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Albums Out Today: James Blake, Magdalena Bay, Lala Lala, W.H. Lung, Shannon Lay, and More

Konstantinos Pappis
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Albums Out Today: James Blake, Magdalena Bay, Lala Lala, W.H. Lung, Shannon Lay, and More

In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on October 8, 2021:

James Blake, Friends That Break Your Heart

James Blake is back with a new album, Friends That Break Your Heart, out now via Republic. The LP, which was originally set for release in September before being pushed back due to vinyl factory delays caused by the pandemic, follows 2020’s Before and Covers EPs, as well as the singer-songwriter’s 2019 full-length Assume Form. Blake has described Friends That Break Your Heart as a “concept album.” It features guest appearances from SZA, JID, SwaVay, and Monica Martin, as well as the advance singles ‘Famous Last Words’, ‘Say What You Will’, and ‘Life Is Not The Same’.

Magdalena Bay, Mercurial World

Mercurial World is the debut album by Magdalena Bay, the Los Angeles-based indie pop duo of Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin. Out now via Luminelle, the LP was written, recorded, and produced entirely by the duo and follows their 2020 EP A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling. “We spend all of our time together, and in some ways Mercurial World is about that particular sense of madness in containment,” Lewis said in a statement. “We live together and make art together; this immerses you in our creative, insular universe.” Tenenbaum added: “Mercurial World has a lot of outsized themes on it, like destiny, death, and doing the impossible. It’s not exactly a concept album, but we love prog-rock, so we love a concept.”

Lala Lala, I Want The Door To Open

Lala Lala, the project of Chicago-based artist Lillie West, has released her new LP, I Want The Door To Open, via Hardly Art. The follow-up to 2018’s The Lamb was co-produced with Yoni Wolf of Why? and features contributions from Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, poet Kara Jackson, OHMME, Adam Schatz of Landlady, Sen Morimoto, Christian Lee Hutson, Kaina Castillo, Meg Duffy, Will Miller, Gia Margaret, Josiah Wolf, and former tourmate Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie. The album was preceded by the singles ‘Utopia Planet’, ‘Prove It’, ‘DIVER’, and ‘Color of the Pool’.

W.H. Lung, Vanities

Manchester synth-rock five-piece W.H. Lung have released their sophomore full-length album, Vanities, via Melodic. Following up their 2019 debut Incidental Music, the band wrote the songs for the album in isolation, with the core songwriting duo of singer Joe Evans and multi-instrumentalist Tom Sharkett passing ideas back and forth. “At the beginning it felt like every new idea could’ve just been on Incidental Music,” Sharkett explained in press materials. “They weren’t bad ideas, but they didn’t feel new. I don’t think we knew where we wanted to go but we were 100% sure on it not being Incidental Music part 2.” Evans added: “We wanted to move away from easing people in and grab them by the heart straight away. I reflected on how we played live shows and romanticized about launching onto the stage in a bundle of energy and starting the party, no messing. The directness comes from making music more intuitively, and more from a place of fun.

Shannon Lay, Geist

Shannon Lay has followed up her 2019 LP August with Geist, out now via Sub Pop. Lay tracked vocals and guitar for the new album at Jarvis Tavinere of Woods’ studio, then sent out the songs to multi-instrumentalists Ben Boye (Bonnie Prince Billy, Ty Segall) in Los Angeles and Devin Hoff (Sharon Van Etten, Cibo Matto) in New York. Sofia Arreguin (Wand) and Aaron Otheim (Heatwarmer, Mega Bog) contributed additional keys, while Ty Segall plays a guitar solo on ‘Shores’. The record includes the previously released singles ‘A Thread to Find’, ‘Awaken and Allow’, and the album’s title track.

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Illusory Walls

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die have issued their fourth studio album, Illusory Walls, which is out now digitally, with a vinyl release coming on December 3 via Epitaph. The follow-up to 2017’s Always Foreign was written and recorded remotely between Connecticut and Philadelphia and was co-produced by Chris Teti and Greg Thomas. Elaborating on the album’s title, vocalist/guitarist David F. Bello. explained that it “refers to a hidden surface that seems to prevent entry, but upon inspection is nothing more than a visual illusion.” The album was previewed by the tracks ‘Queen Sophie for President’ and ‘Invading the World of the Guilty’.

