Pre-sale of the week: Amanda Shires – Take It Like A Man, out 29 July

Take It Like A Man is a fearless confessional featuring 10 emotionally raw tracks from Amanda Shires, produced by the talented gender-fluid singer-songwriter and producer, Lawrence Rothman (Angel Olsen, Girl in Red, Courtney Love). Upon hearing Amanda for the first time Lawrence said: “I was just mesmerized. I thought she was the new Dolly Parton;…

New releases for 27 May 2022

This week’s selection kicks off with Diamond Star Halos, the brand-new album from Def Leppard and their first since 2015’s chart-topping self-titled record. Written by the band over the past two years, the album features 15 tracks including the anthemic, stadium-ready singles ‘Kick’ and ‘Fire It Up’, with guest vocals from Alison Krauss on ‘This…

Pre-sale of the week: Death Cab For Cutie – Asphalt Meadows, out 16 September

Formed in Bellingham, WA in 1997, Death Cab For Cutie almost immediately entered the ranks of the era’s definitive bands, fueled in large part by the remarkable power of co-founder, vocalist, guitarist, and lead songwriter Benjamin Gibbard’s complex, often bittersweet songcraft. Asphalt Meadows, their tenth studio album, finds them exploring further into their own unique…

New releases for 20 May 2022

The pick of this week’s crop kicks off with Melbourne quintet Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, who return in 2022 with Endless Rooms, their third album proper. Described by the band – Fran Keaney, Joe White, Marcel Tussie and brothers Tom and Joe Russo – as them “doing what we do best: chasing down songs in…

Pre-sale of the week: black midi – Hellfire, out 15 July

black midi’s new album, Hellfire, builds on the melodic and harmonic elements of last year’s Cavalcade, while expanding the brutality and intensity of their debut, Schlagenheim. It is their most thematically cohesive and intentional album yet. Note: The LP is initially available on clear red vinyl with a bonus flexi, exclusive to independent shops. Click…

New releases for 13 May 2022

This week’s six smashers start with Dropout Boogie, released one day before the twentieth anniversary of The Black Keys’ first album, The Big Come Up. As they have done throughout their entire career, the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney wrote all of the material in the studio, and the new album captures a…

Pre-sale of the week: Kathryn Williams – Night Drives, out 15 July

Her first official album since Hypoxia in 2015, Night Drives opens with some of Kathryn Williams’s most immediately electronic tracks to date, such as the nihilistic ‘Human’, big ballad ‘Answer In The Dark’ with all its bold, layered production, and the dynamic, infectious ‘Radioactive’. Elsewhere, on the likes of ‘Moon Karaoke’, ‘Magnets’ and ‘The Brightest’,…