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    Albums Out Today: Bat for Lashes, Arooj Aftab, Maya Hawke, King Hannah, and More

    by Konstantinos Pappis

    In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on May 31, 2024:

    Bat for Lashes, The Dream of Delphi

    Bat for Lashes is back with a new album, The Dream of Delphi. The follow-up to 2019’s Lost Girls was preceded by the title track, ‘Letter to My Daughter’, and ‘Home’. The record is named after Khan’s daughter Delphi, who was born in California in the summer of 2020, and is partially told through a character called the Motherwitch. “Motherhood I thought would take me away from my art, but it opened up this massive world,” she explained. “I’ve turned the mother in me into this more potent, heightened archetype of the aspects of myself that are a mother. [The Motherwitch] helps me be able to take something so vulnerable and personal out into the world – I felt I couldn’t just do it as Natasha, because it’s so, so deep.”

    Arooj Aftab, Night Reign

    Arooj Aftab has followed up 2021’s Vulture Prince with a new album, Night Reign, out now via Verve. “Interaction with the queen of the night feels unthinkable,” Aftab said in a press release about the early single ‘Raat Ki Rani’, which came with a video helmed by actress Tessa Thompson in her directorial debut. “Sometimes we must be content with an exchange of glances.” Collaborators on the LP include Tessa Thompson’s father, Marc Anthony Thompson, Elvis Costello, Moor Mother, Cautious Clay, Vijay Iyer, Kaki King, Maeve Gilchrist, James Francies, and Joel Ross.

    Maya Hawke, Chaos Angel

    Maya Hawke has released her third album, Chaos Angel, via Mom+Pop. The follow-up to 2022’s Moss was co-produced by Christian Lee Hutson and features contributions from Benjamin Lazar Davis and Will Graefe. It was previewed by the tracks ‘Dark’ and ‘Missing Out’. In press materials, Hawke described the concept of a chaos angel as “a figure raised to believe they were a god of love, only to move through the world and realize they were instead leaving wreckage and ruin in their wake.” She added, “On the journey home, she goes back through all the places she thought she destroyed. And in the rubble, wonder and beauty and magic grew.”

    King Hannah, Big Swimmer

    Liverpool duo King Hannah have dropped their sophomore LP, Big Swimmer, via City Slang. The follow-up to 2022’s I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me was produced by Ali Chant and features Sharon Van Etten on two songs, including the previously released title track. “I remember sitting at my desk and the song just came pouring out and the big swimmer metaphor instantly felt right; to never give up on whatever it is you’re swimming hard towards,” vocalist Hannah Merrick explained in a statement. “But I like that it questions the listener too, that whenever you’re faced with something challenging, do you carry on swimming or do you jump out and grab our towel? There’s no right answer, but it feels empowering and necessary for the record.”

    The Marías, Submarine

    The Marías have released their sophomore full-length, Submarine. The follow-up to the Los Angeles band’s 2021 debut Cinema includes the early singles ‘Run Your Mouth’, ‘Lejos de Ti’, ‘No One Noticed’, and ‘If Only’. “This was one of the first songs Josh and I wrote on Submarine,” María Zardoya said of ‘Run Your Mouth’ in a statement. “I was conflict avoidant at the time and whenever someone wanted to talk about something serious, I’d run and hide. I learned that was a protective mechanism and I didn’t have the capacity to open up. There’s no other song on the album like it and I hope you dance to this one.”

    Willie Nelson, The Border

    Willie Nelson has released The Border, which is billed as his “75th solo album of new material.” The country legend recorded the follow-up to last year’s Bluegrass with producer and longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon. Cannon also co-wrote four of the LP’s 10 songs with Nelson, while the rest of the new tracks were penned by songwriters that Nelson admires, including Shawn Camp, Mike Reid, and Bobby Tomberlin. The Border also features listening notes by Mikal Gilmore and photos by Pamela Springsteen.

    Another Michael, Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down

    Another Michael have unveiled Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down, the companion to the band’s September 2023 album Wishes to Fulfill. Out now via Run for Cover, it features the previously released singles ‘Is There a World?’, ‘Mudslide’, ‘Seafood’, ‘I’m Your Roommate’, and the title track. “When you put out two records and there’s time between both of them, people assume that there’s time and space and growth and progression between each one, and we did make these at the same time,” the band’s Nick Sebastiano said in our Artist Spotlight interview about the decision to announce the two albums at the same time. “We did curate, I think, two very different records, but it felt like an honest way to be upfront about what you’re going to get from us over the next year or so.”

    Thou, Umbilical

    Thou are back with a new album, Umbilical. It follows the Louisiana sludge metal band’s 2020 collaborative album with Emma Ruth Rundle, May Our Chambers Be Full. “This record is for the radicals, the crackpots, the exiles who have escaped the wasteland of capitulation,” the band said in a statement. “This record is for the militants and zealots refusing to surrender to comforts, to practicalities, to thirty pieces of silver. And this record is most especially for the weaklings and malingerers, burdened by capricious indulgence, hunched by the deep wounds of compromise, shuffling in limp approximation, desperately reaching back towards integrity and conviction.”

    The Bird Calls, Old Faithful

    The Bird Calls – the project of Brooklyn-based songwriter and music journalist Sam Sodomsky – has released a new album, Old Faithful, via Ruination Record Co. The follow-up to last year’s home-recorded Exodus All Over was produced with the help of labelmates Nico Hedley and Ian Wayne. It features a wider range of collaborators than any previous TBC record, including Jason Burger (Scree, Twain, Big Thief), Winston Cook-Wilson (Office Culture, Winston C.W.), Katie Battistoni (Katy the Kyng), Andy Cush (Garcia Peoples, Domestic Drafts), and Shaughnessy Jones (Trash Girl).

    Anastasia Coope, Darning Woman

    Out now via Jagjaguwar, Darning Woman is the debut LP by Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Anastasia Coope. “I was able to envision a room of things happening, rather than me just building something,” Coope said of the album, which she produced herself. “This record was me starting to think spatially about music.” She added: “On this album, the word ‘woman’ represents the idea of a muse, or an idol, or an icon. It was a mixture of the maternal with the idea of a character, a star.”

    Other albums out today:

     Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Nathan Salsburg, & Tyler Trotter, Hear the Children Sing the Evidence; Alan Vega, Insurrection; +/- (Plus/Minus), Further Afield; Anna Tivel, Living Thing; Swamp Dogg, Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St; Bad Nerves, Still Nervous; Crowded House, Gravity Stairs; Idaho, Lapse; Shaboozey, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going; Jon Muq, Flying Away; Richard Thompson, Ship to Shore; Zolita, Queen of Hearts; Unessential Oils, Unessential Oils; Akira Kosemura and Lawrence English, Selene.

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