Notable vinyl releases out this Friday - August 15, 2025

Alison Goldfrapp's return isn't just a next chapter-it's an artistic rebirth. With the arrival of her second solo album Flux on August 15, the pop icon charts a shimmering new path: bold, vulnerable, and wholly her own. Backed by a legacy of critically acclaimed releases and global acclaim, Flux is poised to be another high-water mark in one of pop's most visionary careers.. Built with sonic architect Richard X and synth-pop mastermind Stefan Storm, Flux pushes beyond 2023's The Love Invention into something more expansive and emotionally resonant. "There's a lot of light and shade, " Alison says. "Some songs are romantic or ethereal. Others are tougher and sensual." That tension shines on lead single "Find Xanadu"-a sugar-rush synth anthem already making waves. Goldfrapp has over 400M Streams and 200K sales. Alison Goldfrapp has over 15M streams and 10K in sales. - 89k Instagram / 19k YouTube / 20k TikTok followers Critics are tuned in, too. Billboard dubbed "Reverberotic" one of it's "Queer Jams of the Week." BrooklynVegan called it a favorite. Queerty, Prelude Press, and 101X have all spotlighted Alison's latest as a must-hear summer release. Her voice-once layered and ethereal-now cuts with intimacy and clarity, pulling the listener into sonic worlds both fantastical and raw. Tracks like the 80s-tinged "Cinnamon Light" and glittering house-inflected "Play It (Shine Like A Nova Star)" marry dancefloor energy with personal revelation. On "Hey Hi Hello, " she sings of letting go with bittersweet hope, while "Reverberotic" blends strings and synths into something cinematic and sensual. "I love things that simmer, " Alison says-and this album simmers, soars, and stuns. Flux also represents a physical shift. Written partially in Stockholm, Alison channeled the city's serene energy into her most grounded work yet. "Every day I'd look out at a church, hear the bells ring, and then head to the studio. It was peaceful, and that inspired the songs." Her artistic evolution continues live this summer as she supports Scissor Sisters on their UK arena tour-her biggest solo shows to date. And with Flux, she offers a soundtrack not just to the dancefloor, but to transformation. For record stores, Flux is a rare gem: a legacy artist in her prime, releasing vinyl/CD through her own label, with critical and streaming momentum that practically demands shelf space. Alison Goldfrapp has always made pop for the bold and the curious. Flux is no exception-it's the sound of an icon in motion. Available August 15, 2025 Label: AG Records Format: Physical (CD + Vinyl) Genre: Synth-pop / Indie Pop / Electronic For fans of: Robyn, Jessie Ware, St. Vincent, Ladytron, Roísín Murphy

For more than a decade, Black Honey have been conjuring vivid cinematic universes alongside across their three albums, scoring top 10s, playing shows with IDLES, Liam Gallagher and The Libertines and relentlessly touring. The new album Soak is a very different proposition to behind 2023’s A Fistful of Peaches, let alone 2021’s Written and Directed or the band’s self-titled debut of 2018. Two years sober and enjoying a thriving career as a tattoo artist, front person Izzy Phillips is still a force of nature but has found healthier outlets for her boundless energy.

Glacial Blue Vinyl. Bret McKenzie is a Grammy and Academy Award winning artist most well known for his band Flight of the Conchords and their eponymous television show. McKenzie is internationally renowned for singing and writing funny, strange, and unique songs primarily for film and television. Bret's songs have been sung by Kermit the Frog, Celine Dion, Lizzo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brittany Howard, Homer and Lisa Simpson, Fred Armisan, Miss Piggy, Amy Adams, Jason Segal, Ricky Gervais, Benee, Isabela Merced, Spongebob Squarepants, Tony Bennett, Mickey Rooney, and more. As a young adult Bret was an active part of the Wellington music scene playing in multiple bands across multiple genres. He was a founding member of the popular band The Black Seeds, a reggae funk phenomenon that went on to make multiple gold albums and tour extensively around the world. He also started the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, a surprisingly popular ten piece ukulele group, played in Dub Connection, an experimental electronica ensemble, made an indie pop electro record under the alias Video Kid, and performed in various jazz groups from The Shrinks, a band made up of people playing miniature instruments, to corporate function quartet The Canapés. At the same time Bret was heavily involved in the local theatre scene performing regularly in countless devised comedy theatre productions where he developed a friendship with a large community of theatre artists including long time collaborators Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. In 2000 he was cast as an extra in the first Lord of the Rings film, The Fellowship of the Ring and was unexpectedly catapulted to fame as a background elf that garnered an abnormal amount of attention from the Tolkien fans. He was coined Figwit - an acronym for "Frodo is great, who is that?" Around the same time The Flight of the Conchords emerged from this prolific Wellington artistic community and Bret spent several years touring comedy festivals in Australia, Canada and the UK with his bandmate Jemaine. They made a radio show for the BBC followed by a TV show for HBO that became a cult classic and propelled the pair to international fame. They released one EP and three albums with Sub Pop Records winning the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 2008. Bret's work with Flight of the Conchords established him in the entertainment worlds of both comedy and music and opened the doors to working in the American film industry. He has consistently worked on film and television projects since. In 2012 he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for his ballad "Man or Muppet" from the Disney film The Muppets. During this time Bret and his wife Hannah Clarke had three children, and Bret started to focus on projects that would allow him to be at home in New Zealand with his family. In 2022 Bret released a solo album called Songs Without Jokes that saw him explore songwriting without punch lines. FarOut Magazine described the songs as "like musical versions of a Kurt Vonnegut novel." This year he is releasing his second solo record, Freak Out City, made up of songs developed while on the road with his eight-piece band. Freak Out City was recorded in both Los Angeles and New Zealand, and co-produced by Bret and his long time collaborator Mickey Petralia. It was mixed by Michael Harris in Los Angeles at East West Studios. The musicians on the record are a mix of Los Angeles players Leland Sklar, Dean Parks, Drew Erickson, Chis Caswell, Joey Waronker and New Zealand musicians Ben Lemi, Leo Coghini, Jacqui Nyman, Moana Leota, Iris Little, Justin Clarke.

