FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: Rita Ora photographed for Wonderland./PHOTO CREDIT: Bartek Szmigulski
Essential July Releases
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JULY is a busy month for new albums…
IN THIS PHOTO: Blur in 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Reuben Bastienne-Lewis
so I want to include as many as I can here. With the summer in full swing, it is a great time for artists to release their work. I will start with the albums due out on 7th July. There are some huge albums out that week that you need to look into. I would recommend people pre-order a copy of ANOHNI and the Johnsons’ My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross. Her first album since 2016’s Hopelessness, this is going to be an exciting, revealing, and extraordinary listen.
“My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, Anohni’s sixth studio album, expresses a world view by shape-shifting through a broad range of subject matter. Through a personal lens, Anohni addresses loss of loved ones, inequality, alienation, acceptance, cruelty, ecocide, devastation wrought by Abrahamic theologies, Future Feminism, and the possibility that we might yet transform our ways of thinking, our spiritual ideas, our societal structures, and our relationships with the rest of nature.
On her first full album since 2016’s Hopelessness, she explains the creative process was painstaking, yet also inspired, joyful, and intimate, a renewal and a renaming of her response to the world as she sees it. “Some of these songs respond to global and environmental concerns first voiced in popular music over 50 years ago.” Anohni’s approach since her last record has shifted from someone tasked with challenging global denial, to an artist seeking to support others on the front lines. “I learned with Hopelessness that I can provide a soundtrack that might fortify people in their work, in their activism, in their dreaming and decision-making. I can sing of an awareness that makes others feel less alone, people for whom the frank articulation of these frightening times is not a source of discomfort but a cause for identification and relief.
On “It Must Change,” Anohni soulfully describes systems in collapse with a note of compassion for humanity: “The truth is I always thought you were beautiful in your own way // That’s why this is so sad.” Anohni’s voice is sensual and smoothed, selectively reaching to the edges of what it can contain. “We’re not getting out of here // No one’s getting out of here // This is our world,” she murmurs.A portrait of legendary human rights activist Marsha P. Johnson taken by Alvin Baltrop features on the cover, reflecting a 25-year relationship with the memory of Johnson that Anohni has held space for in the presentation of her own work. Elsewhere, the album artwork states ”It's Time to Feel What's Really Happening". In some ways it feels as if she is reaching across her life’s expression, and has found a moment of unique composure, wearing her long exploration of disarming intensity, with the maturity of a painter carefully choosing her colours. “I want the work to be useful, to help others move through these conversations we are now facing, to move with dignity and resilience through this bitter dawning”.
Another 7th July album that I want to point people in the direction of is Julie Byrne’s The Greater Wings. A terrific songwriter, Byrne’s upcoming album is one that you will want to pre-order. If you have not heard of Byrne or know what The Greater Wings holds in store, Rough Trade provide some more background and details:
“The first album in over six years from American songwriter Julie Byrne is a testament to patience and determination, the willingness to transform through the desolation of loss, the vitality of renewal, and the courage to rise, forever changed. For nearly a decade, Byrne has moved through the world as a characteristically private artist largely outside the public eye. A self-taught musician that has committed her life to her work, she now emerges from a deeply trying and generative period with the most powerful, lustrous, and life-affirming music of her career, The Greater Wings. While they hold the plasticity of grief and trauma, the songs are universally resonant, unbridled in their devotion and joy, held up by the love and alliance of a chosen family. Byrne leans further into atmospheres both expansive and intimate; the lush, evocative songcraft flows between her signature fingerpicked guitar, synthesizer, and a newly adopted piano, made wider by flourishes of harp and strings. It is the transcendent sound of resource, of friendship that was never without romance, of loyalty that burns from within like a heart on fire, and the life force summoned in unrepeatable moments — raw, gorgeous, and wild.
The Greater Wings was written across several seasons, pulling imagery from nights on tour, periods of isolation, and the drives cross-country for its various collaborations between Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Recording started with the late Eric Littmann, her longtime creative partner and Not Even Happiness producer, and finished in the Catskills of New York with producer Alex Somers (Sigur Rós, Julianna Barwick).
