Notable vinyl releases out this Friday - 24 May (2024)

Inspired by a lifetime of listening to jazz + woodshedding, Andrew Bird on his new album Sunday Morning Put-On presents his take on the Great American Songbook. Andrew Bird Trio features Ted Poor (drums) and Alan Hampton (bass), and transcends nostalgia, pushing his limits as an improviser. Replacing saxophones with violin solos and showcasing Andrew's signature vocal prowess, the trio reimagines jazz standards completely live in Southern California’s legendary Valentine Studios.

You called yourself broken, but that's just what people are, that's how the light gets in," sings Bess Atwell in the opening moments of Light Sleeper, before gentle hums of strings and shuffling snares make way for the Brighton singer's voice at full pelt, singing with a newfound rawness. "Light Sleeper is about the willingness to feel," the Brighton singer-songwriter explains. "Somewhere along the line I had become very afraid of feeling." A huge part of this exploratory new era was Aaron Dessner, who produced Light Sleeper. His isolated cabin studio Long Pond, in Hudson Valley, was once Bess' desktop background, but she never thought she would end up star-gazing on it's veranda and noodling away on the same instruments used by her heroes, not to mention a certain pop star... The immediate trust between the pair clicked the moment Atwell walked through the doors of the iconic recording space; Dessner showed her around and then promptly left her alone to play on the many instruments at the heart of her favourite The National songs. As Atwell puts it, they seemed to speak the same musical language. "I trust his ear and I knew we had the same vision" she says. Since the release of 'Already, Always' Atwell has been through a number of personal transformations including tapering off antidepressants, after "years of avoiding it". Reflections on her upbringing and re-evaluations of some of her experiences led to a autism diagnosis in May 2023, which has helped her to make sense of many different moments. Motifs of sleeping and waking run throughout Light Sleeper, which constantly stirs and settles, Atwell embracing the full range and rawness of her voice like never before. By the title-track, which closes the album, twinkling, starry synthesisers lead her to a place of quiet realisation: "I'm ready to be a light sleeper again/To wake up and feel everything/I can carry the weight of it

Placenta is the fourth collection of imaginative and highly collaborative Carlos Niño & Friends music released on International Anthem since 2021. Perhaps more notably for the zeitgeist of today, it's the first new music to be released by Carlos Niño & Friends following the November 2023 release of André 3000’s New Blue Sun – which Carlos produced alongside André, co-writing, co-creating/playing, and co-mixing every song. The announcement of Placenta comes while Carlos is on tour with André, where Carlos offers an immense presence as music director, bandleader and percussionist, performing alongside several of his closest collaborators who are featured on his & Friends albums, including Placenta. Placenta is announced on the 1st solar return of Moss Niño, of whom Carlos and his partner Annelise are Earth parents. Their experience of pregnancy, labor and delivery were all profoundly impactful for Carlos. Becoming a father again (a whole 24 years after the birth of Azul Niño, who has become a regular artistic collaborator with Carlos) he felt total Inspiration for this set of recordings, and hence it is the most conceptually-grounded Carlos Niño & Friends album we've yet to present – fully connected to the spirit of family, birth, and "how we get here." In Niño’s words, Placenta is “dedicated to Mothers, Children, Babies, Aunties, Doulas, Midwives, Birthworkers…,” and a short list of track titles includes: "Love to all Doulas!," "Some Rest for the Midwives," "Real Vital Organs," and "Generous Pelvis." The centerpiece of the album, the sprawling "Placenta, Nourishment, New Home, The Galaxy," is an unbelievably vivid immersion in the sonic architecture of Niño's memory-scape... like being present in his energy field... or being present in a birthing room, or maybe even being born yourself. And it just might be the most powerful, unique piece of music Niño has ever created.

Frog In Boiling Water, produced by Chris Coady, was a four-year process that nearly broke the band before the album was completed. With an aim to push their sound, make a record that challenged them, and treat the band as a democracy for the first time, DIIV began an ambitious journey, both individually and collectively. This journey left their relationships with one another fraying, with the many complex dynamics of family, friendship and finances entangled, coupled with suspicions, resentments, bruised egos and anxious questions. They ultimately found their way through, and the result is 10 songs that mine a new lyrical and musical depth, those two halves mirroring one another inside a reflective and immersive whole. It is a mesmeric testament to enduring, to envisioning anything else on the other side while you remain here, in the slowly heating water of right now.

