FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: Julia Jacklin
Essential August Releases
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I am going to recommend…
IN THIS PHOTO: Lauran Hibberd/PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles for DIY
ten albums due next month that are worth some pennies. Although you may not be able to afford all of them, there is a variety of albums due that will give you options. I am going to start with 12th August. The first album from that week that I want to highlight is Hudson Mohawke’s Cry Sugar. This is an album that I would recommend people pre-order, as it is sounding like it will be terrific and must-hear:
“Hudson Mohawke returns with a new album Cry Sugar. His third album, Cry Sugar, deepens his practice of producing motivational music for club goers-uplifting the debauchery and inspiring many through his own brand of anthemic maximalism. Trading in his lineage in dark UK back-alleys filled with Glaswegian antipathy for studio sessions with blazed Pavarotti-inspired tenors and drunk string quartets, Mohawke has dialed in an ongoing fascination with melding high and low culture. After all, he is indeed the architect for the high peaks of high-definition trap production that became embellished in the 2010s-a style that has been appropriated in everything from beer can littered college parties to Arby's commercials. American decadence, then, becomes a stage for his music to thrive-where the DJ booth becomes a composer's podium for him to conduct the tense drama between debauchery and apocalypse, the "mise-en-scene" of club culture in 2022.
Cry Sugar, serves as Hudson Mohawke's first work deeply informed by apocalyptic film scores and soundtracks by everyone from the late Vangelis to the goofy major-chord pomp of 90s John Williams. Cry Sugar also serves as Mohawke's own demented OST to score the twilight of our cultural meltdown. As the album's artwork (by Wayne horse Willehad Eilers) depicts-we are arm-in-arm with the Ghostbusters marshmallow man, returning home while swinging a bottle of Jack only to gaze out at the gray tempest of a coming catastrophe.
Despite the apocalyptic undercurrent, Mohawke foregrounds the iridescent vibrattos of gospel choirs, soul samples, and scat-sampling throughout Cry Sugar-scaling our bright human drama in the tumult. Known for his deft uses of fragmentation and deconstruction, Mohawke presents our fraught cultural moment as set against the quintessential backdrop of late capitalism-a tightrope walking between chaos and the unashamedly euphoric, between the erratic and the bold, the noisy and anthemic, the saccharine with the devastating. Cry Sugar becomes a testament of its namesake. In our most intimate, melancholic moments, something sweet and twisted emerges. A wry smile beneath the malice. In 2022, we cry sugar”.
The second album from 12th August that I want to spotlight is Pale Waves’ Unwanted. A band that has never really got the acclaim and airplay that they deserve, their third studio album is shaping up to be their best. An urgent, inclusive, and incredible album that will leave its mark, go and pre-order it if you can. Led by the fantastic Heather Baron-Grace, Pale Waves are a group that possess this great chemistry and bond. I think that Unwanted will get a lot of positive reviews when it comes out on 12th August:
“A fiery, confident kick-back against convention, Pale Waves’ third record Unwanted sees the group building on the promise of last year’s UK Top 3 album Who Am I?, and staking their claim as British rock’s most dynamic young group. “It’s bold and unapologetic, and that’s what the Pale Waves community is about,” says frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie herself. “We don’t need to fit a perfect mould, we don’t need to apologise for being ourselves, and we won’t change for anyone. That acceptance is what connects us.” Led by riotous lead single “Lies”, Unwanted is a record that reaches out to the passionate community of misfits and LGBTQI+ fans around the band, tapping into darker emotions than ever before while also striking a fresh tone of defiance”.
Let’s go to 19th August. That is the week when Hot Chip release Freakout/Release. One of Britain’s best bands, they are constantly pushing their sound and improving. They have a very loyal and growing fanbase around the world. I am looking forward to seeing what comes about with their latest album. On the evidence we have heard so far, it is looking like business as usual for Hot Chip! This is an album that I would point people in the direction of regarding pre-ordering. Freakout/Release is going to be an amazing release that will rank alongside the best of this year:
“Freakout/Release is another dizzying high in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. And while they continue to operate at peak form, the album also feels like a new chapter for the group - a collection of flesh-and-blood songs that finds the band reaching into the darkness to emerge as a true creative unit, their gazes fixed positively on the future ahead. The album features Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, British DJ and musician Lou Hayter and production work from Soulwax”.