“My hope for The Greater Wings is that it lives as a love letter to my chosen family and as an expression of the depth of my commitment to our shared future. Being reshaped by grief also has me more aware of what death does not take from me. I commit that to heart, to words, to sound. Music is not bound to any kind of linear time, so in the capacity to record and speak to the future: this is what it felt like to me, when we were simultaneous, alive, occurring all at once. What it has felt like to go up against my edge and push, the love that has made it worth all this fight. These memories are my values, they belong with me”.
One of the biggest albums of the year comes from PJ Harvey on 7th July. I Inside the Old Year Dying is an album that I think will be among this year’s very best. The lead single from the album, A Child's Question, August, has been released, and it shows that the always-incredible Harvey is an artist that is peerless. I think that people need to pre-order I Inside the Old Year Dying. Not to jump the gun or get ahead of things, but I think that this album could be award-nominated. Here are some more details about an upcoming gem from the magnificent PJ Harvey:
“PJ Harvey’s tenth studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying marks her first release in seven years, following UK number 1 album The Hope Six Demolition Project. On this album, which was recorded with long-time creative collaborators John Parish and Flood, PJ Harvey builds a sonic universe somehow located in a space between life’s opposites, and between recent history and the ancient past. Scattered with biblical imagery and references to Shakespeare, all of these distinctions ultimately dissolve into something profoundly uplifting and redemptive. I Inside the Old Year Dying is released on Partisan Records”.
Before moving to some big albums out on 14th July, there is another from 7th July that I want to point people in the direction of. Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is going to be tremendous. This article from Pitchfork reveals some of the guests who will appear on the album:
“Taylor Swift has revealed the tracklist for her new album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). Along with the re-recorded tracks from her 2010 album, the new release includes “From the Vault” songs featuring Fall Out Boy and Paramore’s Hayley Williams. “Since Speak Now was all about my songwriting, I decided to go to the artists who I feel influenced me most powerfully as a lyricist at that time and ask them to sing on the album,” Swift explained on social media. “They’re so cool and generous for agreeing to support my version of Speak Now. I recorded this album when I was 32 (and still growing up, now) and can’t wait to unveil it all to you on July 7th.”
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is Swift’s third re-recorded full-length, following Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version). Since releasing the latter LP, Swift has also dropped off the new full-length Midnights. She is also now in the midst of her Eras Tour, which has featured guests like Phoebe Bridgers, Aaron Dessner, Maren Morris, and more.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version):
01 Mine (Taylor’s Version)
02 Sparks Fly (Taylor’s Version)
03 Back to December (Taylor’s Version)
04 Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
05 Dear John (Taylor’s Version)
06 Mean (Taylor’s Version)
07 The Story of Us (Taylor’s Version)
08 Never Grow Up (Taylor’s Version)
09 Enchanted (Taylor’s Version)
10 Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version)
11 Innocent (Taylor’s Version)
12 Haunted (Taylor’s Version)
13 Last Kiss (Taylor’s Version)
14 Long Live (Taylor’s Version)
15 Ours (Taylor’s Version)
16 Superman (Taylor’s Version)
17 Electric Touch (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault) [ft. Fall Out Boy]
18 When Emma Falls in Love (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)
19 I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)
20 Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault) [ft. Hayley Williams]
