FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
Essential October Releases
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NEXT month is a pretty busy time…
IN THIS PHOTO: Arctic Monkeys/PHOTO CREDIT: Zackery Michael
for great new albums. I am going to recommend the ones that you will want to pre-order and add to your collection. On 30th September, Björk's tenth studio album, Fossora, is released. The week after that, you wonder whether any other artists can top or equal that sense of expectation and gravitas. Actually, there are some really great albums due on 7th October. In terms of one that I would advise you pre-order, that would be Alvvays’ Blue Rev. A terrific album that you need to get a hold of. I am a fairly recent convert to Alvvays, but I love their music and can recommend the gems that are likely to be found on Blue Rev:
“What a time to be alive - Alvvays return with an album that keeps up their hot streak and we are here for it. Classic Indie Pop dynamics meet sweetly dark lyrical turns for an album that improves listen on listen. Welcome back Alvvays, we've missed you!
Alvvays never intended to take five years to finish their third album, the nervy joyride that is the compulsively lovable Blue Rev. At least the five-year wait was worthwhile: Blue Rev doesn’t simply reassert what’s always been great about Alvvays but instead reimagines it. They have, in part and sum, never been better. There are 14 songs on Blue Rev, making it not only the longest Alvvays album but also the most harmonically rich and lyrically provocative”.
A terrific album from an artist that you may not be aware of, Loraine James’ Building Something Beautiful for Me is an essential purchase. One of this country’s best young talents, I am excited to see this album come out and discover how people react to it. Maybe you have not heard of James, but I would recommend you investigate and pre-order a copy of Building Something Beautiful for Me:
“Celebrated UK producer Loraine James joins Phantom Limb for breathtaking homage to vital NYC composer Julius Eastman, reinterpreting, reimagining and responding to key works for a brand new album.
In 1990, the composer Julius Eastman quietly passed away, out of the spotlight, a young man. By his death substance-addicted, homeless and broke, he was unforgivably overlooked in his lifetime. Still, the legacy of creative work he leaves is far more befitting to celebration than destitution. Only a portion of his music remains - a deeply regrettable sidenote to an already heartbreaking story - but this work represents a glorious and beautifully hued depiction of a composer totally in step with any modern great we could name.
Phantom Limb are long-term fans of both Eastman and Loraine James. Using their rare, fortuitous connection with Julius’ surviving brother Gerry, the label began this new project in summer 2021, hoping to continue the current tide of efforts to reinstate Eastman’s rightful place in 20th-century composition. Loraine was offered a zip drive of Eastman originals (courtesy of Gerry Eastman), Renee Levine-Packer & Mary Jane Leach’s illuminating biography Gay Guerilla (University of Rochester Press, 2015), and transcribed MIDI stems (courtesy of Phantom Limb A&R James Vella), and the resulting album Building Something Beautiful For Me carries the Eastman torch with finesse and sensitivity. Loraine employs samples, melodic motifs, themes and imagery, and inspiration from Eastman’s canon, slicing, editing, pulling apart and playing samples like instruments to craft a stunning album that venerates Eastman’s genius while adhering to her own.
Speaking in similar tongues as young, gay, Black, independent creatives in a challenging environment, the two musicians are bound closely together, despite a six-year gap between their lives ever intersecting. James includes the original Eastman title in many of her tracks, appending the source material in parentheses to mark the lineage of the work - a clear, traceable thread from the heavenly to the sublime.
Album opener “Maybe If I” riffs on Eastman staple Stay On It. Its arrestingly pretty central melody is reshaped into a living, undulating canvas on which James’ IDM-inspired beat production flickers and swirls. A repeated vocal line pulls Eastman’s towering work of modern minimalism towards reclassification as a “song”. Next follows “The Perception of Me (Crazy N–)”, channelling Eastman’s righteous anger and knowing reclamation of the brutally charged N-word into a quasi-ambient exploration of Eastman piano samples set to skittering beats. Elsewhere, opening side B, “Enfield, Always” acts as a creative response to our past master. While Eastman purposefully, slyly intermingled Uptown NY’s stuffy professionalism with Downtown’s loose fervour, Loraine is a London artist, bound into her locale with the same honour and justified sentimentality as Eastman was with his. And like Eastman, the track’s heady percussion and ecstatic arpeggios contrast intentionally with its austere backdrop.