Efterklang, Windflowers

Efterklang – the Danish trio of Mads Brauer, Rasmus Stolberg, and Casper Clausen – have released their latest album and first for City Slang, Windflowers. The band’s sixth full-length LP was created during the pandemic and recorded over the course of five trips to the residential studio Real Farm on the island of Møn, south of Copenhagen. It features contributions from Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, Bert Cools, Øyunn, and Christian Balvig, and includes the promotional singles ‘Living Other Lives’, ‘Dragonfly’, and ‘Hold Me Close When You Can’.

Porches, All Day Gentle Hold !

Aaron Maine has dropped his latest Porches album, All Day Gentle Hold !, which follows last year’s Ricky Music. Out now via Domino, the 11-track record – his fifth under the moniker – includes the previously unveiled songs ‘I Miss That’, ‘Okay’, and ‘Back3School’. “I recorded this album in my room between October 2019 and April 2021,” Maine explained in a statement. “The world was flipped and I wanted to make something injected with as much love, urgency, and lust for humanity as I possibly could.”

Sam Fender, Seventeen Going Under

Sam Fender‘s second album, Seventeen Going Under, is out today via Polydor Records. It marks the follow-up to the North Shields singer-songwriter’s 2019 debut record Hypersonic Missiles and was produced alongside Bramwell Bronte. “This album is a coming of age story,” Fender said of the album in a press release. “It’s about growing up. It’s a celebration of life after hardship, and it’s a celebration of surviving.”

BADBADNOTGOOD, Talk Memory

BADBADNOTGOOD‘s new album Talk Memory has arrived via XL Recordings. The 9-track LP includes contributions from Arthur Verocai, Karriem Riggins, Terrace Martin, Laraaji, and harpist Brandee Younger. “It took a year or two of just living life to get to the place where the creative process was exciting again and once we actually went in to the studio it was the most concise recording and writing process we’ve ever had,” the group stated in press materials. “We hope that the improvised studio performances bring the listener closer to our live experience.”

Other albums out today:

S. Raekwon, Where I’m At Now; Church Girls, Still Blooms; We Are Scientists, Huffy; Noah Gundersen, A Pillar of Salt; Matt Maltese, Good Morning It’s Now Tomorrow; Anna Leone, I’ve Felt All These Things; Trivium, In the Court of the Dragon; JOHN, Nocturnal Manoeuvers; Karen Peris, A Song Is Way Above the Lawn.

ELIO Shares Video for New Song ‘TYPECAST’

Konstantinos Pappis
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ELIO Shares Video for New Song ‘TYPECAST’

ELIO is back with a new single called ‘TYPECAST’. Check out a music video for it below.

“‘Typecast’ really sets the tone for my new era. It’s about being put in a category of what you are, and what you can do,” ELIO explained in a statement. “I feel like artists get put in a box so much, of how much they’re allowed to change and how much they should stay the same. I do it so much as a fan of other artists, but know how limiting it can feel as an artist myself. While writing the new music I just wanted to create stuff that felt right, no matter how different it was from my previous releases, but I found myself being reluctant because of how people view me as an artist, and how people have connected to the type of songs I have out. ‘Typecast’ was me having to go in a completely different direction in order to move on and grow as an artist.”

ELIO’s new single marks her first new music since her January EP Can You Hear Me Now, which followed her 2020 debut EP u and me but mostly me. This spring, she released a remix EP featuring Chase Atlantic, No Rome, Babygirl, and more, as well as the ‘CHARGER’ remix with Charli XCX.

Read our Artist Spotlight interview with ELIO.

