FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: Victoria Monét
Essential October Releases
__________
NEXT month…
IN THIS PHOTO: Rachel Chinouriri
sees the release of a fair few big albums from major artists. I am recommending the albums you will want to pre-order. You can see a list here. I am starting out with albums due on 4th October. Four that you will want to keep an eye out for. Fat Dog’s Cancel Me (I’m Tired) is an album you can pre-order here. They are one of our best young bands, so it will be exciting when they release their latest album:
“The second album by South London seven-piece Fat Dog is titled Cancel Me (I’m Tired). After releasing their debut album WOOF. in 2024 and becoming one of the UK’s most exciting breakthrough bands in the process, they have a good reason to be tired. They’ve spent the period since WOOF.’s release spreading their raucous, infectious and irresistible bark around the world. The reason that they want you to cancel them is that they’ve been around the world and they’re tired. But if Fat Dog - Joe Love, Chris Hughes, Morgan Wallace, Ellis Dickson, Michael Dunlop, Dillon Harrison and Jed Bevington - are tired with the world, the world is not tired of them. In fact, the world can’t get enough of them.
With follow up Cancel Me (I’m Tired), Fat Dog have created an exhilarating, swaggering, panoramic, inventive, re-inventive, re-re-inventive electro-punk-art-pop-rock’n’roll-space-country triumph that deserves all the adjectives. Over ten mind-bending and melodic tracks, it blends electro-pop anthems, cascading rave bangers, cowboy-tinged pitstops and swirling psychedelia. Into its lyrical orbit, the record pulls mentions of addiction, family ties, love, AI, ancestry, extra-terrestrials, Chris Tarrant, S&M, B&M, H&M and M&Ms. Cancel Me (I’m Tired) possesses all the rabid frenzy and electrifying excitement of their debut but now delivered on a grand and glorious scale. Big, big things are ahead. Fat Dog are only just getting going”.
It is always brilliant when Johnny Marr releases an album. The Age of Everything is out on 4th October. You can pre-order a copy here. I am turning to Rough Trade and their words about The Age of Everything. Well, technically, they are Johnny Marr’s words. There will definitely be a lot of interest and love around this album. Judging by what has been released from The Age of Everything so far, it is going to be up there with Marr’s very best solo work:
“The Age of Everything is Johnny Marr's fifth full-length studio record. Written in London, developed live on the road across the East Coast of North America and recorded in Manchester, The Age of Everything captures the energy and tensions of the city. Sharp, fast and dynamic, filled with ideas and possibilities. “This is the record that’s been the most cathartic. The title came to me early in the process and became an inescapable idea. It seemed to sum up the way I think a lot of people are feeling. It’s all encompassing, but it's not necessarily a negative statement. There’s a sense of overwhelm in the culture brought about by technology, but looking at it with a different light, there could also be a sense of possibility.” – Johnny Marr”.
The penultimate album from 4th October I want to cover is Phoebe Green’s Premature Nostalgia. This might be an artist that you are new to or do not know much about. I would urge everyone to check out her music and pre-order Premature Nostalgia. Green is a fabulous artist who I have been following for a while now. Everything she touches is golden:
“Written and produced alongside her sister Lucy Green between Phoebe's flat in Manchester and their parents' home in the coastal town of Lytham St Annes, Premature Nostalgia finds Phoebe Green at her most psychologically unguarded - documenting the impulse to grieve moments before they've even disappeared, turning spiralling inner monologues, warped electronics and metallic textures into fractured, emotionally combustible alt-pop.
A darker and more enigmatic companion to 2025 EP The Container and her acclaimed debut album Lucky Me , Premature Nostalgia draws inspiration from artists such as Imogen Heap, Oklou, Jockstrap, James Blake, FKA twigs and Sega Bodega - embracing warped electronics, fragmented structures and more experimental forms of pop songwriting. The album also features collaborations with Picture Parlour's Katherine Parlour and incorporates field recordings and metallic textures pulled directly from Manchester's industrial landscape and club culture.
At its core, however, the album remains rooted in the bond between Phoebe and Lucy - sisters, collaborators and proud adopted Mancunians navigating the realities of independent artistry together”.
Prior to getting to five albums from 11th October that are well worth pre-ordering, I would recommend people check out Victoria Monét’s Frequency of Love. There is not a huge amount of detail out there concerning the album, but Rough Trade provide some information. Another album that you should consider pre-ordering. October shaping up to be one of the best months for new albums. Some wonderful releases are due:
“Victoria Monét opens a fresh chapter with Frequency of Love, a record that feels timeless, elevated, and fully in command. Blending R&B with the romance of classic cinema and the pull of the dance floor, it plays like a rich, sensory listen shaped by love, vibration, and the full scope of her artistry.
