FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: Cat Burns
Essential October Releases
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PERHAPS of the busiest months…
IN THIS PHOTO: Sigrid
for great new music, I am going to recommend albums due next month that you will want to pre-order. I am referencing this website. I am starting out with 3rd October and Idlewild’s Idlewild. The Scottish Rock band formed in 1995. Thirty years after their start and they prepare to release their eponymous album. This is one that you will definitely want to pre-order:
“Immediately, there is the sense of a band in motion, their storied past not an anchor but a spur. Idlewild's songs offer a string of compelling answers: "Everything adds up to the present moment, doesn't it?" Woomble asks.
Idlewild have been a lot of different things. They were a teenage punk band, slinging buzzsaw riffs and barbed refrains, before becoming one of the most compelling mainstream rock groups of their generation. With 2019's Interview Music, they made sprawling art-pop. On Idlewild, they welcome each of these past selves into the room.
Work on a follow-up to Interview Music was initially planned to begin immediately after the band wrapped up touring, but the pandemic put things into a skid. Touring the 20th anniversary of The Remote Part in 2022 was a visceral reminder of where they'd been and a prompt for what might come next.
They assembled songs that celebrated pop hooks and livewire distortion, as well as expressive interplay. Writing continued at Post Electric Studio in Edinburgh and the Isle of Iona Library, before a short, sharp burst of recording in early 2025.
The result is a lean, focused document -- 10 tracks that get in and out in 30 minutes and change. With Jones engineering and mixing, the production reflects a collaborative, in-house approach. "We were referencing ourselves... realising that we had a 'sound'," Woomble says. Facing forward, not back, Idlewild captures beauty, nuance, and clarity from three decades of sound and feeling -- spontaneous, purposeful, and unmistakably them”.
One of the biggest albums of this year comes from Taylor Swift. The Life of a Showgirl is out on 3rd October. You can pre-order it here. I am writing this feature on 30th August, so there will be more details revealed by the time you are reading this. However, Billboard provide us with some details of what we know so far:
“Taylor Swift didn’t rest for long after wrapping her global Eras Tour. After just eight months of downtime, the pop superstar all but broke the internet by revealing at 12:12 a.m. ET Tuesday (Aug. 12) that she’d be embarking on a brand new era with the release of an album titled The Life of a Showgirl, which will mark the 12th studio LP in her discography.
What was almost as eye-popping as the announcement itself was the way she shared the news. In lieu of her more recent method of unveiling new albums during award-show acceptance speeches — like she did for 2022’s Midnights at the VMAs and 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department at the Grammys — Swift instead chose a much more casual route of spreading the word this time. Joining boyfriend Travis Kelce on his and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast, the 14-time Grammy winner simply revealed the project’s existence and title in a clip posted to the show’s social media accounts, just one day before the full episode’s release.
“So, I wanted to show you something,” she said in the video, pulling a blurred-out vinyl from a “T.S.” brief case as the Kansas City Chiefs tight end beamed beside her. “This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl.”
When the podcast episode finally dropped, filled with fresh details about the album, Swift also shared information about its cover art, release date and tracklist in an Instagram announcement. “And, baby, that’s show business for you,” its caption read.
As fans continue to clamor for all the information they can get on the LP leading up to its release date, Billboard is keeping track of every detail Swift reveals in the meantime. Keep reading to see everything there is to know — so far — about The Life of a Showgirl below.
The Title
The title of The Life of a Showgirl was the first detail Swift revealed about the project, doing so in the New Heights clip, which was posted after a timer on her website ticked down to 12:12 a.m. ET on Aug. 12. Fans immediately started to come up with theories about what inspired the theatrical name, with some people pointing out that scenes from Gold Diggers of 1933 — a 92-year-old film about showgirls — just so happen to match the aesthetic of her Eras Tour performance of “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”
“Okay wait I’m already obsessed with this album concept,” one fan wrote of the title on X. “The Life of a Showgirl potentially being about Taylor’s life during the eras tour, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, the physical and mental toll, the glitz and the glam, the celebrations, the constant travel, the longing and long distance… I am OBSESSED”.