Interior Live Oak draws from everything Cass has created over two decades of experimentation to cut through with a direct and clarifying light. Throughout, his attitude is hopeful, which may sound odd for someone who often sings about the more extreme aspects of modern life. Interior Live Oak, however, is the resolve of someone who has lived those extremes. Named after a tree species native to Northern California, the album sees McCombs incorporate the more economical song structures of his prime material with the help of some of his earliest musical cohorts, including Jason Quever (Papercuts) and Chris Cohen. McCombs recorded much of the new material in the Bay Area, not far from where they had cut their musical teeth (as documented on last year’s archival release, Seed Cake On Leap Year). Additional recording in New York City brought with it contributions from other perennial collaborators such as Matt Sweeney and Mike Bones.

Platinum-selling hard rock titans Chevelle return with their first album in almost 5 years, Bright as Blasphemy. Including recent single, "Rabbit Hole (Cowards, Pt. 1)," the album finds the Grammy-winning band in blistering form. Available on black ice/silver nugget smush color vinyl with clear splatter. Printed insert included.

Wishbone, the fourth album by Conan Gray. The Black Cat Edition LP includes a black vinyl and 16x20” poster featuring an exclusive photo of Conan and Wishbone the Cat.

Multi-award winner Jack Garratt makes a very welcomed return with his third album Pillars - out on Cooking Vinyl. Marking his first full-length project in five years, Pillars is vibrant, emotionally-charged and a celebration of love, community, and self-discovery. Pillars is a testament to Jack’s evolution as an artist and individual.

The last we heard from Marissa Nadler, she was soaring through The Path ofthe Clouds and it's companion EP, The Wrath of the Clouds. Now, on her tenthofficial full-length record, New Radiations, she returns with a raw, intimate,and breathtaking collection of eleven otherworldly songs.From the first note, Nadler's lush voice and intricate fingerpicking are frontand center. She layers Everly Brothers-style harmonies over dreamlike, lonesome soundscapes-fuzzed-out distortion, Hammond organ, and ominoussynthesizers-that elevate her warm vulnerability with texture and atmosphere. Each track unfolds like a vignette of a life lived, delivering emotionalweight that resonates with quiet intensity.Lyrically, she shape-shifts through time and space-inhabiting charactersin an airborne Cessna, a spaceship, a getaway car, and alternate dimensions.Her storytelling is cinematic in scope and deeply personal in impact and thecontrast between sweet, catchy melodies and dark, visceral lyrics runs deep.Whether singing from the first-person narrative or channeling these otherpeople, the album taps into the universality of love and loss with gravitas andempathy.Produced by Nadler herself and mixed by Randall Dunn (Earth, Sunn O)))),New Radiations features subtle arrangements from longtime collaboratorMilky Burgess-woozy slide guitar, hypnagogic synthesizers, and grittyriffs. Genre-bending yet quintessentially her own, this album freezes theworld's noise in a moment of beauty and solemnity. New Radiations is notjust another album-it's a career highlight, a testament to Marissa Nadler'ssingular vision and artistry

The highly anticipated 8th studio album from Maroon 5, Love Is Like, has finally arrived. This album features the percussive, jazz-chord daydream hit "Priceless" featuring LISA, as well as the new sax-laced, slap-bass funk-pop single "All Night". Maroon 5 has once again showcased their musical evolution with this release, expanding their instantly recognizable sound with a hooky and dynamic new sonically ambitious album.

