Releases from September–October 2023

Great albums from around the world

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Releases for 27 October 2023

The first of 27 October’s smashers is Chronicles of a Diamond, the hotly anticipated second album from Austin-bred duo Black Pumas, who have broadened their palette to include a dazzling expanse of musical forms: heavenly hybrids of soul and symphonic pop, mind-bending excursions into jazz-funk and psychedelia. Every element of Egyptian Blue’s fierce, uncompromising sound feels like hypnotism fuelled by psychosis, and their debut album, A Living Commodity, shows a new clarity of vision, representing a dynamic artistic shift from the band and showcasing in full the scale and ambition of their songwriting. Late last year, Simple Minds celebrated the 40th anniversary of their landmark fifth studio album with an electric and dynamic live rendition, which is captured on New Gold Dream – Live from Paisley Abbey. The 13-song collection Danse Macabre from Duran Duran features three brand-new songs, haunting covers of songs by artists such as Billie Eilish, Talking Heads, The Rolling Stones and The Specials and new versions of classics from their own back catalogue, including a rare rework of fan favourite B-side ‘Secret Oktober’. Jenny from Thebes focuses on one of the recurring characters in The Mountain Goats catalogue: she is someone who enters a song unexpectedly, pricking up the ears of fans keen on following the various narrative threads running through the band’s discography.

Our release of the week is History Books, the first new music in over nine years from New Jersey-bred four-piece The Gaslight Anthem, who bring their soulful breed of punk to ten thrilling songs exploring everything from mortality to mental illness to the more precarious dimensions of human connection, hitting every raw nerve while endlessly inspiring wildly triumphant singing-along.

- The Gaslight Anthem History Books
Like so many of the most essential rock bands, The Gaslight Anthem have a rare gift for finding glory in the inescapable pain of being alive. On their new album, History Books – their first new music in over nine years – the New Jersey-bred four-piece bring their soulful breed of punk to ten thrilling songs exploring everything from mortality to mental illness to the more precarious dimensions of human connection. In the tradition of their seminal album The ’59 Sound, this new full-length achieves the tremendous feat of hitting every raw nerve while endlessly inspiring wildly triumphant singing-along.

- Black Pumas Chronicles of a Diamond
When Austin-bred duo Black Pumas made their self-titled debut in 2019, they set off a reaction almost as combustible and rapturous as their music itself. Along with earning a career total of seven Grammy Award nominations (including Album of the Year) and winning praise from leading outlets like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, singer/songwriter Eric Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada achieved massive success as a live act, touring large venues all over Europe and North and South America and delivering a transcendent show Burton aptly refers to as ‘electric church’. As they set to work on their hotly anticipated second album, Chronicles of a Diamond, the band broadened their palette to include a dazzling expanse of musical forms: heavenly hybrids of soul and symphonic pop, mind-bending excursions into jazz-funk and psychedelia, and starry-eyed love songs that feel dropped down from the cosmos.

- Egyptian Blue A Living Commodity
Every element of Egyptian Blue’s fierce, uncompromising sound feels like hypnotism fuelled by psychosis. Their grinding riffs achieve a mesmeric power through brute repetition, while their rhythm section produces taut, nervous energy and intense post-punk grooves in equal measure. After the release of their incendiary EPs Collateral Damage & Body of Itch, the band garnered a fervent following and had support from key taste-makers across the media including Steve Lamacq, Jack Saunders, Tom Ravenscroft, NME and Fader. Their debut album, A Living Commodity, shows a new clarity of vision fully formed during the extended 2-year hiatus of pandemic-enforced delays, representing a dynamic artistic shift from the band and showcasing in full the scale and ambition of their songwriting.

- Simple Minds New Gold Dream – Live from Paisley Abbey
Originally released in 1982, Simple Minds’ fifth studio album marked a turning point for the band as they gained critical and commercial success in the UK and Europe, taking them from cult status to the most commercially successful Scottish band of the decade. Featuring the hits ‘Promised You a Miracle’, ‘Glittering Prize’ and ‘Someone, Somewhere (In Summertime)’, it turned the band into a major force, spending a full year on the UK album chart. Late last year the band celebrated the album’s 40th anniversary with a superb live rendition – it’s electric and dynamic, with front-man Jim Kerr delivering powerful vocals and Charlie Burchill and the band delivering tight, energetic performances. All this magic is captured on New Gold Dream – Live from Paisley Abbey.

- Duran Duran Danse Macabre
Duran Duran return with their new album, Danse Macabre, a 13-song collection featuring three brand-new songs, haunting covers of songs by artists such as Billie Eilish, Talking Heads, The Rolling Stones and The Specials and new versions of classics from their own back catalogue, including a rare rework of fan favourite B-side ‘Secret Oktober 31st’. Guest artists include producer, guitarist and composer Nile Rodgers, Victoria De Angelis of Måneskin and former band members Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo.

- The Mountain Goats Jenny from Thebes
Jenny from Thebes began its life as many albums by The Mountain Goats do, with John Darnielle playing the piano until a lyric emerged. That lyric, “Jenny was a warrior / Jenny was a thief / Jenny hit the corner clinic begging for relief,” became a song that laid down a challenge he’d never taken up before: writing a sequel to one of his most beloved albums. The Mountain Goats’ catalogue is thick with recurring characters. Jenny – who originally appears in the All Hail West Texas track bearing her name, as well as in ‘Straight Six’ from Jam Eater Blues and the Transcendental Youth jam ‘Night Light’ – is one of these: someone who enters a song unexpectedly, pricking up the ears of fans who are keen on following the various narrative threads running through the Mountain Goats’ discography before vanishing into the mist.

