• The forums will be unavailable for a few hours on Saturday 6th June, when they do return they will initially be in a degraded state with some features missing, but normal posting/reading will be possible. The main website will not be affected by these updates.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.
    Some other features of the forum are also currently disabled.

New Music Releases Thread

Don'tListenToTheHat said:
Is it worth us doing the half year round up of best so far since we’re pretty much here?

More of a selfish suggestion as I have a couple of train rides today
Click to expand...
Gaz Coombes
Wednesday
El Michels Affair, Black Thought
Shame
Squid
boygenius

There’s a few more that could be on there, that I either haven’t listened to or need to give a few more play throughs.
 

My usual weekly review. Nowhere near enough in it as last week (praise the Lord!):

Sigur Ros: their first in ages and probably the closest they've come to neo-classical ever. I read a review yesterday that basically said that whilst each track is great on its own, as an album it becomes a bit samey and I'd tend toward agreement.
Queens of the Stone Age: reasonable enough. Probably better than their last couple of albums, if I'm honest, but not a patch on anything they did going up to 2007.
King GIzzard & the Lizard Wizard: one of their thrashier, more metallic albums. Pretty good TBH.
Deer Tick: bar room Americana is their thing and they're very good at it. Good songs.
Hand Habits: an EP. A bit more electronic than I remember, unless I'm getting mixed up.
Django Django: a double album. They seem to have ditched their Beta Band lite mode in favour of something aimed at the dancefloor. They also seem to have more guest vocalists than before.
Chain of Flowers: Welsh post-punk/shoegaze with some very gothy vocals. Retro-enjoyable.
Bonny Doon: very nice slightly slackerish US indie rock/pop type stuff. Enjoyable but not necessarily end of year list worthy.
Creep Show: John Grant and Wrangler back together for some more electronica with JG's vocals. Decent.
Greg Foat & Gigi Masin: electronic ambience that washes over you. Quite engaging.
Ben Howard: once a fairly straightforward acoustic guitar based mainstream folk singer, he's gone a bit Bon Iver. This is a lot better than I expected.
Lorelle Meets The Obsolete: Mexican psych rock astronauts. Very enjoyable, as expected.
Ralfe Band: their first in a decade. They kind of come across as an anglified Pavement here. I like this.
Son Volt: covers of Dough Sahm songs. They're good songs and Son Volt are a good band.

Album of the week: not a vintage week. Ralfe Band get the nod though.
 
Arkle said:
There are new albums tomorrow from Albert Hammond Jr, Big Freedia, Cable Ties, Coi Leray, Cory Hanson, Geese, Jason Mraz, Kelly Clarkson, Kim Petrias, M Ward, Portugal The Man, Wye Oak, The Watson Twins, John Carroll Kirby, Swans, Tommy Prine, Danny Paul Grody and Lloyd Cole.
Click to expand...
Cory Hanson, Swans and Geese I reckon

New Aphex Twin single was out yesterday, as well as collaboration between Beck and Phoenix
 
Arkle said:
A high quality and high quantity week for me. My usual weekly review:

