Spoon will return in February 2022 with their first album in five years. Entitled Lucifer on the Sofa, the 10-track LP is described the band as their “purest rock ‘n’ roll record to date.” To accompany today’s announcement, Spoon has shared the first single, “The Hardest Cut.” “It’s the sound of classic rock as written by a guy who never did get Eric Clapton,” said Spoon frontman Britt Daniel in a statement. “I spent a lot of 2018 and 2019 listening to ZZ Top,” he added. Lucifer on the Sofa was co-produced by Spoon and Mark Rankin with additional contributions from Dave Fridmann and Justin Raisen. Recording took place in Austin, Texas, marking the first set of songs the band put to tape in their hometown in more than a decade. Advertisement Related Video Lucifer on the Sofa is out official...
Elvis Costello & The Imposters have announced a new album titled The Boy Named If, out January 14th via EMI/Capitol Records. As the first preview, they’ve shared the first single, “Magnificent Hurt.” Co-produced by Costello with Sebastian Krys, the LP’s recording sessions started off with a rhythm section of the frontman’s guitar and Pete Thomas’ Gretsch drums, recorded down in Bonaparte Rooms West. Longtime collaborator Davey Faragher contributed bass and vocals from France, with Steve Nieve playing the organ. “I started The Boy Named If with just an electric guitar, some sharps and flats, high heels and lowdowns, with five songs in bright major keys and carried on to write a whole new record for The Imposters to play,” Costello said in a statement. He added that the 13 tracks “take u...
SASAMI has announced her new album, Squeeze, due out February 25th via Domino. As a preview, she has also shared a pair of lead singles: “The Greatest” and “Skin a Rat.” Spanning 11 tracks, Squeeze is partially inspired by the Japanese yōkai folk spirit called Nure-onna (translation: wet woman), a vampiric deity that has the head of a woman and the body of a snake. The album’s eclectic sound varies between nu metal, country pop, folk rock, and classical music while drawing inspiration from artists ranging from System of a Down to Sheryl Crow and Fleetwood Mac to Bach and Mahler. Intended to help listeners process their “anger, frustration, desperation, and more violent, aggressive emotions,” Squeeze was constructed as an opera or orchestral work containing different “movements” that m...
After nearly a decade away, Midlake are gearing up to release their fifth studio album, which is the band’s first since 2013. It’s called For the Sake of Bethel Woods and arrives March 18th, 2022 via ATO Records in the States and Bella Union in the UK. As a preview, the Texas folk rockers have shared “Meanwhile…,” the record’s first single. For the Sake of Bethel Woods marks Midlake’s first time working with an outside producer, having teamed up with studio vet John Congleton, whose recent credits include St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, and Explosions in the Sky. The album is billed as a “warming expression of resolve and renewal,” signaling Midlake’s turning of a new leaf while staying true to their origins. “At age 16 my father and his friend hitchhiked from Ridgewood, NJ to the...
Beirut are back — kind of. Today, Zach Condon’s beloved baroque-pop project has announced Artifacts, a forthcoming double album that compiles material from the band’s entire history. Ahead of its release on January 28th via Condon’s own Pompeii Records, he’s previewing the compilation with a never-before-released Beirut track called “Fisher Island Sound.” Condon began pouring over old Beirut material in an effort to assemble a proper EP, but Artifacts seemed like the best route to take in order to document his evolution since he began making music at 14. On the double album, you’ll hear a few familiar Beirut standards like “Elephant Gun,” though this is largely a deep dive into Condon’s unreleased work. “When the decision came to re-release this collection, I found myself di...
Shovels & Rope, the folk-rock duo from Charleston, South Carolina, are back. They just announced a new album called Manticore that’s coming out February 18th via Dualtone Music. To celebrate the news, they’re sharing the lead single “Domino,” which you can stream below, as well as news of a US and European tour. Manticore is Shovels & Rope’s seventh album of their career, following this year’s covers collection Busted Jukebox Vol. 3 and 2019’s original full-length By Blood. The new LP spans 10 tracks in total, including “Domino.” Bandmates Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst originally wrote Manticore as an acoustic album, but the pandemic offered them the time to reimagine their initial arrangements and flesh out the music a bit more. In a press release, Manticore is descr...