There are a few from 10th October that I want to get to. LANY’s Soft is an album that I think people should pre-order. For those who might not be familiar with the band. LANY are an American Pop-Rock band/duo from Los Angeles. They formed in Nashville in 2014 and consist of guitarist and lead vocalist Paul Jason Klein and drummer Jake Clifford Goss. There are additional musicians on Soft. However, at its core, LANY are a duo:
“Lany have quietly cracked the mainstream on their own terms as one of the most ubiquitous, unpredictable, and undeniable bands of this era. Tallying billions of streams, selling out legendary arenas, and earning widespread critical acclaim, the platinum-certified Los Angeles group consistently deliver rafter-reaching anthems anchored by airtight songcraft and the outsized personality of enigmatic frontman and songwriter Paul Jason Klein. Lany release their brand new album Soft. Thematically and visually Soft exists in tension — an intentional contrast of the hard and soft. Tangible, literal, physical hardness juxtaposed with metaphorical, relational (and, at times too, physical) softness. Sonically, the album explores these same tensions — much of the softness and vulnerability of lyric that has defined Lany’s acclaimed career, now with a harder, braver edge to the production”.
Another terrific album out on 10th October that I think people should get is Madi Diaz’s Fatal Optimist. You can pre-order the album here. This is a terrific American artist that everyone should know about. There are not that many details available about the album. However, this feature from July does give us some information about the Fatal Optimist and its lead single, Feel Something:
“Madi Diaz is set to delve deeper into the raw emotional landscape of heartbreak with her newly announced album, Fatal Optimist, scheduled for release on October 10, 2025, through ANTI-. The announcement is accompanied by the lead single and video, “Feel Something,” a track that offers a poignant first glimpse into what promises to be her most hauntingly sparse record to date.
Following her 2021 breakthrough, History of a Feeling, and the two-time Grammy-nominated Weird Faith from 2024, Fatal Optimist is being positioned as the powerful final chapter in a trilogy of albums exploring the nuances of heartache. This new collection of songs finds Diaz at her most vulnerable, cutting to the core of her experiences with startling precision.
The album was born from a period of intense isolation for Diaz. After the end of a significant relationship, she retreated to an island, a physical manifestation of the emotional solitude she was navigating. “I was already describing myself as an emotional island swimming in so much of an ocean of feelings,” Diaz shared in her journal. This time of introspection, confronting rage, embarrassment, and grief, ultimately led to a sense of inner wholeness and became the fertile ground for Fatal Optimist. “The only person I’m never gonna leave is myself,” she affirms.
Initially attempting to record the songs with friends, Diaz realised the album demanded a sound that mirrored her solitary experience. She restarted the process in Southern California with co-producer Gabe Wax (known for his work with Soccer Mommy and Zach Bryan), stripping the production down to its essentials: Diaz, her acoustic guitar, and subtle accompaniments.
The lead single, “Feel Something,” encapsulates the urgent, oscillating emotions of post-breakup limbo. Propelled by energetic acoustic strumming and Diaz’s masterful phrasing, the track captures the desperate yearning to reconnect with a love that has already been lost. The accompanying video, directed by Allister Ann, visually portrays this futility as Diaz reaches for a connection that is no longer there.
Reflecting on the single, Diaz says, “‘Feel Something’ is about the deep yearning and desire to connect. It’s the moment when you’re trying to call in the love that was lost. It’s the first single off the album because it has the sense of urgency and panic that I felt at that first moment I noticed I was alone in my relationship.”
In support of the album, Diaz has also announced an extensive North American tour for the autumn, offering audiences a chance to experience the profound intimacy of Fatal Optimist live”.
