In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on May 20, 2022:
Harry Styles, Harry’s House
Harry Styles’ new album, Harry’s House, is out today. The former One Direction singer’s third LP, following 2019’s Fine Line, features the previously shared single ‘As It Was’ as well as contributions from Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange), John Mayer, Tobias Jesso Jr., Pino Palladino, Kid Harpoon, and more. Speaking about the album title, Styles explained in an interview with Apple Music: “The album is named after Haruomi Hosono, he had an album in the ’70s called ‘Hosono’s House’, and I spent that chunk in Japan; I heard that record and I was like ‘I love that. It’d be really fun to make a record called Harry’s House.”
Porridge Radio, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky
Porridge Radio have returned with a new album, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky, via Secretly Canadian. The follow-up to 2020’s Every Bad was previewed with the singles ‘Back to the Radio’, ‘The Rip’, and ‘End of Last Year’ and was co-produced by Tom Carmichael, Dana Margolin, and Sam Yardley. “I kept saying that I wanted everything to be ‘stadium-epic’ – like Coldplay,” Margolin said in press materials. The singer-songwriter also explained that the album title “symbolizes the ups and downs of human life, of virtue and transgression. With this album, the feelings of joy, fear and endlessness coexist together.” Read our review of the album.
Lykke Li, EYEYE
Lykke Li has released an immersive audiovisual album titled EYEYE. The visual component of EYEYE, which is directed by Theo Lindquist and shot on 16-millimeter film by cinematographer Edu Grau, seeks “to capture the beauty and grandeur of a three-hour European arthouse movie, while making something native to modern media,” according to Li. The Swedish singer recorded the LP in her bedroom in Los Angeles, reuniting with longtime collaborator Björn Yttling for the first time since 2014’s I NEVER LEARN. The follow-up to 2018’s So Sad So Sexy was mixed to tape by Shawn Everett in Los Angeles. “I wanted the record to have the intimacy of listening to a voice memo on a macro dose of LSD,” Li said.
Flume, Palaces
Flume has put out a new album called Palaces, out now via Future Classic and Transgressive. It features guest appearances from Damon Albarn, Caroline Polachek, Oklou, Kučka, and Vergen Maria. The Australian producer began to write music for the album in Los Angeles at the beginning of the pandemic, finding inspiration through reconnecting with nature. “I made a bunch of recordings around the property that made their way onto the record,” Flume told Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe. “The record was kind of fragmented over years of doing a session in London with someone or doing this over here or on tour. So to try and piece it all together and make it make sense and feel cohesive, I’ve added a whole bunch of tones and textures from the wildlife on the property. ”
fanclubwallet, You Have Got to Be Kidding Me
fanclubwallet – the project of Ottawa-based musician Hannah Judge – has issued her debut LP, You Have Got to Be Kidding Me. Featuring the advance singles ‘Gr8 Timing!’, ‘Trying to Be Nice’, and ‘That I Won’t Do’, the album was recorded the album at Port William Sound in Ontario with childhood friend and longtime collaborator Michael Watson. “I think I spend a lot of time trying to be like the cool, chill, calm girl,” Judge said in a press release. “This album’s kind of me being like, ‘Maybe I’m not cool, calm and collected.’”
Charlie Hickey, Nervous at Night
Nervous at Night is the debut full-length from Pasadena-based artist Charlie Hickey. Out now via Phoebe Bridgers’ label Saddest Factory Records, the album was produced with Marshall Vore and features contributions from LA musicians such as Harrison Whitford, Christian Lee Hutson, and Mason Stoops. It follows last year’s Count the Stars EP and includes the early singles ‘Gold Line’, ‘Dandelions’, the title track. “It felt like a real privilege to be able to be surrounded by that community while I was making the album,” Hickey said in our Artist Spotlight interview. “It both feels very comfortable and we’re all peers, but then I also will always look up to all those people. And it can be inspiring and force you to be better to be surrounded by those people, but it doesn’t feel like being an imposter.”
Body Type, Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising
Body Type have dropped their debut album, Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising, via Poison City Records. Sophie McComish, Annabel Blackman, Cecil Coleman, and Georgia Wilkinson-Derums recorded the LP in eight days in early 2020 with Jonathan Boulet, who also mastered the record. “We were coming out of a period that felt quite suffocating and restrictive,” McComish said in press materials. “We just kind of regrouped and re-energised and did it ourselves.” Everything Is Dangerous follows two EPs, EP1 and EP2, and includes the advance tracks ‘The Charm’, ‘Buoyancy’, and ‘Sex & Range’.
Cola, Deep in View
Cola – the new project of former Ought members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy and US Girls/The Weather Station drummer Evan Cartwright – have shared their debut full-length, Deep in View, via Fire Talk Records. Ahead of the release, the band unveiled the songs ‘Blank Curtain’, ‘So Excited’, ‘Degree’, ‘Water Table’, and ‘Fulton Park’. “It wasn’t the post-Ought band right off the bat,” Darcy said in press materials. “We really just took time to enjoy the process of collaborating and writing songs together.”
Jordana, Face the Wall
Jordana has come through with her official studio debut, Face the Wall, out today via Grand Jury. The record follows two EPs released in 2020, Something to Say and To You, which were combined to form Something to Say to You. “The album title has a few meanings to me,” Jordana explained in a press statement. “Mostly, it’s about not giving up. The wall can be anything in your way. The album is a sort of reminder to myself that I have to face those things, and I can’t take the easy route and turn around.” The tracks ‘Catch My Drift’, ‘Pressure Point’, ‘Go Slow’, and ‘To The Ground’ preceded the album.
Weird Nightmare, Weird Nightmare
The debut self-titled record by Weird Nightmare, the new project from METZ guitarist and singer Alex Edkins, has arrived via Sub Pop. The album was mostly recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic and includes contributions from Canadian alt-pop artist Chad VanGaalen and Alicia Bognanno of Bully. “Hooks and melody have always been a big part of my writing, but they really became the main focus this time,” Edkins said in a statement about the LP, which features the promotional songs ‘Searching for You’, ‘Lusitania’, and ‘Wrecked’. “It was about doing what felt natural.”
Other albums out today:
Boldy James & Real Bad Man, Killing Nothing; Mary Lattimore & Paul Sukeena, West Kensington; Tess Parks, And Those Who Were Seen Dancing; Ravyn Lenae, Hypnos; Everything Everything, Raw Data Feel; Craig Finn, A Legacy of Rentals; Cave In, Heavy Pendulum; Mavis Staples & Levon Helm, Carry Me Home; Matmos, Regards / Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer; Robert Pollard, Our Gaze; Spice, Viv; SOAK, If I Never Know You Like This Again; Uffie, Sunshine Factory; Delta Spirit, One Is One; Marina Herlop, Pripyat; mxmtoon, rising; Koray Kantarcıoğlu, Loopworks 2; Lia Mice, Sweat Like Caramel; NZIRIA, XXYBRID.