Things are still heating up when it comes to new albums dropping, but this week gives us two big new albums from some big names. Sleater-Kinney, now just the core duo of Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, are back with their third album since reuniting and their second since becoming just the duo and it’s an album inspired by the surprise and sudden death of Carrie’s parents while on holiday in Italy. It’ll surely be one with heavy themes and emotions and should highlight the work that these two have been crafting with extreme care and sonic fortitude.
Pop-punk legends Green Day recently announced a massive summer tour in which they’ll play their classic records Dookie and American Idiot in full, but today they’re back with a new album (I assume they’ll play songs from it as well along the trek) and it’s been heralded as one of their strongest outputs in quite some time.
Big Thief singer Adrianne Lenker announced a new solo album and shared another heart-wrenching track called “Sadness as a Gift.” It’s got some acoustic twang (to match the cowboy hat on the album cover) and gentle piano that gives the track an extra moving touch.
Kim Gordon is best known for her time as bassist and singer in Sonic Youth. She also released an awesome solo album back in 2019 and is gearing up to drop her second album this year. “BYE BYE” is the lead single and brings her unique approach to noise and combines it with hip-hop for an unexpected, yet awesome new sound.
Last year, Yard Act put out the excellent song “Trench Coat Museum” and a few other singles. While “Trench Coat” isn’t slated for the album, their new single “We Make Hits” will be on there and it continues on their path of dance-punk revivalism that’s made them such an engaging act thus far. Post-punk group IDLES also have a new album on the way and their latest track, “Gift Horse,” is another powerful number that fits in well with their killer discography.
Fresh off some shows with Irreversible Entanglements, poet and rapper Moor Mother will release a solo album this year and announced it along with the sprawling new song “GUILTY.” Joy Orbison has been a key figure in the UK’s garage, dubstep, and jungle scene over the past decade and his latest tune, “flight fm,” is another electronic gem full of glitchy beats and sharp rhythms that go hard in the paint.
Instrumental trio Khruangbin have become an unexpected rising sensation over the past few years with their take on funky, psychedelic grooves and this year they’ll release a new album led by their latest single, “A Love International.” As shoegaze continues to grow in popularity, Winter has shared fuzzed-out new tune called “the lonely girl” that brings loud guitar work prominently into the mix.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Condé Nast would be folding the music publication Pitchfork into GQ and subsequently laid-off a significant portion of the staff, including writers and editors that had been with the platform for years and several decades. It’s an incredible blow to the music journalism community and the devastation is hard to describe. This newsletter and my blog certainly wouldn’t exist without the influence of Pitchfork and I’m deeply saddened at the outcome and terrified for what it means moving forward. There are so many bands who had their careers made by receiving the “best new music” designation and whether you loved or hated the opinions and ratings, it’s hard to think of any media outlet that has had the level of impact that Pitchfork has had on indie music over the last twenty-five years. My sincerest condolences go out to anyone who lost their job and my endless thanks to the writers who’ve inspired me to do what I do here.
Albums:
Sleater-Kinney | Little Rope
Green Day | Saviors
Glass Beach | plastic death
Vemod | The Deepening
Songs:
Adrianne Lenker | “Sadness as a Gift”
Kim Gordon | “BYE BYE”
Jlin | “The Precision of Infinity” (ft Philip Glass)
Yard Act | “We Make Hits”
IDLES | “Gift Horse”
Devon Welsh | “You Can Do Anything”
Moor Mother | “GUILTY”
Khruangbin | “A Love International”
Real Estate | “Haunted World”
Joy Orbison | “flight fm”
Madi Diaz | “Everything Almost”
Winter | “the lonely girl”
If you’re a Spotify user, you can listen to these songs (and more from 2024) here!