French electronic icons Air have announced a 20th anniversary reissue of their seminal 2001 album 10 000 Hz Legend. The new edition will debut as an Apple exclusive on October 29th, before becoming available digitally and in physical editions on November 5th. Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel’s second studio album as Air introduced them to American audiences, buoyed by singles such as “Radio Number 1,” “Don’t Be Light,” and “How Does It Make You Feel?” The new reissue of 10 000 Hz Legend comes with an enhanced Dolby Atmos “3D” mix from the record’s original sound engineer, Bruce Keen, as well as several rarities: “The Way You Look Tonight,” which appeared on the Japanese edition of the LP and the Everybody Hertz EP; live versions of songs recorded in 2001 for K...
Jeff Tweedy has announced a deluxe edition of his 2020 album Love Is the King, featuring a new collection of live versions of its songs titled Live Is the King. Due out December 10th via dBpm Records, it comes with a new cover of Neil Young’s “The Old Country Waltz,” which is out today. Live is the King sees the Wilco frontman accompanied by a band consisting of his sons Sammy and Spencer Tweedy, as well as Liam Kazar, James Elkington, and Ohmme’s Sima Cunningham. The live versions were recorded at Wilco’s Chicago studio the Loft, as well as the Chicago venues Constellation and The Hideout. You can pre-order Love Is the King/Live Is the King now. Watch Jeff Tweedy and the aforementioned band’s performance of Neil Young’s “The Old Country Waltz” below, followed by the deluxe editi...
It’s a day that ends in ‘y,’ which means we’re due for a new Guided by Voices album. The prolific rockers’ 34th (!) studio set is called It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!, and it arrives this Friday, October 22nd. This is the second album of the year from Robert Pollard and co., following April’s Earth Man Blues. The 15-track effort was written by Pollard with production from Travis Harrison. It includes the singles “My (Limited) Engagement,” “High in the Rain,” and “Dance of Gurus,” and you can check out all three tracks along with the album artwork and tracklist below. Pre-orders are ongoing. Earlier this year, Pollard formed the new group Cub Scout Bowling Pins, which released its debut EP Heaven Beats Iowa in January. In 2020, GBV unveiled three m...
Sadie Dupuis has spent the last decade writing and recording playful indie rock as Speedy Ortiz. Now, the musician is commemorating her 10th year under the moniker with a 2xLP compilation called The Death of Speedy Ortiz & Cop Kicker…Forever, featuring some of the band’s earliest work. The expansive reissue is due out November 12th via Carpark, and as a preview, Dupuis has also shared the new self-directed video for “Cutco.” The Death of Speedy Ortiz & Cop Kicker…Forever will include the contents of 2011’s Cop Kicker EP and The Death of Speedy Ortiz LP, all now remastered by Dupuis, who’s since become a go-to producer in her own right. You’ll also get to enjoy a handful of previously unreleased tracks, reflective liner notes written by Dupuis, and a collection of photos f...
Chicago MC Mick Jenkins has shared a fresh single called “Contacts,” which serves as the lead track from his newly announced album, Elephant in the Room. Due out October 29th via Cinematic Music Group, the new LP follows last year’s The Circus EP. The 12-track effort features appearances from serpentwithfeet, Ben Hixon, Tiffany Lance, and Green SLlime, plus production from Saba, Kiran Kai, Thelonious Martin, Tee-Watt, Renzell, and more. According to a press release, Jenkins had completed 60% of the record prior to the pandemic shutdown in March 2020. The extra time gave him time to focus on his personal life, particularly his relationship with his wife. “I haven’t been home for more than three months at a time in seven years,” Jenkins said in a press statement. “It was just a lot...
Deap Vally have announced their new album Marriage, due out November 19th via Cooking Vinyl. The LA-based duo also shared the lead single “Magic Medicine” as a preview. The upcoming full-length spans 12 tracks and saw Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards collaborating with KT Tunstall, Peaches, and Jennie Vee. In a statement, the band gave some insight into the meaning and creative process behind Marriage, which they described as “a genre-bending experiment.” “Being in a band is like being in a marriage: sometimes it’s magical, sometimes it’s unbearably challenging,” Deap Vally explained. “To reinvigorate that marriage we’ve made album three a genre-bending experiment with new collaborators and instrumentation that push the limits of what has previously defined us.” Advertisement Related Video F...