SUBSCRIBE
    MusicNews

    Albums Out Today: Vampire Weekend, Phosphorescent, the Black Keys, Mount Kimbie, and More

    by Konstantinos Pappis

    In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on April 5, 2024:

    Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us

    Vampire Weekend are back with Only God Was Above Us, their first album in five years. The Father of the Bride follow-up was co-produced with Ariel Rechtshaid and recorded in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo. It includes the previously released singles ‘Capricorn’, ‘Gen X Cops’, ‘Classical’, and ‘Mary Boone’. “With every album we have to push in two directions at once,” Ezra Koenig told The New York Times. “Sometimes that means we have to be poppier and weirder. Maybe with this record, it’s about both pushing into true maturity, in terms of worldview and attitude, but also pushing back further into playfulness. There’s a youthful amateurishness along with some of our most ambitious swings ever.” Read our review of Only God Was Above Us. 

    Phosphorescent, Revelator

    Matthew Houck has returned with his first Phosphorescent album in five years, Revelator. His debut for Verve/Decca Records, the follow-up to 2018’s C’est la Vie was previewed by the singles ‘Impossible House’ and the title track. Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs, Jim White of Dirty Three, and Houck’s partner, singer-songwriter and pianist Jo Schornikow, contributed to the LP, which Houck recorded at his Nashville studio. Schornikow wrote an original song for the record, ‘The World Is Ending’, which is the first Phosphorescent track to be written by someone other than Houck.

    The Black Keys, Ohio Players

    The Black Keys have released a new album called Ohio Players. It marks the band’s first LP since 2022’s Dropout Boogie and boasts guest appearances from Noel Gallagher and Beck. “We’d never worked harder to make a record,” Dan Auerbach said in press materials. “It’s never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.” Patrick Carney added: “What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun. And something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.”

    Mount Kimbie, The Sunset Violent

    Mount Kimbie have issued their first album in nearly seven years, The Sunset Violent, following up 2017’s Love What Survives. Out now via Warp, the 9-song project includes the advance tracks ‘Fishbrain’, ‘Dumb Guitar’, and ‘Shipwreck’, as well as two King Krule collabs, ‘Empty and Silent’ and ‘Boxing’. It was written in California’s Yucca Valley and completed in London. Mount Kimbie is now a four-piece, with Andrea Balency-Béarn and Marc Pell joining the duo of Kai Campos and Dom Maker.

    Still Corners, Dream Talk

    Tessa Murray and Greg Hughes have put out the sixth Still Corners album, Dream Talk. The follow-up to 2021’s The Last Exit was recorded across three studios in the south of France, East Sussex, and Woodstock, New York. “I had tapped into something new and the way it came out was quite hypnotic, like a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep,” Murray explained in a statement. The duo shared ‘The Dream’ and ‘Secret World’ ahead of the record’s release.

    Drahla, angeltape

    Leeds-based art-rock outfit Drahla have followed up their 2019 debut Useless Coordinates with angeltape, out now via Captured Tracks. Vocalist and guitarist Luciel Brown, guitarist Ewan Barr, bassist Rob Riggs, and drummer Mike Ainsley recorded the new album with Matthew Benn and Jamie Lockhart in 2023. “There was an uncertainty and anxiety in not knowing how to rekindle what we had, and what we did have just didn’t exist in the same format,” Brown reflected. “I feel this is apparent in the music; the constant changes, opposing ideas and structures, the overall energy and drive of the songs. I think there’s also the sense of reconnection, encouragement and freedom, too. There’s excitement borne from us finding something together again.” The singles ‘Grief in Phantasia’, ‘Default Parody’, and ‘Second Rhythm’ preceded the LP.

    Fabiana Palladino, Fabiana Palladino

    Fabiana Palladino’s self-titled debut album is out now via Paul Institute and XL Recordings. The 10-track collection features contributions from Jai Paul, Rob Moose, drummer Steve Ferrone, and Palladino’s father and brother, bassists Pino and Rocco Palladino. “A central theme of the album is aloneness,” Palladino explained. “Whether it’s a song where ’m searching for connection with someone else, or trying to embrace the aloneness, it tends to come back to me, who I am when I’m alone, what I feel when I really look inwards. I’d say it’s a pretty introspective record overall. The songs are often about trying to go deeper into yourself, exploring your true feelings and how they then relate to and affect your relationships with others.”