A multi-hyphenate superstar and 3x Grammy Award winner, Victoria Monét made her debut album JAGUAR II one of the most celebrated releases of its moment. It earned seven Grammy nominations and landed on Best of 2023 lists from Barack Obama, Jay-Z, Rolling Stone, TIME, and Vogue.
The praise around Victoria Monét has come from every corner, including Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, and Bruno Mars. Frequency of Love builds on that foundation with style, confidence, and serious presence”.
Shifting now to 9th October and some tremendous albums. I’ll start off this week with Dawn Richard’s Creole Culture. This is an artist that I have a lot of respect for. I love her music, so I am looking forward to hearing what is on offer through Creole Culture. You can pre-order it here. An album I predict will get a lot of positive reviews when it comes out:
“Dawn Richard returns to her King Creole era with Creole Culture, a bold, future-facing love letter to New Orleans. Drawing on her Black and Native American heritage, it completes the arc begun with New Breed and Second Line, this time telling the city’s story through her own eyes.
Following her avant-garde R&B collaborations with Spencer Zahn, including 2024’s Quiet in a World Full of Noise, this record softens the brass-heavy swagger without losing its power. It moves through triumph, grief, desire and reflection, blending R&B, soul, hip-hop, pop and jazz with real care.
Guests including Big Freedia, Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, Tarriona “Tank” Ball and Durand Bernarr help build the atmosphere. From enough to fiesta, Creole Culture is expansive, deeply personal and one of Dawn Richard’s most striking records yet”.
Moving from Dawn Richards to Jamie T and Ghosts (100 Days of Morning). His latest album follows 2022’s The Theory of Whatever. This is an artist whose music I have listened to for years. So this is another album that I am going to explore when it comes out. You can pre-order it here. To think, it has almost been twenty years since he released his debut album, Panic Prevention (2007):
“Jamie T returns with Ghosts (100 Days of Morning), an 11-track collection shaped during a difficult period and filled with old ghosts brought back into focus. It looks at growing up, leaving youth behind, love, loss and the brittle nostalgia of halcyon indie-era nights.
There is a real sense of release here too. Ghosts (100 Days of Morning) feels just as much about letting go as it does reclaiming identity, with 3310, the introspective closer Tallahassee and Cocktail, a collaboration with Damon Albarn, all standing out.
The album is produced in part by Jamie T, James Dring of Loyle Carner and Blur, and Hugo White of The Maccabees”.
Three more from 9th October that I want to cover off. Jess Williamson’s A Mile South of Heaven is an album you can pre-order here. Again, this may be an artist who is new to you. Though I do feel that she is someone that you should invest in. Her sixth studio album follows 2023’s Time Ain't Accidental. A prolific and extraordinary artist, here are some details about her upcoming album:
“Jess Williamson has built one of the most distinctive voices in American music — crystalline, acrobatic, and unmistakably her own. The Texas-born, Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist has spent the better part of a decade carving out her own lane at the intersection of indie folk, alt-country, and a deeply personal confessional tradition. Now, on her seventh studio album, she steps into new creative territory.
Produced by Shooter Jennings, the album finds Williamson's artistry meeting its ideal counterpart. Jennings brings a deep-roots sensibility and studio instinct honed across decades, and together they've crafted twelve songs that honor the grit and sweep of classic country while remaining unmistakably contemporary. Williamson's voice remains the central instrument: front and center, emotionally unguarded, carrying the kind of weight that demands a room go quiet. But with Jennings at the helm, the sonic canvas is richer and more expansive than anything in her catalog to date — full of texture, warmth, and that ineffable Nashville-meets-Laurel-Canyon atmosphere that lives somewhere between Linda Ronstadt and Waylon Jennings”.
Remi Wolf’s Mud is due on 9th October. You can pre-order the album here. There is not a lot of information on this one either, but I hope that the below does provide some intrigue. Wolf is an artist who always delivers incredible music, so I feel that Mud is going to be an album you cannot afford to miss out on. I am definitely going to listen to it when it comes out:
“If Remi Wolf’s first two albums, Juno from 2021 and Big Ideas from 2024, lived in technicolor, her third LP Mud feels more earthy, grounded and close to the soil. The colour is still there, but it comes from a more rooted place.
That directness runs through the whole record. Written with real rawness, Mud strips away synths and programmed drums to leave Remi Wolf at her most lyrically and sonically vulnerable. These songs carry the feeling of singing around a campfire with friends and a couple of guitars, because that is how making the album felt to Wolf.
