As the old saying goes: If you want to sculpt a statue of an elephant, you just get the biggest granite block you can find — and chip away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant. I am trying to take the same approach to my year-end lists. I start with the giant slab of music contained in The Long List of everything I heard; then I chip away more than half the releases to form this massive, woolly mammoth of everything I wanted to hear again; and finally, I whittle that down to a still-elephantine Short List of ivory-pure excellence that you’ll never forget. Read on:
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.”
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Wild God
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me,” says Nick Cave of Wild God, his 18th album with The Bad Seeds. “It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it. It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious. There is never a master plan when we make a record. The records rather reflect back the emotional state of the writers and musicians who played them. Listening to this, I don’t know, it seems we’re happy.”
Across 10 tracks, the band dance between convention and experimentation, taking left-turns and detours that heighten the rich imagery and emotion in Cave’s soul-stirring narratives. It is the sound of a group emboldened by reconnection and taking flight. There are moments that touch fondly upon the Bad Seeds’ past but they are fleeting, and serve only to imbue the relentless and restless forward motion of the band.”
Chastity
Chastity
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chastity is for the skids, the headbangers, the freaks. Chastity is for everyone who has suffered and survived the lethal combination of suburban overculture and mental distress. Chastity is especially for everyone who didn’t survive — who didn’t get out. Brandon Williams did, luckily, and his work with Chastity has been to collect people like him, who got out by the skin of their teeth.
Chastity’s first three albums formed a trilogy that defined a four-year arc of the band’s contribution to outsider music. Each record was informed by Williams’ life, but each was also conceptual and interpretive, refracting his experiences through a level of remove. On Chastity’s new self-titled fourth record, there is no such distance: Williams decided to write a non-fiction work. Chastity is a 13-track record about the things that have always run through the band’s records — struggle, death, despair, redemption, darkness, and light — but this time, the songs ascend to new depths of intensity and desperation, new heights of resolution and power. “It’s really about the first nosedive that I did as a young person,” says Williams. “It’s a record about struggle, about the missing years. It’s also a thank you to some people in my life.”
Chat Pile
Cool World
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Like the towering mounds of toxic waste that inspired their name, the music of Oklahoma City noise-rock quartet Chat Pile is a suffocating, grotesque embodiment of the existential anguish that has defined the 21st century. It figures that a band with such an abrasive, unrelenting, and outlandish sound has struck so strong a chord. Dread has replaced the American dream, and Chat Pile’s music is a poignant reminder of that shift — a portrait of an American rock band molded by a society defined by its cold and cruel power systems.
Besides being the name of a largely forgotten (and panned) ’90s film, Cool World makes an apt title for Chat Pile’s sophomore album. In the context of a Chat Pile record, the words are steeped in a grim double entendre that not only evokes imagery of a dying planet but a progression from the band’s previous work, moving the scope of its depiction of modern malaise from just “God’s country” to the entirety of humankind. Says vocalist Raygun Busch: “Cool World covers similar themes to our last album, except now exploded from a micro to macro scale, with thoughts specifically about disasters abroad, at home, and how they affect one another,”
Childish Gambino
Bando Stone & The New World
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Childish Gambino released his sixth (and reportedly final) studio album Bando Stone & The New World.
The 17-track LP kicks off with the Ammaarae co-write Hearts Are Meant To Fly, a roaring glitchy and twisty electro hip-hop cut, before delving into the moody psych-fun single Lithonia. Written by Gambino, the single evolves into a full on operatic rock anthem. He then flexes his melodious vocals on the summer-time fine Survive, before the project flows into the ethereal lullabic and guitar-laden Steps Beach, featuring Grammy-winning recording artists Steve Lacy and Fousheé. The latter later rejoined him on the alt-punk pop Running Around before Gambino shifts to display his lyrical prowess in the Flo Milli-assisted Talk My Shit. Abundant in an array of sounds exhibiting the plurality of Childish Gambino, Dadvocate highlights his reverence for blues, folk and even country; while cuts like Got To Be and Real Love blend electro pop, dance and rap, with Yoshinoya boasting bold bar after bar. It’s heard again in the collaboration with Yeat on Cruisin’, before wrapping with the Max Martin-produced anthem A Place Where Love Goes, which melds the album’s sonic diversity all into one.”
