FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: Jorja Smith
Essential August Reviews
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AUGUST is a month…
IN THIS PHOTO: Phoebe Bridgers
that is always good when it comes to new albums. You can see what is out here. I am going to highlight the best of the moth I feel you should own. Let’s start with 7th August. The is a wonderful album due this week you will want to pre-order. It is The Anchoress’s As We Once Were. I have always been a fan of her music, so I am looking forward to hearing what is coming. If you need some information about this phenomenal album, then Rough Trade provide some background:
“As We Once Were is the third studio album from twice Welsh Music Prize nominated artist and producer The Anchoress aka Catherine Anne Davies.
This new record is the long-awaited follow-up to the UK Top 40 album The Art Of Losing, which received wall-to-wall critical plaudits upon its release in 2021 and scooped up a raft of Album of The Year nods from The Sunday Times, to Prog, to the Mail on Sunday. With Sir Elton John naming it "one of my favourite records of the year" and Caitlin Moran calling it "the inadvertent, beautiful and truthful soundtrack to this moment", it went on to sell over 10,000 physical copies via word of mouth.
Three-times Music Producers Guild nominated Davies created the new album at Black Lodge Studios while being given access to Pete Townshend's collection of vintage analogue synthesisers to produce an epic 14-track widescreen exploration of the nature of time and transformation.
Against the backdrop of the birth of her first child, after multiple losses and the discovery of her grandmother's voice on a long lost cassette tape in her mother's attic, Davies found herself asking the question: "What can we build out of the past? Are we destined to be held down by it? Can we ever return to these past versions of ourselves?”
Four great albums from 14th August that I want to recommend to people. I am starting out with Grace Cummings’s Blood Horse! The legendary artist releases a new album that I am really interested to hear. If you need to know about Grace Cummings and her upcoming album, this article from The Line of Best Fit detail news about the exceptional Bloodhorse!
“Bloodhorse! follows Cummings' third album, Ramona, released in 2024. "My God" arrives today as the first taster of the upcoming work, alongside a video directed by Ben Portnoy.
Speaking about the new song, Cummings says: “Lyrically, this song is about hatred, jealousy, rage. The God here is the dark forces that are wrapping around us, that we scroll through, the toxic energy that binds us together in this modern world, and the fear we feed it every day."
Bloodhorse! saw Cummings reunite with producer Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Angel Olsen, Margo Price) in Topanga Canyon, California, to bring themes of life, death, agency, abuse and self-examination through synth and string-based rhythms. “In the past few years I’ve gone through one of the biggest personal changes of my life,” Cummings says. “Bloodhorse! is an attempt to express the things I can't say. A confession, an act of courage. For no one else but me. And it’s me deciding to represent, not necessarily the way life is, but the way it feels.”
Discussing the meaning behind the title, she adds: “A bloodhorse is a horse expected to be a winner. But they can often also be temperamental, fearful, fragile and easily broken. Sometimes I feel like I’m a trapped animal. And…when I go to sleep, sometimes it's like I'm in the gate, twitching. And as soon as I open my eyes, I'm fucking running”.
I do love the vinyl option for L'Rain’s fata morgana. A Rose of Jericho Glow looks absolutely amazing. You can pre-order it here. I have been following her music for a while now and it is great that she has an album coming out. It is one that you will want to get a hold of. I do want to Pitchfork and their article about fata morgana:
“L’Rain is back with a new album. Fata Morgana arrives August 14, via Mexican Summer, preceded by the salvo of “Soulless Cycle,” which you can hear below. The hell-raising track comes with an elliptical video directed by Mackai Sharp.
L’Rain’s Taja Cheek bills Fata Morgana as the culmination of a quadrilogy that began with her 2017 self-titled debut, followed by Fatigue and I Killed Your Dog. She made the new LP with longtime collaborators Ben Chapoteau-Katz and Andrew Lappin, reflecting, in part, on her role as a citizen of the present-day United States. “I’m thinking about the ways in which this societal malaise manifests within myself,” she says in a press release. “As we’ve slipped further into fascism and trad culture, I’m thinking about all the beliefs society has manufactured about itself and about me”.
