In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on March 29, 2024:
Beyoncé, Act II: Cowboy Carter
Cowboy Carter has arrived. Continuing the three-act trilogy Beyoncé launched with 2022’s Renaissance, the 27-track LP features the singles ’16 Carriages’ and ‘Texas Hold ’Em’, as well as covers of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ and the Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’, and appearances from country legend Willie Nelson and Parton herself. Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Shaboozey, Linda Martell, and Willie Jones are also among the album’s guests. “This album has been over five years in the making,” Beyoncé wrote on Instagram. “It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive. It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.”
Chastity Belt, Live Laugh Love
Chastity Belt have released their latest album, Live Laugh Love, through Suicide Squeeze. The follow-up to the band’s 2019 self-titled record was previewed by the singles ‘I-90 Bridge’, ‘Hollow’, ‘Chemtrails’, and ‘Laugh’. “We’ve been playing music with each other for over a decade, so it really does feel like we’re all fluent in the same language, and a lot of it just happens naturally,” the band’s Julia Shapiro reflected in press materials. Lydia Lund added: “We have such a strong sense of each other’s musical inclinations. I think this allows for a lot of playfulness…we can kinda surprise each other, like a good punchline would.”
Ride, Interplay
Ride have returned with a new album, Interplay. The follow-up to 2019’s This Is Not A Safe Place was produced by the band and Richie Kennedy, and was mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer. “This album has taken a long time to make, and has seen the band go through a lot of ups and downs; maybe the most of any Ride album,” guitarist and singer Andy Bell commented. “But it has seen us come through the process as a band in a good place, feeling able to shake off the past, and ready to celebrate the combined musical talents that brought us together in the first place.” The LP was preceded by the singles ‘Peace Sign’, ‘Last Frontier’, and ‘Monaco’.
h. pruz, No Glory
No Glory is the debut album by h. pruz, the moniker of Queens singer-songwriter Hannah Pruzinsky. Featuring the early singles ‘I Keep Changing’ and ‘Dawn’, the LP was produced with Told Slant’s Felix Walworth and largely recorded at a cabin in upstate New York. “Writing No Glory was my chance to explore every crevice of guilt, second thought, and pain that comes with the complete changing of oneself that comes with a life altering break-up,” Pruzinsky reflected in press materials. “It was a lesson to myself in giving into changes, completely dismantling a structure, the necessary acknowledgment of guilt (and its seat next to pain), and the inevitable hope of forgiveness, one extending back to myself.”
VIAL, burnout
VIAL – the Minneapolis-based punk trio of bassist Taylor Kraemer, guitarist KT Branscom, and drummer Katie Fischer – have dropped their sophomore album, burnout. Out now via Get Better Records, the follow-up to 2021’s LOUDMOUTH was recorded by Mik Finnegan at Minnehaha Recording Company, with production by Hansel Romero. It includes the previously released singles ‘just fine’, ‘ur dad’, ‘falling short’, and ‘apathy’.
Kelly Moran, Moves in the Field
New York pianist and composer Kelly Moran has issued Moves in the Field, her first new album in six years, via Warp. It finds Moran working with a Disklavier player piano, “a special instrument that allows you to record your performance for the piano to play back on its own,” as she explained. “The Disklavier allowed me to record multiple layers of my playing so I could create music on the piano that would require more fingers or greater endurance than I physically have – like chords that had more than 10 notes in them, or chords that were spaced out farther than my hands could stretch,” Moran added. “Sometimes I’d record a pattern and then speed it up to play back faster than I could ever physically play. My imagination exploded at all the possibilities this instrument allowed me to create, and these explorations culminated in my new record, Moves in the Field.”
Sheryl Crow, Evolution
Sheryl Crow is back with a new album, Evolution. The follow-up to 2019’s Threads was produced by Mike Elizondo and includes the promotional singles ‘Alarm Clock’, ‘Evolution’, ‘Do It Again’, and ‘Digging in the Dirt’. “Everything is more song oriented now with streaming, and making an album is a huge endeavor,” Crow said in a statement. “I started sending just a couple of demos to Mike, but the songs just kept flowing out of me and it was pretty obvious this was going to be an album.” She added: “This music and these lyrics came from sitting in the quiet and writing from a deep soul place. I said I’d never make another record, thought there was no point to it. But this music comes from my soul. And I hope whoever hears this record can feel that.”
Reyna Tropical, Malegría
Reyna Tropical, the project led by Los Angeles musician and She Shreds founder Fabi Reyna, has come out with its debut album, Malegría, via Sylvan Esso’s Psychic Hotline label. It includes the early singles ‘Catragena’, ‘Conocerla’, and ‘Conexión Ancestral’. “I’ve always wanted to have a home—a place or a sound or a person to go to—because I think our people, who are severed from our lands and our histories and our stories and our communities, have for generations not really known where to go,” Reyna explained in a press release. “There are times on stage where I can feel that my movement isn’t my movement. I can feel that I’m being moved by and I’m speaking for other people. I know in my body when my ancestors are there, when a decision is us.”
Other albums out today:
Shabazz Palaces, Exotic Birds of Prey; gglum, The Garden Dream; Sum 41, Heaven :x: Hell; Frail Body, Artificial Bouquet; Peel, Acid Star; Arushi Jain, Delight; The High Llamas, Hey Panda; A Country Western, Life on the Lawn; Blu DeTiger, All I Ever Want Is Everything; Gesaffelstein, GAMMA; Harmless, Springs Eternal; Machine Gun Kelly & Trippie Redd, Genre: Sadboy; The Church, Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars; Bianca Scout, Pattern Damage.