Chubby And The Gang
And Then There Was…
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Charlie Manning is Chubby And The Gang. The 30-something 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 to perform on the albums Speed Kills (2020) and The Mutt’s Nuts (2021). But now, Chubby / Charlie on his own for his third release And Then There Was… The album contains 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. For him, though, the only goal is to: ‘Play good shows. Have good times.’ ”
The Circulators
Insufficient Fun
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Meet the new kings of Saturday night! The Circulators have proudly taken on the mantle of San Francisco’s only rock ’n’ roll band, sharing the stage with any group of consequence that comes through the Bay.
Following up a killer cassette EP that earned them gushing reviews and label interest, the Circs are back with their debut LP, and it’s all killer no filler! A full-on, party-starting punk romper, Insufficient Fun is chock fulla ’90s garage-punk a la Teengenerate, combined with the vintage sneer of The Saints and the hooks of The Zeros. It’s not all grime and grit, though; the Circs find time to get a little introspective on a few tunes, and even mix in a punk ballad that’s every bit as great as I Want You Around or You Might Get Me. Get set for an album of totally rippin’, beer flingin’, 100% punk!”
Gary Clark Jr.
JPEG RAW
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Anyone who has listened to a Gary Clark Jr. album or seen the four-time Grammy winner live knows that he’s a gifted multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and performer. And never more so than on his last album, 2019’s illuminating This Land. But while that album signaled a breakthrough in displaying his musical versatility beyond the blues, his latest album JPEG RAW represents a quantum leap.
“Blues will always be my foundation,” says Clark. “But that’s just scratching the surface. I’m also a beat maker and an impressionist who likes to do different voices. I’ve always loved theater and being able to tell a story. At home when I play the trumpet, I think Lee Morgan, or John Coltrane when I play the sax. I’ve even got bagpipes just in case I need them. So while this is my most honest and vulnerable album about relating to the human condition, it’s also the most freeing.” At once powerful, insightful and thought-provoking, JPEG RAW picks up where This Land left off. But unlike its predecessor, Clark’s fourth studio album was born out of an unprecedented two years during which the country was rocked by a global pandemic, coast-to-coast civil rights protests following the murder of George Floyd and a political insurrection inside the nation’s capitol. As a Black man and father concerned about the future for his three young children in a still challenging climate, Clark found himself back in the studio recording a personal call-to-action that’s compelling both musically and lyrically.”
Coilguns
Odd Love
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Odd Love is a way to summarize our relationship with music in itself, the overall music business and our band life,” says Coilguns’ Louis Jucker. “We’re amazed how long this band has lasted so far and the importance it has taken in our life, knowing how randomly it started. Our music has always been a sane yet intense way to process all the light and deep things we were going through in ou personal lives. Oddness is our nomality and love is our motor to achieve it.”
Much of Odd Love was initially written by guitarist and founder Jonathan Nido alone at home during the first two months of the 2020 COVID lockdown. “The starting point for the process of the new record was to go back to where Coilguns actually started, which was Jona writing songs and asking us to arrange them with him,” Jucker says. All told, Nido wrote and prepared 14 demos to show frontman Jucker, drummer Luc Hess and bassist Kevin Galland. They worked on the songs together but intentionally let the collection sit for weeks or even months afterward, before revisiting some songs whose meaning had changed for them. “It made us go into so much detail that we’ve never had the time to go into,” Nido says. “We had decided to break all patterns. We knew that we were at the end of a certain era.”
Cola
The Gloss
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With roots in Montreal, Cola were formed by ex-Ought members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy. Evan Cartwright, an in-demand session musician and collaborator in Toronto’s vibrant jazz/experimental scene with acts such as U.S. Girls and Brodie West, joined after their first practice in 2019. From their inception, they’ve expanded on the DIY ethic of the Dischord and SST eras, creating potent sounds from a minimal palette of drums/bass/guitar and lacing their songs with winsome one-liners and societal commentary. What’s another word for commentary? Gloss, apparently.
There are themes of regaining balance and joy throughout the record, perhaps a linear companion to the relatable ennui and frustration present on the trio’s 2022 debut Deep In View. “Skip the malnutrition / A sign of what you need / Oh, better come back to it / Basking and serene,” sings Darcy on the chiming opener Tracing Hallmarks.”
Cookie Delicious
Punch Dance In A Wooded Glen
Cookie Delicious rope-a-dopes you with the sweet science and fancy footwork of his killer new album Punch Dance In A Wooded Glen.
