In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on March 8, 2024:
Ariana Grande, Eternal Sunshine
Ariana Grande’s new album, Eternal Sunshine, has arrived via Republic. The follow-up to 2020’s Positions was preceded by the single ‘yes, and?’, which got a remix featuring Mariah Carey, and was co-produced by Grande, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Max Martin. Its title is inspired by the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. “I think the movie is so beloved because so many people can relate to knowing that something isn’t right, but loving so much, and wanting to stay, and wanting to figure it out, and that cycle that can happen in the film,” Grande told Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe. “I think that’s why the film is so beloved. It’s because so many people can relate to it, and I think it kind of fell into place that these songs had little tidbits of that theme. I just felt really inspired by it.”
Kim Gordon, The Collective
Kim Gordon has issued her second solo album, The Collective, whose title was partially inspired by Jennifer Egan’s novel The Candy House. The follow-up to 2019’s No Home Record finds Gordon continuing her collaboration with producer Justin Raisen (Lil Yachty, John Cale, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charli XCX, Yves Tumor) and features additional production from Anthony Paul Lopez. It was previewed by the tracks ‘BYE BYE’, ‘I’m a Man’, and ‘Psychedelic Orgasm’.
Bleachers, Bleachers
Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers have dropped their self-titled album, following up 2021’s Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, via Dirty Hit. It includes the previously released singles ‘Modern Girl’, ‘Alma Mater’, ‘Tiny Moves’, and ‘Me Before You’. “I wanted the album to have both because Bleachers live is such a thing,” Antonoff said in an interview with Zane Lowe. “We’re a live band. But I also am a producer, and I just kind of… I don’t know. I think my audience has just given me a lot of courage and power, and so I just feel like I don’t really give a s**t to do this hyper-separation of everything anymore. Yeah, everything’s going on at the same time anyway, so I just felt like there could be songs like ‘Modern Girl’ and then there could be songs like ‘Alma Mater’, which feel incredibly produced in very specific ways that I do.” Read our review of Bleachers.
Moor Mother, The Great Bailout
Moor Mother has released her ninth studio album, The Great Bailout, via ANTI-. The follow-up to 2022’s Jazz Codes features contributions from Lonnie Holley, Mary Lattimore, Vijay Ayer, Angel Bat Dawid, Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty, Aaron Dilloway, Mary Lattimore, Raia Was, and more, as well as the early singles ‘Guilty’ and ‘All the Money’.“Research is a major part of my work, and researching history – particularly African history, philosophy and time – is a major interest,” Camae Ayewa said in a statement about her work and its focus on the effects of British colonialism. “Europe and Africa have a very intimate and brutal relationship throughout time. I’m interested in exploring that relationship of colonialism and liberation, in this case in Great Britain.”
Torrey, Torrey
Torrey – the Bay area group formed by siblings Siblings Ryann and Kelly Gonsalves – have released their self-titled sophomore LP, which is also their first Slumberland. Combining various shades of shoegaze, indie rock, and ’90s alt-rock, the follow-up to 2021’s Something Happy was tracked at Ryann’s home studio, with Matthew Ferrara of the Umbrellas coming in to help flesh out the songs.
Bolis Pupul, Letter to Yu
Bolis Pupul has put out his debut solo album, Letter to Yu. Following the producer and singer-songwriter’s 2022 album with Charlotte Adigéry, Topical Dancer, the 11-track collection was made with Soulwax, and it serves as a love letter to Pupul’s late mother, who passed away in 2008 in a traffic accident. “When I started to think about my roots, I started to embrace them,” Pupul, who was born to a Belgian father and a Chinese mother, said in press materials. “And it became more and more important for me to get in touch with them. I went to evening school and began learning Chinese. I did that for four years. That was the first step.” The LP was previewed by the singles ‘Spicy Crab’ and ‘Completely Half’.
Tomato Flower, No
No is the debut full-length by the Baltimore-based band Tomato Flower, following their 2022 EPs Gold Arc and Construction. Out now via Ramp Local, the 12-track effort includes the previously released singles ‘Temple of the Mind’, ‘Saint’, and ‘Harlequin’. Mike Alfieri, Ruby Mars, Jamison Murphy, and Austyn Wohlers made the album entirely in person, recording in a studio rather than a bedroom for the first time. One of its conceptual throughlines is the relationship between Wohlers and Murphy, who broke up during the making of the album.
Haux, Blue Angeles
Woodson Black has unveiled Blue Angeles, his sophomore album under the moniker Haux. The follow-up to 2020’s Violence in a Quiet Mind was made with producers Thomas Bartlett, Maxwell Byrne, and Aug E. Rose and recorded in Los Angeles, New York City, and the Berkshires. It finds Black addressing the question, “What happens when we stop running away?” He added, “I needed to grow up to write this record and that isn’t something that just happens overnight. It’s taken me the better part of three years and I needed all of it to be where I am today.”
Other albums out today:
Konradsen, Michael’s Book on Bears; Judas Priest, Invincible Shield; Norah Jones, Visions; Meatbodies, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom; Slow Hollows, Bullhead; Astrel K, Foreign Department; MIKE & Tony Seltzer, Pinball; Eyelids, No Jigsaw; Tony Shhnow, Out the Woods; Lamplight, Lamplight; Discovery Zone, Quantum Web; The Hanging Stars, On a Golden Shore; Sonata Arctica, Clear Cold Beyond; Erika Angell, The Obsession With Her Voice.