It’s another one of those perfect-storm weeks: There are more than 500 new titles on the way. Plenty are from artists you know. Plenty more are from artists you should know. So this roundup could easily have included 50 titles or more. But ain’t nobody got time for that (including me). So I tried to keep it to 20. I succeeded — barely. But ultimately, think of this list as the equivalent of 500 politicians blasted into space — a good start. The rest is up to you. Let’s hit it and quit it:
Field Music & The NASUWT Riverside Band
Binding Time
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Binding Time is a suite of new songs inspired by the formation of the Durham Miners’ Association and performed with musicians from the NASUWT Riverside band. These songs were originally written as a commission for Durham Brass Festival and were due to be performed at Redhills, the home of the DMA in July 2021. Unfortunately Covid restrictions at the time meant that this performance could not take place and the suite was eventually premiered at Durham’s Gala Theatre in the summer of 2022. After that performance Peter and David Brewis set about recording the songs at their studio in Sunderland. “Growing up in the North East in the 1980s, you took for granted that mining was part of the landscape but I don’t think I really understood what it meant for the region. It’s not just about heritage. The whole area has been shaped by the coal industry; socially, economically, politically, even geographically.” says David, “Once you start to dig into it, you realise that the story of the DMA is basically the story of working class representation. The very first working-class MP, Thomas Burt, was a miner.”
Genesis
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 50th Anniversary Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In Genesis’s incredible body of work, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway is a landmark record, and one of the most influential progressive rock albums of all time. Originally released in November 1974, the album is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a four-CD + Blu-ray Super Deluxe Edition. This definitive compendium was created with input from all band members involved in the record and follows the arc of the album’s creation and tour, giving fans a deep dive into the music and visual elements. The set includes the original album remastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road from the 1974 analogue tapes; the complete Live From The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA show from January 1975, including two previously unreleased encore tracks; a Dolby ATMOS mix overseen by Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks at Real World Studios; a download card featuring three never-before-released demos from the Headley Grange Sessions, plus 96kHz/24-bit high resolution audio of the new remasters. The set is complete with a 1975 tour programme reproduction, replica ticket, poster and a 60-page coffee table-style book featuring rare images and new liner notes.”
Alison Krauss + Union Station
Arcadia
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Many people in bluegrass music talk about being born in the wrong decade,” says Alison Krauss, “and whenever I sing, the pictures I see in my head take place in a particular time. That’s what happened with these tunes, maybe even more so than in the past.” For nearly four decades, Alison Krauss + Union Station have been celebrated as one of the most influential acts in bluegrass and roots music. Known for an immaculately crafted but endlessly surprising sound, the group has returned with Arcadia, their first album since the 2011 masterpiece Paper Airplane — a multiple Grammy-winning LP that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country, Bluegrass, and Folk Album charts. They may not have released an album in 14 years, but Krauss never stopped thinking about the next Union Station project or gathering songs that might fit. “Over the years, you’ll hear something, but it’s not time for it,” she says. “You say to yourself, ‘Oh, this is beautiful, I’m going to set it aside and wait. I have a place behind my desk with songs that I collect, including CDs and cassettes of songs I’ve kept for 30, 40 years.”
Masters Of Reality
The Archer
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chris Goss is one of the elusive geniuses of American music. As the singer, guitarist and driving force behind Masters Of Reality, he’s spent more than 40 years charting his own musical journey, travelling from mystical blues to desert rock to psychedelia-edged beauty via all points in between. Goss has positioned himself as one of the most important and influential producers of the last 30 years. The list of bands and artists he has worked with in that capacity is long and illustrious: Queens Of The Stone Age, Kyuss, Mark Lanegan, Foo Fighters, The Cult, UNKLE, Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland, former Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, even Hollywood star Russell Crowe. He’s the connective tissue which links so much modern music. “The Archer is whoever one perceives as their invisible ruler of fate,” explains Goss. “Often, the archer is very visible to those who pay attention. Maybe some even think he is the dictatorial god. Or even a conjured entity. But all can agree that the archer has impeccable skill at hitting the target.”
Mumford & Sons
Rushmere
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Rushmere is the spot where it all began for Mumford & Sons. The pond, located on Wimbledon Common in south-west London, is where Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane first hung out and imagined the initial idea of putting a band together. Rushmere was as familiar to them as the instruments they played, and is at the heart of their origin story. The track has already become one of the most played tracks on British radio since its launch. The album was produced by nine-time Grammy winner Dave Cobb and recorded at RCA Studio A in Nashville, in Savannah, and back in the U.K. at Marcus’s studio in Devon. Rushmere is the beginning for Mumford & Sons’ next phase, and it follows an intense period of creativity for the trio.”
