In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on May 10, 2024:
Amen Dunes, Death Jokes
Amen Dunes has released his first album in six years. The follow-up to Freedom is called Death Jokes, and it was preceded by the singles ‘Purple Land’, ‘Boys’, ‘Round the World’, and ‘Rugby Child’. The 14-track effort features contributions from Sam Wilkes, Christoffer Berg (Fever Ray), and Kwake Bass (Tirzah & Dean Blunt), while its array of samples includes an interview with J Dilla, recordings from Type O Negative and Coil, a lyre performance of the oldest written song in human history, protest chants, a grunting powerlifter, as well as bits of stand-up from Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and others, used as “thought provocation and irritant.”
A. G. Cook, Britpop
A. G. Cook has dropped Britpop, his third proper LP, via his New Alias label. Featuring the Charli XCX-assisted title track and ‘Soulbreaker’, the LP spans 24 songs that are split into three parts: Past, Present, and Future. Past showcases Cook’s hyperreal electronic style, Present channels a more traditional understanding of the Britpop genre, while Future consists of “his own distinctive understanding of what the future of music really means,” according to press materials. Cook made the record while living in Montana during lockdown, working on his two previous albums, Apple and 7G.
Les Savy Fav, OUI, LSF
Les Savy Fav are back with OUI, LSF, their first album in 14 years. The Root for Ruin follow-up includes the previously released singles ‘Legendary Tippers’, ‘Guzzle Blood’, ‘Limo Scene’, and ‘World Got Great’. “The band was never a job, so we can’t get fired and don’t have to quit,” frontman Tim Harrington said in a statement. “We had the time to figure out how to bring the people we’ve become and the people we are as artists together authentically. There’s a chaotic, untethered ecstasy at the center of the band’s universe. Squaring that with the desire to create stability and the need to endure some grind isn’t easy.”
How to Dress Well, I Am Toward You
Los Angeles-based musician Tom Krell has returned with I Am Toward You, his first How to Dress Well album since 2018’s The Anteroom. Out now via Sargent House, the LP was previewed by the singles ‘Crypt Sustain’, ‘nothingprayer’, ‘New Confusion’, and ‘No Light’. Collaborators on the album include Chris Votek, Joel Ford, Josh Clancy, Brian Allen Simon (Anenon), Aaron Charles Read, CFCF, Trayer Tryon, and Anarthia DLT. The title I Am Toward You came from Krell’s wife mishearing a lyric from Miley Cyrus’ ‘I Adore You’. “[She said,] ‘wow, that’s a powerful lyric,’ I asked which lyric, and she responded that she heard the chorus as having said: ‘I Am Toward You,’” he explained. “Because I had expressed to her that I thought the song was powerful, she generously attuned her mind to hear something powerful, something profound.”
Various Artists, I Saw the TV Glow (Original Soundtrack)
The star-studded soundtrack for I Saw the TV Glow, the new film from We’re All Going to the World’s Fair director Jane Schoenbrun, has arrived. It features yeule’s previously released cover of Broken Social Scene’s ‘Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl’, Florist’s ‘Riding Around in the Dark’, and Caroline Polachek’s ‘Starburned and Unkissed’, as well as contributions from Sloppy Jane with Phoebe Bridgers, Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan, Bartees Strange, Maria BC, King Woman, Jay Som, L’Rain, the Weather Station, Drab Majesty, Proper, and Sadurn. Alex G’s score for the movie is out next Friday.
youbet, Way to Be
youbet has unveiled their sophomore LP, Way to Be, via Hardly Art. Featuring the early singles ‘Seeds of Evil’, ‘Carsick’, ‘Nurture’, and ‘Vacancy’, the record was written and produced by bandleader Nick Llobet, mixed by Adam Brisbin, and mastered by Amar Lal at Macro Sound. “Every song I birth is an opportunity to reinvent myself and gives me a chance to perform through a different spiritual filter,” Llobet shared in a statement. “Each song is like a creature that lives within the depths of my soul, waiting to be written. I have this growing collection of spirit demons that keep me company in my creative life.”