Witch: 70s Zamrockers return magnificently. I'm not massively familiar with their earlier work but some of this reminds me a little of Goat. Highly recommended.
Rufus Wainwright: after his own songs, operas etc., he's made a covers album loosely based on folk tunes and heavy on guest spots. There are many highs but the duet with Chaka Khan on "Cotton Eyed Joe" (yes, that one) is up there.
Baxter Dury: short, not so sweet but very, very good. He's continuing down his idiosyncratic path. Nobody else really sounds quite like him.
Cowboy Junkies: excellent, as expected. Doesn't break the mold of their other recent albums but they're very, very good at what they do.
Vulture Feathers: this is a stonker of an album. Indie-rock with strange vocals. Really, really liking this. They're a new name to me.
Protomartyr: see my Cowboy Junkies review (they're nothing like Cowboy Junkies but you get the point).
Foo Fighters: not a band I regularly listen to but I thought I'd give this album a shot based on some very good reviews. Big epic stadium things that do not that much for me until the last couple of tracks, which are both ace.
Tanya Tucker: the veteran (ish, she's 64) country artist continues her fine recent form. There's warmth and humour on here.
RVG: their third album and probably the best (debut was promising and full fo top songs, second had more budget and better production but not the songs, this has both). Aussie indie rock essentially.
Beach Fossils: retro indie-rock with harmonies to the forefront. Pretty good.
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: again, giving it a listen based on decent reviews. I'm more likely to listen to it again than Foo Fighters' latest. It's maybe a song or two overlong and obvious rhymes are obvious. First song sounds like Shack.
BCUC: (or Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness in full). They get described as "afro-psychedelic future pop". This, like their previous releases, is exhilerating and fun. Good live as well, if you get the chance.
Lanterns on the Lake: a little more up tempo than their previous releases, if not any more upbeat. Really good, as usual.
Bully: the fourth album of what is, fundamentally, Alicia Bognanno's solo project. As usual, high quality grungey alt-rock.
Band of Holy Joy: I'm not even going to try and count the number of albums they've now released. As ever, Johny Brown and gang give us their post-punk, urban folk, Brechty sound with lovely lyrics and top tunes.
Jack Cooper: the Modern Nature main man goes classical. Pretty good.
Wave Temples: ambient electronica. As befits their name, water is heavily involved. It's really good. The tracks are mostly short and mostly incredibly beautiful. I've seen a couple of reviews making a Boards of Canada comparison. I'm not sure they're quite that but there is a vibe here.

Album of the week: I could probably pick any of 10 or 11 of these but will, by a narrow margin, say Vulture Feather as they're a new name to me.
Click to expand...
Going through new music. Thanks for your posts coz love the Vulture Feather album.
 
Arkle said:
My big bumper review of the week. I've maybe tried to listen to too much over the last 3 or 4 days because there's little football and work today was essentially solo. Anyway:

Janelle Monae: decent enough. Sci-fi is out, nudity is in (she's apparently playing Josephine Baker in a biopic). Pop, reggae and hip-hop in a melange.
Christine and the Queens: a lot better than last year's Redcar thing. Based around grief, very long, has some fantastic moments.
Sluice: the one I missed from the Guardian's list. This is good. Laidback alt-folk/rock. Really good.
The Saxophones: continuing the laidback vibe. They're hard to define but good. Kind of easy listening, I guess.
Eliades Ochoa: back in the day, he was the youngster of the Buena Vista Social Club, now he's the survivor. Lovely Cuban vibes with occasional duets with Americans (Joan as Police Woman).
The Ironsides: slightly psychedelic instrumental R'n"b/funk. Very good.
Brown Spirits: very psychedelic blues based instrumental, er, instrumentalism. Also, very good.
Nico Paulo: she's the one to watch from this month's Uncut. Album came out a month back. A folk/tropicalia crossover. Good.
Squid: sort of post-rock something. This is where my memory goes off on one to be honesy. I think it's probably very good. Don't remember screaming abuse at it.
Dudu Tassa & Jonny Greenwood: nice. Middle eatern music with Greenwood's guitar. Each singer states their name and the date, which is an intriguing touch.
Godflesh: shouty, shouty, very dark and shouty. Perfect pre-breakfast Sunday morning listening.
Robert Ellis: gentle Americana, good songs. Very pretty.
King Krule: I generally like him but not overly impressed here. Quite introspective, which doesn't suit his voice.
Laurent Garnier: long, loud, relentless and largely tremendous. The track with Alan Vega doing vocals is a gem.
TEKEAlbum ::TEKE: Canadian/Japanese psych-rock which I desperately want to like more than I do.
Mystic 100s: this is good. They're clearly very stoned (if not on other more psychedelic substances). There's a sort of Neil Young jamming with Dinosaur Jr vibe happening.
Pozi: kind of post-punk with some keys that alternates between brilliance and really annoying.
Dream Wife: they're massively underrated. Insanely clever punk-pop/pop-punk that's really catchy.
Keaton Henson: pretty good. The fragility that made his early albums so good has gone though.
Lonnie Liston Smith,Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad: part of the Jazz Is Dead series which shows why jazz isn't dead. Soulful, sometimes spiritual, er, jazz. Pretty good.
Sam Blasucci: one half of Mapache goes a bit solo. Similar to the excellent Mapache, if I'm honest. Slightly retro, harmony vocals.
The Boo Radleys: decent enough indie-rock/pop. They lack their initial spark.
Jim: worst name ever (regardless of whether they're solo or a band) but this is good. There's a distinct 70s Laurel Canyon vibe and some very catchy songs.
Benefits: this came out 2 or 3 months back. Reviews suggest that they're the Teesside Sleaford Mods but they're actually a lot more abstract. The music is almost post-rock with the vocalist ranting over it. Very political, very good, not getting on Top of the Pops if it returns.
Jenny Lewis: not Rabbit Fur Coat but still very good. She's coming to terms with being a 44 year old single woman who's just got a dog.
Jess Williamson: this is pretty nice. She's a good singer-songwriter.
This Is The Kit: very likeable. Produced by Gruff Rhys but I'm yet to detect how it differs from previous TITK albums. You know who you're listening to.
Anna St Louis: I seem to have grouped the female singer-songwriters together. This is a lovely laidback album (country vibes throughout) that I'd massively recommend.
Laura Cantrell: I guess she's a veteran now. Anyway, this is terrific. Near enough a straight up country album with wit,warmth and verve, Up amongst the best of the year.
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit: very, very, good. He's sort of become what Ryan Adams would be if the latter wasn't a massive twat.
Lightning Dust: slightly gothic, quite dramatic, very good.

