In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on March 22, 2024:
Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future
Adrianne Lenker is back with a new album, Bright Future, out now via 4AD. Following 2020’s songs and instrumentals, the record includes the advance tracks ‘Ruined’, ‘Sadness as a Gift’, ‘Fool’, and ‘Free Treasure’. It was co-produced by Philip Weinrobe and features contributions from Nick Hakim, Mat Davidson, and Josefin Runstee, who joined Lenker at a New England studio called Double Infinity. “It felt like everyone’s nervous systems released,” Lenker said in a statement about the recording process. “Once we were in the song, somehow we just knew. No one stopped a take. We didn’t listen back. I only listened after everybody else left.” Read our review of Bright Future.
Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood
Waxahatchee has returned with a new album, Tigers Blood, following up 2020’s Saint Cloud. Her first on new label ANTI- Records, the LP features the previously released singles ‘Right Back to It’, ‘Bored’, and ‘365’, as well as performances by MJ Lenderman, Spencer Tweedy, and Phil and Brad Cook. After writing the songs during what she calls a “hot hand spell” at the end of 2022, Katie Crutchfield recorded the album with Saint Cloud producer Brad Cook at the Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas. Read our review of Tigers Blood.
Julia Holter, Something in the Room She Moves
Julia Holter has issued a new album, Something in the Room She Moves, via Domino. The follow-up 2018’s Aviary was preceded by the songs ‘Sun Girl’, ‘Spinning’, and ‘Evening Mood’. Of the album, whose title “flips the gaze” of the Beatles’ ‘Something’, the Los Angeles artist said in press materials: “There’s a corporeal focus, inspired by the complexity and transformability of our bodies. I was trying to create a world that’s fluid-sounding, waterlike, evoking the body’s internal sound world.”
Rosali, Bite Down
Rosali has followed up 2021’s No Medium with a new LP, Bite Down. It marks the North Carolina-based songwriter and guitarist’s Merge Records debut and finds her once again working with David Nance (bass, guitar), James Schroeder (guitar, synth), and Kevin Donahue (drums, percussion), with Destroyer collaborator Ted Bois joining on keys. The album title, Rosali explained in our Artist Spotlight interview, is about “understanding that life and the experiences you go through – the good, the bad, the neutral, the boring, the surreal, it’s all part of it – and not fear the horizon that comes that toward you; to accept it, bite down on it, to fully embrace all these situations; to grow and have more understanding of life, have more experiences, have more empathy. It became more of a battle cry to see the goal of it, the goal of life.”
Future & Metro Boomin, We Don’t Trust You
Future and Metro Boomin have joined forces for the new album We Don’t Trust You. It arrives two years after Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains – which featured Future on four tracks – and Future’s I Never Liked You. The album title plays off Metro’s producer tag, “If Young Metro don’t trust you, I’m gon’ shoot you,” which Future originally said in their 2015 track ‘Right Now’. The 17-track LP features uncredited guest spots from Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, Rick Ross, and the Weeknd.
Sam Evian, Plunge
Sam Evian has released a new album called Plunge. Out now through the musician and producer’s new imprint Flying Cloud Recordings/Thirty Tigers, the follow-up to 2021’s Time to Melt features the early tracks ‘Stay’, ‘Rollin’ In’, and ‘Wild Days’. It was recorded over ten days during the early winter months of 2023 with a group of friends and collaborators that included Liam Kazar, Sean Mullins, El Kempner of Palehound, and Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief. “No one knew the songs or what the plan was. We kept it loose and fun,” Evian said in press materials. “This was the spirit of the sessions. No headphones, no playback, minimal overdubs, or bleed. Fast and loose.”
Jlin, Akoma
Indiana producer Jlin has released a new album, Akoma, her first since 2017’s Black Origami, via Planet Mu. The record boasts collaborations with Björk, Philip Glass, and Kronos Quartet; Glass co-wrote two tracks on the album, including the closer and lead single ‘The Precision of Infinity’. “To all the incredible collaborators on this record, your brilliance shines through every sound,” Jlin wrote in a statement. “Philip Glass, your mastery left an indelible mark; Bjork, your genius uniqueness inspired unparalleled creativity; Kronos Quartet, for your constant drive and virtuosity; [artist, sculptor, and designer] Florence To, for your ethics in family, honesty, vision and understanding.”
Empress Of, For Your Consideration
Empress Of has dropped her new album, For Your Consideration, which follows 2020’s I’m Your Empress Of and 2022’s Save Me EP. It was previewed by the singles ‘Femenine’, ‘Kiss Me’ featuring Rina Sawayama, and the MUNA collab ‘What’s Love’, and finds Lorely Rodriguez working with songwriters and producers including Nick León, Billboard, Valley Girls, Cecile Believe, and Umru. “I was in love with a director and he was announcing his ‘For Your Consideration’ campaign for the Oscars,” she explained. “He took me up on a hill and said he was emotionally unavailable and he kind of broke my heart. I went into the studio that day and we wrote a song called ‘For Your Consideration’ that reflects on glam and Hollywood. That was the gateway for the album and it gave me the opportunity to explore broader themes.”