There is one more album due out on 10th October that I want to get to. The following three weeks are especially busy, so I will get there soon. However, The Wytches’ Talking Machine needs to be mentioned. I think I covered the Brighton four-piece quite a few years ago now. A band who have been around for a long time now but have never really got the full credit they deserve. I do think that Talking Machine should be investigated by all. You can go and pre-order the album here:
“The Wytches return for their latest incendiary album, Talking Machine, the Brighton 4 piece bringing a whole new avalanche of their undeniable psych inflused jet black soundscapes alongside a pleasingly lengthy tour. "I saw the term “Talking Machine” in a book I was reading about Thomas Edison" lead singer Kristian muses. "It was a nickname for gramophones. I thought that was fitting enough for an album title but I guess like a lot of people, the whole AI thing has been on my mind a lot and I saw a connection there too. Thomas Edison would host these events called Tone Tests where he’d demonstrate how much audio recordings had advanced by fooling the audience in to thinking they were listening to musicians playing live but it was actually all pre-recorded, playing from a gramophone. People feared that a lot of jobs in the entertainment industry and beyond would be replaced by technology, a lot like what’s going on now”.
There are five albums due out on 17th October I want to cover off. The first is bar italia’s Some Like It Hot. Another amazing band that I guess are a bit more underground, if you are unfamiliar with their work, you should definitely get involved with Some Like It Hot. For those who recognise the title, as Rough Trade explain, it bears some parallels with the classic 1959 film:
“Some Like It Hot is a 1959 film starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon about a group of rogue musicians on the adventure path. It is funny, sexy, rambunctious and evergreen – a showcase of a triple-threat cast at full-throttle. Some Like It Hot is also the new album by London three-piece bar italia – on Matador – and certain parallels are perhaps not accidental. It pulses with romance, intrigue, self-discovery and rapture over lustful rockers, spellbinding folk pop, punch-drunk ballads and undefinable moments that sneak up on you like a burst of 5pm sunshine. The record is the culmination of the joint world of Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Fenton – three singer-songwriters who have transcended their underground roots to embrace a bold, widescreen horizon.
The synergy of this three-way blunt rotation is embedded in the trio’s DNA. Cristante brings a studied actors’ sensibility to vocals ranging from honeyed (the aforementioned ‘Marble Arch’) to hell-bent and possessed (‘rooster’). Fehmi ranges from airy, brooding baritone (‘Lioness’) to mic-chewing megaphone histrionics (‘omni shambles’). Fenton, a wispy tenor, can veer between mystical melodicism and soaring blue-eyed soul within the same 8 bars (‘Plastered’).
The cultivation of their sound, from early homespun recordings like hand drawn sketches (the band presented an exhibition of their drawings in 2023) into the ceiling-wide brush strokes of Some Like It Hot, was chiselled via a relentless writing and touring schedule. When bar italia emerged in 2023 from an underground following to release two critically acclaimed albums on Matador only several months apart – the poised Tracey Denim and the grand The Twits – they were a shy, eye-contact-avoiding band, starting sets in darkness and just as soon disappearing backstage. They spent the next two years traversing the globe, with headline performances from Istanbul to Tokyo, sold-out multi-night stints in New York and Los Angeles, and festivals including Corona Capital, Glastonbury and Coachella. With over 160 shows worldwide across 2023-2024, they dispelled any mystique by becoming an exhibitionist and muscular five-piece that gives multiple encores – equally comfortable at festival mosh-pit incitement and moments of pin-drop intimacy.
Some Like It Hot is telling of this journey: a collection of rock songs voraciously embracing the main stage. The lightning choruses of ‘omni shambles’ and ‘Eyepatch’ show a band who have mastered melding their idiosyncrasies into tightly coiled pop songs. A pining for tangibility abounds: “just show me the face that you've been trying to hide”, Fenton opines on the Balkan-tinged waltz of ‘bad reputation’. Other songs surrender to abandon wholesale: “I was lost to the world from the moment we kissed”, Fenton sings on ‘rooster’, while on the 12-string new wave majesty of ‘Lioness’, Fehmi states, “You have no idea what I can do for you when I’m in this mood”.