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Releases for 20 October 2023

The first of 20 October’s gems comes from Israel Nash, whose newest record, the rousing Ozarker, finds him returning to his Midwestern roots, embracing the heartland rock he grew up on with larger-than-life guitars, anthemic melodies and rich character studies. Bombay Bicycle Club’s lovingly crafted album number six, My Big Day, is a powerful, expansive body of work, replete with an irrepressible dose of joy, featuring collaborations with the likes of Jay Som, Nilüfer Yanya, Holly Humberstone and Damon Albarn. Coyote, fifth studio album by Dylan LeBlanc, is both semi-autobiographical and a concept album centred on the evocative character of Coyote, a man on the run in pursuit of an ever-elusive freedom from his past. Rather than retiring to the nostalgia festival circuit like so many of their peers, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) have produced Bauhaus Staircase, a landmark album that ranks among their finest work. And Bleed Out signifies a bold leap forward for renowned Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation, ranging from contemporary, hard-hitting ‘djenty’ riffs to soaring melodies displaying their symphonic roots, and it’s as epic as it is unflinchingly outspoken.

Our release of the week can only be Hackney Diamonds, the hugely anticipated new album by The Rolling Stones. Their first studio album of original material since 2005 features performances from late drummer Charlie Watts, former bassist Bill Wyman, plus guests Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney and Elton John.

- The Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds
Hackney Diamonds, the hugely anticipated new album by The Rolling Stones, follows 2016’s Grammy Award-winning Blue and Lonesome. While that album featured brilliant versions of blues tracks that helped shape the band’s sound, Hackney Diamonds is the band’s first studio album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang!
Late drummer Charlie Watts features on two tracks, ‘Mess It Up’ and ‘Live by the Sword’, the second of which also features former Stones bassist Bill Wyman. ‘Sweet Sounds of Heaven’ features vocals from Lady Gaga and keys and piano from Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney plays bass on ‘Bite My Head Off’ and Elton John adds piano on ‘Get Close’ and ‘Live by the Sword’.

- Israel Nash Ozarker
Hailed as a “master of sonic textures” by Rolling Stone and a “folk-rock visionary” by Uncut, Israel Nash first rose to fame in Europe, where he built a loyal following with a series of critically acclaimed albums that landed him a deal with renowned label Loose Music. As American audiences began to catch on, the Missouri native relocated to Dripping Springs, Texas, where he built his own recording studio on a ranch and embraced a more spacious, psychedelic sound that landed somewhere between Neil Young and Pink Floyd.
Nash’s newest record, the rousing Ozarker, finds him returning to his Midwestern roots, embracing the heartland rock he grew up on with larger-than-life guitars, anthemic melodies and rich character studies.

- Bombay Bicycle Club My Big Day
Bombay Bicycle Club’s lovingly crafted album number six, My Big Day, is a powerful, expansive body of work, replete with an irrepressible dose of joy. The band’s studio door was wedged open for a collaborative experience, inviting the likes of Jay Som, Nilüfer Yanya, Holly Humberstone and Damon Albarn, all of whom feature. On first listen, Bombay Bicycle Club have opened up the curtains and let this revelatory set of vibrant, joyous compositions bask in the sunshine. It’s an album that means business, sculpted by one of Britain’s best guitar bands.

- Dylan LeBlanc Coyote
Coyote is Dylan LeBlanc’s fifth studio album and his first to be self-produced. Recorded at the iconic FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, it boasts a handpicked ensemble of world-renowned session players including: Fred Eltringham, known for his work with Ringo Starr and Sheryl Crow; pianist Jim ‘Moose’ Brown, who’s collaborated with Bob Seger; and bassist Seth Kaufman, celebrated for his contributions to Lana Del Rey’s tracks. The album is both semi-autobiographical and a concept album centred on the evocative character of Coyote, a man on the run in pursuit of an ever-elusive freedom from his past.

- OMD Bauhaus Staircase
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) return with their 14th studio album, Bauhaus Staircase, more than six years after the triumph of The Punishment of Luxury. The new album was born from the impetus to kickstart new explorations during lockdown when, as Andy McCluskey admits, he “rediscovered the creative power of total boredom”. By rights OMD should be in semi-retirement, performing classics like ‘Enola Gay’ and ‘Maid of Orleans’ on the nostalgia festival circuit like so many of their peers. Instead they’ve created a landmark album that ranks among their finest work. Bauhaus Staircase is unmistakably the work of a duo who are still perfectly in sync 45 years after their first gig at legendary Liverpool club Eric’s. “I’m very happy with what we’ve done on this record,” McCluskey summarises. “I’m comfortable if this is OMD’s last statement.”

- Within Temptation Bleed Out
Renowned Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation captivate fans with their eighth studio album, Bleed Out, which signifies a bold leap forward, ranging from contemporary, hard-hitting ‘djenty’ riffs to soaring melodies displaying their symphonic roots. This is an album that is as epic as it is unflinchingly outspoken. Within Temptation have created a sonic journey that fuses diverse musical styles and thought-provoking themes.

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Releases for 13 October 2023

The first of 13 October’s windfall wonders is Zuma 85, which signals the start of a new era for Allah-Las, with the band reinventing itself in defiance of algorithmic categorisation and robotic sterility and documenting the shift from the old world to whatever branch of reality we’re on now. Nitin Sawhney invited some of the artists he most admires into a celebration of their own identities in a single place of sonic safety and honesty to create Identity, his most commercial album to date. The Skies, They Shift Like Chords contains a dozen tracks that express nostalgia for something lost while projecting a sense of something timeless, also reflecting the particular roots of Roger Eno’s music in rural eastern England. Are We There Yet? is the third in a row that Rick Astley has written, recorded, played and produced himself at his home studio in London, and it’s the sound of Rick reflecting and building upon the experiences he’s gone through since 2018’s Beautiful Life. And Squirrel Flower’s magnetic new album, Tomorrow’s Fire, takes inspiration from Indiana Dunes, a protected expanse of wild shoreline surrounded by factories and power plants.