Following back-to-back Grammy-winning albums with her band Golden Highway, along with a Best New Artist nomination, Molly Tuttle releases her new solo album, So Long Little Miss Sunshine, on August 15, 2025 via Nonesuch Records. Recorded in Nashville with producer Jay Joyce (Orville Peck, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson), the fifth full album from the singer, songwriter, and virtuoso guitarist marks a sonic departure from her recent work and features twelve new songs—eleven originals and one cover, of Icona Pop and Charli xcx’s “I Love It.”On her new album—a hybrid of pop, country, rock, and flat-picking, plus one murder ballad—Tuttle goes to a whole new place. Her virtuoso guitar work takes center stage on this album more than ever, and for the first time, she introduces her banjo playing into two of her recordings.“I like to be a bit of a chameleon with my music. Keep people guessing and keep it full of surprises,” she says.So Long Little Miss Sunshine was recorded with drummer/percussionists Jay Bellerose and Fred Eltringham, bassist Byron House, and Joyce on multiple instruments. Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show) also plays banjo, fiddle, and harmonica, as well as singing harmony; much of the LP was co-written with Secor, who is also Tuttle’s partner. “We spend so much time together, we live together, and anytime I have a song idea, or he has one, it’s just so easy to transition from whatever we’re doing into writing a song.”Tuttle also conceived the artwork for So Long Little Miss Sunshine, which features multiple Mollys, each wearing a different wig except for one with nothing on her head at all. Tuttle has been bald since she was three years old due to the autoimmune condition alopecia areata; she acts as a spokesperson for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.

Sunshine and Balance Beams, Pile's ninth album, is a Sisyphean fable concerned with labor and living. To write it, singer Rick Maguire inhabited "a dark place," wrestling with the concept that there is no enlightenment, no end to suffering. Maguire explores workaholism, the myth of meritocracy, and acceptance of mortality-all through a devilish allegory of trudging through a shadowy forest towards the uncertain dream of a bright clearing. Pile wrestles with existential and social contradictions by evoking sonic in-betweens. The music exists somewhere in the temporary equilibrium of light and shadow, chaos and order. Heated rain-like guitars, shifting drums that pave sinuous roads in sound and pace, eerie synths, and aqueous strings add to a panoramic production of loud-quiet dynamism matching the emotionality of the band's thunderous performances. The group also favored freewheeling performances that would animate the storytelling, while enlisting a string section (violins, viola, cello) to perform incandescent, through-composed arrangements co-written by cellist Eden Rayz and Pile. They drew inspiration from cinema and opera scores by Chopin, Bernard Herrmann, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, lending Sunshine a larger-than-life sound that intensifies Pile's blistering realizations of some of their most accessible songwriting to date. The recording is a noticeable leap in production value, and centers Maguire's vocals in new and exciting ways. Pile traveled to Pawtucket, RI for two weeks of tracking at Machines with Magnets with longtime engineer Miranda Serra (Kal Marks, Kira McSpice). The album was mixed by Seth Manchester (Lightning Bolt, Mdou Moctar), and Mastered by Matt Colton (Aphex Twin, Swans, Muse). Sunshine and Balance Beams is Pile's first album for Chicago's Sooper Records.

Rise Against return with new album Ricochet, their most resounding and reinvigorating music to date. Twelve songs, produced by GRAMMY-winner Catherine Marks and mixed by Alan Moulder, these punk rock pathfinders find a world of constant stimuli, algorithms intended to aggravate and divide. They ask fans to consider who ultimately benefits from this collective division and displeasure. An album massive in sound but centered around the small parts of the psyche that lead to the biggest positive change.

Steve Gunn’s compositions, from either his instrumental or vocal-accompanied work, have always been studies in tension. “Music for Writers”, the first Gunn album under only his name since 2021, takes those studies to a new level. It is an instrumental album based around guitar, synths and more, it leads the listener to tightly and deeply focus on minute changes and variations in style. It is a masterpiece in fragile, small-scale world-building that occupies a unique space within Gunn's wider discography. Composed and recorded during Gunn’s time at the Pedvale Art Residency in Latvia, the tracks result from Gunn pairing new audio to the experiences in the area surrounding the compound and photography he took while on the grounds. The results range from the wistfully evocative and inquisitive “Park Entrance” to the inviting and exploratory “Pedvale Sunrise”. This listener keeps getting pulled into the entrancing gravitational pull of “Slow Singers On The Hill”.