To reach that clearing in the forest, she had to carve out a new trail first”.
Prior to getting to 16th October and a few albums from that week you’ll want to pre-order, the final one from 9th October is Sheryl Crow’s Pick You Up. You can pre-order the album on Galaxy Blue vinyl. One of the most striking album covers of this year too from the iconic and legendary American artist. Someone I have been following since her debut in the 1990s:
“These songs arrive as a heartfelt reflection on being human and wanting connection. Born from life in this exact moment, they reckon with the chaos and constant noise around us, while holding tight to hope, love, and the beauty that still surrounds us.
There is a real sense here of songwriting as a way through: making sense of what is going on inside and all around, and turning that into something shared. The hope is simple and generous: that whoever hears these songs feels less alone.
Think of them as a soothing moisturiser for chapped hearts. When being awake can feel like trudging through a burning desert, these songs offer a reminder that this is only of a moment, and that life remains a beautiful gift worth sharing”.
Four from 16th October that you will want to pre-order. The first is Florrie’s Magic for a While. You can pre-order the album here. If you have not heard of Florrie, I would thoroughly recommend that you listen to her music. She was formerly an in-house drummer for the production house Xenomania, where she played on major Girls Aloud hits like the 2008 single, The Promise. I loved her 2024 debut album, The Lost Ones, so I am very interested in what she will offer with her second album. A remarkable and singular songwriter. In June, The Line of Best Fit shared news of Florrie’s forthcoming album:
“Magic For a While started to take shape in early 2025 while Florrie - a drummer, singer-songwriter, and model from Bristol - was living alone in Los Angeles. Recording live drum loops, she brought the raw sketches into rehearsal rooms to build tracks through instinctive jam sessions.
“I wanted the record to feel live,” she explains. “I wanted energy in it. I wanted things to feel human.” Higgins, a co-writer and producer on much of the LP, helped shape those live impulses into sleek, expansive pop productions.
Florrie first built a cult reputation in the early 2010s through a string of self-released singles and EPs with Xenomania, while her drumming anchored hits like Girls Aloud’s “The Promise” and her songwriting credits extended to artists including Kylie, MNEK, and Tove Lo. More recently, she has played London’s O2 Arena supporting Girls Aloud and toured the US with G Flip, moving her beyond an internet-pop underground to a new audience.
Magic For a While is the follow-up to Florrie's debut solo album, The Lost Ones, which was released in 2024”.
A few more albums from 16th October that you will want to pre-order. Fontaines D.C.’s Dopamine Chamber is among the most anticipated albums of this year. The Irish band are in their prime right now, in the sense they are being talked about as potential Glastonbury headliners. They have risen to that stage in their career. You can pre-order their album here:
“Fontaines D.C. release their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, released via XL Recordings. Produced by James Ford, it is the follow-up to 2024’s UK platinum-certified Romance – and the sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic.
Dopamine Chamber arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril—and what our pursuit of it reveals about us. Across the album, Fontaines D.C. – Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll – move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”
Where Romance held its tension in balance, this record tips it. “I think Romance was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” says Chatten, who spent time among the faded grandeur of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration. “This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” He resisted any pull towards easy optimism: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”
“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor Deegan. “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Into the self, perhaps – or hedonism, fantasy, cosmetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless refresh of a screen.
Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums refusing to repeat themselves – from Dogrel (2019) through A Hero’s Death (2020), the No. 1 Skinty Fia (2022) and the anarchic, kaleidoscopic Romance (2024). Dopamine Chamber is their most radical turn yet: cold synthesiser tones, marching drums, samples and triggers, several songs with no guitars at all, and the swooning strings of 1960s Italian pop pulled into something synthetic. For guitarist Conor Curley, the aim was to break from the band’s own reference points: “I was trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.” It was made with James Ford between London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.
“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” says Chatten. For their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have built the chamber. What happens to the listener inside it will be the experiment”.
Prior to wrapping things up with three albums from 30th October for you to pre-order, there is one more from 16th October (none from 23rd October I am highlighting). Rachel Chinouriri’s I think I spoke too soon is the next album I am recommending. This is an artist that I really love. You can pre-order it here. Here are some details about an album that you will definitely want to get a copy of:
“Two-time Brit Award nominee and winner of the 2026 Silver Clef Best New Artist award, Rachel Chinouriri steps into a new chapter with I think I spoke too soon.
