, The Birthday Party, and the prime years of Amphetamine Reptile Records.”
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “THE PLAIN TRUTH==
we drifted through it, arguing.
every day a new war crime, every day a flower bloom.
we sat down together and wrote it in one room,
and then sat down in a different room, recording.
NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody?
and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.
the sun setting above beds of ash
while we sat together, arguing.
the old world order barely pretended to care.
this new century will be crueler still.
war is coming.
don’t give up.
pick a side.
hang on.
love.”
Geordie Greep
The New Sound
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Is The New Sound a tonic for these times? Let’s ask Geordie Greep. “Music can be so much more than learning to play the same as everybody else. It can be anything you want. With recording The New Sound, it was the first time I have had no one to answer to. Being in a band (black midi), we often have this ‘we can do everything’ feeling, but you are also kind of limited in that approach, and sometimes it’s good to do something else, to let go of things.” Geordie’s debut solo album boasts a brand of high quality, all-embracing alternative pop fun not heard in a very long time, walking the line between the ridiculous and brilliant with a teflon-coated aplomb. How the record came about is a thing to marvel at. Over thirty session musicians were involved in its making, on two continents. Greep says, “Half of the tracks were done in Brazil, with local musicians pulled together at the last minute. They’d never heard anything I’d done before, they were just interested in the demos I’d made. The tracking was all done in one, maybe two days.” The spirit of Greep’s increasingly febrile and furtive soliloquies simultaneously calls to mind both Frank Zappa and Frank Sinatra, with a healthy dash of Scott Walker sprinkled throughout.”
Half Waif
See You At The Maypole
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In the deep Upstate New York winter of 2022, trees bare and taunting, Nandi Rose found herself searching for an apricitic clarity. She has always found the season difficult; its ruthless theft of birdsong and flora, heavy clouds low and smothering what little light remains. But the cacophonous silence of that winter was particularly brutal. It should have been stirred by the growth of life, a promise of a new chapter, a bright dawn, as Rose learned she was pregnant with her first child. That promise was broken in early December, when stillness took over the ultrasound screen; slow-motion mouths told her the life inside her had ended. Like a snapped branch weighed down by leaden frost, Rose lost a part of her future she thought would blossom. Baldwin tells us we must say yes to life, to “embrace it wherever it is found — and it is found in terrible places — nevertheless, there it is.” This is the guiding force of See You At The Maypole, the sixth full-length album in Half Waif’s prolific catalog. If we look for color in the midst of our own personal winters, the brightness will soon begin to bounce off the snow. This gathering of resilience and clutching of chiaroscuro — celebrating both light and dark — guides us on a journey towards acceptance and surrender. Rose had to figure out how to love her life, even if it didn’t look like what she wanted it to.”
