In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on October 4, 2024:
The Smile, Cutouts
Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner are back with another album, Cutouts. It marks the Smile’s third studio LP, following January’s Wall of Eyes and 2022’s A Light for Attracting Attention. Produced by Sam Petts-Davies, the LP was recorded in Oxford and at Abbey Road Studios during the same period of time that Wall Of Eyes was recorded, and the cover artwork was painted by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke. The album features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra. It was preceded by the singles ‘Don’t Get Me Started’, ‘The Slip’, ‘Foreign Spies’, ‘Zero Sum’, and ‘Bodies Laughing’.
Coldplay, Moon Music
Coldplay have returned with a new album called Moon Music. The follow-up to 2021’s Music of the Spheres was promoted with the singles ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove’ and ‘We Pray’ featuring Burna Boy, Little Simz, Elyanna, and TINI. Speaking to Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, Chris Martin said: “It’s sort of our manifesto or my way of looking at things right now in terms of how to continue, how to not give up, how to accept reality, not run away from it, not hate anybody, even in the midst of always being filled with so many difficult emotions, and it’s with Max Martin, so he made sure that it’s really good.”
Geordie Greep, The New Sound
black midi’s Geordie Greep has announced his debut solo album, The New Sound, via Rough Trade Records. Over thirty session musicians were involved in the making of the LP, which took place across São Paulo and London. “With recording The New Sound, it was the first time I have had no one to answer to,” Greep said in a press release. “And with every impulse I had, I was able to completely follow it through to its conclusion. Being in a band (black midi), we often have this ‘we can do everything’ feeling, but you are also kind of limited in that approach, and sometimes it’s good to do something else, to let go of things.” The singles ‘Holy, Holy’ and ‘Blues’ arrived ahead of the release. Read our review of The New Sound.
Half Waif, See You at the Maypole
Half Waif, the project of Nandi Rose, has put out a new album titled See You at the Maypole. Rose worked on the follow-up to 2021’s Mythopoetics with longtime collaborator Zubin Hensler. Additional contributors include percussionists Jason Burger and Zack Levine, guitarist Josh Marre, violinists Hannah Epperson and Elena Moon Park, clarinetist Kristina Teuschler, trombonist Willem de Koch, harpist Rebecca El-Saleh, and upright bassist Spencer Zahn. The record includes the previously shared singles ‘Figurine’ and ‘The Museum’.
Wild Pink, Dulling the Horns
John Ross has unveiled a new Wild Pink album, Dulling the Horns, which is out today via band’s new label home Fire Talk. The follow-up to 2022’s ILYSM was written in the aftermath of frontman John Ross’ battle with cancer. “You zoom out, and I’m very fortunate,” Ross said in a press release. “But Dulling the Horns came from the feeling of figuring out how do you deal with things and move forward and just keep creating.” The 10-track effort was previewed by the singles ‘Eating the Egg Whole’, ‘The Fences of Stonehenge’, ‘Sprinter Brain’, and the title track.
Drug Church, PRUDE
Drug Church have dropped their fifth album, PRUDE. The follow-up to 2022’s Hygiene was produced and recorded by longtime collaborator Jon Markson. “I’m hesitant to say this album is more emotional, but I think there’s definitely some emotional songs on the record,” vocalist Patrick Kindlon said in a press release. “I wanted to avoid some of the topics I’ve been hammering for years, but I almost can’t, I’m limited to what interests me, or upsets me, or grabs my attention. So there’s certainly classic Drug Church stuff–people derailing their lives, a strong pull to some type of individualism, frustration with mob mentality, this idea that maybe community isn’t what it’s sold as–but I would say that this album approaches it from sort of a sad storytelling way. This one feels more earnest to me.”
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD”
Canadian post-rock titans Godspeed You! Black Emperor have issued a new album titled “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD”, which refers to the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, 2023, as of February 13, 2024. The follow-up to 2021’s G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! was engineered and mixed by longtime collaborator Jace Lasek of the Besnard Lakes. “every day a new war crime, every day a flower bloom,” the LP’s Bandcamp description reads in part. “we sat down together and wrote it in one room, and then sat down in a different room, recording. NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody?”
Pharmakon, Maggot Mass
Margaret Chardiet has released a new Pharmakon album titled Maggot Mass. The follow-up to the New York noise musician’s 2019 record Devour features the early tracks ‘WITHER AND WARP’ and ‘METHANAL DOLL’. “Maggot Mass is bred out of a disgust for the dysfunctional relationship that humans have developed with our environment and the rest of life on earth,” Chardiet explained in a press release. “It touches on the wounds of loneliness inflicted by that broken bond, and asks us to face the mirror in acknowledgement of our personal and systemic culpability. What peace can be made with privilege, when we understand the true cost of our comfort is death and not dollar? What peace can be made with death when we impose on it the same bankrupt pecking order in which we organize our lives? To what extent is life worth living in the solitude of this self-imposed species loneliness?”
Finneas, For Cryin’ Out Loud!