Threading dancefloor synth-pop through her tender indie songwriting, the record leans into the pull between polished glamour and creeping self-doubt. It follows her acclaimed 2024 debut, What A Devastating Turn of Events, while pushing her sound into sharper, bolder territory.
At its core, this is a deeply autobiographical release, with Chinouriri exploring sobriety, femininity, and identity through the blurred emotions of her early-to-mid twenties, all shaped by one question: “If I continue down this path, will I like who I’ll become?”.
The Avalanches’ No Bad Memories is an album you should pre-order. I was not aware that The Avalanches had a new album coming out, so it took me by surprise somewhat. Over twenty-five years since their debut, Since I Left You, we are still getting incredible music from the Australian group (they currently consist of Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi, along with multi-instrumentalist Andy Szekeres):
“The Avalanches return with their fourth album No Bad Memories, a new album inspired by the simultaneously magical and unsettling ways advertising, technology and pop culture become woven into the fabric of our memories. No Bad Memories is an ambivalent love letter to the nostalgic pull of commercial jingles, start-up chimes and forgotten audio logos. Featuring collaborators including Karen O, Jamie XX, Portraits of Tracy and many more.
CD TRACKLIST
01. Bd-R
02. Together (feat. Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza & Prentiss)
03. Xerox Altalink B8055 (feat. Ryoji Ikeda)
04. I Give Everything I Have 2 U (feat. Loaded Honey)
05. Every Single Weekend (feat. Jamie xx)
06. Friends Forever
07. Blue Shadows (feat. Karen O)
08. Logoland
09. Like Clockwork / Hit By Traffic (feat. Khadija Al Hanafi)
10. All The Time In The World (feat. Rivers Cuomo, Vegyn & Baby Marlboro)
11. 3D Glasses Not Included
12. Vida (feat. Erick the Architect)
13. Paradise Island (feat. Khadija Al Hanafi & Mike Patton)
14. Unicorn Quest™ (feat. Ryoji Ikeda)
15. Far Away (feat. John Glacier & Khadija Al Hanafi)
16. Our Love Is Alive (feat. Suzanne Ciani & Barry Can't Swim)
17. Evergreen Altar (feat. Vegyn) * EXCLUSIVE TO VINYL, CD, CASSETTE
18. Can't Get Over Losing You (feat. Portraits of Tracy)
19. Watch Out! It's Cloudy (feat. Khadija Al Hanafi)
20. Highfield (feat. Panda Bear)
21. Under Yr Power
22. SUV Heaven (feat. Khadija Al Hanafi)
23. One More Fantasy (feat. Carly Simon)
24. Break Out Corporate Tag (feat. Ryoji Ikeda & Portraits Of Tracy)
25. Magic Wand (feat. Barry Can't Swim)
26. Superfun!™ TV Spot (feat. Mike Patton)
27. No Bad Memories
28. The Pavements Light (feat. Haruomi Hosono)
VINYL TRACKLIST
SIDE A:
01. Bd-R
02. Together (feat. Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza & Prentiss)
03. Xerox Altalink B8055 (feat. Ryoji Ikeda)
04. I Give Everything I Have 2 U (feat. Loaded Honey)
05. Every Single Weekend (feat. Jamie xx)
06. Friends Forever
07. Blue Shadows (feat. Karen O)
08. Logoland
SIDE B:
09. Like Clockwork / Hit By Traffic (feat. Khadija Al Hanafi)
10. All The Time In The World (feat. Rivers Cuomo, Vegyn & Baby Marlboro)
11. 3D Glasses Not Included
12. Vida (feat. Erick the Architect)
13. Paradise Island (feat. Khadija Al Hanafi & Mike Patton)
14. Unicorn Quest™ (feat. Ryoji Ikeda)
15. Far Away (feat. John Glacier & Khadija Al Hanafi)
SIDE C:
16. Our Love Is Alive (feat. Suzanne Ciani & Barry Can't Swim)
17. Evergreen Altar (feat. Vegyn) * EXCLUSIVE TO VINYL, CD, CASSETTE
18. Can't Get Over Losing You (feat. Portraits of Tracy)
19. Watch Out! It's Cloudy (feat. Khadija Al Hanafi)
20. Highfield (feat. Panda Bear)
SIDE D:
21. Under Yr Power
22. SUV Heaven (feat. Khadija Al Hanafi)
23. One More Fantasy (feat. Carly Simon)
24. Break Out Corporate Tag (feat. Ryoji Ikeda & Portraits Of Tracy)
25. Magic Wand (feat. Barry Can't Swim)
26. Superfun!™ TV Spot (feat. Mike Patton)
27. No Bad Memories
28. The Pavements Light (feat. Haruomi Hosono)”.
Moving into 30th October, that brings me to Caroline Rose’s Gentling the Horse at the Walt Whitman Mall. The Long Island-born artist is so prolific. Last year, she released Year of the Slug. You can pre-order Caroline Rose’s forthcoming album here. I am really looking forward to this. Below is a brief bit of detail that gives you a glimpse inside an album that you will want to pre-order for sure:
“Caroline Rose returns with Gentling the Horse at the Walt Whitman Mall, the first release on their newly launched independent label, Suck records. Produced by John Congleton, it feels expansive, unguarded, and full of sharp, clear-eyed songwriting.