Not God is the new album from Chicago's beloved two-headed monster, Finom (fka Ohmme). You can ask them to go into more detail about the boring reasons why they changed their name, but for now, the answer is going to be polite refusal. No. Co-fronted by Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, Finom's influences run vast and varied, and they put a premium on change. Produced by Jeff Tweedy in the Wilco Loft, Not God is a marvel of growth, a progression from the roots of this collaborative band whose history can be traced back to it's improvised conception. This is owed in no small part to their hometown of Chicago, the life raft to so many persisters in musical adventurosity. That energy combined with Finom's dramatic vocal and musical gifts puts them in the peripherals of the legacies cemented by The Roches, Roxy Music, the B52s, Kate Bush, Cate Le Bon, and Wilco. Cunningham and Stewart are brilliant harmonizers, but harmony doesn't equate to a utopia. In Finom's maws harmony can also be a fight, holding the line until the volcano erupts. This realistic depiction of a creative relationship jolts throughout the songs of Not God, and brings the whole damn thing to life. Finom are more than one person with more than one dream. But still, they grow together, harnessed by their shared love of pop songwriting, control, chaos, and being generally freaky-deaky. Freaky in that way that is only really fun when you're doing it with a friend. As the globe spins and advancements advance, it can feel essential to return to relationships that make us feel whole, that generate energy of strength and relief. Which puts double the weight on the reality that Sima and Macie continue to pledge allegiance to each other, at the base of the volcano, in the front seat of the car as it pulls off the highway.

Nearly twenty-five years after disbanding, Gastr del Sol have unpacked their archive, stringing together an alternative view to their genre-melting 1993-1998 run. This assembly of previously uncollected studio recordings and beautifully captured unreleased live performances forms a spacious ode to the flux that was their métier; a further set of reinventions that continue to alter the manner in which we hear music, and literally everything else!

James Devane returns with another adept investigation into minimal techno’s spaces in between. “Searching” serves as both companion to “Beauty is Useless” and the next logical step in James’ exploration of process as guiding compositional tool. Conceptually simple, technically robust, the end result elicits both an undeniable groove and a trove of detail forlisteners willing to go deep. In his own words: “These recordings are the result of chance. Using hours of source material, everything was “chosen”, manipulated, and assembled at random via custom software without concern for key, tempo, measures, or rhythm. A search button and a save button.”

Grammy-nominated Kim Richey returns with her first album of new music in six years. The album's 10 tracks share a common thread of nostalgia and longing for times gone by. The album, except for one song, was produced by Doug Lancio in Nashville. Piano, flugel horn, pipe organ and acoustic guitars elevate these songs to a place that defies genre, but live somewhere in the folk, country, rock universe and illustrate what an incredible songwriter and singer Kim Richey is.

"I was in a dream, but now I can see that change is the only law."With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland learns to embrace a changing world with unconditional love on News of the Universe, the new full-length from California rock band La Luz.News of the Universe is a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland's experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son. It's also a portrait of a band in flux, marking the first appearance for drummer Audrey Johnson and the final ones from longtime members bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl, whose contributions add a bittersweet edge to a record that is both elegy for an old world and cosmic road map to a strange new one.But is there any band in the world more suited to capturing the chaos of change in all it's messy beauty than La Luz? Formed by Cleveland in 2012, La Luz is beloved for their ability to balance bedlam and bliss, each new record another fine-tuning of the band's mix of swaggering riffs with angelic vocals borrowed from doo-wop and folk; a band so reliably great that it makes the huge step forward in confidence and sheer musicality that is News of the Universe all the more formidable. Cleveland, also a writer and painter, has developed into a truly original songwriter with her own canon of haunted psychedelia. Yet if Cleveland has spent years writing songs about ghosts, what lurks in the shadows of News of the Universe is nothing less than death itself. "There are moments on this album that sound to me like the last frantic confession before an asteroid destroys the earth," says Cleveland. The powerful sense of openness that permeates News of the Universe is at least partially due to the fact that it is a record made entirely by women-from the performing, writing, and producing all the way through to the recording, engineering, and mastering. Working with producer Maryam Qudos (Spacemoth), the all-female environment allowed Cleveland to feel safe tapping into difficult places and expressing hard emotions women are socialized to suppress. Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, News of the Universe is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of color in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. Never is that more true than on News of the Universe, which might be La Luz's most brutal record to date but also their most blissful.

Timeless. Explosive. Romantic. Inspiring. How else to characterize Blue Electric Light, Lenny Kravitz’s 12th studio album? Kravitz’s mastery of deep-soul rock ‘n roll is a long-established fact. As a relentless creative force—musician, writer, producer, actor, author, designer—he continues to be a global dynamic presence throughout music, art and culture. Blue Electric Light is an impassioned suite of songs, that broadens this distinction and is the latest contribution of a man whose music—not to mention his singular style—continues to inspire millions the world over. On the album, Kravitz's talents as a writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist resonate as he wrote and played most of the instruments himself, with long-time guitarist Craig Ross. Lenny Kravitz has won four GRAMMY® Awards and sold 40 million worldwide. He was recently recognized by the CFDA with their “Fashion Icon Award” and was also selected as a 2023 Hollywood Walk of Fame inductee.

As mui zyu, Hong Kong British artist Eva Liu searches for a portal, wandering between nothing and everything in her pursuit of peace. On her second full-length album nothing or something to die for, she looks outward, embracing the chaos with each tentative step. With an eye to the absurd, it asks: how do we find the hole in the wall––the portal––to the path we all crave? mui zyu’s debut album Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century saw her explore her heritage, as she dived inward to find acceptance and healing. Now, instead of searching for answers from the inside, Liu raises her head to look at the world around her. As she attempts to understand the complexities and significance of human existence, she observes apathy alongside overwhelming chaos; the technological advancements of connection with the lack of meaningful bonds and the frustrations of upholding standards set by others. nothing or something to die for tries to decipher these juxtaposing truths, holding both the weight of those trying to destroy the world with the utter futility of it all.