Our release of the week is the rest, the new four-track EP from boygenius (Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus), which builds upon the themes of friendship and queer joy established in their debut full-length and continues to showcase the band’s songwriting prowess and intimate cohesion as a unit.

- boygenius the rest
the rest, the new four-track EP from boygenius (Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus), builds upon the themes of friendship and queer joy established in their debut full-length and continues to showcase the band’s songwriting prowess and intimate cohesion as a unit.

- Allah-Las Zuma 85
Zuma 85 signals the start of a new era for Allah-Las, and finds the band reinventing itself in defiance of algorithmic categorisation and robotic sterility. Recorded in the midst of the shift from the old world to whatever branch of reality we’re on now, it’s a return, too, being released on their own label, Calico Discos, which released early defining statements such as Allah-Las (2012) and Worship the Sun (2014).

- Nitin Sawhney Identity
Speaking about Identity, his new album, Nitin Sawhney says: “The world is littered with opinions of people trying to tell us who we are. People get so vociferous in pushing their judgement and definitions of others that they often forget our common humanity. We’re all human. We all matter … and, as long as you’re not harming anyone else, the only opinion that counts in defining who you are is your own. With this album, I’m inviting some of my favourite international friends and artists into a celebration of their own identities in a single place of sonic safety and honesty.”

- Roger Eno The Skies, They Shift Like Chords
The Skies, They Shift Like Chords contains a dozen tracks that express nostalgia for something lost while projecting a sense of something timeless, like the renewal of the seasons or the rise and fall of the breath. Composer-pianist Roger Eno builds here on the soundworld of The Turning Year, his debut solo album for Deutsche Gramophon, adding layers of instrumental and electronic colours and including a song for his eldest daughter, the artist, vocalist and image maker Cecily Eno. This album connects with universal feelings for place and home. It also reflects the particular roots of Eno’s music in rural eastern England, a landscape shaped by centuries of agriculture and marked in recent decades by dwindling biodiversity and troubling ecological change.

- Rick Astley Are We There Yet?
Are We There Yet? is the ninth studio album from Rick Astley, and the third in a row that Astley has written, recorded, played and produced himself at his home studio in London. Featuring the single ‘Dippin My Feet’, an invigorating twist on his signature stye, Are We There Yet? is the sound of Rick reflecting and building upon the experiences he’s gone through since the release of 2018’s Beautiful Life.

- Squirrel Flower Tomorrow’s Fire
The music Ella Williams makes as Squirrel Flower has always been a product of the environments it’s written in, born out of the same world it so vividly holds a mirror to. And her magnetic new album, Tomorrow’s Fire, is no exception. Along the shores of Lake Michigan sits Indiana Dunes, a protected expanse of shoreline recently designated a National Park. When Williams first visited the Dunes, she was awed by the juxtaposition of its natural splendour within the surrounding industrial corridor of Northwest Indiana. “Every time I go there, it changes my life,” she says, without a hint of hyperbole. “You stand in the marshlands and to your left is a steel factory belching fire and to your right is a nuclear power plant.” Across the water, Chicago waits, its glistening towers made possible by the same steel forged here.

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Releases for 6 October 2023

The first of 6 October’s six picks is Haunted Mountain, a beckoning, confronting place brought to us by Jolie Holland; at once ancient and of the moment, it hums with literary and political interconnections, illuminating states of dispossession and alienation, lust and pollination: a state of reciprocity with our living planet. Roger Waters releases his homage to one of the most iconic albums of all time: The Dark Side of the Moon Redux marks the 50th anniversary of the original, paying tribute but also re-addressing the political and emotional message of the whole album. On Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, American harpist and composer Mary Lattimore presents six sprawling pieces shaped by change: nothing will ever be the same; and here the artist, evolving in synthesis, celebrates and mourns the tragedy and beauty of the ephemeral, all that is lived and lost to time. The Asylum Years (1972–1975) explores more of the vast untapped archives of rare recordings by Joni Mitchell, containing a wealth of early demos and alternative versions from sessions from For the Roses, Court & Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns, historic live recordings and tracks from sessions with James Taylor, Graham Nash and Neil Young. Just as the title suggests, Hania Rani passes repeatedly and gracefully between musical worlds on Ghosts, with an expanded yet still minimal setup of piano, keyboards and synths plus her mysterious, bewitching voice, beckoning the listener into an ambitious album that unfolds at an exquisite pace.

Our release of the week is Javelin, each track on which starts intimately: the trickle of an acoustic guitar, the patter of a lidded piano, and the cascade of a coruscant arpeggio. And then, of course, there is Sufjan Stevens’ disarming voice, the throughline in one of the most eclectic catalogues of any songwriter this century. Javelin pairs musical sweep with emotional breadth, an entire lifetime of feeling woven into 42 minutes.

- Sufjan Stevens Javelin
Each track on Javelin starts intimately: the trickle of an acoustic guitar, the patter of a lidded piano, and the cascade of a coruscant arpeggio. And then, of course, there is Sufjan Stevens’ disarming voice, the throughline in one of the most eclectic catalogues of any songwriter this century: soft but strong, as if the very scenes of hurt and hope it is about to share have only galvanised it through the decades. Javelin pairs musical sweep with emotional breadth, an entire lifetime of feeling woven into 42 minutes. On Javelin, Sufjan returns, offering gorgeous if pained glimpses of himself, so that we may see ourselves more fully.