In keeping with key Eastman codes, Phantom Limb engaged Black creatives to complete the record, including acclaimed designer Dennis McInnes for the album packaging, which is inspired by Eastman’s marginalia on his own (surviving) manuscript pages: “we sought to visually convey the complexity of what we may see as beautiful, how beauty is misunderstood and often lies beneath the surface”.
Maybe another act that may be new to you, Sorry prepare to release their album, Anywhere Be Here on 7th October. Go and pre-order an album that is shaping up to be among this year’s most promising. Sorry are a North London band consisting of Asha Lorenz, Louis O'Bryen, Lincoln Barrett, Campbell Baum and Marco Pini. Definitely go and add this L.P. to your collection for October, as you will not regret it:
“London once again features as a prominent character on Sorry’s second studio album, Anywhere But Here. ’If our first version of London in 925 was innocent and fresh-faced, then this is rougher around the edges. It's a much more haggard place,’ Louis says. Earwigged conversations, text messages, snatched speech recorded underground; the city’s discarded words fed into the lyrics which map the experience of urban life on a young and frustrated generation. Produced alongside Portishead’s Adrian Utley in Bristol, the result is an angular, acerbic, bittersweet triumph”.
There are some fantastic albums due out on 14th October. There is another out on 7th October that you definitely need to know about. One of the best albums due next month, The Orielles’ Tableau is going to get a host of love and positivity. I am going to check the album out, and I would also urge others to pre-order it. A tremendous band whose music is among the very best out there, I am very keen to see how Tableau is received:
“The Orielles release their new album Tableau, a genuinely contemporary record which voyages far beyond the musical limits reached on their previous albums Silver Dollar Moment (2018), Disco Volador (2020) and La Vita
Olistica (2021). The album was self-produced in collaboration with Joel Anthony Patchett (King Krule, Tim Burgess). As well as the adoption of contemporary 21st century production, the Orielles used concepts from the world of art and minimalism in creating Tableau. Sidonie had researched the graphic scoring method of Pulitzer Prize nominated trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith. They also utliised Oblique Strategies - the playing cards designed to aide creativity created by Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt in the early 1970s.
The result is a double album that rewards serious immersion, as complex as it is diverse. Though Tableau is likely to challenge preconceptions, this is something the band suggest they have been doing for quite some time anyway. “All through our whole career we’ve had to prove ourselves so, so much” explains Henry. “You can’t disconnect the age and the gender thing either” adds Esmé, “People belittle your age because they see women in the band. Whereas lad bands, if they’re eighteen it’s apparently exactly what people want to see.” Being from a small town in West Yorkshire may have added to that also, but Sidonie counters that “being from Halifax has also been a blessing, it’s kept our egos in check.”
Perhaps more than any of this, though, Tableau is also simply the product of the unique telepathy between three singular musicians that have grown in symbiosis for over a decade now - simply the three of them in a room.
If you want a taster of how great the album is go straight to 'Beam/s’ a gorgeous 7-minute-53-second piece of constantly shapeshifting celestial dream pop that heralds the truly extraordinary Tableau”.
The first album due on 14th October that you need to investigate is Meet Me at the Gloaming by A.O. Gerber. Her second studio album is one that will garner a lot of interest. Do go and pre-order it, as the L.A. artist is a sensation that everyone should know about:
“Meet Me at the Gloaming is the long-awaited second album from Los Angeles indie artist A.O. Gerber. Following-on from her acclaimed 2020 album Another Place To Need, the new LP showcases Gerber's knack for subtly infectious indie-pop, crunching, atmospheric alternative-rock and classic acoustic songwriting.
Across Meet Me at the Gloaming, A.O. Gerber carefully grapples with the constraints she was taught as a child to reach for the flourishing that comes when we look past the black and white, and into the grey gauze of the in-between. “I was thinking about how damaging it can be to exist in that binary space of good and evil,” Gerber explains. “When we see everything in either/or’s, we lose the nuance and complexity that make life rich enough to be worth living.” By interlocking memory and imagination, Gerber crafts a gleaming future, where the light and the dark don’t just coexist - they create a new colour entirely”.