The penultimate album from this week I am spotlighting is Laura Veirs’ Temple Songs. You can pre-order the album here announced the release of an incredible album that you will need to pre-order. This is an artist who has had a very long career and is one of the greatest living songwriters:
“Temple Songs is the first record Veirs has written, recorded, arranged, produced and performed entirely on her own. She plays guitars, bass, drums, tambourine, percussion and sings all vocals; the only outside contribution is saxophone from an uncredited guest. The LP was tracked over three months in the autumn of 2025 in her backyard ‘Temple of Bloom’ studio, using just two microphones and a laptop. Veirs chose not to pitch-correct vocals or edit out ambient intrusions such as rain on the skylight or passing crows, embracing the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi.
The lead single, "Flying into Darkness", deals with feelings of restlessness and uncertainty. “This song comes from a feeling of being existentially unmoored in a dark, uncertain moment,” Veirs explains. “I kept circling the same questions: how do I stay grounded? How do I feel like I’m doing some real good, nudging things – even slightly – in a better direction?”
“I wanted to make something that sounds as organic and human as possible,” she says. The record was mixed by Philip Weinrobe (Adrienne Lenker).
Veirs has also announced an extensive international tour beginning in the UK in September, including a headline show at Earth in London on 16 September. Support comes from Karl Blau. Other UK dates include Cambridge, Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham and Nottingham, plus shows in Ireland and Belfast.
Speaking about the making of the record, Veirs said: “I didn’t know if I would write songs again. Turns out that period was a gathering phase. When I made the commitment to recording the LP myself, the muse caught me again and it came together very quickly”.
Prior to moving to 21st August, there is one more from 14h that I need to mention. Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Weekend is one of the most anticipated of this year. You can pre-order this remarkable album here. I am a big fan of Bridgers, so I am really excited by this album. The first single from it, Lost Boys, is amazing. NME shared a feature announcing a new album from a terrific artist who has had this busy and varied career:
“The follow-up to 2020’s ‘Punisher’, is set to be released on August 14 on Dead Oceans and comes after the singer-songwriter played her first live solo live show in three years last month in Roswell, New Mexico, where she debuted three new songs. You can pre-order it here.
At the time, she also strongly suggested that a new album may be on its way, and fans in attendance each received an exclusive card, which at the time appeared to combine to make up what many people thought was the artwork for Bridgers’ next release.
But the record, which according to a press release finds Bridgers at the “height of her powers, a master, taking nothing more seriously than this craft, refining here many of the motifs that distinguished her work previously on this new album that’s otherwise, everywhere, full of surprises,” actually has a different piece of artwork, which you can view below.
She also announced on Instagram, that a new song from the record will drop tomorrow (Thursday June 25), but at this stage it is unclear what it is.
After the singer-songwriter’s previous record, she performed with Boygenius – the trio of Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, though they announced they were going on hiatus after the completion of their critically acclaimed album ‘The Record’ in 2023, which at the time was named our album of the year.
During her recent shows, Bridgers played several songs from her two solo albums, ‘Stranger In The Alps’ and ‘Punisher’, while the new songs were described by those in attendance as “very sad folk” with harmonica arrangements.
Bridgers also reportedly said that she saw the show as a “test” for whatever is set to come next.
At a more recent show at Madison Square Garden which NME witnessed, she debuted seven new tracks many of which continued the singular sound Bridgers built on ‘Punisher’ – melancholy lyrics made up of astute observations of the state of the world and relationships, backed by slow strumming guitars and orchestration that oscillates from Americana to indie folk.
Some of the songwriting also harkened back to the unabashed candidness of her debut album, 2017’s ‘Stranger in the Alps’. A new number she announced with “this song is about the past, though I’m told all of my songs are,” came with a crushing, crescendoing chorus that saw her and Christian Lee Hutson strumming emphatically as she alluded to an ill-fated engagement.