Album of the week: comfortably, Laura Cantrell, which I wasn't expecting. It's a gem! There's a lot of others that are very good though (Anna St Louis and Dream Wife particularly)
Click to expand...
Very late to it but I've started to get into Christine and the Queens recently

Find him quite fascinating in a way
 
favourite Top 10 new albums 2023 so far…

Jason Isbell- Weathervanes

Kevin Morby - more photographs

Baxter Dury - I thought I was better than you

Esther rose - Safe to run

Gaz Coombes - turn the car around

Free range - practice

Indigo de Souza- all of this will end

Laura Cantrell - just like a rose

Anna St Louis - in the air

Steve mason - brothers and sisters
 
My usual weekly review. It's a good week this one...

Geese: Big, bold and bizarre. I think they're pitching for the big league here.There's a vague Spiritualized meets late 60s Stones vibe going on. Really good.
M. Ward: His best in a while. The usual husky vocalled low key thing with well crafted songs.
Cable Ties: Sort of post-punk from Australia. There's a kind of Sleater Kinney vibe going on. This is quintessentially marvellous! One for my album's of the year list, for sure. Their fourth album apparently.
Wye Oak: a collection of singles and other non-album stuff. It actually holds together well and makes a strong album.
Albert Hammond Jr.: quite long (I think it's a double album). Decent enough but a lot of the songs sound like they'd be suited to Julian Casablancas singing them as Albert isn't the strongest vocalist and about half of the album is decidedly Strokesian.
Lloyd Cole: good album. He's matured well as a songwriter. This is maybe a little more electronic than his previous post-Commotions work.
Danny Paul Grody: six intriguing instrumental guitar pieces (well prmiarily guitar). Very likeable.
Tommy Prine: the late John Prine's son makes his debut album. Well crafted, often upbeat songs, which I guess I'd class as bar room Americana.
Swans: a 2 hour epic, which is what we expect from Swans. One track is 43 minutes long (for context every other album in this review bar those from Albert Hammond Jr and Geese, just, clock in at less than that). It's very, very good. Maybe a little quieter than some of their albums have been lately.
Cory Hanson: I've no idea what's going on with the album title but, getting beyond that, it's a very, very good psych rock album that, unsurpringly sounds quite a lot like Wand.
The Watson Twins: they're probably still best know for their role on Jenny Lewis' peerless 'Rabbit Fur Coat', which is one of the standout albums of the 21st century for me. This is their most full on country album and also their most upbeat. Very good.

Album of the week: Cable Ties but Geese, Tommy Prine, Swans and The Watson Twins could all have got the award in another week.
 
Arkle said:
My usual weekly review. It's a good week this one...