I am really pump by the upcoming arrival of Stay Close to Music by Mykki Blanco. Their new album is going to tremendous, and you will definitely want to go and pre-order this one. I have been a fan of Blanco’s for a bit now, and I love everything they put out. It looks as though Stay Close to Me is going to be a must-buy:
“All versions with a limited Tattoo Sheet. Stay Close To Music the new studio album from Mykki Blanco, is unlike anything they have released before. Adventurous and expansive, it shatters any previously held assumptions about Mykki’s artistry, leaving them free to define their sound for themselves.
Throughout their evolution, poet, artist, musician Mykki Blanco has continuously blurred genres - pulling rave, trap, grunge and punk influences into a swirling pool of experimental hip hop that celebrated queer and trans experiences.
The songs spun together through numerous jam sessions, with writing taking place in Lisbon, Paris, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. By 2019, Mykki realized that they were working on two different records concurrently. The first became 2021’s lauded mini-album Broken Hearts and Beauty Sleep and now Mykki readies the second collection of the sessions via Stay Close To Music.
Stay Close To Music features from Michael Stripe, Saul Williams, ANOHNI, Dianna Gordon, Devendra Banhart, Jónsi and more.
Mykki Blanco is an artist revered for their fearless ability to evolve, placing their creative exploration at the forefront of their career. With Stay Close To Music, Mykki Blanco is leveling up. By stepping into unchartered territory untethered and free, they have fulfilled their ambitions and created a rich, complex and accomplished sound that belongs entirely to them and which only solidifies their status as one of the world’s most innovative musical pioneers”.
There are a few more albums out on 14th October that I want to point you in the direction of. The prolific and legendary Red Hot Chili Peppers are releasing Return of the Dream Canteen. A band I have been a fan of since my teenage years, they are still pretty reliable and solid after all of these years. It is worth pre-ordering an album that could well see them get to number one on the U.K. chart. Decades after they formed, there is still so much love out there for Red Hot Chili Peppers:
“Red Hot Chili Peppers release their brand new studio album, Return of the Dream Canteen on Warner Records. The release marks the band’s second album of 2022, hot on the heels of the platinum-selling chart topper Unlimited Love which was released in April debuting at #1 in the UK. It is also be the band's second Rick Rubin produced album of 2022, and reinforces their reputation as a band at their absolute peak, riding the crest of an undeniable creative wave”.
Let’s focus on The 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language. The 1975 are one of the biggest bands around, and every album of theirs is an event! I think that their fifth studio album is going to be really superb. I would urge anyone to go and seek out and pre-order Being Funny in a Foreign Country. I am interested in seeing what the band come up with and what direction they head in:
“The 1975 return new album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language via Dirty Hit.
The band’s fifth studio album was written by Matthew Healy and George Daniel and recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, United Kingdom and Electric Lady Studios in New York.
Formed in Manchester in 2002, The 1975 have established themselves as one of the defining bands of their generation with their distinctive aesthetic, ardent fanbase and unique sonic approach.
The band’s previous album, 2020’s Notes On A Conditional Form, became their fourth consecutive No. 1 album in the UK. The band were named NME’s ‘Band of the Decade’ in 2020 after being crowned ‘Best Group’ at the BRIT Awards in both 2017 and 2019. Their third studio album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, also won ‘Mastercard British Album of the Year’ at the 2019 ceremony”.
There are four more albums that I want to highlight from this week. Betty Who is a sensation and icon of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community who is set to release BIG! If you want to discover a new talent or order an album that will lift the spirits, then go and check out BIG! A real trailblazer and superb talent with many years ahead, there is a lot of excitement around Betty Who’s upcoming album:
“If you need to know anything about Australian-American pop trailblazer Betty Who, it’s that she is a survivor and an LGBTQ+ icon due to her infectious, always-inclusive artistry. Moving from the rigid major-label machinery to rediscovering her power as an independent artist, Betty Who is primed to kick off her latest, most triumphant chapter on her fourth studio album BIG!
Betty sings with as much pop exuberance as ever on the most open-hearted and personal work she’s ever produced. BIG explores many topics including self-love and acceptance, as well as career perseverance”.
