The first of our hot picks for this week is So Long Little Miss Sunshine, a hybrid of pop, country, rock and flat-picking, plus one murder ballad, on which Molly Tuttle goes to a whole new place. Her virtuoso guitar work takes centre stage more than ever on this album; and, for the first time, she introduces her banjo playing into two of her recordings. “I like to be a bit of a chameleon with my music. Keep people guessing and keep it full of surprises.”
Maroon 5 have expanded their instantly recognisable sound with a hooky, dynamic and sonically ambitious new album, Love Is Like, which features the percussive, jazz-chord daydream hit ‘Priceless’ (ft. Lisa) and the sax-laced, slap-bass funk-pop single ‘All Night’.
Cult band Green Lung draw on a host of peculiarly British musical influences from doomy hard rock to pastoral prog and psych to the Hammer Horror theatrics of the NWOBHM, and have risen swiftly to the forefront of the UK metal scene. The lyrics on Woodland Rites celebrate the folklore, myths and legends of Britain, conjuring the wild and witchy spirit of the band’s forebears for a new generation.
Bret McKenzie is a Grammy- and Academy Award-winning artist best-known for his band Flight of the Conchords and their eponymous television show. His funny, strange and unique songs have been sung by everyone from Kermit the Frog to Lizzo. His second solo album, Freak Out City, is made up of songs developed while on the road with his eight-piece band.
Award-winning singer-songwriter Jordan Davis’s new album, Learn the Hard Way, is the follow-up to the platinum-selling Bluebird Days, which produced four consecutive #1 singles (‘What My World Spins Around’, ‘Tucson Too Late’, ‘Buy Dirt’ and ‘Next Thing You Know’), two of which became ‘Songs of the Year’.
Our release of the week comes from Alison Goldfrapp, the creative force behind some of the most captivating music of the past 25 years. On Flux, her second solo album following 2023’s critically adored The Love Invention, Alison stands on a precipice of new experiences in more ways than one. Launched with the joybomb single ‘Find Xanadu’, the album showcases some of her most undeniable pop hooks since her band Goldfrapp’s iconic album Supernature, as well as her most poignantly vulnerable songwriting to date.
There are also reissues from Billie Eilish, many many Coldplay ones, The Cranberries, Deep Purple, Steven Wilson, The Pretenders and Van Halen, several new items added to the sale boxes and, as ever, plenty of new pre-orders up on the site. Check ’em out!
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