One of the most consistent artists around, Miles Kane releases Sunlight in the Shadows on 17th October. Most of you will know about Kane, but for anyone who is perhaps fresh, I think that his latest release is going to be well worth seeking out. You can check out the album here. He is a remarkable songwriter. I have no doubt that this album is going to collect a lot of positive reviews. Small wonder when you consider his back catalogue and how he has produced stunning album after stunning album:
“Miles Kane's 2025 release, Sunlight In The Shadows, marks his first Easy Eye Sound album teaming up with Grammy-winning producer Dan Auerbach. Co-written with Auerbach, Patrick Carney, Daniel Tashian, and Pat McLaughlin.
The guitar-driven album signals a fresh direction in Kane’s ever-evolving solo career. Featuring “Love Is Cruel,” “I Pray,” and “Electric Flower.”
A dynamic performer and songwriter, Kane has spent over a decade shaping a distinctive path – both as a solo artist and as co-frontman of The Last Shadow Puppets, alongside Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner.
His previous solo albums include Colour of the Trap (2011), Don’t Forget Who You Are (2013), Coup De Grace (2018), Change the Show (2022), and One Man Band (2023), each showcasing a new side of his sound and artistry”.
An album I am particularly excited about is Poliça’s Dreams Go. The U.S. band formed in 2011. This album follows from 2022’s Madness. You can find out more about Dreams Go here. You can also pre-order it from Rough Trade. This is going to sit alongside the best albums of this year, I have no doubt. I have been following their music for a long time now and am always amazed. Such an incredible band that everyone should know about:
“Since their emergence from Minneapolis’ vibrant underground in 2011, Polica has carved out a singular space in electronic indie-pop, blending shadowy synths, pulsating rhythms, and the unmistakable vocal presence of Channy Leaneagh.
With Dreams Go, Polica deliver their most emotionally resonant and texturally rich work to date—a poignant meditation on loss, resilience, and the fragile beauty of holding on. Written and recorded in the shadow of bassist Chris Bierden’s glioblastoma diagnosis, the album is both elegy and act of preservation, capturing the band at a moment of profound transition.
The LP is a collection of eight new songs recorded at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota, marking the band’s final sessions with Chris Bierden before he lost the ability to play. The record pulses with a raw, elegiac energy, a testament to the chemistry that defined Polica's first decade.
Though born of grief, Dreams Go is anything but static. It breathes, shimmers, and ultimately insists on the power of making art in the face of uncertainty. Dreams Go stands as a moving testament to the band’s creative bond, and to Bierden’s indelible role within it”.
Let’s round off with two albums that you will definitely want to get. One might be the best-reviewed album of the year. A huge release that you will not be able to avoid. I want to start with Sudan Archives’ THE BPM. You can pre-order the album here. In July, DJ Mag ran a feature that promoted the forthcoming THE BPM. They also published an interview with her:
“Sudan Archives has announced a new album. 'The BPM' will land on 17th October via Stones Throw.
You can check the LP tracks 'MY TYPE', which the artist describes as her first "rap rap song", and 'Yea Yea Yea', below. These follow 'DEAD', which landed in June accompanied by a video directed by Jonah Haber. A video for 'MY TAPE' has also been released and can be watched below.
Real name Brittney Parks, 'The BPM' is the vocalist, violinist, and producer's third album, and centres on the idea of striking out alone and following your own path to achieve artistic fulfilment.
Recorded in Chicago and Detroit — reflecting her mother's Michigan roots and her father's upbringing in Illinois — the album pays homage to the storied electronic music legacies of both cities and states. Shades of other regionalised US dance sounds, including Jersey club, are also evident, alongside more experimental beats. Meanwhile, fans are introduced to a new persona, Gadget Girl: a technologically advanced musician.
"I feel like my beats have always sounded a bit like where my parents are from, but this time it had this more experimental vibe to it, and I was very intentional about the fact that I wanted to make a dance record," Parks told Vogue in a recent interview. "My music has always been basically made with a lot of technology, a lot of little robots.”