The third round of hook-laden, sonically experimental dance-rock and post-punk from prolific Winnipeg multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and DJ Joel Klaverkamp, the darkly intense Punch Dance In A Wooded Glen is a knockout from bottom to top. Propelled by irresistible head-bobbing grooves and hooky basslines, laced with stylish synths and glowing guitars, and topped with perfectly poised vocals straight from the valley of 1984, these seven tracks belong on a mixtape with LCD Soundsystem, Talking Heads and Viagra Boys.
Elvis Costello
King Of America & Other Realms
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Elvis Costello’s King Of America & Other Realms celebrates and explores the songwriter’s lifelong love and fascination with American music, spanning his many albums and inspired collaborations with some of the most celebrated musicians, songwriters and producers in this music, including his longtime creative partnership with T Bone Burnett.
Compiled by Costello, the six-disc box set traces Costello’s musical travels from Hollywood — where the King Of America album was recorded — to a brand-new take on that album’s opener Brilliant Mistake, recorded in Cape Fear, N.C. in early 2024. Between those points, it chronicles Costello’s adventures in New Orleans, Oxford, Clarksdale, Nashville and Memphis. This one-of-a-kind 97-track journey is guided by Costello in a newly self-penned 35-page essay, beautifully illustrated with rare and never-before-seen photos in a 57-page booklet. A startlingly beautiful cover shot by Terence Donovan reveals the majesty and absurdity of a king in his velvet and bejeweled crown and embroidered denim jacket.”
The Coward Brothers
The Coward Brothers
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE:“The exact relationship between Henry (T Bone Burnett) and Howard Coward (Elvis Costello) remains ambiguous. They often referred to themselves as “one and a half brothers,” which might hint at their height difference — or imply they were not actually siblings but were involved in an elaborate ruse.
Costello and Burnett have used the Cowards as occasional noms de plume, dating back to the 1980s. But not until now did they turn the pseudonymous singing siblings of their imaginations into fully fledged characters. The duo’s first recorded appearance came when two of their songs surfaced on the bonus disc for a reissue of Costello’s 1986 album The King Of America — which Burnett produced in the wake of several tours with Costello. Their music, from early rock ’n’ roll hits to later, more introspective songs, is compiled in the album The Coward Brothers.”
Charley Crockett
$10 Cowboy
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With $10 Cowboy, Charley Crockett didn’t set out to make a themed record. He had released a concept album in 2022, the critically acclaimed Man From Waco, propelling Crockett to new heights and establishing him as one of the leaders of a sparkling revival of traditional country and folk.
For the followup, Crockett wrote freely, over a two-month period, as he wound his way across the United States on the back of a tour bus. The resulting songs — raw, personal, vivid portraits of a country in transition — ended up being connected after all. “This material is written at truck stops, it’s written at casinos, it’s written in the alleys behind the venues, it’s written in my truck parked up on South Congress in Austin,” explains Crockett. “A ramblin’ man like me, a genuine transient, is in a pretty damn good position to have something to say about America.” As the album unfolds, you begin to understand that a $10 Cowboy is anyone who has hustled to get by, who didn’t fit in, who has slept on other people’s couches, or the street, who has fallen down, gotten up, and ventured from home chasing a paying gig, or a new start.”
Cross Dog
All Hard Feelings
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Cross Dog is a noisy, experimental, bass-driven hardcore punk band from Peterborough, Ont. Their new album (and first for Stomp), All Hard Feelings, was recorded at High Wattage Cottage, produced and engineered by Scott Middleton (ex-Cancer Bats), and features guest appearances by The Anti-Queens.
All Hard Feelings is as sonically relentless as it is thoughtful. It has its feet firmly planted in hardcore punk rock, but doesn’t shy away from varied influences of noise rock, heavy metal, and rock ’n’ roll. Aptly titled, the lyrics journey from the public to the personal, confronting the sociological, psychological, and emotional challenges that many of us face in this life, yet do so in a way that somehow feels simultaneously universal and deeply individual.”
Dale Crover
Glossolalia
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As he began plotting his new solo album, Dale Crover realized he was starting from scratch. The Melvins, Nirvana and Redd Kross drummer (and Altamont singer-guitarist) was already more than 30 years into a renowned career when he started work on his full-length solo debut — 2017’s The Fickle Finger of Fate. So he had a backlog of songs and ideas to draw on. Likewise, he incorporated older material into Rat-A-Tat-Tat!, which followed in 2021. But this time it was different: just Crover and a Tascam eight-track. “I didn’t have any songs,” Crover says. “So I just went on this writing spree.”