- Jolie Holland Haunted Mountain
Jolie Holland’s latest, Haunted Mountain, is a beckoning, confronting place. At once ancient and of the moment, it hums with literary and political interconnections. The songs illuminate states of dispossession and alienation, lust and pollination: a state of reciprocity with our living planet. The record is a creation beyond genre, a refined jewel refracting anti-patriarchal dance music, sultry anti-fascist love songs to bats and bees. The album’s rendered environments – ranging from sparse acoustic constellations to dense electronic atmospheres – are punctuated with nuanced percussion from cicadas, drums and even knuckles on piano.

- Roger Waters The Dark Side of the Moon Redux
Roger Waters releases his homage to one of the most iconic albums of all time: The Dark Side of the Moon Redux marks the 50th anniversary of the original. Waters says: “When we recorded the stripped-down songs for the Lockdown Sessions, it occurred to to me that The Dark Side of the Moon could well be a suitable candidate for a similar re-working – partly as a tribute to the original work, but also to re-address the political and emotional message of the whole album.”

- Mary Lattimore Goodbye, Hotel Arkada
Through evocative, emotionally resonant music, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, the new album from American harpist and composer Mary Lattimore, speaks not just for its beloved namesake – a hotel in Croatia facing renovation – but for a universal loss that is shared. Here are six sprawling pieces shaped by change: nothing will ever be the same; and here the artist, evolving in synthesis, celebrates and mourns the tragedy and beauty of the ephemeral, all that is lived and lost to time. Documented and edited in uncharacteristically measured sessions over the course of two years, the material remains rooted in improvisation while glistening as the most refined and robust in Lattimore’s decade-long catalogue.

- Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972–1975)
The Asylum Years (1972–1975) is the latest entry in Rhino’s ongoing, Grammy-winning series exploring the vast untapped archives of rare recordings by Joni Mitchell – a project guided intimately by Mitchell’s own vision and personal touch. The collection begins with an early cut of ‘Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire’, one of two songs (along with ‘For the Roses’) test-driven during a visit to a Graham Nash/David Crosby recording session at Wally Heider’s in Hollywood. From there, listeners are treated to early demos and alternative versions from sessions from For the Roses, Court & Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns; historic live show recordings, including the entirety of Mitchell’s triumphant 1972 return to Carnegie Hall and a definitive gig with her Court & Spark backing band, Tom Scott & the L.A. Express; and tracks from sessions cut alongside James Taylor, Graham Nash and Neil Young.

- Hania Rani Ghosts
Ghosts is the sound of an ever-evolving artist; and, just as the album’s title suggests, Hania Rani passes repeatedly and gracefully between musical worlds: as composer, singer, songwriter, and producer. This album builds on Rani’s earlier solo successes, Esja and Home, with an expanded yet still minimal setup of piano, keyboards and synths (most importantly her Prophet) and features more of her mysterious, bewitching voice. Its spirit is warm, beckoning the listener into an ambitious double album that unfolds at an exquisite pace, informed by her revelatory, exploratory live performances.

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Releases for 29 September 2023

29 September’s blockbusters open with The Harmony Codex, a genre-spanning collection from Steven Wilson that opens up like a musical puzzle box, presenting a series of endlessly beautiful vistas that roll out and shift in front of you, and this is arguably the best album of Wilson’s career. When Larkin Poe started a YouTube series paying tribute to their musical heroes, fans began requesting recorded versions of the songs, and Kindred Spirits features some of these songs stripped back to the bones and recorded live and raw. Black Stone Cherry’s behemoth of an album, Screamin’ at the Sky, explodes with urgently emotive pop-rock hooks, heartfelt, redemptive lyrics, headbanging riffs, powerful dynamics and thunderous drums, and sounds like the smashing down of the hammer of the gods. Global pop phenomenon Ed Sheeran’s second album of 2023, Autumn Variations, contains 14 tracks that explore shared emotions of love, heartbreak, depression and loneliness among Sheeran and his friends. Finally, Isn’t It Now?, the latest addition to Animal Collective’s expansive catalogue, has something for everyone, from the catchy bassline on the highly-repeatable single ‘Gem and I’ to the heady 22-minute centrepiece, ‘Defeat’.

Our release of the week is Wilco’s thirteenth studio album, Cousin, on which the band return to the more familiar progressive and experimental rock territory after a short detour back into their country-influenced roots via last year’s Cruel Country, with band-leader Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics weaving across a variety of topics from the iconoclastic to the introspective.

- Wilco Cousin
Wilco’s thirteenth studio album, Cousin, was recorded in the band’s legendary Chicago studio The Loft over a period of two years. The ten new tracks were written by band leader Jeff Tweedy and feature musical performances by the long-time line-up of Nels Cline, Mikael Jorgensen, Glenn Kotche, John Stirratt, Pat Sansone and, of course, Tweedy on lead vocals.
After a short detour back into their country-influenced roots via last year’s Cruel Country double album, Cousin finds Wilco back in their more familiar progressive and experimental rock territory. Tweedy’s singular songwriting voice is in full evidence, with lyrics weaving across a variety of topics from the iconoclastic to the introspective.