Two-time JUNO Award winner Old Man Luedecke returns to the music world in 2024 with his new album "She Told Me Where to Go". Written while at sea on a scallop boat, it is a journey through the darkness and light of mid-life, and wrestles with the value of an artist in a time when music is ingested in 15 second increments. Produced by Afie Jurvanen (AKA Bahamas) over 2 years, "She Told Me Where to Go" finds Luedecke abandoning his banjo for exhilarating parts unknown. “I was just going over to my neighbour’s house to get some scallops for dinner”, says Chris Luedecke. “Knowing that the live music world had slowed, he asked me if I wanted a job on his boat”. And so, Chris began going out to sea in the North Atlantic, not far from his Nova Scotia home. He was giving up the game of music. During downtimes, Chris' family would tap their maple trees and host all-day sap boils over an open fire. A frequent visitor was Afie Jurvanen (Bahamas). “What about not playing the banjo on your next record?” Afie suggested. Afie’s question was rooted in how much of a fan he was of Chris’s song writing, and that maybe perceptions of the banjo distracted from that. “I was a banjo player, known for my old-time Appalachian sound, and Afie thought that I should just write songs without the instrument in mind.” It might have been easier to just quit the game and stick to scallops, but being able to let go of the instrument that made him brought new life to Luedecke - to his songs and the album that sprang from it. 

Clancy marks Twenty One Pilots’ first studio album in three years and follows their RIAA Gold certified LP, Scaled And Icy. With details of the release teased to fans via cryptic mailings and covert artswaps on streaming services, “Overcompensate” welcomes listeners back to the band’s immersive world of ‘Trench.’ Layers of synths build over a racing breakbeat in the song - a skilled passage of alternative dynamics, flexing in time, and ready to explode. Having amassed over 33 billion streams worldwide and over 3 million tickets sold across global headline tours, the Columbus, OH based duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun have established themselves as one of the most successful bands of the 21st century and redefined the sound of a generation. Co-produced by Joseph and Paul Meany, Clancy marks the final chapter in an ambitious multi-album narrative first introduced in the band's 2015 multi-Platinum breakthrough, Blurryface. Furthermore, Clancy’s release on May 17th coincides with the 9th anniversary of Blurryface, which was released exactly nine years prior to the day. Twenty One Pilots extended the ambitious concept laid out in Blurryface with their 2018 Platinum-certified album TRENCH. Featuring the multi-Platinum and Platinum singles “Chlorine,” “My Blood” and the GRAMMY® Award-nominated “Jumpsuit,” the album graced spots on “Best of” year-end lists by Billboard, KERRANG!, Alternative Press, and Rock Sound—who placed it at #1.

Multi-platinum alt-rock trio Wallows release their highly anticipated third studio album, Model. The John Congleton-produced album arrives via Atlantic Records. Wallows (composed of Dylan Minnette, Braeden Lemasters and Cole Preston) have been best friends since the age of 11. They began playing music together in the LA music program Join the Band almost two decades ago and haven’t stopped since. In March 2022, the band released their Sophomore album, Tell Me That It’s Over, produced by 3x Grammy Award-winner Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, Haim, Adele). Tell Me That It’s Over saw Wallows continuing on their ever-evolving journey of sonic exploration, fusing a vast array of musical ideas – from lo-fi post-punk and indie-folk to early ’90s dance-pop psychedelia – into their own one-of-a-kind creative vision.

John Rossiter (Young Jesus) had quit music to study permaculture and to work in landscapes and gardens. His last album, Shepherd Head, was too much time spent on the computer. Working with soil and plants gave him some life back. He said, “You know, when gardening, the right decision to make for the landscape is usually the one that is already happening. It just takes time to read what that is." So, John left the orchard to meet Shahzad Ismaily (Feist, Lou Reed, Arooj Aftab) for lunch. They instantly bonded, talking about improvisation, rhythm, the heart. On a lark, Shahzad invited John to New York. Songs started to form, songs about shame and grief, love and redemption. They came fast, a song a day for two weeks. It was different from past albums, which felt like years of hammering out lyrics and ideas. This one came in the wake of a long illness, where tunes came in a rush, as if they were physical, as if the body couldn’t heal without them. An almost involuntary outpouring, overrunning his usual self-consciousness. Rossiter had to sit and transcribe without judgment: let the ideas grow on their own. Shahzad was in LA one day when John sat down at the piano and played them for him. They decided to record them at Shahzad's Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn – these songs would blossom into Young Jesus’ forthcoming album, The Fool. Inner landscaping requires presence and bravery. It can get pretty dark and strange the deeper you walk into that jungle. And it’s from the absolute pits of that inner landscape that the truest music rises from. At the end of the last session, Rossiter and Alex Lappin sat down and drew tarot cards. John drew The Fool.