Geese: Big, bold and bizarre. I think they're pitching for the big league here.There's a vague Spiritualized meets late 60s Stones vibe going on. Really good.
M. Ward: His best in a while. The usual husky vocalled low key thing with well crafted songs.
Cable Ties: Sort of post-punk from Australia. There's a kind of Sleater Kinney vibe going on. This is quintessentially marvellous! One for my album's of the year list, for sure. Their fourth album apparently.
Wye Oak: a collection of singles and other non-album stuff. It actually holds together well and makes a strong album.
Albert Hammond Jr.: quite long (I think it's a double album). Decent enough but a lot of the songs sound like they'd be suited to Julian Casablancas singing them as Albert isn't the strongest vocalist and about half of the album is decidedly Strokesian.
Lloyd Cole: good album. He's matured well as a songwriter. This is maybe a little more electronic than his previous post-Commotions work.
Danny Paul Grody: six intriguing instrumental guitar pieces (well prmiarily guitar). Very likeable.
Tommy Prine: the late John Prine's son makes his debut album. Well crafted, often upbeat songs, which I guess I'd class as bar room Americana.
Swans: a 2 hour epic, which is what we expect from Swans. One track is 43 minutes long (for context every other album in this review bar those from Albert Hammond Jr and Geese, just, clock in at less than that). It's very, very good. Maybe a little quieter than some of their albums have been lately.
Cory Hanson: I've no idea what's going on with the album title but, getting beyond that, it's a very, very good psych rock album that, unsurpringly sounds quite a lot like Wand.
The Watson Twins: they're probably still best know for their role on Jenny Lewis' peerless 'Rabbit Fur Coat', which is one of the standout albums of the 21st century for me. This is their most full on country album and also their most upbeat. Very good.

Album of the week: Cable Ties but Geese, Tommy Prine, Swans and The Watson Twins could all have got the award in another week.
Click to expand...
I’ve managed to fit in two listens to Swans so far. It’s good but I haven’t quite made my mind up on where I’d rate it in their discography, the album is massive and dense just like the rest of their stuff so it’ll be a while before I make my mind up.

Certainly comes across as his own version of Blackstar though. Massive themes of death and his own mortality. If this is his sign off then then he should be very proud of releasing a beautiful, sonic powerhouse of an album at age 70.
 
Arkle said:
My usual weekly review. It's a good week this one...

Geese: Big, bold and bizarre. I think they're pitching for the big league here.There's a vague Spiritualized meets late 60s Stones vibe going on. Really good.
M. Ward: His best in a while. The usual husky vocalled low key thing with well crafted songs.
Cable Ties: Sort of post-punk from Australia. There's a kind of Sleater Kinney vibe going on. This is quintessentially marvellous! One for my album's of the year list, for sure. Their fourth album apparently.
Wye Oak: a collection of singles and other non-album stuff. It actually holds together well and makes a strong album.
Albert Hammond Jr.: quite long (I think it's a double album). Decent enough but a lot of the songs sound like they'd be suited to Julian Casablancas singing them as Albert isn't the strongest vocalist and about half of the album is decidedly Strokesian.
Lloyd Cole: good album. He's matured well as a songwriter. This is maybe a little more electronic than his previous post-Commotions work.
Danny Paul Grody: six intriguing instrumental guitar pieces (well prmiarily guitar). Very likeable.
Tommy Prine: the late John Prine's son makes his debut album. Well crafted, often upbeat songs, which I guess I'd class as bar room Americana.
Swans: a 2 hour epic, which is what we expect from Swans. One track is 43 minutes long (for context every other album in this review bar those from Albert Hammond Jr and Geese, just, clock in at less than that). It's very, very good. Maybe a little quieter than some of their albums have been lately.
Cory Hanson: I've no idea what's going on with the album title but, getting beyond that, it's a very, very good psych rock album that, unsurpringly sounds quite a lot like Wand.
The Watson Twins: they're probably still best know for their role on Jenny Lewis' peerless 'Rabbit Fur Coat', which is one of the standout albums of the 21st century for me. This is their most full on country album and also their most upbeat. Very good.

Album of the week: Cable Ties but Geese, Tommy Prine, Swans and The Watson Twins could all have got the award in another week.
Click to expand...
The geese album is very good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top