Available on spring green vinyl, ILYSM will release Wild Pink on 14th October You need to go and pre-order this album. I am intrigued and I will definitely look out for Wild Pink. Again, if you have not heard of this band, then I would point you in the direction of ILYSM:
“The fourth full-length from Wild Pink, ILYSM unfolds with all the fractured beauty of a dreamscape. Over the course of 12 chameleonic tracks, the New York-bred rock band build another world inhabited by ghosts and angels and aliens, inciting a strange and lovely daze as the backdrop shifts from the mundane (subdivisions, highways, hotel parking lots) to the extraordinary (deserts, battlefields, the moon). But within its vast imagination lies a potent truth-telling on the part of singer / guitarist John Ross, whose lyrics closely examine his recent struggle with cancer. The follow-up to 2021’s A Billion Little Lights — a critically acclaimed effort praised by the likes of Pitchfork, NPR, Vulture, and Stereogum, who named it “one of the prettiest rock records of the past decade”—ILYSM emerges as a truly revelatory body of work, transforming the most painful reflection into moments of transcendence”.
Even though the biggest October albums are due from 21st, there are actually a few more from 14th that I want to include. Ashe’s Rae is a terrific upcoming album that I would encourage every music fan to get a hold of. Ashe is a simply tremendous and multi-talented artist that should be on your radar:
“Like a character out of your favourite movie or a novel you can’t put down, Ashe possesses her own mystique rooted in quiet wisdom, yet amplified with vibrance and spirit. For as much as she embodies timeless California cool (northern or southern, take your pick), she’s got enough gusto and moxie to hang on the East Coast or down South. Musically, she slides untouchable hooks over dusty instrumentation, connecting Laurel Canyon eloquence with UK rock scope.
After an injury sidelined her future as a gymnast, she immersed herself in music as a kid. Teaming up with Finneas as producer, she reached critical mass on 2019’s Moral of the Story: Chapter 1 EP. The single “Moral of the Story” appeared in Netflix’s To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love Youand exploded on streaming platforms, going platinum in the US and Silver in the UK. Her 2021 full-length debut, Ashlyn, arrived to widespread critical acclaim from Variety, Nylon, Billboard, and more.
Now, she turns the page on another chapter of her story on her second full-length album - Rae, which was produced by Leroy Clampitt (Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber), mixed by Manny Marroquin (Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Rihanna) and mastered by Michelle Mancini (Kid Cudi, Camila Cabello, Halsey)”.
I am keen to move on a week, but there are two albums I need to address before I do that. The Big Moon’s Here Is Everything is one that you need to pre-order. Rough Trade provide more details about the album:
“The Big Moon return their new album, Here Is Everything and it's theme is motherhood, parenthood, birth, lockdown, friendships and love.
Like so many records landing in store and on streaming services right now, Here Is Everything was conceived during the weight and worry of lockdown in a pandemic. Worlds were turned upside down and inside out. Lives became seismically different, whilst every day a carbon copy of the last. So, whilst Covid pulled the duvet tightly up over our heads and sat on it whilst we muffle-screamed that we could not breathe, it was also the unlikely backdrop to welcoming new life. Vocalist Juliette Jackson might have started lockdown teaching fans how to play guitar on Zoom to help pay the rent (including, to her eternal bemusement, one Courtney Love), she ended it as mother to a super little human being.
Here is Everything documents the arrival of that fragile but mighty baby in real time, and the excitement and fear felt by this fragile but mighty mother. Meanwhile, the rest of the band doubled-down in the studio, taking Jules’ embryonic song frameworks and stepping forward as one, revelling in an innate, giddy togetherness and with a clutch of genuinely fantastic tunes.
The record was introduced by Wide Eyes, a pure, uplifting song of collective jubilance. It sounds like a band in the form of their lives, having the time of their lives, and against all the odds. It sounds instantly like The Big Moon whilst sounding unlike any of the music that’s gone before it.
Here Is Everything was mostly self-produced, with the expert guidance and expertise of Adam Cecil Bartlett (Self Esteem, Jehnny Beth, PJ Harvey) and the Grammy Award winning producer Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Deer Hunter, and the producer of Walking Like We Do)”.