The result of that creative burst is Glossolalia, Crover’s third LP under his own name and arguably his most focused statement yet as a solo artist: 11 catchy yet eccentric tracks — demoed at home and later re-recorded with longtime Melvins engineer Toshi Kasai — that move from Nuggets-y garage-rock to crafty proto-metal riffage and gorgeously hazy psych-pop, and feature Crover’s songwriting, vocals and multi-instrumental talents alongside a number of illustrious guests, from past collaborators like Ty Segall to none other than Tom Waits. Crover’s prior releases took a more experimental tack, blending oddball textural interludes with more straightforward songs. This time the sound is streamlined, with a natural flow that carries straight through from the rollicking title track to eerily evocative closer Punchy. “Just having everything kind of fresh,” Crover says, “I got really inspired.”
The Cure
Songs Of A Lost World
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Songs Of A Lost World is The Cure’s 14th studio release and their first new album in 16 years. Songs from the record were previewed during the band’s 90-date, 33-country Shows Of A Lost World tour for more than 1.3 million people, garnering overwhelming fan and critical acclaim.
Songs Of A Lost World was written and arranged by Smith, produced and mixed by Smith and Paul Corkett, and performed by The Cure — Smith on voice / guitar / six-string bass / keyboard; Simon Gallup on bass; Jason Cooper on drums / percussion; Roger O’Donnell on keyboards; and Reeves Gabrels on guitar. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales. Smith created the sleeve concept, and Andy Vella, a long-time collaborator, handled the art and design. The cover art features Bagatelle, a 1975 sculpture by Janez Pirnat.”
The Dandy Warhols
Rockmaker
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The cheekiest band in the land are back with Rockmaker, The Dandy Warhols’ 12th album. Produced and recorded by the band at their studio/funhouse The Odditorium in Portland, OR, Rockmaker sees the Bohemian Like You hitmakers celebrate their 30 years together with a sprinkle of glitter on their grime.
Accompanied by guests Debbie Harry, Slash and Pixies’ Frank Black, The Dandy Warhols wrangle paranoia, untangle anxious discontent, and lust after life while the dance grooves go deeper, heady drones get weirder, and riffage fit for bong rips hammers. Rockmaker is the Dandy’s clearest statement yet, at no sacrifice to their outré leanings. This is the sound of outsider alt-psych fixtures looking in as the walls come down.”
The Darts
Boomerang
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Darts can’t stop, won’t stop! Hot on the heels on last year’s groundbreaking album, Snake Oil,The Darts have returned guns blazing with a brand-new album, Boomerang. While on a break from their intense international touring schedule, The Darts stopped at Station House Studio in Los Angeles to work with producer Mark Rains (Hooveriii, Death Valley Girls, Hunx & His Punx), with the mission of capturing the band’s raw rock spirit.
From the opening chords of Hang Around, listeners are launched into an explosive garage party, with the Farfisa organ bringing a carnival and snarky gang vocals adding to the fray. The action doesn’t let up from there. With Nicole Laurenne on vocals and Farfisa, Christina Nunez on bass and backup vocals, Meliza Jackson on guitars, and Mary Rose Gonzales on drums, the tight lineup fuels the album’s themes of resilience and empowerment. Each track on Boomerang packs a punch, drawing the listener into a world of infectious hooks and soaring riffs.”
Dave’s Doors Of Perception
Major Door Arcana
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “It is commonly accepted that one member of Dave’s Doors Of Perception has returned from the future. It is widely believed to be Dave Door himself — the band’s drummer who first started the rumour. And no wonder. How else to explain the far-out, far-sighted, visionary soundscape of their time-travelling garage-rock?
The new sophomore LP Major Door Arcana will only give extra credence to the gossip. Side 1 features 22 two minutes of garage punk-rock perfection; fuzz guitar, snarling vocals and a tinnitus-inducing rhythm section. With two ‘mellower’ tunes programmed by way of respite, the nine songs play like a whole album in itself. Them comes Side 2: Another 22 minutes of wigged-out psychedelic excess. A sonic exorcism of such hallucinogenic innuendo that psychosis may be induced in all but the most mushroom-hardened listener — a cautionary note to anyone intent on finishing all six tracks.”