21 Foolish One (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)
22 Timeless (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”.
Claud’s Supermodels is out on 14th July. If this is an artist new to you, I would suggest that you check out their new album. Rough Trade provide more information about a record that is going to resonate with so many different listeners. It is an album that I am looking forward to hearing more about:
“No matter your age or station, Supermodels is the sort of record you can hear yourself in. Claud’s engrossing and poignant second album is a confident diary of the mercury of life and love in one’s early 20s, whether it’s the self-doubt that creeps through its tunes or the place of compromise they try to find. It’s an exacting map of the emotional and logistical vicissitudes they’d encountered in their early 20s. Fissures in romances and friendships, pressures of recording careers, the casualties of growing up: Each of these 13 songs is another articulated diary entry, threaded together with scant regard for genre and with the roller-coaster of feeling that gives each tune such specific gravity. These are familiar topics for Claud, covering some of the same terrain as 2021’s Super Monster. But there is a newfound confidence to the ideas here, rendered in structures and hooks that do not equivocate as they move from frowning folk to boisterous pop to twisted piano curios. Where Supermodels was rendered mostly in their childhood bedroom, this was cut in a place of their own, with a team of confidants and collaborators building them into resplendent productions. Supermodels takes its name from “Screwdriver.” “You caught me looking at photographs of supermodels,” they sing, voice rising slowly over the elegiac line penned on that free and broken piano. “Trying not to cry when I look back at myself.” It’s a staggering moment, a reminder of the ways we’re all working to stop seeing ourselves as less than and not equal to, to beat back a dozen different insecurities that we try to store in the deepest recesses of our facade. But Claud doesn’t hide anything on Supermodels. They are kernels of despair, redemption, and, ultimately, insight, here to remind us we’re neither the first nor the last to face these blues and keep going”.
I am going to move onto 21st July soon. Before that, there is another album that I would recommend people check out. Palehound’s Eye on the Bat is an album that I would urge people to pre-order. It is going to be a terrific release that is going to be among the best of this year. If you are a Palehound fan or not, I would advise you to have a listen to Eye of the Bat. It is shaping up to be an intriguing and wonderful album:
“With their latest album, Eye On The Bat, Palehound have unleashed a sonic tour de force that cements their status as one of the most exciting and forwardthinking artists in indie rock. Recorded with Sam Owens (Big Thief, Cass McCombs) at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskill Mountains, the album is a breathtaking showcase of artistic growth and evolution, with primary songwriter El Kempner (as well as multi-instrumentalist Larz Brogan) delivering a stunning batch of new songs that brim with energy, vulnerability, and raw emotion. From the explosive guitar riffs to the thunderous drumming and Kempner's signature vocals, Eye On The Bat is the most thrilling and exhilarating album Palehound has made to date. The album's sharp and introspective lyrics explore themes of selfdiscovery, anxiety, and empowerment, adding a layer of depth and nuance to the album’s uncompromising vision.
In addition to Kempner’s recent work with Bachelor (a collaborative project with Jay Som's Melina Duterte), Palehound has earned widespread critical acclaim in outlets such as The New York Times, Pitchfork, and NPR, which praised their unique sound and fearless artistic direction. Palehound's long and storied touring history has seen them play shows around the world alongside some of the biggest names in indie rock, including Big Thief, Sylvan Esso, Lucy Dacus, PUP and more. And it's not just other artists who have been inspired by their music - Kempner’s passionate and introspective songwriting has struck a chord with fans around the world, cementing Palehound’s status as a deeply admired and widely influential artist”.
There is another album out on 14th July that people need to pre-order. Rita Ora’s You and I. One of the music world’s biggest names is going to deliver an album that is among the most anticipated of the year. It has been five years since Phoenix came out. It seems that Ora has lost none of her power and step. You & I is also going to feature among the best of 2023. She is someone who deserves as much airplay and attention as possible. You do not need to be a huge fan of hers to appreciate the album and get something from it. Go and pre-order a fantastic and exciting new release from a modern-day icon:
“Following on from her 2018 album Phoenix, Rita Ora returns with her brand new album You and I featuring singles 'You Only Love Me' and 'Praising You'. With a co-writing credit on every track, this album is Rita’s most diaristic project yet and pays homage to her own eclectic tastes. At its core, You and I is a high-spirited record about what it feels like to fall in love and enter a new stage of life”.
There are a few must-own albums from 28th July that you need to get behind. Before that, there are some from 21st July that are well worth a look. Perhaps the year’s most important album comes from Blur. Few expected them to release an album this year! The Ballad of Darren is one that everyone will want to get. Make sure that you pre-order an album that follows 2015’s The Magic Whip. With the lead single, The Narcissist, out in the world, it seems that this upcoming Blur album is going to be among their best. It shows that you can never predict or write off a legendary band. I am not sure whether they have plans for more albums after that. We are fortunate that they are still recording together and touring. The band have some big dates coming up next month. Here are some details about an album that you will definitely want to pre-order and grab a copy of. I am looking forward to hearing what The Ballad of Darren has in store:
“One of the most successful British bands of the last 3 decades, Blur are back with their first new album in over 8 years: The Ballad of Darren. The album was produced by James Ford and recorded in Studio 13, London and Devon, and is the sound of a band at the very top of their game.
