First out of the blocks this week is Miley Cyrus, who returns with her highly anticipated ninth new studio album, Something Beautiful. The album features 13 new tracks written and produced by Miley and executive-produced by Miley with Shawn Everett.
Get Sunk is an ode to the infinite that brings brush-stroked, blurry memories to the surface. Under water, everything moves in slow motion and Matt Berninger saw his creative voice slipping away with the current. But sometimes we have to drown to remember how to breathe, and it’s in the album’s collaborative spirit and loose, unfurling attitude that Berninger found that when we sink into ourselves, we’ll often find that we are actually swimming with others.
The songs on Kathryn Joseph’s new album, We Were Made Prey, dance on the knife-edge: of action versus inaction, of want versus wanting, of self-fulfilment versus shame. Kathryn’s fourth album is both a reaction to and reprieve for the animal within: eleven songs that accept her whole being, with all its hunger, lust and rage, and its devastating tenderness too.
Carpe Diem, Moonman is an entanglement of chaos, the by-product of excessive touring, an explosion of doubt, wonder, excitement, dog bites, Greek philosophy, death and weekend benders: a mongrel of sorts. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets have packed in so many genres and flavours that the album blasts out the gates, takes you for a spin then leads you off into somewhere beautiful, fun and enthralling.
Swans return with their latest album, Birthing, which was developed over the course of a year-long 2023–24 tour. Refined through relentless improvisation and live performance, as well as newly composed studio pieces, Birthing is a testament to Michael Gira’s uncompromising sonic vision. Beginning as skeletal acoustic compositions, the songs were gradually expanded and transformed in the studio with long-standing collaborators and live members.
Our release of the week is Let All that We Imagine Be the Light, which is unmistakably Garbage. All the hallmarks and signatures for which they are known are present here: big angular guitars, precise, propulsive beats and cinematic soundscapes all lurk beneath Shirley Manson’s expressive voice, her lyrics bristling with attitude. It is the sound of a group at the peak of their creative powers – characteristically harnessing sonic juxtapositions and moods to create an album that thrums equally with both light and shade.
Click on an image to order your copy.