It’s another scorching week across America, but album releases are still a bit chill. The big names this week are The Killers (who have a collab with Phoebe Bridgers on the album) and Jungle. There are also solo albums from Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam and Charles Spearin of Broken Social Scene.
Perhaps the biggest single of the week (and potentially the year) is the long-awaited new track from Lizzo featuring Cardi B. It’s Lizzo’s first since 2019 and hopefully the sign of a new album to follow as she gets set to headline festivals across the country.
Big Thief returned with two great new songs that capture their full spectrum of sounds and Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen have shared an acoustic take of their Song of the Year “Like I Used To.” Turnstile also shared yet another new track from their forthcoming album and Courtney Barnett slowed things down with her second single from her new record as well.
As the future of live music remains a bit uncertain, I was back out this week to see Digable Planets make their debut at the iconic Blue Note Jazz Club and Modest Mouse for one of their four shows at Brooklyn Steel. Soon, New York City venues will start to require proof of vaccination to attend, but it remains unclear how the attitude will change as we head towards the fall and a continued rise in COVID cases. Please. get vaccinated.
Yesterday, Metallica celebrated the 30th anniversary of their self-titled classic, more commonly known as the Black Album, and next month they’ll release the elaborate compilation of covers called The Metallica Blacklist. Phoebe Bridgers dropped perhaps the best cover to-date and the rest of it is shaping up to also be pretty stellar.
Albums:
The Killers | Pressure Machine
Jungle | Loving in Stereo
Jeff Ament | I Should Be Outside
Charles Spearin | My City of Starlings
Joy Orbison | Still Slipping Volume 1
Songs:
Big Thief | “Little Things” / “Sparrows”
Magdalena Bay | “Secrets (Your Fire)”
Lizzo | “Rumors” (ft Cardi B)
Phoebe Bridgers | “Nothing Else Matters” [Metallica cover]
Sharon Van Etten / Angel Olsen | “Like I Used To” [acoustic]
Courtney Barnett | “Before You Gotta Go”
Turnstile | “FLY AGAIN”
Trace Mountains | “AMERICA”
Jackson+Sellers | “Waste Your Time”
Sufjan Stevens / Angelo de Augustine | “Back to Oz”
If you’re a Spotify user, you can listen to these songs (and more from 2021) here!