The Ballad of Darren is the band’s ninth studio album, their first since the chart-topping The Magic Whip in 2015, with artwork featuring an image by British photographer Martin Parr”.
Before moving onto the final release week of July, there is one more from 21st that I want to highlight. Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway’s City of Gold is an album that I would recommend people go and pre-order. It is a beautiful and compelling album that you will not want to miss out on. Even if Singer-Songwriter and Bluegrass are genres and styles that you are not normally enamoured of, I would still say to and spend some time with City of Gold. It is an album well worth adding to your collection. Here are some more details about an album that you will want to pre-order:
“Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Molly Tuttle and her band, Golden Highway, release their new album, City of Gold, following Tuttle’s acclaimed 2022 record, Crooked Tree, which won Best Bluegrass Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards and led NPR Music to call her, ‘a female flat picker extraordinaire with agility, speed and elegance who distinctively brings American roots music into the spotlight’, adding that the album ‘marries the improvisatory solos of traditional bluegrass with singer-songwriter sophistication.’
Produced by Tuttle and Jerry Douglas and recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios, City of Gold was inspired by Tuttle’s constant touring with Golden Highway these past few years, during which they have grown together as musicians and performers, cohering as a band. These 13 tracks – mostly written by Tuttle and Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show) – capture the electric energy of band’s live shows by highlighting each members’ musical strengths. In addition to Tuttle and Secor, Mason Via also co-wrote ‘Down Home Dispensary’, while Melody Walker and Shelby Means co-wrote ‘Next Rodeo’”.
Let’s get to 28th July albums. One that I am very much looking forward to comes from Dot Allison. This incredible artist releases Consciousology. Following 2021’s exceptional Heart-Shaped Scars, it seems that Consciousology is going to be another terrific and must-hear album from a very special artist. I would invite people to pre-order an album that is going to get a lot of love from fans and critics alike. Here is the details that you need to know:
“Dot Allison returns with a new solo album, Consciousology. After over a decade away, the former One Dove singer and songwriter broke cover in 2021 with Heart-Shaped Scars and this new album follows just two years later, as she hits a purple patch of songwriting. It’s also her first full release for Sonic Cathedral after contributing to Mark Peters’ acclaimed Red Sunset Dreams last year. Consciousology finds multi-instrumentalist Dot joined by the London Contemporary Orchestra, her new labelmate Andy Bell from Ride, who plays guitar on two tracks, and Hannah Peel, who is responsible for some of the string arrangements with both the LCO and a stellar group of Scottish string players. It expands on the styles and themes of the previous album, all while pushing everything just that little bit further – the songs sound bigger, more avant-garde and experimental and, occasionally, properly out-there and psychedelic.
“I wanted to make some albums that felt like a set, exploring love, what lies beyond the visible and how all these aspects dovetail together,” explains Dot. “I see Consciousology a more psych Heart-Shaped Scars with a far fuller, more immersive sound and so, in that sense, it’s a more wayward, bolder, rule-breaking partner.” Right from the eye-catching artwork by PJ Harvey collaborator Maria Mochnacz it definitely does not play it safe. It veers from the techno-played-as-folk of opener ‘Shyness Of Crowns’ and ‘220Hz’ and the Linda Perhacs-meets-The Velvet Underground chug of the first single ‘Unchanged’ to the Mercury Rev-style fantasia of ‘Bleached By The Sun’, the Brian Wilson-esque harmonies of ‘Moon Flowers’ and the kaleidoscopic colour trip of ‘Double Rainbow’. Elsewhere there are echoes of Desertshore-era Nico, Jack Nitzsche’s work with Neil Young, Karen Dalton and Anne Briggs before the relative simplicity of the Tim Hardin-inspired closer ‘Weeping Roses’. It’s a brilliant, breathtaking record”.