The next album from 19th August that you may want to investigate is Viva Las Vengeance by Panic! At the Disco. Go and pre-order the album. It seems like the seventh studio album from Panic! At the Disco is going to see them take a slightly different course. Another band that has never quite gained the embrace and full approval that is deserved, I am going to be curious seeing how critics perceive Viva Las Vengeance. If you have some spare pennies for next month, it is well worth investing in the new album from Panic! At the Disco:
“Panic! At The Disco release their seventh studio album, Viva Las Vengeance. The upbeat, driving, anthemic title track, kicks off the new era of Panic! At The Disco.
Viva Las Vengeance shows a change in process for frontman / songwriter Brendon Urie, having cut everything live to tape in Los Angeles alongside his friends and production partners, Jake Sinclair and Mike Viola. The cinematic musical journey is about the fine line between taking advantage of youryouth, seizing the day and burning out. The songs take an introspective look into his relationship with his decade plus career including growing up in Las Vegas, love, and fame”.
There are a couple of other albums from 19th August that I want to direct you towards. The brilliant Lauran Hibberd prepares to release Garageband Superstar. An artist that I have known about for a while now, she is one of our very best and most promising artists. A unique and potent songwriter who is consistently stunning, her album is going to be one that will introduce her music to a wider audience. I would urge people to pre-order what is likely to be a simply brilliant album from the Isle of Wight wonder. I reckon Hibberd is going to be a massive star of the future. I have a lot of affection and respect for everything that she does:
“Isle Of Wight’s resident slacker pop queen. Lauran Hibberd’s rise towards the forefront of the emerging indie elite shows no signs of slowing, with her charismatic, tongue-in-cheek songwriting already attracting widespread press attention (The Guardian, NME, The Line Of Best Fit, Dork, DIY, Billboard, NYLON, Clash, Gigwise, Upset), and significant praise across BBC Radio 1 airwaves (Clara Amfo, Jack Saunders, Jordan North). With her eagerly anticipated debut album on the way later this year, and tour dates galore lined up, the indie sensation is primed for a thrilling twelve months”.
Prior to finishing with a crop of albums out on 26th August worth some money, 19th August also sees Phoebe Green’s Lucky Me come into the world. An album that you will want to pre-order, do go and check this out. She is another fabulous young artist who has her own vibe and is among the very best artists this country has produced in years. Like Lauran Hibberd, Phoebe Green is shaping up to be a legend of the future. I am a fan of hers for sure! Lucky Me is an album that everyone will want to check out and listen to, as Green is a magnificent songwriter and talent that you should not pass by:
“24 year old Mancunian alt-pop star Phoebe Green's debut studio album Lucky Me is released on Chess Club. Produced by Alex Robertshaw of multi time Mercy Award nominated outfit, Everything Everything and his production partner Tom Fuller, the album comes off the back of supporting Self Esteem, Everything Everything and Baby Queen in one month alone, a BBC Radio 1 Maida Vale session and a Killing Eve sync. For fans of New Order, Ladytron and Big Moon”.
Let’s get to 26th August, as there are a few albums form that week which you will want to check out. The first that you need to be aware of is Ezra Furman’s All of Us Flames. Her new album is going to be one that will get a lot of love and positive reaction. Go and pre-order All of Us Flames if you can:
“A singer, songwriter, and author whose incendiary music has soundtracked all three seasons of the Netflix show Sex Education, Ezra Furman has for years woven together stories of queer discontent and unlikely, fragile intimacies. Her new album All of Us Flames widens that focus to a communal scope, painting transformative connections among people who unsettle the stories power tells to sustain itself.
Produced by John Congleton in L.A., All of Us Flames unleashes Furman's songwriting in an open, vivid sound world whose boldness heightens the music's urgency. The record arrives as the third instalment in a trilogy of albums, beginning with 2018's Springsteen-inflected road saga Transangelic Exodus and continuing with the punk rock fury of 2019's Twelve Nudes.
"This is a first person plural album," Furman says. "It's a queer album for the stage of life when you start to understand that you are not a lone wolf, but depend on finding your family, your people, how you work as part of a larger whole. I wanted to make songs for use by threatened communities, and particularly the ones I belong to: trans people and Jews”.
A few other great albums are due on 26th August. One that I am especially excited to hearing is Julia Jacklin’s PRE PLEASURE. The Australian artist’s third studio album follow’s 2019’s Crushing. Jacklin is a magnificent songwriter who always delivers brilliant work. PRE PLEASURE is an album that everyone needs to pre-order, as it is going to be among the absolute best of 2022. I am a big fan of Julia Jacklin, so I am looking forward to listening to her latest effort. Again, if you have some spare pennies for next month, I can recommend the brilliant Jacklin and PRE PLEASURE:
“Pre Pleasure is the breath-taking third album from Australian singer-songwriter, Julia Jacklin. Co-produced with Marcus Paquin (The Weather Station, The National), Pre Pleasure sees Jacklin as her most authentic self, delivering the most intimate, raw and devastating ten songs of her career to date. An uncompromising and masterful lyricist, always willing to mine the depths of her own life experience, and singular in translating it into deeply personal, timeless songs”.