"I was never the girl in a band in high school – I could only express myself for the first time when I got my first iPad and started making beats on it, and when I got my first electric violin. I’m all gadget girled out now, but I’ve never felt so free as a human,” Parks said.
Revisit DJ Mag's feature interview with Sudan Archives here”.
The album I am referring to that is going to scoop huge reviews is The Last Dinner Party’s From the Pyre. The second album from the London group, it follows the Mercury-nominated debut, last year’s Prelude to Ecstasy. Having toured extensively since that album’s release, it is impressive they have followed up so quickly with an album that has pushed their sound forward but seems like it might also top Prelude to Ecstasy in many ways:
“The Last Dinner Party on the new album: “This record is a collection of stories, and the concept of album-as-mythos binds them. ‘The Pyre’ itself is an allegorical place in which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction but also regeneration, passion and light.
“The songs are character driven but still deeply personal, a commonplace life event pushed to pathological extreme. Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer, and heartbreak laughs into the face of the apocalypse. Lyrics invoke rifles, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc, and blazing infernos. We found this kind of evocative imagery to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss the way our experiences felt, giving each the emotional weight it deserves.”
“This record feels a little darker, more raw and more earthy; it takes place looking out at a sublime landscape rather than seated an opulent table. It also feels metatextual and cheeky in places, like a knowing look reflected back at ourselves”.
There are three albums form 24th October that I want to highlight. I am really looking forward to Circa Waves’ Death & Love Pt.2. One of the very best bands around, Circa Waves are going to launch an album that will be among this year’s best. You can pre-order it here. I am a fan of the band, though I would also urge those who know little about the band to buy it:
“Circa Waves release their double album Death and Love via Lower Third. Death and Love Pt.1 was both terrifying and liberating to write, and is the first installment of urgent, 9-track hits of cathartic guitar-pop, serving as a powerful coping mechanism to help process frontman Kieran Shudall's near-death experience.
The album sees supreme indie hits including a nice big slab of Strokes-y dancefloor destruction of "Like You Did Before" to its first offering "We Made It", as well as the extremely topical and longing "American Dream".
Back in early 2023, Kieran received a call from doctors to say that the main artery in his heart was severely blocked. Two days later, he was lying on an operating table watching a wire being inserted into his heart to fix it. What followed was the canceling of a lot of shows, working out a lot of medication, and most crucially, now having to navigate a new way of life. And the results are quite simply stunning.
Self-produced by Kieran, and engineered by Matt Wiggins (Adele, Lana Del Rey, Glass Animals), the nine tracks that make up Death and Love Pt.1 ooze nostalgia, and hark back to the sounds and themes that made Shudall want to pick up a guitar in the very first place.
Death and Love is an incredibly powerful snapshot in time - a reflection on a moment of true terror, and the joy of coming through the other side. It's a brave and remarkable next step for a band in the finest form of their career”.
The second album from 24th October I am highlighting is Just Mustard’s WE WERE JUST HERE. The County Louth band need to be on your radar. Their 2022 sophomore album, Heart Under, was hugely acclaimed. You can pre-order their forthcoming album here. I have never seen Just Mustard live but can imagine that the band are a sensational live experience. Here is some detail about the upcoming WE WERE JUST HERE:
“On WE WERE JUST HERE, Dundalk’s Just Mustard surge out of the shadows from the submerged world of Heart Under with a sound that leans toward light and euphoria. Their signature elements remain intact - warped guitars, cavernous low ends, twisted sound design - but this time the noise is channeled into something warmer and more melodic. Inspired by club spaces and physical joy, the songs strive for immediacy and feeling. Katie Ball’s vocals rise higher in the mix, capturing a conflicted pursuit of happiness that she describes as “trying to feel euphoric, but at a cost.” Produced by the band and mixed by David Wrench (FKA Twigs, Frank Ocean, Caribou) the album expands their emotional palette while keeping things strange, textured, and uniquely their own. WE WERE JUST HERE explodes into technicolor, creating a world that feels immediate, haunted and ecstatic”.