Dawes
Oh Brother
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For the first time in almost a decade, brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith grace the cover of a Dawes record. It’s just the two of them this time, and as such, Oh Brother marks a distinctive new chapter for the California rock band — one that is both introspective and accessible, all while maintaining their beloved sense of sincerity.
After the amicable departure of two bandmates last year, Taylor realized that the group’s evolution was nothing to hide. He likens it to looking back on The Rolling Stones’ career — eras with Brian Jones vs. Ronnie Wood — or Dire Straits’ lineup with and without brothers Mark and David Knopfler together, or The Cure’s fluctuating cast encircling Robert Smith. People change. Music evolves. But a band is still a band. “We’re not shying away from this information, because then it just seems cowardly or something,” Taylor says. “Rather than try to hide something, let’s celebrate it. Let’s call our record Oh Brother.” The title of Dawes’ ninth LP serves as a sort of double entendre too, an exasperated sigh acknowledging that change can still be challenging. “We’re gonna miss our dudes,” he says. “They’re still brothers.”
The Decemberists
As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For over 20 years, The Decemberists have been one of the most original, daring, and thrilling U.S. rock bands. Their distinctive brand of hyperliterate folk-rock set them apart from the start, releasing nine ambitious albums unbound by genre. Now the beloved indie band are back with their first album in six years, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again — not only the longest Decemberists album to date (and their first intentional, proper double-LP) but also their most empathetic and accessible, its 13 songs like semaphores of mutual recognition for our fraught times and faint hope
Reuniting with producer Tucker Martine (R.E.M., Neko Case, Sufjan Stevens) who began working with the band on The Crane Wife, the album features R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, The Shins’ James Mercer and Lizzie Ellison on background vocals. This, songwriter Colin Meloy will tell you proudly, is the best Decemberists album and perhaps the ultimate realization of 22 years of work. In many ways, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again feels like an aptly titled renewal for The Decemberists. The first full-length release on the band’s own label, after a run of nearly two decades with Capitol. As they were once, here are the Decemberists again, now an independent band empowered by singing stories that sound instantly familiar and convey some bit of hard-won wisdom.”
Deep Purple
=1
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Deep Purple — one of the greatest and most influential rock bands of all time — are back with their 23rd studio album =1.
Featuring 13 tracks of pioneering and rip-roaring rock ’n’ roll, =1 finds Deep Purple continue their charge of recent years, adding yet more layers, accolades and achievements to their legacy of 100 million album sales. =1 embodies the essence and attitude of their 1970s incarnation possibly more than any other album in recent memory. With the legendary Bob Ezrin once again producing, the record evokes the pioneering band’s classic sound, without relying on nostalgia. The enigmatic title symbolises the idea that in a world growing ever more complex, everything eventually simplifies down to a single, unified essence. Everything equals one. With three consecutive No. 1 albums in their back pocket and a resurgent new energy powering them forward, this is Deep Purple at their pinnacle.”
Deep Purple
Machine Head Super Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Deep Purple unleashed one of the best guitar riffs since the invention of rock ’n’ roll in Smoke On The Water, a song dubbed the Beethoven’s 5th of hard rock. Since its 1972 debut on Machine Head, the song and the album have left an indelible mark on music, inspiring countless bands around the world.
Now, more than half a dentury since its debut, the band honor the album’s enormous legacy with a comprehensive version introducing new mixes and previously unreleased live recordings. Highlighting the collection are several different versions of the album, including new stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes by Dweezil Zappa. The 1974 quadraphonic mix and a newly remastered version of the original album are also featured, adding depth to the extraordinary set. The Super Deluxe Edition also contains two captivating live performances. The first, recorded on March 9, 1972, at the Paris Theatre in London, captures the group’s unrivaled stage presence during the Machine Head Tour. The second, previously unreleased, was recorded in April 1971 at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland. The band planned to record Machine Head there that December, but the venue burned down right before the sessions began, an event immortalized in Smoke On The Water.”
Des Demonas
Apocalyptic Boom! Boom!
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Washington, D.C.’s Des Demonas have been hailed as a favorite of Henry Rollins (Black Flag), Marc Riley (The Fall) and Iggy Pop (The Stooges) since the release of their self-titled 2017 debut LP — and their subsequent singles and EP haven’t changed things.