I am going to finish off with an album from a band releasing a new album after a decade away. The Lightning Seeds are one of my favourite groups. See You in the Stars is a great album that everyone needs to pre-order. I am really glad the band are back, and we are getting new music from them. There is not a lot of information out there about See You in the Stars, but here is what we know so far:
“The Lightning Seeds make a most welcome return with See You In The Stars, their first new album in over ten years. This intoxicating 10 track collection kick starts a soundtrack to summer with the feel good warmth of ‘Sunshine’. Most of the songs are written by Ian Broudie. One of the album highlights, ‘Emily Smiles’, was co-written with Terry Hall while ‘Great to Be Alive’ is a co-write with James Skelly (the Coral)”.
I am going to end with the three biggest albums from 21st October. There are none from 28th October I will highlight, because there are so many terrific albums due the week before. Let’s build up to the big three with Pip Millett’s When Everything Is Better, I’ll Let You Know. An absolutely phenomenal artist, go and pre-order her upcoming album:
“Future R&B super star Pip Millett releases her highly anticipated debut album When Everything Is Better, I’ll Let You Know. The singer and songwriter takes one step further into the global spotlight with an album full of her soulfully sombre vocals
CD - Folding cardboard pocket pack contains 1CD. Slipped inside a bespoke protective brown bag. All printed on 100% recycled board using plant based inks. Finishes are water-based and contain no toxins. Packaging and booklet are recyclable and has been manufactured in an environmentally friendly way. Protective brown paper back is printed using plant based inks.
2LP - Wide spine 12" sleeve containing 2 black vinyl with inner sleeves. Printed on 100% recycled card using plant based inks. Finishes are water-based and contain no toxins. Packaging and inner sleeves are recyclable and has been manufactured in an environmentally friendly way. Vinyl is made from 100% recycled black PVC, with labels printed on FSC-certified paper using traditional inks. Protective brown paper back is printed using plant based inks.
2LP+ - Wide spine 12" sleeve containing 2 colour vinyl with inner sleeves. Printed on 100% recycled card using plant based inks. Finishes are water-based and contain no toxins. Packaging and inner sleeves are recyclable and has been manufactured in an environmentally friendly way. Vinyl is made from 100% recycled multi-coloured PVC, with labels printed on FSC-certified paper using traditional inks. Each vinyl is unique in its colour composition. Protective brown paper back is printed using plant based inks”.
Loyle Carner’s hugo is a huge album due on 21st October. Sporting one of the most striking album covers of the month, Carner always delivers something truly extraordinary and memorable. I have no doubt in my mind about recommending people go and pre-order the stunning hugo:
“In hugo, there’s a central question that Loyle Carner keeps coming back to: “I’m young, Black, successful and have a platform - but where do I go next?” The answer is explored in this epic scream of a third album. With urgent delivery and gloriously widescreen production, Carner confronts both the deeply personal (“You can’t hate the roots of a tree, and not hate the tree. So how can I hate my father without hating me?) and the highly political (“I told the black man he didn’t understand I reached the white man he wouldn’t take my hand”).
By continuing to write in these tumultuous times with a renewed clarity and sense of artistic freedom, Carner reached deeper beneath the surface than he ever had before. The result is his most cathartic and ambitious record yet, a coruscating journey into the heart of what it means to be alive in these tumultuous times, and one which looks set to neatly cement his position as one of the most potent and vital young talents around today. Working alongside renowned producer kwes. (Solange, Kelela, Nao), Carner leaves no stone unturned on this album, in both its sound and its stories.
In a 10-track album that moves from gorgeous neo-soul moments to thundering hip hop, with immediate, infectious bangers and sampled interludes from non musicians (mixed-race Guyanese poet John Agard and youth activist and politician Athian Akec) Carner shifts seamlessly from micro to macro, confronting everything from strained relationships with family to the societal tears caused by class stratification. It also lays bare bruises in his personal life that he has never revealed before – often in painful, deeply uncomfortable ways, focusing on Carner's experience of becoming a father in the context of growing up without contact with his biological father. Cognizant of the immense pain and fear and confusion that we are faced with everyday, Carner has thrown down the gauntlet, defying us not to rise above the fray, wake up each day and be ambitious. Ambitious in building strong personal relationships. Ambitious in our pursuit of our goals. Ambitious in never refusing to back down against injustice. Rejecting the title of leader, Loyle Carner sees himself “as holding up a mirror”, and that clearly translates into the album's universal messages”.