- Steven Wilson The Harmony Codex
The Harmony Codex – the seventh solo album by Steven Wilson – takes you on a trip. A genre-spanning collection that opens up like a musical puzzle box, it presents a series of endlessly beautiful vistas that roll out and shift in front of you. Arguably the best album Wilson has made during a career that’s spanned more than three decades both as a band leader and as a solo artist, it represents the apotheosis of a life spent fully absorbed in music.
While The Harmony Codex nods to records from Wilson’s recent past, at times echoing the paranoid rumble of 2008’s Insurgentes, the crystalline electronics of 2021’s The Future Bites and the expansive storytelling of 2013’s The Raven that Refused to Sing (and Other Stories), here he has managed to create something entirely unique, a record that exists outside of the notion of genre. And although The Harmony Codex is a record made with spatial audio in mind, it’s not one that needs an elaborate sound system to lift you out of body – two speakers and an open mind will do just fine.

- Larkin Poe Kindred Spirits
Growing up in a family of music lovers, a lot of the songs Megan and Rebecca Lovell have always gravitated towards learning have been with them since childhood. In 2015 they started a YouTube series dedicated to paying tribute to their musical heroes that unexpectedly took off; then, when fans of Larkin Poe began requesting recorded versions of the songs, the sisters started daydreaming about how an interpretive album might take shape. In recording Kindred Spirits, their admiration for the artists who originally wrote and performed the songs blossomed into an even deeper reverence. Bringing these songs into the studio, stripping them back to the bones and recording them live and raw felt like a ritual.

- Black Stone Cherry Screamin’ at the Sky
Proud Kentucky rockers Black Stone Cherry emerge triumphantly from a challenging few years with a behemoth of an album, Screamin’ at the Sky. The four-piece band’s eighth album explodes with urgently emotive pop-rock hooks, heartfelt, redemptive lyrics, headbanging riffs, powerful dynamics, thunderous drums and its most thrilling musicianship yet. The 12-song collection is also BSC’s biggest and best-sounding album. The self-produced studio record was tracked at a classic Kentucky theatre, and it sounds like the guys are smashing down the hammer of the gods.

- Ed Sheeran Autumn Variations
Ed Sheeran is an era-defining artist who has sold over 52 million albums and 150 million singles across the globe. Through his fusion of thought-provoking songwriting, universal pop and multi-genre influence, his rich tapestry is not only perfectly suited to his audience; it’s something that transcends generations. Like – (‘Subtract’), which came out in May, Ed’s second album of 2023 was produced by Aaron Dessner, guitarist for The National. The 14 tracks on this collection explore shared emotions of love, heartbreak, depression and loneliness among Sheeran and his friends.

- Animal Collective Isn’t It Now
Distinguishing itself from Animal Collective’s expansive catalogue, Isn’t It Now? is their first album since Centipede Hz (2012) to be recorded with all four members in the same room at the same time. To bring it all together, the band enlisted multi-Grammy-winning producer Russell Elevado (D’Angelo, Al Green, Alicia Keys, The Dandy Warhols) to co-produce alongside the band. Across its 9 tracks, Isn’t It Now? has something for everyone, from the catchy bassline on the highly-repeatable single ‘Gem and I’ to the heady 22-minute centrepiece, ‘Defeat’.

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Releases for 22 September 2023

First out of 22 September’s box of delights is João, a love letter from Bebel Gilberto to her father, widely regarded as the father of bossa nova music, and it’s the first time she has covered the music that influenced her during her youngest years. Georgia native Brent Cobb always looks to the Southern Star to find his way back home, and on his new album he pays tribute to the rich musical heritage of the American south. Kylie’s brand-new studio album, Tension, is a record of euphoric, empowered dancefloor bangers and sultry pop cuts – eleven tracks of unabashedly joyful, pleasure-seeking, seize-the-moment pop tunes. Devendra Banhart has teamed up for the first time with his long-term friend Cate Le Bon on Flying Wig – an album of recurrent dualities: a can of paradoxes, a box of worms. Buddy & Julie Miller bring us In the Throes, a deeply soulful collision of mournful gospel, dusty country, cosmic blues, lusty rockabilly, ecstatic r&b and anything else that crosses their minds.

Our release of the week is Teenage Fanclub’s eleventh full studio album, Nothing Lasts Forever – a beautifully rich and melodic album that is the sound of a season’s end, of the last warm days of the year as nights begin to draw in and thoughts become reflective and more than a little melancholy, but with still a spark of hope.

- Teenage Fanclub Nothing Lasts Forever
Teenage Fanclub’s eleventh full studio album, Nothing Lasts Forever, is a beautifully rich and melodic album that is the sound of a season’s end, of the last warm days of the year as nights begin to draw in and thoughts become reflective and more than a little melancholy.
That reflection is everywhere on the record, whether on the autumnal folk-rock of ‘Tired of Being Alone’ that repositions Laurel Canyon to somewhere deep in the heart of the Wye Valley, the William Blake-quoting ‘Self-Sedation’ or the song that preceded Nothing Lasts Forever’s completion, last year’s ‘I Left a Light On’, where a spark of hope is kept alight at the end of a relationship.

- Bebel Gilberto João
João is a collection of songs made famous by Bebel Gilberto’s father. João Gilberto, widely regarded as the father of bossa nova, passed away in 2019 after a 70-year career in music. Bebel began singing with him as a small child and the songs she sings on this new album have been with her all her life. Says Bebel: “João is a love letter to my father. Since my first album I’ve never really covered any of my Dad’s music. Now it’s time to present to the public the songs from João Gilberto that have influenced me since I was born – and even before.”

