Any dipshit can hip you to new platters by the likes of Lil Wayne, Cynthia Erivo and other topliners. But only a special kind of dipshit is willing to reach above and beyond that low-hanging fruit — and spend hours sampling hundreds of tantalizing releases — to find the tastiest treats in the musical orchard. If you were still wondering, yes, I am that dipshit. And here are your plays of the week:
Activity
A Thousand Years In Another Way
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Evil is very real and having its way, and love is also real and hasn’t lost yet.” That’s how Activity’s Travis Johnson described their third album, A Thousand Years In Another Way. A friend had asked why these songs seemed to capture the strange, heavy feeling of being alive right now better than anything else — and that was his answer. The album doesn’t try to explain this time we’re living in; it simply feels like it. It’s a mix of violence, alienation, and tenderness — reflecting the surreal, dreamlike (or nightmarish) rhythm of daily life. Across 10 songs, Activity blends experimental rock, electronics, and found sounds with a sense of paranoia, flickers of hope, and a warped reality. Working with producer Jeff Berner (Psychic TV), the band manipulated sounds and played with room acoustics to create a feeling that’s disorienting — like the air is thick and the walls are listening. Coming out of a period of uncertainty, the Brooklyn quartet — Johnson, Jess Rees, Bri DiGioia and Steven Levine — pieced the album together from fragments: Clipped samples, looping guitar lines, ghostly melodies. Rees, DiGioia, and Johnson share vocal and writing duties, shaping a record that feels both deeply personal and strangely alien. There’s a constant sense that things could shift or fall apart at any second — nothing stays one thing for long.”
Attention Bird Utopia
Best Of Kings
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Attention Bird Utopia — the new collaborative project of guitarist / songwriter Harrison Whitford (Phoebe Bridgers, Matt Berninger, Conor Oberst) and producer / songwriter Eli Hirsch (Suki Waterhouse, Cautious Clay, Say Lou Lou) — began when Eli was executive producing Waterhouse’s 2024 LP Memoir Of A Sparklemuffin at his studio in Los Angeles and Harry dropped in on an afternoon recording session. The two hit it off, and soon Whitford started coming over to Eli’s home studio to blow off steam while playing chess (Eli humbly admits, with a hint of awe, that Harry is the superior chess player: “I’ll never beat him”). They bonded over their love of The Beatles, Jackson Browne and Paul Simon, and Harry exposed Eli to the deeper cuts from the songbooks of country legends like Hank Williams and Willie Nelson. While both accomplished, in-demand collaborators, they shared a sense of restlessness about their own songwriting — they realized that years could go by only working on other peoples’ records, ignoring their own creative impulse. So they made a pact: They would meet every Friday to share new songwriting ideas, a kind of accountability exercise. These hangs quickly escalated into a collection of new songs. While they had a deeply ingrained shared musical language, their artistic approaches, as Eli recounts, were perfect counterbalances: “For me, Harry’s notes were usually about things not needing to be so literal — he’s definitely a poet. And my notes for Harry were usually structure related, like how to shape the song.”
Bacon Wagon
Trauma Cake
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In 2003, upon the disbanding of seminal Swedish noise rock band Acid Ape, brothers Marcus and Kristoffer Kinberg started Bacon Wagon. Fast-forward to 2023 — after umpteen singles and EPs featuring almost as many different lineups — and the Bacon Wagon crew finally got their shit together enough to write a slew of new songs. The band now finally arrives with their long-overdue first album Trauma Cake. Crackling with the expected caustic noise-rock snarl and a filthy edge of tongue-in-cheek snark, Trauma Cake slaps the listener with 10 ripping ragers fueled with punk energy and fuzz galore. One can picture the band members slyly cranking these dirges out amidst stacks of blown-out amps pumping forth plumes of blackened fumes while a cast of buzzed patrons light themselves aflame while slow-motion crowd-surfing.
Jimmy Barnes
Defiant
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jimmy Barnes is the son of a Scottish boxing champion, so he’s always been a fighter. After surviving a violent childhood, Jimmy joined an Adelaide band who battled tooth and claw for six years before finally landing some big hits. In 1983 they seemed to implode, but he soon fought his way back to the very top where there’s been No Second Prize ever since. Whenever things seemed to start slipping, Jimmy dug deeper, eventually winning a lifelong battle with addiction, and notching an unprecedented 21 No. 1s on the Australian album charts (15 as a solo artist and six with Cold Chisel). “Nobody lives this long without copping some knocks and I’ve taken my fair share, particularly lately,” says Barnes. “But none of us can control what life throws at us. We can only control how we respond and, for better or worse, I’ve never liked to take a backward step. It’s no secret that this has caused me some problems over the years, but I’ve finally learned how to turn my stubborn Scottish streak into something positive – something that helps me survive. I didn’t set out to do it deliberately but now that the album is finished, I can see there’s a recurring theme about the satisfaction you can get from fighting back. That’s why it’s called Defiant!”