One of the big albums of this year comes from Muse in the form of Will of the People. Their ninth studio album, this is one that you will want to pre-order. Listening to the singles from the album they have put out already makes have shown that this is going to be a very strong album from the Devon band:
“Grammy Award winning band Muse release their long-awaited ninth studio album Will Of The People via Warner Records. Of the album, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy says, “Will Of The People was created in Los Angeles and London and is influenced by the increasing uncertainty and instability in the world. A pandemic, new wars in Europe, massive protests and riots, an attempted insurrection, Western democracy wavering, rising authoritarianism, wildfires and natural disasters and the destabilization of the global order all informed Will Of The People. It has been a worrying and scary time for all of us as the Western empire and the natural world, which have cradled us for so long are genuinely threatened. This album is a personal navigation through those fears and preparation for what comes next.”
With Muse being Muse, there is NO bowing to any singular genre. The album’s title track “Will Of The People” brings playful provocation to a dystopian glam-rocker while there is an innocence and a purity to the nostalgic electronic textures of “Verona.” From the visceral thrill of “Won’t Stand Down,” to the industrial-tinged, granite heavy riffs of “Kill Or Be Killed,” or the lightning-bolt rush of “Euphoria,” the album concludes with the frenetic finale of the brutally honest “We Are Fucking Fucked.” On the band’s new single “Compliance,” Bellamy says, “
Will Of The People was produced by Muse. Key collaborators include mixing on eight tracks by the multiple Grammy Award winner Serban Ghenea; mixing from Dan Lancaster on “Won’t Stand Down,” and additional mixing on “Kill Or Be Killed” from Aleks von Korff”.
Let’s round off with Stella Donnelly’s Flood. An album that people need to pre-order, she is an artist that many might not know about. I hope that this changes with the release of an album that is sounding really fascinating and compelling. Donnelly is an artist sure to go very far indeed:
“Like the many Banded Stilts that spread across the cover of her newest album Flood, Stella Donnelly is wading into uncharted territory. Here, she finds herself discovering who she is as an artist among the flock, and how abundant one individual can be. Flood is Donnelly’s record of this rediscovery: the product of months of risky experimentation, hard moments of introspection, and a lot of moving around.
Donnelly’s early reflections on the relationship between the individual and the many can be traced back to her time in the rainforests of Bellingen, where she took to birdwatching as both a hobby and an escape in a border-restricted world. By paying closer attention to the natural world around her, Donnelly recalls “I was able to lose that feeling of anyone’s reaction to me. I forgot who I was as a musician, which was a humbling experience of just being; being my small self.”
Reconnecting with this ‘small self’ allowed Donnelly to tap into creative wells she didn’t know existed. Soon songs were coming to her in a way she could not control and over the coming months, Donnelly accumulated 43 tracks as she moved out of Bellingen and around the country, often finding herself displaced due to border restrictions and a tough rental market.
Though the writing of Flood was an intensely personal undertaking, Donnelly still saw the recording process as one of her most collaborative projects yet. Along with her band members, co-producing the record beside Anna Laverty and Methyl Ethyl’s Jake Webb helped to foster an important spontaneity in the studio. With Webb, Donnelly could “dig in” and discover a “forward-leaning sound” she’d been searching for, while Laverty’s ability to “capture the piano” and discern the “perfect take” allowed the songwriter to take risks, many of which have clearly paid off.
Looking back at the Banded Stilt, Donnelly ultimately appreciates how when “seen in a crowd they create an optical illusion, but on its own it’s this singular piece of art.” While each song in Flood is a singular artwork unto itself, the collective shares all of Stella Donnelly in abundance: her inner child, her nurturing self, her nightmare self; all of herself has gone into the making of this record, and although it would take an ocean to fathom everything she feels, it’s well worth diving in”.
That is ten albums due next month that I would recommend to people. Of course, there are many others that you can get. From Muse and Julia Jacklin through to Lauran Hibberd and Phoebe Green, there is a great variety of albums for you to choose from. If you are looking for some guidance as to which August-due albums are worth your money, then I hope that the above…
IS of some help.