- Brent Cobb Southern Star
Southern Star is the brand-new album from Grammy-nominated, critically acclaimed singer/songwriter Brent Cobb. He explains the album: “You know how when you’re growing up you’re told that if you ever get lost out there, look for the northern star to help find direction back home? Well, I’m from Georgia, so I always look for the southern star. This album, the songs, the sounds … it’s all a product of where I’m from both musically and environmentally. Historically and presently that place also happens to be the same place that cultivated a good many of the most influential artists in the whole world of music. Music as we know it would not exist without the American south. It’s funky and sentimental. It’s simple and complex.”

- Kylie Tension
Kylie’s brand-new studio album, Tension, is a record of euphoric, empowered dancefloor bangers and sultry pop cuts – eleven tracks of unabashedly joyful, pleasure-seeking, seize-the-moment pop tunes – with the hypnotic electro of ‘Padam Padam’ opening the album. Discussing Tension, Kylie says: “I started this album with an open mind and a blank page. Unlike my last two albums there wasn’t a ‘theme’; it was about finding the heart or the fun or the fantasy of that moment and always trying to service the song. I wanted to celebrate each song’s individuality and to dive into that freedom. I would say it’s a blend of personal reflection, club abandon and melancholic high.”

- Devendra Banhart Flying Wig
Flying Wig is an album of recurrent dualities: a can of paradoxes, a box of worms. The cabin studio, surrounded by redwood and pine trees, in which Devendra Banhart was constantly listening to The Grateful Dead somehow birthed something slick, modernist, city pop-adjacent and Eno-esque. Banhart’s eleventh record is the actualisation of a precious friendship with the acclaimed solo artist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and Mexican Summer stable-mate Cate Le Bon – a coming together prophesied by the mirror-image titles of their early solo albums (Banhart’s 2002 Oh Me Oh My to Le Bon’s 2009 Me Oh My) and a tenderness built on crude haircuts (“we finally met, soon after she was cutting my hair with a fork and that was that”) and home-made tattoos – but never previously translated into the recording studio.

- Buddy & Julie Miller In the Throes
After forty years of marriage, Buddy & Julie Miller have learned to welcome a song however it arrives, questioning only where the song is taking them rather than where it originated. There’s no process, no assembly-line procedure, just an openness to those bursts of inspiration and those hours of refinement. This means their fourth album together, In the Throes, sounds lively and diverse, eccentric and slightly askew: a deeply soulful collision of mournful gospel, dusty country, cosmic blues, lusty rockabilly, ecstatic r&b and anything else that crosses their minds.

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Releases for 15 September 2023

The first of 15 September’s late summer sizzlers is Race the Night, the eighth studio album from Ash, which is both a party with old friends and a message to leap into the present with arms wide open, 29 years since their recorded debut. Grammy-winning duo Brothers Osborne are constantly evolving and pushing themselves to new heights and on their new, self-titled album they teamed up with producer Mike Elizondo, who blew their minds with his skill and sensitivity. Black Rainbows explores black femininity, spell work, inner space/outer space, time collapse and ancestors, the erasure of black childhood and music as a vessel for transcendence through objects that Corinne Bailey Rae encountered at the Stoney Island Arts Bank in Chicago. End, the enigmatic seventh album by Explosions In The Sky, is perhaps their ‘grandest’ album – melding the quiet restraint and crushing feel of their early work with the sonic texturing and ornate experimentation of their more recent releases, influenced by personal tastes stretching from classical to soul to experimental ambient music. Mitski’s seventh album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, feels like a profound act of witnessing America in all of its private sorrows and painful contradictions, full of the ache of the grown-up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous; it’s a tiny epic.

Our release of the week is Valley of Heart’s Delight, the second album from Margo Cilker, whose title refers to a place she can’t return: California’s Santa Clara Valley, as it was known before the orchards were paved over and became more famous for silicon than apricots. In this 11-song follow-up to 2021’s critically acclaimed Pohorylle, family and nature intertwine as guiding motifs, at once precious and endangered, beautiful and exhausting.

- Margo Cilker Valley of Heart’s Delight
The title of Margo Cilker’s second album, Valley of Heart’s Delight, refers to a place she can’t return: California’s Santa Clara Valley, as it was known before the orchards were paved over and became more famous for silicon than apricots. In this 11-song follow-up to 2021’s critically acclaimed Pohorylle, family and nature intertwine as guiding motifs, at once precious and endangered, beautiful and exhausting.

- Ash Race the Night
Race the Night, the eighth studio album from Ash, comes 29 years, 18 hit singles, seven studio albums and an unfathomable number of tour dates since their appearance on the 1994 Crazed and Confused compilation. Race the Night is both a party with old friends and a message to leap into the present with arms wide open. Frontman Tim Wheeler comments: “Race the Night is the sound of the band revelling in the sheer joy of being a band after being separated by time and distance through the insanity of the early 2020s. Lyrically it’s all about seizing the crossroads moments in life with both hands. Take every chance as if it could be your last.”

- Brothers Osborne Brothers Osborne
The new, self-titled album from Grammy-winning duo Brothers Osborne features 11 new tracks including the current Top-20 hit ‘Nobody’s Nobody’. John Osborne of the band shared: “As musicians, we’re constantly evolving and pushing ourselves to new heights. On our fourth album we’ve teamed up with a new producer, Mike Elizondo, and embraced his approach to our sound and story. Our expectations were already high and he absolutely shattered them. It’s exciting to see where this journey will take us and we can’t wait to share this sound with everyone. Life and art are about growth and taking risks, and we’re ready to take on the challenge.”