    Bnny, One Million Love Songs

    Bnny has unveiled One Million Love Songs, the follow-up to 2021’s Everything, via Fire Talk. Bandleader Jessica Viscius produced the LP, which was recorded at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville with Alex Farrar. “I wanted to make songs that are exciting to play – songs that make me feel happy,” Viscius said in a press release. “This album is about love after loss, getting older, and just trying to have fun with a broken heart.” A series of singles, including ‘Something Blue’, ‘Changes’, ‘Crazy, Baby’, and ‘Good Stuff’, arrived ahead of the release.

    Khruangbin, A la Sala

    Khruangbin have dropped a new album, A la Sala, which is Spanish for “To the Room,” via Dead Oceans. Marking their first proper LP since 2020’s Mordechai, the record was promoted with the singles ‘May Ninth’, ‘A Love International’, and ‘Pon Pón’. According to a press release, the album represents an “exercise in returning” for the trio of bassist Laura Lee, drummer Donald Johnson, Jr., and guitarist Mark Speer, who recorded the LP with no outside collaborators besides engineer Steve Christensen.

    The Libertines, All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade

    The Libertines are back with their first new album in over eight years. All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade, the follow-up to  Anthems for Doomed Youth, was recorded with producer Dimitri Tikovoï, and all four band members share songwriting credit on every song.  “Our first record was born out of panic, and disbelief that we were actually allowed to be in a studio; the second was born of total strife and misery; the third was born of complexity; this one feels like we were all actually in the same place, at the same speed, and we really connected,” Carl Barat explained.

    Dana Gavanski, Late Slap

    Dana Gavanski has released her new LP, Late Slap, via Full Time Hobby.“The album holds together the seemingly disparate aspects of my character that I have sometimes tried to repress,” Gavanski said of the follow-up to When It Comes, which was produced by Tunng’s Mike Lindsay. “With this album I’m letting them into the room, celebrating them for all their strangeness – a strangeness which I think we all, on some level, share.” She added, “I knew Mike could help me find the range of sound I was looking for; he has an amazing attention to sonic detail and we’ve worked well together on previous records.”

    Lillie West, if i were a real man i would be able to break the neck of a suffering bird

    if i were a real man i would be able to break the neck of a suffering bird is the first project Lala Lala’s Lillie West has released under her own name. The instrumental LP was written and recorded during a residency at the LungA Land program in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, where she engaged in activities such as “making knives, backpacking in a blizzard, learning about Icelandic herbs, geology, history, having a lymegrass themed dinner party, sleeping outside.” West explained, “I had never considered making an instrumental album, nor was it my intention while taking these field recordings. Thus the process felt very natural, organic, almost private. I hope that the music is able to invoke the rhythm, sway, and connection I felt with the landscape in Seyðisfjörður, as well as my ongoing attempt to communicate with the divine.”

    Other albums out today:

    Conan Gray, FOUND HEAVEN; Lizzy McAlpine, Older; Jane Weaver, Love in Constant Spectacle; Vegyn, The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions; The KVB, Tremors; Grace Cummings, Ramona; Gustaf, Package Pt. 2; Bob Vylan, Humble As the Sun; Sinkane, We Belong; RiTchie, Triple Digits; Adam Wiltzie, Eleven Fugues for Sodium Pentothal; The Bygones, The Bygones; Joseph Shabason, Nicholas Krgovich, and M. Sage, Shabason, Krgovich, Sage; Caleb Landry Jones, Hey Gary, Hey Dawn; Maxband, Maxband on Ice; Katie Pruitt, Mantras; Vessel, Wrapped in Cellophane; Feeder, Black/Red; Marcus King, Mood Swings; Beatenberg, The Great Fire of Beatenberg; Lo Moon, I Wish You Way More Than Luck; Flung, All Heartbeat; Cuffed Up, All You Got; Motel Breakfast, I Promise I’m Having Fun; Olin Janusz, Please Leave Quietly; Annie-Claude Deschênes, LES MANIÈRES DE TABLE; FYEAR, FYEAR; Guests, I wish I was special; Coral Morphologic and Nick León, Projections of a Coral City.

    Arts in one place.

    All our content is free to read; if you want to subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date, click the button below.

    Subscribe to Our Culture

    People are Reading