Rosie Tucker, UTOPIA NOW!
Rosie Tucker has a album out called UTOPIA NOW! via Sentimental Records. Following the release of Sucker Supreme in 2021, the musician was “unceremoniously dropped from Epitaph Records,” according to press materials, one record into a three-album deal. UTOPIA NOW! was recorded at Tucker’s home studio in Altadena, California and produced with longtime collaborator Wolfy. It was preceded by a series of singles, including ‘Big Fish/No Fun’, ‘Unending Bliss’, ‘Paperclip Maximizer’, and ‘All My Exes Live in Vortexes’.
The Jesus and Mary Chain, Glasgow Eyes
The Jesus and Mary Chain are back with a new LP, Glasgow Eyes, via Fuzz Club. The follow-up to 2017’s Damage and Joy was recorded at Mogwai’s Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow, with Jim and William Reid drawing inspiration from “Suicide and Kraftwerk and a fresh appreciation of the less disciplined attitudes found in jazz,” according a press release. “But don’t expect ‘the Mary Chain goes jazz,’” Jim Reid explained. “People should expect a Jesus and Mary Chain record, and that’s certainly what Glasgow Eyes is. Our creative approach is remarkably the same as it was in 1984, just hit the studio and see what happens. We went in with a bunch of songs and let it take its course. There are no rules, you just do whatever it takes. And there’s a telepathy there – we are those weird not-quite twins that finish each other’s sentences.”
Tyla, Tyla
Tyla’s self-titled debut album is out today. The 15-track LP features guest appearances by Travis Scott, Tems, Gunna, Becky G, Skillibeng, and Kelvin Momo, as well as the singles ‘Water’, ‘On and On’, and ‘Truth or Dare’. “When I listen to the album, I’m so proud of it,” Tyla told Rolling Stone. “I just see our sound going so far: the culture, the words, the slang. Even just Joburg — the thought of people now singing about Joburg.”
Francis of Delirium, Lighthouse
Francis of Delirium – the project led by Luxembourg-based singer-songwriter Jana Bahrich – have unveiled their debut full-length, Lighthouse. The singles ‘Real Love’, ‘First Touch’, ‘Blue Tuesday’, and ‘Give It Back to Me’ arrived ahead of the release. “For this album, hope is the prevailing feeling I’m left with after making it and listening to it,” Bahrich explained in a statement. “The idea is that there is this light guiding you out into a space where you can be more open and accepting of love and joy. Even as you gain or lose love, it never really goes away; it just transforms itself, moving into other relationships with you.”
Cakes da Killa, Black Sheep
Cakes da Killa has dropped a new LP, Black Sheep, via Young Art. The follow-up to 2022’s Svengali was preceded by the tracks ‘Do Dat Baby’ and ‘Mind Reader’ and boasts collaborations with Stout, Dawn Richard, and Wuhryn Dumas. It finds the Nwe York rapper reuniting with longtime collaborator Sam Katz, the producer behind Svengali, guiding us “through a spiritual trip from the clubs of Manhattan to the back blocks of Brooklyn,” per a press release.
The Staves, All Now
The Staves have put out their latest album, All Now, through Communion Records. The follow-up to 2021’s Good Woman finds the duo reuniting with producer John Congleton. “There was a delayed reaction to trauma and these big changes out of your control,” Jess Staveley-Taylor said of the period following the release Good Woman, which saw them processing the death of their mother. The songs ‘I’ll Never Leave You Alone’, ‘All Now’ and ‘I Don’t Say It, But I Feel It’ previewed the LP.
Other albums out today:
Alena Spanger, Fire Escape; Jim White, All Hits: Memories; Shakira, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran; Carpool, My Life in Subtitles; Spaced, This Is All We Ever Get; Matt Champion, Mika’s Laundry; VR SEX, Hard Copy; Lauran Hibberd, Girlfriend Material; Gary Clark Jr., JPEG RAW; Gossip, REAL POWER; Marbled Eye, Read the Air; Halo Maud, Celebrate; Odetta Hartman, Swansongs; Barely Civil, I’d Say I’m Not Fine; Good Morning, Good Morning Seven; Elbow, AUDIO VERTIGO; Magic Tuber Stringband, Needlefall; villagerrr, Tear Your Heart Out; Saint Saviour, Sunseeker; Fletcher, In Search of the Antidote; Restorations, Restorations; RED ON, Phantom Easy; Prefuse 73, New Strategies For Modern Crime Vol. 1; SiR, Heavy; Cassie Kinoshi, seed.’s gratitude; Klaus Johann Grobe, io tu il loro; Zombi, Direct Injet; Sierra Ferrell, Trail Of Flowers; Klahrk, Blistering; Starsailor, Where The Wild Things Grow; Pan American & Kramer, Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road; Ka Baird, Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos.