Breaking News
Surprise! The National Release Their 10th Studio Album, Laugh Track
American rock band The National present their surprise freewheeling, all-hands-on-deck 10th studio album, Laugh Track. If its companion piece, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, represented a rebuilding of trust between group members after 20+ years together, the vibrant, exploratory Laugh Track is both the product of that faith and a new statement of intent. Listen to lead track, “Deep End (Paul’s In Pieces)”, below:
Reveling in the license to radically upend its creative process, The National honed most of this material during live performances in 2023, and captured those invigorated versions in impromptu sessions at producer Tucker Martine’s Portland, OR studio, Flora Recording & Playback. The nearly eight-minute album closer, “Smoke Detector”, was recorded in June during a soundcheck at Vancouver’s Deer Lake Park, completing a body of work bristling with spontaneity and vintage rock energy that makes a perfect complement to the songs found on its more introspective predecessor.
Laugh Track is available now digitally, with physicals (Standard Black and Limited Edition Indie Clear Pink Double-LP, CD) arriving November 17th.
Big Thief Share Devoted New Single, "Born For Loving You"
Today, Big Thief have shared the captivating new single, “Born For Loving You”. Recorded and produced by Dom Monks at Guissona, Spain’s Teatre de cal Eril Studio on a recent tour, “Born For Loving You” finds Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, James Krivchenia and Max Oleartchik at their most earnest and unashamedly romantic – “I was born for loving you / Just something I was made to do”
The Limited Edition 7” pressing arrives on Eco Vinyl, featuring both “Vampire Empire” and “Born for Loving You”.
Snail Mail Announces Valentines Demos EP - Shares "Easy Thing"
Marking the two year anniversary of the release of her critically acclaimed album Valentine, Snail Mail (Lindsey Jordan) presents the Valentine Demos EP. Consisting of five early stripped-down recordings, this 45 RPM Black Vinyl 12” includes “Adore You” (a working title for “Valentine”),“Headlock”, “c. et al.”, “Automate”, along with the previously unreleased “Easy Thing”. Listen to the latter track below, as a first preview of the EP:
Jordan says: “Without further ado, here are the demo versions of some of the songs that would become integral to the making of Valentine. A little over three years ago, holed up at my parents’ house in Maryland, with just a minilogue synth, an interface, a mic, and a guitar, I started working on writing my second full length record. I prefer some of the demos to what actually came out on the record because of how intimate and solitary the process was. You can kind of hear me crying in one of them. Maybe two actually haha.”
John Francis Flynn Releases "Mole In The Ground" - Details Sophomore Album Look Over The Wall, See The Sky
Unlike what we might expect, traditional music is not one-size-fits-all. Each song has its own story, history and characters which the singers must serve, rather than themselves. On his new album, Look Over The Wall, See The Sky, John Francis Flynn delicately unpicks these traditional songs and rearranges them with an emotional force that sometimes leaves them unanchored, floating in a surreal space between the past and the present, the analogue and the digital, between love and tragedy. Today, Francis Flynn has shared the steady first single, “Mole In The Ground”, alongside a new music video:
To listen to Look Over The Wall, See The Sky, is to witness history through a modern lens in a trance-like state. As expected, Flynn’s contemporary influences are sufficiently esoteric, from ‘The Heart Pumps Kool Aid’ by —__–___ to ‘The invention of the Human’ by Dylan Henner (a concept album about an AI learning to sing). However, he was also inspired by his contemporaries in the traditional music scene in Ireland, many of whom contributed to the album, as well as those outside of it, such as noise-rockers Gilla Band and Rising Damp. John Francis Flynn’s sophomore album (following up his “…extraordinary debut…” (Guardian), I Would Not Live Always) arrives on Indie Green & Standard Black Vinyl, as well as CD.
UK Rapper CASisDEAD Details Debut Album Famous Last Words - Releases "Matte Grey Wrap"
The long-awaited debut album from CASisDEAD via XL Recordings. Famous Last Words is a fully realized expansion of the dystopian futurism that has captivated audiences since CAS first announced himself in 2013. Over the past decade, he’s dipped in and out of the shadows, blessing fans with cult hits while maintaining his anonymity and shunning media attention; a rejection of the spotlight that’s helped to create folklore around a rapper who’s widely regarded as one of the UK’s most inventive lyricists. New single “Matte Grey Rap” is out today, watch the video below:
Famous Last Words is as much a sci-fi film as it is a rap record, a labyrinth of vice, crime and faded glamour. The listener steps through a portal into a realm narrated by CASisDEAD, whose command of storytelling drops you right into the underground of a city where he is the main character in a shady network of gangsters, girls and drug deals. However, Famous Last Words isn’t a story of bravado or posturing; much of the album deals in themes of loss, regret and paranoia, a persona constantly self-reflecting amongst the madness that surrounds him. The album features a carefully curated roll call of collaborators including Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant, Desire, and Connie Constance. The vocalists are immersed in CASisDEAD’s hallmark 80’s-inspired synthpop soundscapes, aided and abetted by a production cast that includes Stranger Things composer Kyle Dixon and ‘Italian’s Do It Better’ label founder Johnny Jewel. The 23 track album arrives on Standard Black and Limited Edition Clear Indie Double-LP Vinyl, as well as CD and Cassette.