In contrast to Loyle Carner’s awesome album cover, Dry Cleaning’s Stumpwork is one that I am not overly eager on! Regardless, the mighty Dry Cleaning are one of the most original band around. Growing in popularity with every release, go and pre-order this gem:
“Stumpwork, the follow-up to 2021’s New Long Leg. The South London-based group’s first studio album, recorded in just two weeks with producer John Parish at the iconic Rockfield Studios, became a huge critical and commercial success reaching #4 in the UK Album Charts and featuring in best-of-2021 polls across the board. Buoyed by its success, Nick Buxton (drums), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard (bass) and Florence Shaw (vocals) returned to rural Wales in late 2021, partnering once more with Parish and engineer Joe Jones. Working from a position of trust in the same studio and with the same team, imposter syndrome and anxiety was replaced by a fresh freedom and openness to explore beyond an already rangy sonic palette, a newfound confidence in their creative vision. A longer period in the studio afforded the time to experiment, improvise, play, sharpen their table tennis skills.
Stumpwork was inspired by a plethora of events, concepts, and political debacles, be they represented in the icy mess of ambient elements reflecting a certain existential despair, or the surprising warmth in celebrating the lives of loved ones lost through the previous year. Surrealist lyrics are as ever at the forefront – but there is a sensitivity now to the themes of family, money, politics, self-deprecation, and sensuality. Furious alt-rock anthems combine across the record with jangle pop and ambient noise, demonstrating the wealth of influences the band feed off and their deep musicality. With the pressure of their debut album behind them, Dry Cleaning have crafted an ambitious and deeply rewarding new work that marks them out as one of the most intelligent and exciting acts to come out of the UK.
The album and single artwork were conceived and created by multi-disciplinary artists Rottingdean Bazaar and photographer Annie Collinge. James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks of Rottingdean Bazaar first worked with Dry Cleaning directing the official video for ‘Scratchcard Lanyard’ and as their creative partnership with the band continues to flourish, they have fashioned a brilliantly unique visual identity for Stumpwork”.
Prior to getting to three giant releases from 21st October, there is another album that you need to know about. The stunning Goat are delivering the cheerily titled Oh Death. This is an album from a tremendous and incredibly interesting band that you will want to pre-order:
“Formidable psychic warriors, channelers of the mystic and proponents of a spiritual quest that transcends this realm, Goat remain a band shrouded in mystery. Travelling from their inscrutable origins in the Swedish village of Korpilombo across the stages and festivals of the world in the last decade, this band has created their incendiary music entirely according to their own co-ordinates.
With all this in mind, the casual observer might have guessed from its title that Requiem, their beatific and melancholic album of 2016, was to be their last. Yet the ancestral spirits summoned by their art are always restless. Thus the eternal cycles of rebirth have triumphantly produced Oh Death - a ceremonial conflagration as powerful as any this band has made. Invigorated by forces we can only guess at the origins of, Oh Death is a party to which all are welcome. Blithely waving away easy classification, these heat-hazed serenades are just as comfortable in the headspace of vicious ‘70s funk as they are in zesty ZE records post-punk.
Folk-haunted incantations and free jazz skronk here find common ground, buoyed by relentless forward motion and raucous energy. Yet all of the above is locked into a delirious gnostic groove that threatens to throw the whole shebang spiraling into orbit. Oh Death is driven by a supernatural charge that unifies, invigorates and transcends borders, whether geographical, musical, or between this world and the next. In the hands of these sages and soothsayers, this is just the beginning. Goat Is Oh Death, Long Live Goat”.
Okay, let’s get to a very different but huge trio of magnificent albums due out on 21st October. The first, Carly Rae Jepsen’s The Loneliest Time, is going up against a new Taylor Swift album. It is an interesting head-to-head between two huge American artists. I really like Jepsen’s music, so I can recommend The Loneliest Time with confidence. Go and pre-order the album:
“Grammy, Juno- and Polaris Prize-nominated singer / songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen releases her massively anticipated new album, The Loneliest Time. Her most introspective body of work to date, The Loneliest Time expands on the emotionally potent songwriting and effervescent sound that Jepsen has showcased on past work like 2015's critically lauded and culture-shaping E*MO*TION. In bringing her new album to life, Jepsen worked with collaborators Tavish Crowe, Rostam Batmanglij (who helmed production on The Loneliest Time's acclaimed lead single "Western Wind"), Bullion, Captain Cuts, John Hill, Kyle Shearer, and Alex Hope among others”.
