In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on August 23, 2024:
Fontaines D.C., Romance
Fontaines D.C. are back with their fourth album, Romance, out now via XL Recordings. The follow-up to 2022’s Skinty Fia was made with producer James Ford, and it was previewed by the singles ‘Starbuster’, ‘Favourite’, ‘Here’s the Thing’, and ‘In the Modern World’. “We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance,” guitarist Conor Deegan shared in a statement. “Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as (Mercury Prize-nominated debut) Dogrel. The second album (the GRAMMY-nominated A Hero’s Death) is about that detachment, and the third (Skinty Fia) is about Irishness dislocated in the diaspora. Now we look to where and what else there is to be romantic about.” Read our review of Romance.
Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet
Sabrina Carpenter has released her sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet, via Island Records. The follow-up to 2022’s Emails I Can’t Send spans 12 tracks, including the advance singles ‘Espresso’ and ‘Please Please Please’. In an interview with Variety, Carpenter described the record as “the hot older sister” of Emails, explaining: “It’s my second ‘big girl’ album; it’s a companion but it’s not the same. When it comes to having full creative control and being a full-fledged adult, I would consider this a sophomore album.”
Spirit of the Beehive, YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING
Spirit of the Beehive have unveiled a new album, YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING, via Saddle Creek. Following 2021’s ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH and 2023’s i’m so lucky EP, the 12-track LP includes the previously shared singles ‘LET THE VIRGIN DRIVE’, ‘SOMETHING’S ENDING’, ‘I’VE BEEN EVIL’. The goal with the new record, the band’s Corey Wichlin said in press materials, was “to make something intentionally less antagonistic.”
Magdalena Bay, Imaginal Disk
Magdalena Bay‘s sophomore album, Imaginal Disk, has arrived via Mom+Pop. The follow-up to 2021’s Mercurial World was preceded by the singles ‘Tunnel Vision’, ‘Image’, ‘Death & Romance’, and ‘That’s My Floor’. “The way it makes sense in my mind is these layers of meaning… the album within itself is just an exploration of self and consciousness, and is quite personal in some ways,” the duo’s Mica Tenenbaum told The Line of Best Fit. “But of course, we love to sprinkle in the sci-fi within the lyrics and narrative and storytelling.”
GIFT, Illuminator
GIFT have dropped their sophomore LP, Illuminator, via Captured Tracks. The follow-up to 2022’s Momentary Presence features the previously shared tracks ‘Wish Me Away’, ‘Going in Circles’, ‘Later’, and ‘Light Runner’. “When I started GIFT, it was inherently my project, and Momentary Presence was very much me,” vocalist/guitarist TJ Freda explained in our Artist Spotlight interview. “When it came time to record Illuminator, everyone seemed a lot more invested and really wanted to be a part of it. The previous album was during COVID and it was a little hard and I didn’t want to wait for anyone, so I took the reins. But this time, I was getting really inspired by the way I individually collaborated with everyone.”
Nicole Miglis, Myopia
Hundred Waters singer and multi-instrumentalist Nicole Miglis has issued her debut solo album, Myopia, via Sargent House. The singles ‘All I See Is You’, ‘Autograph’, ‘Lure’, and ‘Sleep All Day’ arrived ahead of the release. “There’s the myopia of desire, love, obsession – the feeling of only being able to see that one person in everything, everywhere,” Miglis said in press materials. “There’s also personal myopia of not seeing your potential or your power, of not zooming out; limiting beliefs.”
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Woodland
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have released their first new album in four years. Woodland, which follows their 2020 covers LP All the Good Times, was recorded at the couple’s own Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville. “Woodland is at the heart of everything we do, and has been for the last twenty some years,” they said in a statement. “The past four years were spent almost entirely within its walls, bringing it back to life after the 2020 tornado and making this record. The music is (songs are) a swirl of contradictions, emptiness, fullness, joy, grief, destruction, permanence. Now.”
illuminati hotties, Power
iluminati hotties, the project of Grammy-winning producer and engineer Sarah Tudzin, has returned with a new album. Power, the follow-up to 2020’s Let Me Do One More, features the previously unveiled tracks ‘Can’t Be Still’, ‘Didn’t’ (featuring Cavetown), ‘The L’, and the title track. In 2022, Tudzin decamped to an Airbnb in the Joshua Tree desert, where she finished seven songs, before enlisting Death Cab for Cutie’s Jason McGerr to record drums in a Washington state suburb in April 2023. “Power is not a grief record,” according to a press release. “It is not a love record, either. Instead, it is a real-life record, a reflection of all the things Tudzin has endured or enjoyed during the too-long span since Illuminati Hotties’ wonderfully infectious last batch.”
The Softies, The Bed I Made
The Softies are back with their first new album in 24 years, The Bed I Made, out now via Father/Daughter. The duo of Tiger Trap’s Rose Melberg and Pretty Face’s Jen Sbragia have already previewed the LP with the songs ‘California Highway 99’, ‘I Said What I Said’, ‘Tiny Flame’, and ‘Go Back in Time’. Shortly before writing and recording the album, both members lost their mothers. “Grief is an amazing opener,” Melberg said in a recent Paste interview. “We were both extremely raw and we sought a lot of comfort from each other. I think the album really came from this revitalized emotional connection between me and Jen.”
Cash Cobain, PLAY CASH COBAIN
Cash Cobain has dropped his much-anticipated new album PLAY CASH COBAIN. Following up last year’s Pretty Girls Love Slizzy, the New York rapper-producer promoted the record with the singles ‘Dunk Contest’, ‘Fisherrr’, ‘Rump Punch’, and ‘Problem’. It boasts guest spots from Flo Milli, Big Sean, Fabolous, Luh Tyler, YN Jay, Anycia, 6lack, Don Q, Rob49, Chow Lee, and more.
Closebye, Hammer of My Own
New York City band Closebye (featuring recent Artist Spotlight interviewee Margaux on bass) have released their second album, Hammer of My Own. The follow-up to their 2022 debut Lucid News includes the advance tracks ‘Two Knocks’ and ‘Lucky Number’. According to singer-songwriter Jonah Paul Smith, the album’s lyrics deal with “the struggle to come to grips with self-reliance, with constant shifts of blame, projection, codependency, ending with a new sobering independence, and the realization that only you can be your own savior.”
Body Meat, Starchris
Starchris is the debut album by Body Meat, the project of singer-songwriter and producer Chris Taylor. Out today via Partisan Records, the record was preceded by the singles ‘North Side’, ‘High Beams’, ‘Focus’, ‘Electrische’, and ‘Crystalize’. Though this is Taylor’s first full-length since creating the moniker in 2016, the Philadelphia artist has rolled out several EPs, including 2021’s Year of the Orc and 2019’s Truck Music.
Other albums out today:
Luna Li, When a Thought Grows Wings; Fake Fruit, Mucho Mistrust; Geneva Jacuzzi, Triple Fire; Amy Allen, Amy Allen; Lainey Wilson, Whirlwind; Melt-Banana, 3+5; Gilligan Moss, Speaking Across Time; Brian Gibson, Thrasher.