- Corinne Bailey Rae Black Rainbows
Corinne Bailey Rae performed at the Black Artists Retreat at the Stoney Island Arts Bank in Chicago in 2017, and the subjects of Black Rainbows are drawn from encounters with objects in the Arts Bank. Taking us from the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia to the journeys westward of black pioneers, from Miss New York Transit Queen 1957 to how the sunset appears from Harriet Jacobs’ loophole, Black Rainbows explores black femininity, spell work, inner space/outer space, time collapse and ancestors, the erasure of black childhood and music as a vessel for transcendence.

- Explosions In The Sky End
End, the enigmatic seventh album by Explosions In The Sky, was inspired by darkness but became a loud, dramatic, wild rumination on life and death. “Our starting point was the concept of an ending – death, or the end of a friendship or relationship,” says the band about the album. “Every song comes from a story, or an idea one of us has had that we’ve all expanded on and made its own world. Maybe it’s our nature, but we kept feeling that the album title was ultimately open to a lot more interpretation – the end of a thing or a time can mean a stop, but it can also mean a beginning, and what happens after one thing ends might pale in comparison to what it becomes next.”
End is perhaps the ‘grandest’ Explosions in the Sky album – melding the quiet restraint and crushing feel of their early work with the sonic texturing and ornate experimentation of their more recent releases and their increasing catalogue of film and television scores, influenced by personal tastes stretching from classical to soul to experimental ambient music.

- Mitski The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
Mitski’s seventh album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, feels like a profound act of witnessing America in all of its private sorrows and painful contradictions. The songs – sonically Mitski’s most expansive, epic, and wise yet – seem to be introducing wounds and then actively healing them. Here, love is time-travelling to bless our tender days, like the light from a distant star. The album is full of the ache of the grown-up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It’s a tiny epic. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning us and then rejecting us. To love this place – this earth, this America, this body – takes active work. It might be impossible. The best things are.

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Releases for 8 September 2023

First out of 8 September’s treasure chest is An Ever Changing View: an expansive, immaculately conceived project that presents trumpeter, bandleader and composer Matthew Halsall’s signature blend of jazz, electronica, global and spiritual jazz influences to create a unique brand of deeply meditative music. Recorded in The Chemical Brothers’s own studio near the south coast, For That Beautiful Feeling captures that wild moment when sound overwhelms you and almost pulls you under yet ultimately lets you ride its wave, surrendering to let the music move you as if pulled by an invisible thread. Fleetwood Mac was at the top of its game in August 1977 when the band returned to Los Angeles after touring for six months, and Rumours Live captures the energy and excitement of the band’s opening night at The Forum on 29 August 1977, performing that now-iconic album. Kristin Hersh’s new album, Clear Pond Road, is a watershed moment in a career overflowing with creative firsts and inspirational thinking from a fiercely independent auteur: more inward-looking than her work with Throwing Muses and 50FOOTWAVE, underpinned by background noise for ambience and awkwardness. The Handsome Family’s new record, Hollow, had its genesis when Rennie Sparks screamed “Come into the circle, Joseph! There’s no moon tonight” in her sleep one night, and husband Brett thought “Man, that’s a good chorus!”

Our release of the week is a poignant but exciting one: Bird Machine is a never-before-heard album by Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous, originally recorded in 2010, in the months before Mark’s untimely death. Sparklehorse released a number of influential and acclaimed albums in the ’90s and 2000s.

- Sparklehorse Bird Machine
Bird Machine is a never-before-heard album by Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous that was originally recorded in 2010, in the months before Mark’s untimely death, and mixed by Mark Hamilton (who also worked on It’s a Wonderful Life). Mark’s brother Matt notes: “Great care has been taken to archive and preserve Mark’s music. We are very thankful for Mark and the beauty he brought to this world.” Described as an artist who “compelled listeners to heed the beauty of darkness” by Pitchfork, Linkous released a number influential records with Sparklehorse, including the renowned albums Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and Good Morning Spider in the ’90s, It’s a Wonderful Life and Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain in the early aughts, and collaborative album Dark Night of the Soul in 2010.

- Matthew Halsall An Ever Changing View
An Ever Changing View is an expansive, immaculately conceived project that presents trumpeter, bandleader and composer Matthew Halsall’s signature blend of jazz, electronica, global and spiritual jazz influences. Halsall, who has been hailed as one of the leading figures of the UK jazz renaissance, has never seen himself as part of any one sound or scene: he builds his own sonic universe instead. An Ever Changing View finds him at his most experimental yet, once again expanding his sound and production techniques to create his unique brand of deeply meditative music.

- The Chemical Brothers For That Beautiful Feeling
Recorded in The Chemical Brothers’s own studio near the south coast, For That Beautiful Feeling is a record that hunts for and captures that wild moment when sound overwhelms you and almost pulls you under yet ultimately lets you ride its wave, to destinations unknown. It’s a record that pinpoints the exact moment you lose all control, where you surrender and let the music move you as if pulled by an invisible thread.

- Fleetwood Mac Rumours Live
Fleetwood Mac was at the top of its game in August 1977 when the band returned to its adopted home in southern California to play three shows at The Forum in Los Angeles. Rumours had only been out a few weeks when the band left in February to tour the world before returning six months later to play three shows at The Forum for nearly 50,000 fans. Rumours reached #1 in the UK and went well on its way to becoming one of the most successful albums ever released, which has been certified 14x platinum in the UK. Rumours Live captures the energy and excitement of the band’s opening night at The Forum on 29 August 1977. The nearly 90-minute performance includes live versions of most of the songs from Rumours and Fleetwood Mac, the group’s first multi-platinum #1 album, which came out in 1975.

