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

As Alex Izenberg was piecing together the sweeping, psychedelic opuses on his full-band debut Alex Izenberg & The Exiles, the Los Angeles artist was focused on a simple goal: making something built to last. At the heart of his songs are bold ideas that take inspiration from the heady musings of philosopher Alan Watts, the multi-layered storytelling of King Crimson, and the imagistic vistas of Fleet Foxes. While the subject matter may feel esoteric—“My unconscious named the tongue/Of the lights of closed eyes” goes a characteristic lyric—Izenberg and his band let the music drift pleasantly to earth. The melodies are romantic and warm, and the arrangements are invitingly expansive, making expert use of a new ensemble formed around the strongest songs of his career. Fitting for a record that collects Izenberg’s widest array of collaborators, he expanded his process further by enlisting veteran producer Phil Ek to mix the album. “In the past, I've had trouble handing off my work,” he admits, always preferring to handle things on his own. But knowing that Ek worked on some of the records that most inspired his own music—particularly Fleet Foxes’ 2017 album Crack-Up—helped to calm his nerves. The resulting sound is just as intimate as any of Izenberg’s more hermetic material, while casting a mystical, communal glow that feels brand new in his body of work.

Blur celebrate the one-year anniversary of their Live At Wembley Stadium show with the release of the concert. Live at Wembley Stadium is a collection of songs captured across two unforgettable nights last summer - the biggest shows of the band’s 30+ year career to date - which saw Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree perform to over 150,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, Blur’s first time ever to play the iconic London venue. Song highlights include The Narcissist and St Charles Square from their latest #1 album, the acclaimed The Ballad of Darren, as well as There’s No Other Way, Popscene, Beetlebum, Trimm Trabb, Villa Rosie, Coffee and TV, Under the Westway, Out of Time, To the End, Parklife, Song 2, This is a Low, Girls anf Boys, Tender, and The Universal.

Crack Cloud has always been something beyond a rock band: bothprofound and grand, vaporous and elusive.The first iteration of Crack Cloud was formed nearly a decade ago as aproxy-rehab outlet on the fringes of Calgary. Over time, two EPs andaccompanying visual pieces were produced out of the residence knownas Red Mile. By 2017, several members had relocated to Vancouver,working out of harm reduction centers and low-barrier shelters. Sobriety,self-reformation and the idealism of their work further formed an ethosfor Crack Cloud. It was during these years that the band produced theirastounding 2020 album Pain Olympics. At once, their vision becameexpansive, cinematic.Now, Red Mile is a bit of a homecoming. Members have returned toCalgary. But Calgary/home has become a liminal space, a place of flux.After a decade of personal and collective growth, what does home evenmean? Red Mile is, for them, something like samsara: a return and arebirth.Red Mile's sound breathes expansive energy into the circuitous, streetbound sonics of Crack Cloud's prior material. Fizzling synths intertwinewith chiming pianos. Songs layer like Russian nesting dolls; one may finda Ramones chorus set within a desolate Western prog soundtrack only towatch it erupt into a joyous anthem. Real-ass guitars - alternately lilting,scuzzy and soaring - ring out across wide sun-bleached spaces. In 2024,the cumulative effect is (in rock instrumentation terms) naturalistic. Anywhiff of embalmed nostalgia is absent. Even the close of the album - awinding, alllllmost Jerry Garcia guitar noodle that leads us out of Red Mile- is delivered without sentimentality. Principal songwriter Zach Choy'slyrics are cutting but merciful, with a sharp self awareness that neverslides into self-satisfaction. Crack Cloud as artists are critical - andultimately as forgiving - of themselves as they are the melting worldaround them. The songs balance an easy charm and cathartic power:affirming life without denying death.Recorded predominantly between the outskirts of Joshua Tree California,and Calgary, Alberta, this record is informed by a bittersweet mélange ofold and new. The sprawling, novelistic structures of their previous albumsare condensed and sharpened, while maintaining their refusal to delveinto superficiality. Through playful melodies and elliptical guitar soliloquy,they deliver a final product of exceptional depth and distinctlyunprecious warmth. Crack Cloud have produced a mature, vital work thatinterrogates the platitudes of the rock-n-roll lifestyle, but ultimately exaltsit's sacredness.Red Mile's de facto thesis statement "The Medium" is itself a rock songmeditation: an ode to the form and it's practitioners. This genre that -typical, repeatable, corporatized as it can be - somehow still has thepower to help us live through life. We see the dusty sentiment of "I loverock and roll" exhumed, taken apart, and stitched back together. It's asong guided by faith - if the medium helps us proclaim our love today,it's worth protecting from derision tomorrow. We live in an era wheremusic seems to love hitting it's head against the wall. Crack Cloud's RedMile is the sound - the feeling! - of the bricks giving way.

Adored alt-pop duo Cults release their fifth studio album To The Ghosts via Imperial. The NY-based duo compromised of multi-instrumentalists Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion, confidently and clearly perfect their vision with the cinematic new album.  To the Ghosts was meticulously crafted; the earliest ideas dated back to the pandemic when they wrote music on weekdays from 10am-5pm with no deadlines or distractions. The album was written and recorded in Brian’s apartment; in 2022 they traveled to Los Angeles to collaborate with longtime producer and trusted creative confidant Shane Stoneback, because “nobody can read our minds like he can,” jests Madeline. To the Ghosts was co-produced by Cults and Shane Stoneback, mixed by John Congleton, and mastered by Heba Kadry NYC.

.Empire of the Sun, the visionary Australian electronic duo comprising Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore are back with their first album in eight years.

On The Edge Of A Lost And Lonely World is the sophomore album from Humanist, the moniker of frequent Mark Lanegan collaborator Rob Marshall. The album features an array of guests including Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, Midlake's Tim Smith, Isobel Campbell, and Ed Harcourt, amongst others. Commenting on the album, Marshall says... "During a time when the world seemed to teeter off its axis, and I grappled with personal illness and losses, music became my lifeline once more. Like a soothing medication, each note and lyric offered a glimmer of hope in the midst of darkness. Collaborating on the tracks felt like a shared journey through the universal language of music, allowing me to find my voice amidst the chaos. The title, On The Edge Of A Lost And Lonely World, felt deeply fitting then and continues to resonate now, embodying the essence of this profound musical exploration. I truly believe this album represents my finest work yet, a testament to resilience and the power of art to illuminate even the darkest of times."

Are Possible is a spark-throwing, undulating fusion of styles played (mainly) on banjo, upright bass and drums, made possible by the individual perspectives of Nathan, double-bassist Casey Toll (Jake Xerxes Fussell, Mt. Moriah) and drummer Rex McMurry (CAVE) work together in an easy-rolling manner, but one that contains an expansive, ass-shaking confabulation of ideas.

Sliding between the bodies in the street, cutting across the contrails that bisect our sky, Wand find melody and the anxiety beats as they hum the soundtrack for a new gravitational center. Seeking connections against the plan of niche interest and anonymity, Vertigo is the sound of slippage, rocks of contradiction (in soft focus); feet lost, regained, lost again, a multi-chromatic swaying, more automatic, associative, directed, in time.