Born Ruffians
Beauty’s Pride
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In the lead-up to the release of Born Ruffians’ ninth album Beauty’s Pride, the band’s singer/guitarist Luke Lalonde received a glowing endorsement from a notoriously hard-to-please critic: Himself. “Whenever we finish a record, if I don’t hate it, I’m usually just over it and I don’t want to hear it again for a while,” he says. “Whereas when I put this record on, I actually think, ‘I like this! I think I might be a fan of this record!’” The moment you drop the needle (or cursor) on Beauty’s Pride, it’s easy to see where he’s coming from. The opening of Beauty’s Pride presents a disorienting about-face, with a flurry of fidgety beats and beaming electronics whisking you into the euphoric strobe-lit banger Mean Time. Says Lalonde: “I just wanted to write something dancey, something completely out of the mould of the band. I was not writing it as a Born Ruffians song, that’s for sure. I was listening to Underworld’s Born Slippy from Trainspotting really loud while I was driving to the rehearsal space and then, when I started working on that song, it was sort of born out of that cinematic feeling of the movie in my mind.”
Calibro 35
Exploration
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Italian cinematic funk legends Calibro 35 continue their journey into the world of cinematic jazz-funk with their new album Exploration. It takes a deep dive into the universe of cinematic jazz-funk, showcasing both the band’s reinterpretations of timeless classics such as Roy Ayers’ Coffy or Bob James’ Nautilus and original compositions such us the lead single Reptile Strut, the jazz-funk stormer The Twang and the soulful cinematic number Pied De Poule. An exploration and a new journey for the Milanese combo that a long its way pays homage to artists such as Lalo Schifrin (Mission: Impossible), Italian maestro Piero Umiliani (Discomania) and Herbie Hancock (Chamelon).”
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Personal History
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Five-time Grammy-winner Mary Chapin Carpenter isn’t kidding about the title to ner newest studio album Personal History: It features some of her most personal writing to date. In early 2025, the 11-song album was recorded at Real World Studios in Box, England, with Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National, The Hold Steady) producing and a world-class band of musicians: Matt Rollings (piano, Hammond organ, Phillips organ, accordion, xylophone), Duke Levine (electric guitar, hammer dulcimer, Chris Vatalaro (drums, percussion), Cameron Ralston (bass), and Kaufman (guitar, organ, harmonium, harmonica). “I started writing the songs on this album as the pandemic began winding down,” Carpenter says. “What Did You Miss pointed the way forward, with its final verse: ‘I’ve been writing it down / Song by song / As a personal history’ when imagining this collection of songs as memoir, and how the wisdom that comes with growing older becomes a north star, whether one is celebrating life’s joys or navigating life’s inevitable losses.”
Cypress Hill & London Symphony Orchestra
Black Sunday Live At The Royal Albert Hall
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Cypress Hill and The London Symphony Orchestra’s Black Sunday Live At The Royal Albert Hall brings the unprecedented collision of the trio’s 1993 masterpiece with one of the world’s most renowned orchestral ensembles to the eyes and ears of music lovers everywhere. A historic spectacle previously witnessed only by the thousands of Cypress devotees who packed Royal Albert Hall on July 10, 2024, the live album and feature-length video release of Black Sunday Live At The Royal Albert Hall will allow the world at large to witness the intoxicating dark magic conjured when Cypress Hill and the 70-strong LSO bring this multi-platinum opus to life together — an unforgettable audiovisual experience that has already elicited critical raves. Conducted by Troy Miller, the symphony supply unique arrangements inspired by the original recordings of DJ Muggs, adding soaring orchestrations to such classics and fan favourites including Illusions, I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That, (Rock) Superstar, Insane In The Brain and many more.”
Dez Dare
Cheryl! Your Love Shines Down Like A Supernova’s Death
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Dez Dare launches into 2025 with his fifth album, Cheryl! Your Love Shines Down Like A Supernova’s Death. Blending his unique mix of existential wordplay and experimental riffage to create an album that is at arms with itself while cohesive; cheeky and upbeat, simultaneously breaking our hearts. How often do we think about what we miss when we are distracted by shiny things? While fencing with social media, long winded stories, dreams of other lives, unnecessary toys, and irrelevant social experiments with happiness, we miss the things that make up our world. This album looks at those morsels of time and the bits that fill them, soaking existence… as well as manspreaders. Those people should be added to the seventh circle of hell… or suburbia. Either is probably a similar commute!”