- Kristin Hersh Clear Pond Road
Kristin Hersh’s new album, Clear Pond Road, is a cinematic road trip: a series of personal vignettes from a fiercely independent auteur, sitting plush with layers of all-consuming strings and mellotron. It’s a watershed moment in a career overflowing with creative firsts and inspirational thinking: an elegant piece of personal reportage, a home movie caught in time. The juxtaposition of light and dark has been essential to the drama of Throwing Muses and 50FOOTWAVE, but this solo set is something of a departure: more inward-looking, quieter but outspoken, underpinned by background noise for ambience and awkwardness.
Clear Pond Road is a life-affirming statement, a further part of the jigsaw, a very personal memoir, from street signs to snapshots; a late blossoming and coming-of-age from a true icon of independence. The record is both intimate yet expansive, written largely within the confines of Hersh’s home, making the proceedings ever more personal.

- The Handsome Family Hollow
The Handsome Family’s new record, Hollow, began with a scream in the night. “It was a bleak winter during the middle of the pandemic,” says Brett Sparks. “One night around 4 a.m. Rennie started screaming in her sleep. She screamed, ‘Come into the circle, Joseph! There’s no moon tonight.’ Scary as it was, I thought, man, that’s a good chorus!” The Handsome Family (songwriting and marriage partners Brett and Rennie Sparks) have been defining the dark end of americana for over 30 years.

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Releases for 1 September 2023

We kick off 1 September’s sizzlers with everything is alive, an exploration into the shimmering nature of life and the universal touch points within it from Slowdive: full of psychedelic soundscapes, pulsating ’80s electronic elements and John Cale-inspired journeys. The inimitable Pretenders are back with their 14th studio album, Relentless, which features 12 new songs co-written by the iconic Chrissie Hynde and the band’s guitarist, James Walbourne. Royal Blood ignite an epic summer with the release of their fourth album, Back to the Water Below: after years together playing to half-empty bars around Brighton they suddenly become a ‘decade-in-the-making overnight success story’, reaching the top of UK album charts within a year. This House, the new album from Pale Blue Eyes, is defined by closure and moving on following the grief of recent parental loss: alongside uplifting melodies that dance like no-one’s watching, the album is rich in life-affirming human connections, where music-making becomes a means of recovery. And Empire State Bastard is a project of Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil and Mike Vennart to produce the most extreme, confrontational or just downright twisted music they can, and the results are unleashed on their debut album, Rivers of Heresy.

Our release of the week is a biggie: ÁTTA, the first new studio album in ten years from Sigur Rós, is their most intimate and emotionally direct record to date, with the return of multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson bringing a new compulsion and drive to the band. Few bands cut through the noise and distractions of the world to bring you pure elemental truth or feeling like Sigur Rós.

- Sigur Rós ÁTTA
Sigur Rós’s first new studio album in ten years, ÁTTA, is their most intimate and emotionally direct record to date. Few bands cut through the noise and distractions of the world to bring you pure elemental truth or feeling like Sigur Rós. As you hear on ÁTTA, there’s a new compulsion and drive to the band that comes with the new formation of the line-up. Multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson is back in the fold – having left the band in 2012 – to join frontman Jónsi and bassist Georg Holm. ÁTTA leans heavily towards the orchestral, and touches on everything that has made Sigur Rós one of the most ambitious and acclaimed bands of recent times.

- Slowdive everything is alive
everything is alive, the fifth album from Slowdive, is exactly what the title suggests: an exploration into the shimmering nature of life and the universal touch points within it. While there are parts of this record that could sit neatly next to the atmospheric quality of 1995’s Pygmalion, it also manages to break down the boundaries of what has come before it. Spanning psychedelic soundscapes, pulsating ’80s electronic elements and John Cale-inspired journeys, the album lands immediately as something made for 2023 and beyond.

- Pretenders Relentless
The inimitable Pretenders are back with their 14th studio album, Relentless, which was produced by David Wrench and recorded at Battery Studios in West London. The album features 12 new songs co-written by the iconic Chrissie Hynde and the band’s guitarist, James Walbourne.

- Royal Blood Back to the Water Below
Royal Blood ignite an epic summer with the release of their fourth album, Back to the Water Below. From the very beginning, the story of Royal Blood has been one of two life-long friends whose shared passion for writing and performing has led them on a remarkable adventure together – a story that has yet to be repeated, and is a feat as rare as it is remarkable. Long before Royal Blood were even formed, they spent years together in various bands playing to half-empty bars around Brighton, and only then did they suddenly become a decade-in-the-making overnight success story: from plotting how to recoup the meagre £300 they had spent on their first recording to the top of UK album charts within a year.

- Pale Blue Eyes This House
Delirious chatter … the clink of cans of warm beer … Cocteau Twins played at full blast. Lively memories of parties and people live on through This House, the new album from Pale Blue Eyes. The house in question is there on the front cover, the childhood home of the trio’s vocalist and guitarist, Matt Board. Defined by closure and moving on, This House is shaken to its rafters as the band navigate the grief of recent parental loss. Alongside uplifting melodies that dance like no-one’s watching, the album is rich in life-affirming human connections, where music-making becomes a means of recovery.

- Empire State Bastard Rivers of Heresy
A decade ago, Simon Neil and Mike Vennart would be found sitting at the back of the Biffy Clyro tour bus sharing the most extreme, confrontational or just downright twisted music they could find. Simon had always had the name Empire State Bastard lurking in the back of his mind if he ever formed a sickeningly heavy band, leaving Mike with the challenge of writing music that could live up to that moniker. Now the results are about to be unleashed on their debut album, Rivers of Heresy.

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Other releases for 2023

Find releases from 2024 | 2022.