Notable vinyl releases out this Friday - 22 March (2024)

On bright future, Adrianne Lenker, a songwriter known for turns of phrase and currents of rhyme, says it plainly, “you have my heart // i want it back.” documented with analog precision, what began as an experiment in collaboration, became proof Adrianne’s heart did return, full to the brim, daring her into the unknown. Admirers of Adrianne’s solo music and big thief will find on bright future her reliable talent captured in stunning, magnetic clarity. In the company of parlor instruments, Adrianne’s modern melodic and lyrical inventions create new traditions. Her vocal flights at times outwit gravity, then land, guiding along an earthly path. The wholeness of the unspliced recordings preserve a time of musical friendship during a golden season.

A previously unreleased recording of a historic 1971 concert. The original multi-track recording was commissioned by Impulse but wasn't released at the time. Features an all-star group including Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Jimmy Garrison, Cecil McBee, Ed Blackwell and others. This was a triple bill placing her in the company of Laura Nyro and The Rascals. Concert produced by Sid Bernstein, who promoted the first Beatles concert in the US. 2 LP.

Recorded throughout 2023 at the band's home studios - Migration Studios in Gloucestershire, The Dairy in London - and mixed at the band's facility at Blueprint Studios, Salford, the album marks a significant step change for the group following 2021's Flying Dream 1. In the words of lead singer and lyricist Guy Garvey, AUDIO VERTIGO was built from "gnarly, seedy grooves created by us playing together in 'garagey rooms'," and is both more direct and sonically varied by purpose than it's predecessor. The album includes the lead single "Lovers' Leap," which "drags Elbow's signature sound through the junkyard, while putting a little vocoder on Garvey's vocals" (BrooklynVegan).

To sum up Gary Clark Jr. is more challenging every day. He's a musical universe unto himself, expanding at a nearly immeasurable rate, ever more hard to define - as a mind-blowing guitarist, a dazzling songwriter and engagingly soulful singer. He became the first artist ever recognized by the Recording Academy with Grammy Award nominations in both the rock and R&B categories for the same album in the same year, winning the latter: Best Traditional R&B Performance" - "Please Come Home" (from the album Blak And Blu). Rolling Stone dubbed Clark "The King of the Summer Festivals" as he captivated audiences from Coachella to Glastonbury, Lollapalooza to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, from Metallica's Orion Festival to Jay-Z's Made in America, and of course his hometown Austin City Limits Festival, where he his band set a daytime attendance record.

Beloved, Portland pop / indie-rock trio Gossip returns with Real Power, their first album in 14 years. The album marks a reunion with acclaimed producer Rick Rubin, who helmed the band’s pivotal 2009 album Music For Men. Rubin coaxed the band started recording in 2019 after completing a tour for the ten-year anniversary of Music For Men. Recorded at Rubin’s home studio in Kauai, the process was temporarily halted by the pandemic and resumed when restrictions lifted. The result is an 11-track celebration of the galvanizing might of music, the joy of creative expression, and the power of chosen family in the aftermath of collective and personal trauma. The timing is ripe for a Gossip reunion, and Real Power heralds a new maturity and renewed sense of purpose for the trio. “When we began, so much about Gossip was about running away—that was always in the music,” says Ditto. “We survived. We came from nothing, and we got the fuck out of there. And to be here 20 years later and still making music together is just incredible.”

Jlin’s third album ‘Akoma’ sets a new benchmark in her personal road map, not only since the album features guest appearances from Björk, Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet but for her continued sonic persistence and resistance. Jlin’s detailed and meticulous exploration of rhythm’s outer reaches has made her one of the most distinctive and recognisable voices within the electronic and classical music worlds. ‘Akoma’ is her next step - all these paths have led to this.

