Notable vinyl releases out this Friday - 26 January (2024)

Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs is the upcoming tenth studio album by American punk rock band Alkaline Trio. It is the band's final album with drummer Derek Grant following his departure in 2023. It was recorded at Studio 606 and produced by Cameron Webb. It also marks the band's first release through Rise Records. Its almost six-year gap from Is This Thing Cursed? (2018) will mark the longest between two albums from the band to date. The album was announced on October 17, 2023 alongside the release of its title track as the lead single. The band is also set to tour with Drug Church in support of the album.

Hiyo is a coming out party in a lot of ways for a band that has been a staple of the American Folk Music scene for over two decades. Co-Produced and engineered by Nashville's Rachael Moore and including performances by Jamie Dick (Drums), John Mailander (fiddle) and Maya de Vitry (vocals), the album Hiyo pushes the sound of CCL past anywhere it has been before. For a band that spent 15 years performing around a single microphone, CCL has found new inspiration in all of the sounds the world has to offer. "Synthesizers, drum machines, banjo...the world is really open right now to what constitutes folk music and we are grabbing on to that inspiration with both hands and not letting go," says leader Dave Wilson. Produced by Rachael Moore & Dave Wilson. Recorded & Mixed by Rachael Moore (George and Tammy) at Echo Mountain in Asheville, NC. Mastered by Nathan Dantzler at The Hit Lab in Nashville, TN.

Dark Rainbow, in contrast to their previous records - which were snapshots of the time and mindset in which they were made - was born from self-reflection, memory and gratitude. It is a bold exploration of who Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes were, who they are and who they can someday be. The southern gothic balladry and crooning alt rock that they've experimented with on their previous releases is boldly up front on this record. There's an undeniable strength in self-acceptance and in the search for your authentic spirit.

There are bands that come and go, and then there are those that carve their own unique path, leaving an indelible mark on the heart of listeners. Future Islands are unquestionably of the latter. They are a band that has defied convention, embraced vulnerability, and crafted a distinctive sound that resonates deeply with audiences around the globe. Now on their seventh release, People Who Aren't There Anymore heralds a new chapter for Future Islands. For Future Islands, albums aren't a static reflection of a moment in time, they are a fluid chapter in their lives that can change and mutate. People change and pull away. The band is no different, coming up against their future while staring at their past. They're not the same people they were when Future Islands began nearly two decades ago. They are now spread about, some settled down and some still moving. "We're like waves, we're all changing," says William. People Who Aren't There Anymore reflects the transience of a band's existence; the rare privilege of travelling all over the world contrasting with the sadness of fleeting moments in and out people's lives. Being everywhere but also nowhere. Remembering the lives lost and the living they'll never see again, cherishing the present and being grateful for the past.

In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain's most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity wherever it may lead him. And so it was that Gruff and his band - Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animals archivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) – piled into a van to La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed in a 19th-century manor house on the outskirts of Paris, to record Sadness Sets Me Free in just three days. La Frette's founder Olivier Bloch-Lainé regaled the group with stories from his time working with Brigitte Fontaine in the 60s and bringing Serge Gainsbourg's go-to string arranger, Jean-Claude Vannier, into the pop world. Absorbing French pop history by night, by day Gruff's new songs spilled out of the studio at a rate that exceeded even his own legendarily prolific standards. "It was a really intense period," Gruff says of the sessions. "I'm trying to work as much in capturing moments as making pop confections these days." Opening with the country leanings and a despondent caricature of its title track before careening into the Tropicália-tinged "They Sold My Home To Build A Skyscraper", on through to the hymnal, hopeful "Cover Up The Cover Up" and then coming full circle with the defiant "I'll Keep Singing", Sadness Sets Me Freeexalts the power of music to heal the individual and to effect change on a universal scale.

Blue Raspberry is Katy Kirby's follow up to her renowned debut album Cool Dry Place, which came out in February 2021. Singer/songwriter Katy Kirby introduced her warm, articulate vocals, perceptive lyrics, and playful adult-alternative style on her debut album as she toured tirelessly supporting bands like Waxahatchee, Andy Shauf, Julia Jacklin and Alex G.That record was a tried-and-true folk collection, perfectly displaying the chops of a young songwriter and emanating the warm feel of a band in a room; Blue Raspberry, made with the same band and producers (Logan Chung and Alberto Sewald), hits the gas and enters completely new territory as we see Katy truly step into her own as a songwriting force. She fearlessly leans far into baroque piano pop on tracks like 'Redemption Arc' and the title track 'Blue Raspberry', and lyrically she explores themes of loss and queer love. Very few are able to capture the same emotional, theatrical magic of artists like Fiona Apple, Tom Waits and Joanna Newsom but Katy pulls it off on this record; standout 'Drop Dead'.

The new album, was recorded between Oxford and Abbey Road Studios, and is produced and mixed Sam Petts-Davies. It features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Wall Of Eyes is the follow up their 2022 debut LP A Light For Attracting Attention

Channeling sold gold influences like The Pastels, Comet Gain, Orange Juice and The Aislers Set, The Umbrellas represent the fertile San Francisco Bay Area scene at its most pop-tastic. "Fairweather Friend" follows-up their surprise-hit 2021 debut in fine fashion, featuring sterling songwriting and arranging, bigger and more nuanced production, and terrific, assured vocals all around. The Umbrellas have swung for the fences with this new album and it's a bold, beautifully-executed success.

What an enormous room is not only the title of the album by Torres, it is an incantation, a phrase she has had in her head now for several years. In the video for What an enormous room's debut single "Collect," Scott finds herself alone in rooms that stretch beyond the frame of the camera. You can observe details of the rooms-the rubble and support beams in one, the lighting in the other-but they neither define their purpose nor explain her presence in them; these are large spaces whose lack of definition invites anxiety and even fear. What does Scott do when cast against that kind of uncertainty? She dances. She throws herself against it. When she sings "look at all the dancing I can do," it's an invitation to awe, and there is much here to be awed by. What an enormous room contains wry, Laurie Anderson-esque art rock, Nirvana's rage, and ABBA's strut. Rather than fear the unknown, Scott has chosen to fill it with as much of herself as possible, an artist unwilling to be stifled.

A fifteen song cycle that takes a journey to the center of the self. Ty's been on this kind of trip before, so he's souped up a vehicle that's all his own – a sophisticated machine – to take us there this time. The conception of Three Bells arcs, rainbow-like, into a land nearly beyond songs – but inside of them, Ty relentlessly pushes the walls further and further in his writing and playing to cast light into the most opaque depths.

Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue Brion Gysin's cult avant funk album produced in Paris by Ramuntcho Matta in the early 80's. The hugely influential Brion Gysin who, with his friend William Burroughs, was revered by the likes of David Bowie, Brian Jones, Laurie Anderson, Genesis P-Orridge, is accompanied here by Matta and French post punk stalwarts Yann Le Ker on bass (from the group Modern Guy) and Frederic Cousseau on drums (from Suicide Romeo) plus special guests including Don Cherry, Elli Medeiros, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Caroline Loeb and Senegalese drummer Prosper Niang (Xalam). This is the first time the album is reissued on vinyl, augmented with bonus tracks and a new introduction by Gysin scholar Jason Weiss.