Bridgers also used the gig to call out ICE and raise funding for immigrants. All proceeds from ticket sales went to Community Justice Exchange’s Immigration Bond Freedom Fund, which provides aid and bail to those in ICE detention centres.
Elsewhere, she recently announced plans to hit the road in support of her new album in the UK, Ireland and North America and added further dates”.
There are some great albums due on 21st August. The first I am dismissing is Antony Szmierek’s Decoding Birdsong. The Manchester-born songwriter follows up Service Station at the End of the Universe. This is the standout album from August. I think that everyone should pre-order it. In terms od what we can expect from this amazing artist:
“Manchester-born poet, writer, and producer Antony Szmierek releases his second album, Decoding Birdsong. Just eighteen months after his critically acclaimed debut, Szmierek returns with a new body of work that signals a clear evolution in both sound and scope. Rooted in his personal touchstones within electronic music, the album pairs expansive, immersive production with his trademark razor-sharp lyricism.
Where his debut had been a solo endeavour, Decoding Birdsong brims with collaboration, including Australia’s Pretty Girl, London band Los Bitchos, and Bristol producer 1-800 GIRLS, as well as Imogen and the Knife and indie pop star Ellur.
Speaking about the new record, Antony explains “Decoding Birdsong is about choosing to believe in something. Coincidence as a religion. Making your own luck in the face of loneliness and doubt. The smallest things can feel seminal, seismic and life affirming if you just choose to lean in, but it also asks if this is a dangerous way to live. What happens when your numbers come in? What are the consequences of luck? Should you listen to the birds, or are you only ever going to hear what you want to hear? To help us explore this: a heron, dice, a plummeting airplane, the late-night TV show Aussie Gold Hunters and a fibreglass replica of Godzilla.”
Decoding Birdsong follows the wild success of his debut album, 2025’s Service Station at the End of the Universe, which launched Antony into a whirlwind of Glastonbury, Jools Holland, and repeat BBC airplay. He’s sold out venues across the UK and Europe, and in February 2026 performed to 20,000 while closing Solomun’s Alexandra Palace shows. The former English teacher had been working at a college for special needs students when his blend of spoken word and dance music started taking off, earning him accolades such as 6Music’s Artist of the Year in 2023 following his Poems To Dance To EP, and frequent comparisons to Mike Skinner, Jarvis Cocker and John Cooper Clarke”.
Grace Potter’s Trespasser is released on 21st August. This is an artist that you may not have heard of, but she is a tremendous songwriter who I really love. Her album is one you will want to pre-order, as it is going to be among the best of this year. It is worth bringing in some information about Trespasser and what we can expect:
“With her new album Trespasser, Grace Potter introduces a beautifully unruly cast of characters who step into forbidden spaces with absolute abandon. As the spiritual sequel to 2023’s Mother Road, the four-time Grammy nominee’s seventh studio LP continues the kaleidoscopic storyline shaped by her many road trips from her Topanga Canyon home to her part-time residence in her native Vermont (a journey she’s made eight times in the last five years, usually on her own). But while Mother Road was born from a desperate need for solace in the midst of emotional freefall, Trespasser reveals an artist firmly anchored in her singular vision. The latest chapter in a career marked by endless transformation and elite recognition—including sharing stages with rock & roll icons like the Rolling Stones and Robert Plant and earning praise from legends like Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt—Trespasser ultimately lights the way toward a more unbound and expansive means of moving through the world.
Produced by her husband and frequent collaborator Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, Slash) and recorded in a cross-country journey beginning at her home in Topanga with Benmont Tench, continuing in Nashville with Mother Road session players (members of Cage the Elephant, Kings of Leon, and Train), and completed in Vermont with members of her longtime live band, the album echoes its origins with a wayward sound that spans from stripped-bare soul to cosmic country to hellraising rock and roll—all while orbiting Potter’s force-of-nature voice and lavishly imagined storytelling.