Across Gentling the Horse at the Walt Whitman Mall, Caroline Rose follows the strange overlap of humor and grief that runs through modern American life. The record balances pointed observations about crumbling capitalist structures with a deeply human hope for connection.
There is beauty and absurdity here in equal measure, with wildness, tenderness, and satire all sharing the same space. Led by Yip Yip Yow, a longtime fan favorite performed live for nearly a decade before its official release, this album opens an exciting new era for Caroline Rose”.
The penultimate album I am recommending is Jordan Rakei’s A Safe Place to Be Wild. Not too much detail about this album available, but you can pre-order it here. Jordan Rakei is a tremendous artist whose debut, Cloak, came out in 2016. The New Zealand-Australian musician is one of the very best in the world, so A Safe Place to Be Wild is going to be among this year’s best albums:
“A Safe Place To Be Wild is the seventh LP from Jordan Rakei, arriving after more than a decade of pushing the boundaries of soul, jazz and alternative R&B. Fearless, intimate and emotionally direct, the album finds Jordan embracing uninhibited self-expression and placing vulnerability at the centre of his songwriting. Stripping everything back to raw feeling and unfiltered moments, A Safe Place To Be Wild captures an artist fully stepping into himself, confronting the fear of exposing his inner world and finding power in doing so”.
The final album I am spotlighting for this feature is The Big Moon’s Forever. This is a band who I am a fan of. You will want to pre-order this incredible album. The Big Moon are such an amazing band, so there will be a lot of eyes on Forever. A lot has changed for the band since their previous album, Here Is Everything:
“What happens after happily ever after? And how do you make forever count? These are the preoccupations at the heart of The Big Moon’s buoyant yet beautifully bittersweet fourth album, Forever.
Four years on from last LP Here Is Everything – and a further eight since frontwoman Juliette Jackson first laid the foundations for the band – the London-formed four-piece find themselves in a very different, if similarly challenging, headspace. Where that record was conceived in the context of COVID and found Jackson processing the life-altering experience of new motherhood, Forever examines what’s left when you’ve already checked off many of the major milestones, and is tempered by a first-hand understanding of life’s fragility.
The truth is, the past couple of years have been a big readjustment for Jackson. In 2024, she was diagnosed with a cholesteatoma – a benign but destructive cyst inside the eardrum which has to be removed with surgery. Jackson explains, “I permanently lost most of the hearing on one side, which was pretty much existential, because writing songs is my job and my identity.” Stoic by nature, Jackson forged forward with songwriting regardless but found herself faltering. “I couldn't hear properly, everything sounded out of tune and I was just struggling to find a point at all, just writing these miserable songs I couldn't really hear.”
The answer was to shift her outlook completely, manifesting “a happy ending that didn’t exist yet.” “I just decided to write songs for this imaginary time, one or two years in the future, when I would be all healed and happy again. I didn’t know if I would ever get to that point but, by projecting and almost tricking myself into it, it actually became a really nice way of writing.” It proved an extremely fruitful approach, producing some of the brightest songs of The Big Moon’s career to date. Recorded over three weeks at Norfolk’s Bam Bam Studios, with Kevin Morby-collaborator Sam Cohen co-producing alongside the band, Forever is brimming with hook-heavy alt-pop gems, not least because Jackson had fallen out of love with writing verses.
“Over the years I've got more impatient with music,” Jackson explains with a grin. “I just like getting straight to the point.” As bandmate Celia Archer explains, they hope the album proves uplifting. “They're not trivial songs lyrically or thematically or musically, but Jules has shown us you can face all this stuff and choose to be hopeful and find power from it. Hopefully other people can apply that to their own lives”.
October is a busy and varied month for albums. From Sheryl Crow and Johnny Marr through to Remi Wolf, Fontaines D.C. and Caroline Rose, there is something in there for pretty much all musical tastes. I hope that my recommendations have given you some options if you are looking for albums to pre-order. It does go to show that October is indeed…
AN exciting month.