Before rounding up with four great albums that are due to be released on Hallowe’en, there is another big album out on 24th October you need to know about. Sigrid’s There’s Always More That I Could Say is an album I cannot wait for. I have been following her music since her 2019 debut album, Sucker Punch. You can pre-order’s new album here. This article from DORK provide more some detail about the Norwegian artist’s new work. One of the great artists in the world in my opinion. Someone else that does not get the full credit that she deserves:
“Sigrid is set to release her third studio album, ‘There’s Always More That I Could Say’, on 24th October 2025 via Island / EMI, and has shared a new single, ‘Fort Knox’, which landed as BBC Radio 1’s Hottest Record.
Written and co-produced with a renewed sense of creative freedom, the record is described as spanning infatuation, heartbreak and reflection. ‘Fort Knox’ channels post-break-up fury, recorded at a rustic studio by the harbour in Bergen — the same space where much of ‘Sucker Punch’ took shape.
‘Fort Knox’ follows ‘Jellyfish’, which Sigrid described as “easy, like a Scandinavian summer.” Both songs mark a return to instinct-led writing after she stepped back from “content culture” in 2024, with solo trips to remote parts of Norway and festival sets in South America helping reignite her creative spark.
“I love using my voice as a vessel to pour my heart out,” she shares, “but on this song, I wanted it to sound carefree, joyful and playful – maybe a bit nonchalant.”
‘Jellyfish’ was written with longtime collaborator Askjell Solstrand, who co-wrote and produced Sigrid’s breakthrough ballad ‘Dynamite’. This summer, Sigrid returned to European festivals, including Rock Werchter and a headline set on the Second Stage at Latitude. She also joined Ed Sheeran at Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo.
The tracklisting for ‘There’s Always More That I Could Say’ reads:
‘I’ll Always Be Your Girl’
‘Jellyfish’
‘Do It Again’
‘Kiss The Sky’
‘Two Years’
‘Hush Baby, Hurry Slowly’
‘Fort Knox’
‘There’s Always More That I Could Say’
‘Have You Heard This Song Before’
‘Eternal Sunshine’”.
The first album due out on 31st October that you need to pre-order is Anna von Hausswolff’s ICONOCLASTS. There is a recent interview between her and Iggy Pop that is well worth reading. There are not many details available about ICONOCLASTS. You can pre-order the album here. This follow’s 2020’s All Thoughts Fly. Her music is truly remarkable, so I am keen to see what comes from her sixth studio album. There is so much atmosphere and drama. Her 2020 album was entirely instrumental, performed entirely on pipe organ:
“Centered around her incomparable voice and expressive organ playing, the album features Iggy Pop and Ethel Cain among others. Together with producer Filip Leyman, she has crafted a true epic of experimental rock music, full of bombast and emotion. Growing out of her dance-theater piece Atlas Song which had a sold out run at Gothenburg's Opera, this is a singular artist at the absolute height of her powers”.
Cat Burns’ How to Be Human is available to pre-order here. Again, there is very little about the album available, but there are one or two recent interviews with Burns. Here is one that I would recommend you have a read of. Cat Burns is one of our finest songwriters and someone who is primed for huge and long-terms success. Anyone who has not heard her music and is not familiar with her then I would suggest you out her debut album from lats year, Early Twenties. Quickly following it up, I feel that How to Be Human will gain huge reviews:
“Multi-Brit and 2024 Mercury Prize nominee Cat Burns returns with How To Be Human.
It’s a deeply personal and introspective record, channeling Cat’s personal thoughts and even voice notes as she’s moves through a huge time of upheaval in her life, into a bright new chapter.
Cat’s written all songs, plus production comes from Rob Milton (Holly Humberstone/Chloe Qisha) plus Jordan Riley, Humble The Great, GG Stok. It's 16 tracks in duration, including the previous single ‘GIRLS!' and brand new ‘All This Love’”.