FINNEAS, Billie Eilish’s brother and producer, is back with his sophomore album. For Cryin’ Out Loud!, the follow-up to 2021’s Optimist, was preceded by the single ‘Cleats’, ‘Lotus Eater’, and the title track. Rather than making the album in his own recording space, Finneas opted to work in a classic studio environment with a band. “I’ve made a point to be hyper-collaborative,” he told Rolling Stone. “Fortunately, most of my friends are producers.”
Yasmin Williams, Acadia
Acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and film composer Yasmin Williams Yasmin Williams has released a new album called Acadia. The follow-up to 2021’s Urban Driftwood includes the previously shared Aoife O’Donovan collaboration ‘Dawning’ and ‘Virga’. “Acadia has several meanings: a place of rural peace and pastoral poetry (Italian), a refuge or idyllic place, (Greek and Italian), fertile land (Mi’kmaq), a place of plenty (French) … all of this relates to the ethos of this album,” Williams explained. “The songs are seeds I planted, and the seeds grew into the album, Acadia: a place of peace, a place where creativity can blossom, a place where everyone can fit in together and collaborate effectively, a place where the fruits of my own labor in music can fully flourish without judgment or prejudice. One of my visions for this record was to expand the potential for current folk music to encourage collaboration across various genres. Blurring those somewhat arbitrary lines has been a natural tendency for me since I started writing music at twelve years old and Acadia is a full circle moment.”
Blood Incantation, Absolute Elsewhere
Denver death metal band Blood Incantation’s latest – and longest – LP, Absolute Elsewhere, has arrived via Century Media. The album was produced by Arthur Rizk at Hansa Tonstudios in Berlin, Germany, and it features Tangerine Dream’s Thorsten Quaeschning, Necros Christos’ Malte Gericke, and Hällas’ Nicklas Malmqvist. It draws inspiration from the 1970s prog-rock collective Aboslute Elsewhere. “Absolute Elsewhere is our most potent audial extract/musical trip yet; like the soundtrack to a Herzog-style sci-fi epic about the history of/battle for human consciousness itself, via a ’70s prog album played by a ’90s death metal band from the future,” vocalist-guitarist Paul Riedl said in a statement.
Caribou, Honey
Caribou has come out with a new album called Honey. “One thing that hasn’t changed for me from the very beginning is a manic curiosity of seeing what I can make out of sound,” Dan Snaith explained in a press release. “Not so much what someone can make out of sound – a ‘professional’ with a host of collaborators and resources at their disposal, but me.. in my little basement studio. There’s more equipment in here than there used to be but essentially it’s the same as ever: still chasing that thrill of when something hits really hard and I find myself jumping up and down or the hairs standing up on my arms in excitement. How lucky am I that that’s never gone away? That the chance of making something new and exciting is still as exhilarating as ever. And as much fun as ever. Starting the day with nothing and (finishing most days with nothing good but occasionally…) having something that didn’t exist before stuck in my head by the end of the day. It still seems like a kind of alchemy.”
The Hard Quartet, The Hard Quartet
The Hard Quartet is the self-titled LP by the new indie rock supergroup made up of Emmett Kelly, Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, and Jim White. Out now via Matador, the record features the advance tracks ‘Earth Hater’, ‘Rio’s Song, and ‘Our Hometown Boy’. In a statement, Kelly said: “Leave yourself behind and go into something where you’re actually listening to others and trying to come up with a solution to whatever kind of esoteric thing you are attempting to do in your life. You know what I mean?” Sweeney added, “The way Jim plays really affected the way I hear things. He has this way of making everything sound good. All of a sudden, you really pay attention to everything else that’s going on because of what Jim is doing.”
Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn, Quiet in a World Full of Noise
Dawn Richard and multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Spencer Zahn have followed up 2022’s Pigments with a new collaborative album, Quiet in a World Full of Noise. It features Bryan Senti on strings, CJ Camerieri on brass, and the 26-person Budapest Film Orchestra. “I wrote all these stream-of-consciousness pieces on piano, and they were eerie, spacious piano tracks,” Zahn said in a press release. A day after listening to Zahn’s piano recordings, Richard went into the studio to write and record melodies and lyrics. “I did not write this down—I purged it out, and then I didn’t change anything after it,” she explained. “Our family has a distorted view of therapy; I’ve had to do a lot of healing on my own.”
Other albums out today:
Balance and Composure, With You in Spirit; A Place To Bury Strangers, Synthesizer; Jonah Yano, Jonah Yano & the Heavy Loop; Public Service Broadcasting, The Last Flight; Ivy 2, Less Precious; cumgirl8, the 8th cumming; Orla Gartland, Everybody Needs a Hero; The Bug, Machines I – V; Midland, Fragments of Us; Michael Love Michael, Bruiser; Fred Thomas, Window in the Rhythm; Undeath, More Insane;Mariam the Believer, Breathing Techniques; The Wild Feathers, Sirens; Torena, No Control; Gray/Smith, Heels in the Aisle.