“We’ve always been taught that the trespassers are the bad guys, but to me it’s not about reckless rebellion,” says Potter. “It’s about exploring, physically and mentally and emotionally, and being willing to step outside the narratives we’ve accepted. Because in my experience, the places we’re told not to go are exactly the ones that show us who we really are”.
A couple more albums from 21st August that you will want to own. Jorja Smith’s What are the Odds is the latest release from one of our best artists. Someone too I have been following for a very long time. She has such a mesmeric voice. If you pre-order, you can get vinyl, C.D. or tape options, as you can see here:
“Multi-award-winning singer and songwriter Jorja Smith releases her new album, What Are The Odds featuring sole production from P2J and collaborations with Afrobeat star Wizkid and Grime icon Devlin.
With her third album What Are The Odds, Jorja continues to build on her legacy with a euphoric offering rooted firmly in dance music. Confidently channelling UKG, Grime, 2Step, Funky House, Soulful House and Afro House, this thrilling, pulsating record rarely dips below 140 BPM.
“This is music to make you move” says Jorja. “I want people to hear it on the dancefloor, where the sun is shining, in the car and in their headphones on the night bus home. This is a record for driving and vibing.”
“Multi-award-winning singer and songwriter Jorja Smith releases her new album, What Are The Odds featuring sole production from P2J and collaborations with Afrobeat star Wizkid and Grime icon Devlin.
With her third album What Are The Odds, Jorja continues to build on her legacy with a euphoric offering rooted firmly in dance music. Confidently channelling UKG, Grime, 2Step, Funky House, Soulful House and Afro House, this thrilling, pulsating record rarely dips below 140 BPM.
“This is music to make you move” says Jorja. “I want people to hear it on the dancefloor, where the sun is shining, in the car and in their headphones on the night bus home. This is a record for driving and vibing”.
Before finishing with a couple of albums from 28th August, there is one more from 21st I want to feature. Julia Holter’s Materia is going to be a fantastic release that will win a lot of positive reviews. You can pre-order it here. I would urge everyone to grab their copy:
“Julia Holter always knew that there was more to the song “Materia” than what she included on her wondrous 2024 album, Something in the Room She Moves. She had written the tune not long after the tours for 2018’s Aviary concluded, and it worked well for solo shows—her voice and piano, lyrics still morphing as she played with the meaning.
But on the new Materia, a kind of companion LP to Something, Holter has realized not one but two distinct versions of the song. “Materia 2” is a hallucinatory dream of drum machines, fretless bass, and clarinet, Holter’s voice spiralling through ether alongside that of Jessika Kenney. And on “Materia 3,” intended as a hidden bonus track in an homage to the CD era of her youth, Holter literally slows down the take from Something. The change not only emphasizes the unpredictable glory of the harmonies within but also reiterates the song’s emotional sophistication, the sense that it’s about learning how to live.
Materia is only seven tracks long, but Holter works in nearly that many modes here. There are two astounding improvisations, one where she builds a one-person ensemble of drum machines and synth lines and another where she manipulates her voice until each word seems to contain another symphony. And yet another is built from a riff that came from a demo for Something, a demo that itself is one of Materia’s most spellbinding and emotional pieces, “My Twin.” These seven songs show that Holter is among her generation’s most fluid writers of art-pop, moving among ideas and idioms with true exploratory aplomb. Materia is a kind of playground for Holter, where each distinct scene steadily coheres into a moving whole”.
There are a couple of albums from 28th August that are worth pre-ordering. Interpol’s This Mirror Weighs a Ton is the first one. There is not a lot of information about the album. This NME article gives us some details about the album. There is also an interview with the band’s lead, Paul Banks:
“Interpol have announced their new album ‘This Mirror Weighs A Ton’ by releasing the Massive Attack-inspired title track and punchy single ‘See Out Loud’. Check them both out below as frontman Paul Banks tells NME about how they put together one of the most “important” records of their career.
After announcing their signing to Partisan records (home to IDLES, Geese and PJ Harvey), the NYC indie icons have now shared that their ninth album and the follow-up to 2022’s acclaimed ‘The Other Side Of Make-Believe‘ will arrive on Friday August 28.