Ben de la Cour
New Roses
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “With songs that explore life’s murky corners and shadowy characters, Ben de la Cour‘s music occupies the intersection between gothic Americana and dark, gritty folk. It’s a sound fueled by the stories and struggles of its creator, a lifelong explorer who’s never been afraid to shine a light on his own demons. Born in London and raised in Brooklyn, Ben experienced an international coming-of-age, leaving home at 17 and transforming himself into a semi-professional boxer in Havana. He returned to London and logged several years on the road with a British metal band, then followed his muse to cities like Los Angeles and New Orleans. Finally, he settled in East Nashville, where he found a community of roots musicians and simpatico songwriters who weren’t afraid to chase down their own musical horizons. His work has chronicled not only that sense of wanderlust, but also his attempt to wrestle his own vices into submission, creating a haunting, harrowingly personal version of folk music that earned praise from far and wide. In a genre that had become increasingly pop-friendly throughout the 21st century, his stark tales of heartbreak, hangovers, God, and death seemed to harken back to folk’s roots, making him a modern torchbearer of a classic sound.”
Dustin Douglas & The Electric Gentlemen
IV
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “IV — the aptly titled fourth studio endeavor from Dustin Douglas & The Electric Gentlemen — is a raw, unapologetic, blues-rock master class; a powerhouse album drenched in whiskey-soaked riffs and soaring rock ’n’ roll vocals that once again display Douglas’s meteoric rise as one of the heaviest hitters in the blues-rock world. From the southern rock stomp of Long Gone, the sleazy, ’70s growl of Dangerous Game, the Tom Petty-inspired Drunk And Alone and the David Gilmour-meets-Jimmy Page fretwork of Missin’ You, the nine tracks on IV bleed with passion and pain while burning with a fire of Douglas’s signature guitar sound and The Electric Gentlemen’s thunderous supporting rhythm. IV is a testament to the unrelenting spirit of rock ’n’ roll.”
Drunken Prayer
Thy Burdens
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Thy Burdens is an homage to the intense, sublime music of the church that means so much to the musicians who worked on it. Musically it’s snarling country-soul with horns, shouting and a lot of groove. The songs vary between the evergreen and the obscure. Represented here are tributes across the landscape: Thomas Dorsey, Martha Carson, Snooks Eaglin, Ralph Stanley, The Zion Travelers, Leon Payne, The Dixie Hummingbirds, Hank Williams, Odetta, Bob Dylan and traditionals that are too old to credit. The project was spearheaded by Drive-By Truckers’ bassist Bobby Matt Patton, who cut his teeth playing in fiery Pentecostal church bands around north Alabama, and Morgan Geer, who learned most of the hymns they recorded from his great grandmother in Mobile, Alabama. Thy Burdens was recorded at Dial Back Sound, Patton’s studio in Water Valley, Mississippi. It’s a former parsonage to the church next door, and formerly the private studio of Fat Possum Records’ Bruce Watson. They say the kindly, murdered preacher who once lived there still walks the floors. There may be some ghosts but there’s nothing haunted about this music. It’s a joyful noise.”
Frankie & The Witch Fingers
Trash Classic
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hooks so infectious they rot on impact. Trash Classic marks a feral mutation for Frankie & The Witch Fingers — a record that snarls with proto-punk venom, angular melodies, and electronic textures that cough and sputter like dying neon lights under a poisoned sky. This record pushes The Witch Fingers’ sound to a razor’s edge. Wiry and twitching, it bends into synth-punk and fractured new wave, with fragments of industrial grime caked under its nails. Guitars detonate and slice like cinder blocks through glass, while gnashing basslines slither through the sludge, alive and seething. Buzzy synths take the forefront, driving relentless rhythms that crack and pop, drenched in a chemically saturated sheen — part bug-eyed speed-freak pogo, part dance-floor delirium. The vocals cut through like static-laced transmissions—balancing both smirk and sneer — layering playful unease over themes of escapism, decay, and overindulgence. The songs were born in the grime of Los Angeles — a wasteland littered with gutted RVs and rusting machinery, where the air tastes like asphalt and dog food. But the real alchemy happened in Oakland, at Tiny Telephone Studio, where producer Maryam Qudus (La Luz, Spacemoth) helped transmute the tracks into their final forms. Unhinged tones, unconventional recording experiments, and wild sonic detours transformed the songs into something alive and unpredictable.”
Gaahls Wyrd
Braiding the Stories
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Carved from the cold marrow of Norway’s enigmatic and revered black metal scene, Gaahls Wyrd conjure a spellbinding fusion of chaos and beauty. Under the commanding presence of Kristian “Gaahl” Espedal, the band carve a sweeping saga of sound — both primal and transcended. With Braiding the Stories, Gaahls Wyrd embark on an alchemical journey through the realms of consciousness and dreams, crafting a sonic narrative that explores the seamless dance between the seen and the unseen. Each track is a profound exploration of reality’s veils, crystallizing the ephemeral through the powerful conjunction of philosophical introspection and audacious musical composition. From the haunting echoes of The Dream Master to the ethereal resonance of Flowing Starlight, the album invites the listener to traverse its labyrinthine soundscapes — a place where reflective melodies intersect with visceral power. In this realm, Gaahls Wyrd channel raw lyrical introspection and potent sonic prowess, guided by the adept hands of Ole “Lust Kilman” Walaunet, Andreas “Nekroman” Salbu and Kevin “Spektre” Kvåle.”