Recent years brought about for Julia Holter an existential focus on human connection, amid the staggering change that came with the death of loved ones (including her young nephew, to whom the album is dedicated) and the birth of her daughter. On Something in the Room She Moves, Holter vividly processes the complexity, gravity, and awe of this confluence of experience. She calls the music “sensual,” “flowing,” and “nocturnal”--a testament to how love, with all of its challenges, “reroutes neural pathways.” The cover art by Holter’s childhood friend, artist Christina Quarles, highlights the multiplicity of intimate connection: are the figures embracing or in battle? The title Something in the Room She Moves came to Holter spontaneously as she was naming the Logic project file for an early demo. Coincidentally, a few months later, she found herself mesmerized by the eight-hour cinéma-vérité Beatles documentary Get Back in 2021. Her titular phrase flips the gaze of the Beatles lyrics (“Something in the way she moves…”); the woman is no longer passively observed, but actively augmenting space. Holter has loved the Beatles since childhood, but sees the title less as a tribute than as a semi-surreal bit of automatic writing from her subconscious. After a string of dream pop albums that established her searching voice in independent music—from 2012 breakthrough Ekstasis to Loud City Song and Have You in My Wilderness—Holter released the thrillingly experimental Aviary in 2018. Since then, she has scored films like Never Rarely Sometimes Always, performed a commissioned live score for The Passion of Joan of Arc with the Chorus of Opera North, and collaborated with her partner, Tashi Wada, who plays on her new album. Something in the Room She Moves is a remarkable progression in Holter’s oeuvre, synthesizing her free, improvisatory energy with her signature eloquence.

MIZU’s Forest Scenes is an experimental project at its core - an exploration of the vast possibilities of the cello (as a melodic instrument, as a seed for digital manipulation, as a percussive and resonant body) within a forest of electronically synthesized sounds, found samples, and vocals. Conceived and composed primarily over the course of two inspired weeks in Summer 2022 during a visit to São Paulo, Brazil (following the completion of MIZU’s debut Distant Intervals), Forest Scenes is a journey within oneself as much as a journey into the unknowns of various woodlands and uncharted, yet-to-be-explored territories. The title, while referencing Robert Schumann's hidden gem of a piano work Waldszenen, makes no overt musical odes to its Romantic predecessor; rather, it creates an entirely new narrative and language of its own. Cinematic in composition and production, the album relishes in darkness and mystery as much as the excitements and joys of pure exploration.

New York singer-songwriter Odetta Hartman's 2015 debut mini-LP 222 and 2018's Old Rockhounds Never Die, saw her touring her unique performance style - part Jack White rock and roll folk blues, part electronic experimentations - with the likes of Let's Eat Grandma, Cosmo Sheldrake and Skullcrusher. Odetta's long-awaited second album, Swansongs, showcases her strongest set of songs to date. Another fever dream of a record, it includes the experimental pop of "Goldilocks", the dramatic string lead "Dr No." and her radical re-working of the traditional "Motherless Child"; first made famous by her namesake Odetta. Equally inspired by AG Cook's Apple and New Orleans traditional jazz, the musical mixology of these songs spans various genres of folk, americana, pop, punk, soul, ambient and spiritual. Lyrically, it tenders the tension of two truths in opposition through it's inquisition of the interplay between fear and desire. Dichotomy is at the heart of this deep exploration into shadow work, mythological musings, healing frequencies, eclectic expressions, and the art of sculpted sound. Swansongs is a dynamic and powerful reflection of love and ambition; hopeful, energetic and at times chaotic but always captivating.

Bite Down, the Merge Records debut of Rosali, finds acclaimed songwriter and guitarist Rosali Middleman in the midst of transition. Written after moving to North Carolina from her longtime home of Philadelphia, Bite Down is a searching, hungry record by an artist who is resolved to bite down on life, in all it's horror and joy.She is joined here by Mowed Sound-David Nance (bass, guitar), James Schroeder (guitar, synth), Kevin Donahue (drums, percussion)-and in studio by Destroyer collaborator Ted Bois (keys). Bite Down is Rosali's second album working with Mowed Sound, and there is urgency and ambition in their collaboration-a band pushing each other not just to expand on what they've already done together, but to break through into altogether new territory.

Saint Saviour, the alt-pop solo act from singer-songwriter Becky Jones, has released her much anticipated fourth album, Sunseeker via VLF Records. Produced again by Bill Ryder-Jones, Sunseeker is an experiment in challenging dourness; eleven tracks of warm, light, baroque pop that swim in light. It features collaborations with the aforementioned Bill Ryder-Jones as well as indie-pysch duo Jadu Heart and The Maccabees frontman Orlando Weeks.