Produced by Andrew Wyatt [ROSALÍA, Charli XCX] and mixed by Dave Fridmann [Sleater-Kinney, MGMT], ‘This Mirror Weighs A Ton’ could be the band’s most full-bodied work to date, utilising “strings, woodwinds, layered vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar and experimental sound design” to their signature sense of atmosphere and inescapable rhythms.
“This is really a no-skip record for me,” Banks told NME when we met in a London hotel in Soho. “I think we did some great work.”
“I was in a headspace either about how we felt about the rest of the record of post-parenthood, but I took it really seriously and wanted to make sure I came away really proud of the work,” Banks told NME. “Every song is different, but I guess there’s a spirit of striving for elation and a striving for enlightenment and clarity. There’s a lot of taking stock and honest assessments, hence the title. It’s about striving and reflection.”
Speaking about the more experimental sonic palette of the song, he shared: “It’s a different type of bass sound and I don’t think anyone would argue the Massive Attack comparison. You can thank Brad [Truax, bassist] for that. It just felt good.
“There’s a really precious simplicity to it. It became the titular track not because we felt that song was so important, but just that lyric. We have a bit of a history with turning a lyric into the title like with [2002 debut album] ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’, and it just needs to suit it. We really love the vibe and it introduces some new sounds and feelings. It paves the way for this record not being what you expect. That lyric does speak to what the themes are on the record.”
The album also comes previewed by the anthemic ‘See Out Loud’, one of two new songs the band have been playing at recent shows. The song leans into the more pulsing and rhythmic vibe of their albums ‘Antics’ and ‘El Pintor’. While Banks takes the lead, guitarist Daniel Kessler lends a rare vocal over a synthy interlude – only the third time he’s done so after the classic ‘PDA’ on the band’s 2002 ‘PDA’ and the fan favourite early version of B-side ‘Song Seven’.
“It feels quite ‘classic Interpol’, right?” said Banks. “That was one we were working on for a really long time. It has a classic Interpol bassline. The lyric [‘Say something magical, save something for me‘] is about striving for elation and the revelation that can come from the abandon that nightlife can sometimes bring. There are often parallel themes for me, so it’s ostensibly a party song but there are layers to what the lyrics are interpreted to be. On the surface it’s just ‘at the clerb’ or some place at 5am with neon clouds.
“I tried to get Dan to sing on the last record too, but we couldn’t get it together to make it feel necessary. I felt like this song is a lot of fun. Dan sings really well and has a really interesting character to his voice and a posture as a singer. He has his own lineage that informs that and it’s a nice counterbalance to me, we just don’t do it much. Any time we’ve done, it’s been really cool and fun.”
He added: “A lot of songs on this album have killer outros, and that’s one of them. We had some enjoyment not limiting ourselves to what we think a song structure should be and just let the songs be what they wanted to be”.
I will end with Sara Bareilles’ Good Grief. This is an album at you will want to pre-order. You might be unfamiliar with her work, though she has been recording for many years now and is a hugely respected songwriter. I think that Good Grief is going to make a big impression when it is released on 28th August:
“Sara Bareilles returns with Good Grief, her seventh studio album and her first since 2019’s Amidst the Chaos. As the title implies, the 14-track collection is deeply informed by loss. It comes in different varieties, some belonging to Bareilles, some borrowed in service of beautiful storytelling. Sometimes the loss is more one of equilibrium or the inability to search for silver linings in storm clouds. But as the title also implies Good Grief has, even at its darkest depth, a glimmering golden lifeline that runs through the album pointing toward hope on the surface. “My deepest hope,” Sara says, “is that Good Grief just provides some kind of comfort or catharsis for somebody. It feels like it's really close to me and my hope is that people feel closer to themselves listening to this record”.
I feel there are a lot of amazing albums due next month. Something in there for everyone. I hope that my feature has provided some guidance and albums you will want to buy. I am looking forward to August and the great music coming out. So many brilliant albums…
TO add to your collection.