Knocked Loose, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To
Louisville quintet Knocked Loose have released their latest LP, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. The follow-up to 2019’s A Different Shade of Blue and 2021’s A Tear in the Fabric of Life EP was produced by Drew “WZRD BLD” Fulk. It features collaborations with Poppy (who guests on the advance single ‘Suffocate’) and Chris Motionless. “On this album, we go the fastest we’ve ever gone; we go the scariest we’ve ever gone. We also go the catchiest and the most melodic that we’ve ever gone, and that’s the point,” guitarist Isaac Hale said in a press release. “Instead of branching off into a specific direction, we want to encompass ALL directions.”
Dehd, Poetry
Dehd have put out their fifth LP, Poetry, following up 2022’s Blue Skies. The Chicago band enlisted Ziyad Asrar of Whitney to co-produce the album alongside the band’s own Jason Balla at Palisade Studio. The majority of the record was written at Taos, New Mexico’s Earthship and in a cabin on Washington’s Puget Sound. “Eating, sleeping, breathing, living—our only purpose was to write,” singer and bassist Emily Kempf reflected of the experience in a statement. The singles ‘Light On’, ‘Mood Ring’, ‘Alien’, and ‘Dog Days’ arrived ahead of the release.
Yaya Bey, Ten Fold
Yaya Bey has followed up 2022’s Remember Your North Star and last year’s Exodus the North Star EP with a new album, Ten Fold, out now via Big Dada. It features the previously released tracks ‘crying through my teeth’, ‘the evidence’, ‘chasing the bus’, and ‘me and all my n****s’, as well as production from Corey Fonville (of Butcher Brown), Karriem Riggins, Jay Daniel, Exactly, and Boston Chery.
Arab Strap, I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore 👍
Arab Strap have released a new LP titled I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore 👍. Taking its name from a text message by the band’s live drummer, the follow-up to 2021’s As Days Get Dark was preceded by the tracks ‘Bliss’, ‘Allatonceness’, and ‘Strawberry Moon’. It was written and performed by Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton, with help from longtime collaborator Paul Savage. It’s an album of “a quiet anger,” according to Moffat, channeling both rage and love for “the tangible world and intangible world, and which one you choose to believe and engage with.”
Myriam Gendron, Mayday
Ottawa-born, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Myriam Gendron has released her third LP, Mayday. It follows 2021’s Ma délire – Songs of love, lost & found and includes the previously unveiled songs ‘Long Way Home’ and ‘Terres brûlées’. Accompanying Gendron on the LP are guitarist Marisa Anderson and drummer Jim White, with additional appearances from Cédric Dind-Lavoie, Bill Nace, and Zoh Amba.
Keeley Forsyth, The Hollow
Keeley Forsyth has unveiled her third album, The Hollow, which is also her debut for FatCat’s 130701 imprint. The follow-up to 2022’s Limbs was produced by Forsyth and Ross Downes and features guest appearances from Colin Stetson and Matthew Bourne. “We wanted to make something slightly more expansive, continuing to reference what we love from various genres without ever belong-ing to one,” Forsyth explained. “It’s with this ethos that we recognise aspects of sacred music, minimalist post-classical, dark ambient, film and theatre soundtracks. Forsyth layered her vocals into chamber choirs, applied pitch shifts and other digital processing, and speaks directly with clear articulate intention one moment to mumbled numb utterances in the next.”
Other albums out today:
Kings Of Leon, Can We Please Have Fun; Orville Peck, Stampede Vol. 1; Shannon & the Clams, The Moon Is in the Wrong Place; Chief Keef, Almighty So 2; Gunna, One of Wun; Jim White & Marisa Anderson, Swallowtail; I. JORDAN, I AM JORDAN; Mary Lattimore & Walt McClements, Rain On The Road; Villagers, That Golden Time; Sofia Bolt, Vendredi Minuit; Clementine Was Right, Tell Yourself You’re Going Home; Amy O, Mirror, Reflect; Angus & Julia Stone, Cape Forestier; Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Love Hate Music Box; Iglooghost, Tidal Memory Exo; Hot Water Music, Vows; Milan Ring, Mangos; Amy O, Mirror, Reflect; No Good With Secrets, Another Side; Mick Harvey, Five Ways to Say Goodbye; Julia Pratt, Family Feud; Take Offense, T.O.tality; Big Special, Postindustrial Hometown Blues; Jordan Rakei, The Loop; Josienne Clarke, Parenthesis, I; Vicky Farewell, Give a Damn; Moonilena, Minnet; Sisso & Maiko, Singeli Ya Maajabu; Group Listening, Walks; Gregor, Satanic Lullabies.