The group is made up of some familiar names from the D.C. punk, garage and indie scenes. Kenyan punk-poet-politique Jacky “Cougar” Abok (Foul Swoops, Thee Lolitas) is on vocals and percussion, Mark Cisneros (Hammered Hulls, Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, The Make-Up) is on guitar, Paul Vivari (Benjy Ferree, DJ Soul Call Paul) is on Farfisa organ and bass machine, and Matt Gatwood (Two Inch Astronaut) is on drums. As it has been since the beginning, the music on their sophomore album Apocalyptic Boom! Boom! is a melding of disparate sounds and influences, hitting with a driving pulse and fiery intent.”
DeWolff
Muscle Shoals
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As its title proudly and clearly proclaims, free-wheelin’ rock ’n’ soul trio DeWolff’s new studio album Muscle Shoals was indeed recorded at the legendary FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama.
When the opportunity for Dutch trio DeWolff to record in Muscle Shoals, it was a dream come true. “Even before we were into southern rock, as a kid, Luka got an album of southern soul, and most of it was recorded at FAME,” says singer-guitarist Pablo van de Poel of his drumming brother. “Our introduction to soul didn’t start with James Brown; we started with Wilson Pickett.” In May 2024, they travelled to Muscle Shoals to record their 10th studio album with Grammy-winning producer Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes). “You can really feel some kind of rock ’n’ roll magic in the air there,” Pablo adds. “Right when we played our first notes there, I got goosebumps. This definitely was one of the best recording experiences we’ve ever had. Even the grand piano Leon Russell used was still there, just like the electric Wurlitzer piano that was used on I Never Loved A Man.”
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.
Doechii
Alligator Bites Never Heal
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Rising star Doechii’s hip-hop/rap mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, captures a rare talent in her rawest form yet, giving listeners 19 distinct windows into her one-of-a-kind artistry.
Doechii says, “To my Swamp, my devoted core fans, I hope you cherish this mixtape and create beautiful memories to it. Use my music to encourage you through the rough days and use it to imagine better ones. Allow Alligator Bites Never Heal to inspire you as you all have inspired me. I love you forever.” On Alligator Bites Never Heal, Doechii is equal parts her Tampa roots and Los Angeles, where she’s currently based, she is then and now and also tomorrow, she is countless genres and movements and eras and ideas laid out before us in less than an hour of song. She is the woman on the cover, looking like a stone-faced queen, wearing Vivienne Westwood with beads in her braids and an albino alligator in her lap as if to say, “Did you expect something less?”
Drug Hunt
Feast
Drug Hunt serve up a multi-course menu of tasty psychedelic snacks on their meaty, satisfying debut album Feast.
Stoner rock and prog, post-punk and noise, blues and noir jazz, garage-rock and metal; these San Diego throwbacks toss them all into the slow-cooker and simmer them down into a thick, darkly rich sonic stew that sticks to your ribs while leaving you hungry for more. Their unique recipe — featuring ingredients straight from the ’60s and ’70s — has earned them cinematic analogies such as “Tarantinoesque” and “biker-bar Pink Floyd” for their raw and ethereal performances. As they say: Imagine a Doors album produced by Steve Albini, written by Nick Cave and fronted by The Stooges.”
Bob Dylan & The Band
The 1974 Live Recordings
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bob Dylan’s 1974 Tour marked his first time touring live in eight years and reunited him with The Band — who had become widely renowned in their own right since backing the artist nearly a decade earlier. Booked into arenas for the first time, Bob Dylan and The Band performed 30 dates in 42 days before an average audience of 18,500.
Though they might not have known it at the time, Dylan and The Band were at the vanguard of a new era. Tour ‘74 would help create the template for the major rock tour, and codify many of its shared experiences — from the sight of audiences holding up lighters en masse (as captured in the iconic cover image for Before The Flood) to the bright flash of the house lights during a show’s signal moment, in this case their performance of Like A Rolling Stone. Likewise many songs performed live for the first time on the tour — All Along The Watchtower, Forever Young and the show’s eventual opener-and-closer Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine) — would take on a life of their own. Featuring all professionally recorded shows from the 1974 performances, the full 27-CD collection offers fans 417 previously unreleased tracks — including 133 recordings newly mixed from 16-track tape, and every single surviving soundboard recording.”