The penultimate album from October that I want to spotlight is Florence + The Machine’s Everybody Scream. You can pre-order it here. This feature from NME states how Everybody Scream is her most personal record yet. Florence Welch has been inspired by JADE’s new music and her experimental Pop. An amazing group, this is another remarkable album from Florence + The Machine. When the title track was released, there was such a hugely positive reaction. So much anticipation to hear what will come from their sixth studio album:
“Florence Welch has spoken about the moodboard she shared with IDLES‘ Mark Bowen when creating Florence + The Machine‘s new album ‘Everybody Scream’.
The London band are due to release their sixth studio record on October 31, and have previewed the project with its epic title track. Welch and co. had previously teased the follow-up to 2022’s ‘Dance Fever’ with a series of eerie videos.
The album contains contributions from Bowen, Mitski, and The National’s Aaron Dessner – all of whom worked with Welch on the title track, too.
During a new interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Welch was asked about the cryptic series of photographs she shared on social media last month. One slide included the note “Swans vs Adele“, suggesting that inspiration had come from these two acts.
“When we started working together, I sent Bowen a playlist, and [Swans’] ‘It’s Coming It’s Real’ was on there,” Welch told Lowe. “I remember hearing that song, and just the build and intensity of it… it’s so ominous.
“I think that I was looking for was an ominous feeling, but that also has clarity and beauty, and those incredible soaring choruses of Adele, and incredible ballads.”
The singer-songwriter went on to reveal that she had been “looking a lot at pop” when making her new album. She referenced “the amazing things that are happening in pop” currently, “where it’s so experimental”.
“We were listening to ‘Angel Of My Dreams’ by JADE a lot in the studio, and it was like pulling all those things together,” Welch continued.
“Me and Bowen started sharing a notes app as well, and I would put lyrics in there. I just had ‘Florence + the Machine, Everybody Scream’, and that was it. Bowen came in and was like, ‘That looked like a title track to me’.
“He had this glam rock thing that started out, but then it broke down into this drone discordance that was really shocking, and sounded like a sonic scream. I was just listing ‘Everybody do this, everybody do that!’, and the song really didn’t become what it was until Mitski came on board.”
IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch/PHOTO CREDIT: Autumn De Wilde
Explaining what Mitski brought to the table, Welch said: “She came to the studio one day and was like, ‘You need a chorus. I just feel like there’s a chorus coming after this drone – it’s so striking’.”
She added: “Working with her… honestly, she’s one of my favourite artists of all time. Getting to work with Bowen and Mitski on this record is just so special to me. I didn’t know if she even worked on other people’s records, but I reached out: ‘I know you’re in town for shows, would you like to come to the studio?’ And she said yes!
“We discussed what the song was about because it was just a list of commands at that point, and she was like, ‘I think you’re talking about the intimacy you have with the stage – and I have that, too’. We just started talking about that, and the song emerged from us talking about this thing. It was such an amazing couple of days.”
Inspiration for the ‘Everybody Scream’ album came from Welch undergoing lifesaving surgery during the ‘Dance Fever’ tour in 2023. She also began to look into spiritual mysticism and folk horror – understanding the limits of her body and questioning what it means to be “healed”.
These are themes that helped shape the record, along with exploration of womanhood, partnership, ageing and dying.
As for the title track, Welch told Lowe that the song “is about being an artist, and also being someone who’s kind of stressed sometimes about being visible or being out in the world, and who finds it kind of overwhelming to put out work”.
“There’s always a bit of me that wants to keep hiding – like, ‘No, no, no – I’m not ready, put it off’,” she said. “This time, I challenged myself to not delay a record. I was like, ‘Just move through the fear and put it out’. The song itself is about the pull back to the stage and why I always keep going back there, even though every time it takes a little bit more from me.”
She went on to say: “The title for this song came before there was even a song, because honestly, I just wanted to write a song that rhymed with Florence + the Machine. I was like, Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a title track that’s also the title of a record that rhymed with Florence + the Machine?’ [Laughs]. I was just like, ‘I just really want it to rhyme!’”.