There are a few more albums that I want to bring in here. The first is Anne-Marie’s Unhealthy. The third album from the Essex-born artist is going to be her very best, I think. Following 2021’s Therapy, this new release is going to be among the best of the year. Anne-Marie is an incredible artist, so do make sure that you pre-order her upcoming album:
“Anne-Marie releases her new album, Unhealthy through Major Toms / Asylum.
Pulling from all parts of her life, Anne-Marie’s third album Unhealthy offers us a sneak peek into her perfectly imperfect world. Penned over a period when she felt ready to revisit and try and make sense of raw, past relationships, whilst also learning to process positive new ones, Unhealthy takes us on a journey from chaos to contentment; this is Anne-Marie standing tall, embracing an all-new version of herself that’s fiercer, bolder, and more blissfully happy than ever before.
To date, Anne-Marie has reached seven UK top 10 singles (including album track ‘Psycho’ feat. Aitch), two top 3 albums and reached over seven billion global streams. Most recently, she collaborated with David Guetta and Coi Leray on ‘Baby Don’t Hurt Me’”.
An artist that is among our very best, Georgia brings Euphoric out on 28th July. This is definitely an album that you will want to pre-order. I am looking forward to hearing what the album has in store. On the evidence of what we have heard so far, it is going to be one of 2023’s most extraordinary and enduring. I am going to check out Euphoric. I would suggest that everyone else does too. It seems like Euphoric is a very personal and important one for Georgia:
“Euphoric follows Georgia’s club-coercing last record, the universally adored and critically acclaimed Seeking Thrills which well and truly cemented her as one of the UK’s premier producers and songwriters. Since then, Georgia has collaborated with the likes of Mura Masa, Gorillaz, Shygirl, Baby Tate, Dan Carey and David Jackson, most recently writing with Years and Years’ Olly Alexander and on Shania Twain’s #1 album Queen Of Me. All of this experience has been poured into her forthcoming album.
After 10 years of being her own main collaborator, a crucial part of the writing process was learning to relinquish control. And for Georgia, this record is a surrender, “To my issues, to my past, to my flaws and to the healing process” and through it she was able to guide herself to a new healthy form of unconstrained liberation. Euphoric sees Georgia stepping out from behind the recording desk and establishing herself as a unique left-field pop artist. It’s the sound of life and of living in the now rather than escaping it”.
The final album from July that I want to recommend is Jessy Lanza’s Love Hallucination. Again, this might be an artist that you are not familiar with - but you will definitely want to be! I can confidently suggest people go and pre-order this album. It sounds like that there are some cracking and truly memorable songs on this album. I am excited to see what we might get from Love Hallucination. I am also interested to see what critics make of Lanza’s upcoming album:
“On Love Hallucination Jessy Lanza is in control as a songwriter and producer, flexing her skills in the studio and rebuilding her sound, taking chances with production and energy in all directions, from club-ready, to downbeat and sultry, with the theme of trusting yourself in the moment and using intuition as a compass driving the record forward.
Love Hallucination is the sound of an artist in bloom, an album of big emotions and big songs, with direct, personal lyrics, such as the upbeat but panicked opener 'Don't Leave Me Now' and the 2-step drama of 'Midnight Ontario', or 'Limbo', an ear worm disco stomper about produced with Marco 'Tensnake' Niermeski.
Also featured as co-producers are David Kennedy (Pearson Sound), adding slick arrangements for the club, long-time collaborator Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys), and Paul White.
Love Hallucination is a bold and immediate record from Jessy Lanza, her most clear, authentic and best to date”.
These are the album due next month that I would suggest everyone pre-order and add to their collection. Of course, there will only be a couple that people can afford – so I hope that there the choice is not too hard! Alongside big names are albums from artists that some might be unaware of. With the weather hotting up, there is plenty to look forward to. As the albums above show, we get some of the finest albums at this time of year. It will be interesting to see what is due in August. 2023 already has given us so much gold. That is going to continue as we…
LOOK ahead to July.