I have mentioned Taylor Swift. After releasing folklore in 2020 and evermore later in the year, she is putting out her third album in as many years with Midnights. With a range of covers and options for fans, this is an album that I think will convert those who have not always been sold on her music. Even though there are not many details out there and songs that I can drop in, more will come to light before 21st October. Undoubtably one of the biggest albums of this year, Swift has to be one of the most popular and important artists of her generation. I really love the photo from the cover of Midnights and what it will offer:
“As previously stated, “Midnights” will have 13 tracks, ironically Swift’s favorite number, with two sides, Side A and Side B. Side A will consist of six tracks, while Side B will have seven. While the song titles have not been announced yet, the tracklist is shorter than usual compared to the singer’s last re-recording, “Red (Taylor’s Version).”
Fans have already begun proposing theories on what Swift will address within the album, with some thinking the songs will hold the same themes as past works such as “mirrorball,” “Forever Winter (Taylor’s Version),” “evermore (feat. Bon Iver)” and “hoax.”
Other fans believe the tracks are the sister accompaniment to “Lover,” as the album was originally supposed to be named “Daylight” until Swift changed the title. Some think that “Midnights” tracks will be the ones that were slated from “Lover,” with many referencing her Jimmy Fallon interview as the first Easter egg for the album.
In the interview, Swift said, “How far is too far in advance? Can I hint at something three years in advance? Can I even plan things out that far?” With this quote in mind, Swifties believe this album has been in the works since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additional “Midnight” theories
On TikTok, Swift’s followers have also suggested what her new aesthetic may look like with “Midnights.” One fan posted a video proposing that Swift’s new project will be within the “indie-sleaze” genre, as the singer on the album cover is rocking a minimalistic look.
The video goes on to compare Swift’s website to clothing brand American Apparel’s, as they both use the same font and colors. Even more exciting, the fan believes the singer will be collaborating with the alternative band The 1975 since her producer-turned-best friend, Jack Antonoff, recently worked with the group on their upcoming album. Swift even stated she’s listened to the band’s new album in a recent interview with Pitchfork.
Likewise, other fans took to Twitter to say Swift will tell a story in two parts because of the two sides on the album. Similar to the fictional character crossovers the singer created on albums “folklore” and “evermore,” Swifties think the same will happen on “Midnights.” Some even say the first side of the album will be ‘sweet dreams,’ while the other will be ‘terrors,’ as the singer mentioned in her Instagram post.
Lastly, many fans also have voiced their worries on TikTok that this could be Swift’s last album for a while once the “Midnights” era is over since the singer has been releasing back-to-back projects since 2020. Let’s hope this is not the case, but also let’s be real, Ms. Swift has continued to stay busy for the last three years!”.
The final album, and perhaps the most anticipated for years, is Arctic Monkeys’ The Car. The Sheffield band are going to cause tremors and a hell of a lot of chat when they release The Car on 21st October. Following the incredible and underrated 2018 album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, I cannot wait to get The Car. With Alex Turner at the front, we have this poet and wonderful frontman who is among the finest voices and writers of his generation. This will come out in The Car:
“The Car is the seventh studio album from Arctic Monkeys. Featuring ten new songs written by Alex Turner, produced by James Ford and recorded at Butley Priory, Suffolk, La Frette, Paris and RAK Studios, London.
Following 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, The Car finds Arctic Monkeys running wild in a new and sumptuous musical landscape and contains some of the richest and most rewarding vocal performances of Alex Turner’s career”.
I have recommended the very best from next month. There are many more albums due in October, but the ones above are the ones that I think that you need to pre-order and add to your collection. From Arctic Monkeys and Taylor Swift through to Loyle Corner and The Big Moon, there is plenty to choose from – hopefully something for everyone. If you need some guidance as to which albums you should get next month, then I hope that…
THE featured selection helps you out.