Perfume Genius
Glory
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On his new album Glory, Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) reteams with long-time producer Blake Mills and keyboardist and co-writer Alan Wyffels along with an incredible group of musicians who have played previously with Hadreas on the road and in the studio including guitarists Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Greg Uhlmann, drummers Tim Carr and Jim Keltner, and bassist Pat Kelly as well as a special appearance from New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding. After approaching writing as an insular practice for much of his career, in the process of making Glory. Hadreas welcomed more collaboration from the musicians working on the project. The result is a more wiry and driving musical underbed to Hadreas’ stories. The album contains themes that he’s wrestled with artistically throughout his career — themes of the body and its decay, of domesticity and love, and of inescapable history and damage. There is also a return of some of his characters including Jason. But Glory is written from a new vantage point — on the other side of struggle, where one is left to contend with all that has happened but also has to learn to live in a still and uncharted place.”
Sacred Paws
Jump Into Life
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Sacred Paws have a natural inclination not to take things too seriously. You can hear it all the way through a conversation with its two members, guitarist Ray Aggs and drummer Eilidh Rodgers, punctuated by rolls of giggles and thoughtful pauses, and you can hear it in the light touch they bring to their music, a jangly blend of indie pop full of fizzing world rhythms and bright horns. Shimmering guitar riffs dance between snappy beats and swooning melodies that will have crowds committing to far more than a simple head-bob. “I think we’d get bored if it was too slow,” Eilidh says. “We’d never want to play something live that people couldn’t dance to. It would feel really strange to us. It’s kind of the whole point.” Jump Into Life, their lush and layered new album, takes the roots of the project and breathes fresh life into it as it blossoms into something even more colorful than before — a skewing of the duo’s recognizable sound that feels wildly thrilling.”
Snapped Ankles
Hard Times Furious Dancing
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Snapped Ankles have given up trying to make sense of it all. The forest only offers so much protection. Feeding on a diet of fractured narratives, meme culture, viral moments and the very worst of human impulses weighs heavy. The woodwose hold up a mirror to the absurdity of modern life once again. The only sane response is to dance. Make your way to the clearing, gather around the megalith of speakers, drum machines, amps and synthesisers and dance like there’s no tomorrow. Hard Times Furious Dancing is an invitation to all those lost in the unrelenting noise of the present, to leave it all behind and come together in the forest. Driven by the primitive thrust of their single-oscillator ‘log’ synths, high and low culture collide in a surreal, free flowing narrative — but the rhythm is universal. This is easily the closest Snapped Ankles have come to capturing their rapturous live energy in the studio. It’s everything you’ve come to know and love from a Snapped Ankles album, amped all the way up until the ground begins to shake.”
Spellling
Portrait Of My Heart
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On Chrystia Cabral’s fourth album as Spellling, the Bay Area artist transforms her acclaimed avant-pop project into a mirror. Cabral’s lyrics for Portrait of My Heart tackle love, intimacy, anxiety, and alienation, trading the allegorical approach of much of her previous work for something pointed into her human heart. The album’s thematic forthrightness is echoed in its arrangements, making it the sharpest, most direct Spellling album to date. From the dark minimalism of her earliest music to the lavishly orchestrated prog-pop of 2021’s The Turning Wheel to this newly energetic expression of her creative spirit, Cabral has proved again and again that Spellling can be whatever she needs it to be. On Portrait Of My Heart, she fearlessly draws the curtain back on parts of herself that she’s never included in Spellling before — her feelings of being an outsider, her overly guarded nature, the way she can throw herself recklessly into intimate relationships and then cool on them just as quickly. “It’s very much an open diary of all those sensations.”
Dean Wareham
That’s The Price Of Loving Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In June 1990, Kramer and Dean Wareham made Galaxie 500’s final album, This Is Our Music. “Things were tense in the band,” recalls Dean, “but there were exciting moments too. Kramer would suggest things like playing up high on the neck for Fourth of July. I also remember taking a break to catch Total Recall on opening day.” Kramer also toured with the band as their sound engineer, often sharing hotel rooms with Dean. However, their paths diverged after Galaxie 500’s breakup. Over the years, they stayed in touch, with Kramer often suggesting they make another record. It wasn’t until the pandemic, after Dean lost close friends, that he decided to move forward. The result, That’s The Price Of Loving Me, was recorded over six days in Los Angeles. Kramer stayed with Dean and his wife Britta Phillips, and they even paused recording one day to see Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. The album’s 10 tracks retain echoes of Wareham and Kramer’s earlier work but are more complex, with influences from Burt Bacharach, Serge Gainsbourg and Norma Tanega. “34 years is a long time,” says Kramer, “but working with Dean again felt seamless. The ‘full circle’ air still lingers. Collaborations like this are incredibly rare, and I’m grateful to have been invited inside again.”