Global superstar Shakira’s 12th studio album, ‘Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran’, features 8 brand new songs and a remix in addition to 7 global smash hits, including “Te Felicito” with Rauw Alejandro, “Monotonía” with Ozuna, “TQG” with Karol G, “Acrostico”, and the record-breaking viral collaboration with Bizarrap, “Music sessions vol. 53”. 

If you’ve heard Tatyana’s name before, it’s probably because she released a debut album back in 2022, Treat Me Right, co-produced with Metronomy’s Joe Mount, a record she describes as more of a collaboration. For It’s Over, Tatyana took control of every aspect of the album’s creation, from the production (she co-produced it alongside Mikko Gordon) to the artwork and the technology she used throughout (KORG plug-ins, like one of her favourite artists Maurice Fulton, and Elektron synths, like The Knife). “This record made me technically proficient because I really pushed myself,” says Tatyana. “I figured out a lot of things that I didn’t know before. In the past, I allowed others to lead the charge and I’m not doing that any more.” Primarily written and produced over the summer of ‘23, It’s Over follows the loose trajectory of a not-quite-relationship from the year before. But, more than that, it’s an album about modern dating, alienation and the confines of existing online. Even the album name, It’s Over, is itself a nod to the popular meme (It’s over, we’re back!). Internet language permeates this record in the same way it permeates our intimate lives (on first single “Down Bad”, a chest-thumping, clattering dance track, she sings lightly, “I wish I could delete these feelings, I wish I didn’t need to see ya”) “The language [of the album] is how I speak to my friends,” Tatyana explains. “It’s so part of my intimate personal relationships.”

Marking 40 years of The Jesus And Mary Chain, Glasgow Eyes was recorded at Mogwai's Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow, where Jim and William continued the creative process that resulted in their previous album, 2017's Damage and Joy, becoming their highest charting album in over twenty years. What emerged is a record that finds one of the UK's most influential groups embracing a productive second chapter, their maelstrom of melody, feedback and controlled chaos now informed more audibly by their love for Suicide and Kraftwerk and a fresh appreciation of the less disciplined attitudes found in jazz.

All Now emerges from a period of chaos for the band that was followed by a period of enforced quiet. The Staves released their third album, Good Woman, in February 2021; it was an album of love and loss, written during a disconcerting period of turmoil and pain. “There was a delayed reaction to trauma and these big changes out of your control,” says Jess of the period that came after Good Woman, as the band—like the rest of us—were forced to sit with their thoughts.The Staveley-Taylors were also still processing the death of their mother and other seismic changes: Emily took a backseat on this album (while still contributing vocals on a handful of tracks) to focus on motherhood, while Camilla reckoned with her own mental and physical health issues, including chronic pain and a series of operations due to endometriosis, which began to take an increasing toll.Struggling after two years of deep solitude and pain following the release of Good Woman, The Staves did what they know how to do best: they got back to writing with the idea of going back to basics and focusing almost solely on each other and their guitars as a starting point.It began with Jess, navigating this new landscape by harnessing her creativity on her own, at first in the studio in Hackney at the end of 2022, then slowly luring Camilla back to the next chapter of The Staves, before reaching out to Congleton, who the band had worked with on Good Woman.

Debut album from South African rising star who won the inaugural “Best African Performance” at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. Includes the platinum single “Water.”

One of the hardest working singer-songwriters in the game is named Katie Crutchfield. She was born in Alabama, grew up near Waxahatchee Creek. Skipped town and struck out on her own as Waxahatchee. That was over a decade ago. Crutchfield says she never knew the road would lead her here, but after six critically acclaimed albums, she's never felt more confident in herself as an artist. While her sound has evolved from lo-fi folk to lush alt-tinged country, her voice has always remained the same. Honest and close, poetic with Southern lilting. Much like Carson McCullers's Mick Kelly, determined in her desires and convictions, ready to tell whoever will listen.nnAnd after years of being sober and stable in Kansas City-after years of sacrificing herself to her work and the road-Crutchfield has arrived at her most potent songwriting yet. On her new album, Tigers Blood, Crutchfield emerges as a powerhouse-an ethnologist of the self-forever dedicated to revisiting her wins and losses. But now she's arriving at revelations and she ain't holding them back