The final album I am recommending is The Charlatans’ We Are Love. You can pre-order the album here. The band’s fourteenth studio album is one I am going to get. NME spoke with The Charlatans’ lead, Tim Burgess. Their first album in eight years, this is the band in a euphoric mood. Sounding at their very peak. Even if you have not been a fan since the beginning, I feel you need to get this album. I have been following them since I was a child and love the fact they are still going and strong:
“You worked with Dev Hynes, aka Blood Orange, who produced the album. How did he get involved?
“We wanted to work with Dev, and I’ve known Dev for a long time. The first time I saw him was [at] The Old Blue Last [in London], and he was playing drums for Florence, before Florence became the Florence that we know. It was just the two of them on stage, and I thought, ‘This is great’. They’ve stuck in my mind.
“And then, of all places, we met him again in New Zealand, and he was then Lightspeed Champion. We both talked about how much we liked each other, and so it was like a thing. I’ve always thought about him, and then I just dropped him a line. He was just really into it, and the timing was right for him.”
Dev’s credited as a producer alongside Spector’s Fred Macpherson and legendary producer Stephen Street…
“[Hynes] brought along Fred, and it was great because Dev had the control board and that power. And Fred really held the room. We’d worked with Thighpaulsandra [who performs in Burgess’ solo band] quite a lot as the engineer at Rockfield. We had ideas, but he helped shape them into songs.
“And then we went to do a few songs with Stephen Street. One we finished, and that’s on the album. The rest is Dev, Fred and Rockfield – and all that’s amazing, amazing stuff.”
Dev’s worked with the likes of Sky Ferreira, Carly Rae Jepsen and Kylie – did he sprinkle any pop magic on The Charlatans’ sound?
“I did like the Sky Ferreira track that he did [2013’s ‘Everything Is Embarrassing’]. But I think he just has a deft hand and a lightness of touch, and he really wanted The Charlatans to reconnect to their place of origin. We talked about hauntology and psychogeography.
“And the place that we were in, Rockfield – we have a lot of history with that. To reconnect to the place of origin, to have an appreciation of everything that we’ve done in our history – it’s a huge thing.”
IN THIS PHOTO: Tim Burgess/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Cannon/Microdot
What else inspired those sessions?
“We talked about The Madness Of Love, we talked about ‘La folie’ by The Stranglers, John Cassavetes and his incredible observations of love through film. It was just a great sharing of titan minds.
“[The album] sounds like us, but obviously it’s been mirrored through other people’s views of us, which is really interesting. It all helped to bring us to appreciate the power of the sound of The Charlatans, which is what everyone was aiming for.”
Your last album featured contributions from Paul Weller, New Order and Johnny Marr, among many guest musicians. Were you focused more on just the four members after a long time away?
“Yeah, it felt like we couldn’t have any more collaborators. But Kevin Godley actually popped up and sang some backing vocals on one of the tracks. Kevin Godley from 10CC, who we’re all big fans of, and Godley & Creme. And Peter Gordon – Dev recorded him in Manhattan, on the saxophone. So we only had very limited collaborators on this record.”
You’ve had three solo albums since The Charlatans’ previous record. Was this necessary to rejuvenate the band? Why is now the right time to return?
“Yeah, I think it’s important. We all felt we had to have the desire to make something, to have something to say, to be able to have something worthwhile that we all felt good about. We all love all 11 tracks, which is an amazing feat – for us all to love everything.
“So we’re all very happy with the record – I’m in awe of it. I think it’s the best record that we’ve done. I’m filled with elation and pride around it. I guess there’s times where it felt like a long time coming together. It’s at least two-and-a-half years making this one, off and on. But yeah, it’s great. It’s amazing”.
I will round it up there. You can look at other albums out in October here. I have missed quite a few out, though I think the ones that I have included are among the best and most interesting of the month. I hope that my suggestions have given you some guidance. From Taylor Swift and Florence + The Machine to Sigrid, Cat Burns and The Charlatans, October is shaping up to be…
A huge month for music.