Phoebe Bridgers Joins Noah Gundersen on New Song ‘Atlantis’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Phoebe Bridgers Joins Noah Gundersen on New Song ‘Atlantis’

Noah Gundersen has today issued his fifth LP, A Pillar of Salt (via Cooking Vinyl), which features a new song with guest vocals from Phoebe Bridgers. It’s called ‘Atlantis’, and it arrives with an accompanying music video. Check it out below.

“The ‘Atlantis’ video was shot on iPhone by my best friend Red Williamson,” Gundersen said of the clip in a press release. “We’ve been buds for 15 years. Big thanks to our friend Craig for letting us use his venue in Bellingham, The Wild Buffalo. Thanks to my fiancé, Misha, for pulling Red down a walking path in a cart so we could shoot those night shots. Thank you Joey for the sick jacket. Phoebe may not be physically in the video but she’s there in spirit as the sweet voice of my inner monologue.”

The National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner Share New ‘Cyrano’ Song ‘Someone to Say’

Konstantinos Pappis
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The National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner Share New ‘Cyrano’ Song ‘Someone to Say’

The National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner have shared a new song from their upcoming soundtrack to the Joe Wright-directed musical film Cyrano. It’s called ‘Someone to Say’, and it also features Víkingur Ólafsson, Haley Bennett, and the London Contemporary Orchestra. Give it a listen below.

The music for Cyrano was written by Aaron and Bryce Dessner, with lyrics by Matt Berninger and his wife Carin Besser. The soundtrack is set for release on December 10 via Decca, while the film, which stars Peter Dinklage as Cyrano de Bergerac, arrives in select theaters on December 31.

Kelis Drops Video for New Song ‘Midnight Snacks’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Kelis Drops Video for New Song ‘Midnight Snacks’

Kelis has returned with a new single, ‘Midnight Snacks’, her first in seven years. Produced by the Fanatix, the track arrives with an accompanying music video directed by Adrienne Raquel. Check it out below.

‘Midnight Snacks’ continues Kelis’ long-running food theme (‘Milkshake’, ‘Jerk Ribs’, ‘Breakfast’, ‘Milkshake’), which the singer acknowledged in her statement about the song. “It’s funny to me, but I like the fact that you can take sex and food, and you can put these two things together, and they’re totally interchangeable. I love that,” she said. “It isn’t intentional, but the idea is just that food is a very carnal thing. Everyone can relate to it. It’s very human, it’s sensual, it’s something that you crave. And it’s sexy.”

Kelis’ last full-length album was 2014’s Food.

16 Best Stills from The Piano (1993)

Svetlana Sterlin
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16 Best Stills from The Piano (1993)

Jane Campion’s Palme d’Or winner The Piano is a New Zealand-set period drama about a mute woman and her daughter who arrive on the country’s rugged coast after a long journey from Scotland. Ada and Flora McGrath are portrayed by Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin, respectively. Both won Academy Awards for their performances as the mother-daughter pair.

Ada has been sold into marriage to Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill), who, upon her arrival, insists she leave her piano behind on the beach. Besides sign language, the piano is Ada’s only way of communicating with others. Flora acts as Ada’s interpreter and is often caught in the middle of the tense relationship between Ada and Alisdair. Meanwhile, Ada grows closer to George Baines (Harvey Keitel), Alisdair’s Maori acquaintance.

Recognition for costuming, production design, and cinematography were among the many prestigious awards The Piano received upon its release in 1993. Here are sixteen stills that showcase the film’s beauty.

Album Review: Boy Scouts, ‘Wayfinder’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Album Review: Boy Scouts, ‘Wayfinder’

The wistful, lilting harmonies that permeate Boy Scouts’ music might trick you into thinking it exists in some kind of dream state, but oftentimes, what it more closely mirrors is the sun peeking through your window in the morning; the way consciousness creeps up on you, slowly rendering your surroundings in full view. It’s how we encounter Taylor Vick, the Oakland-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist behind the project, on her latest album, Wayfinder: attempting to situate herself in the not-quite-real world, asking questions, remembering. On ‘Not Today’, warm acoustic guitar wakes her from a dream she’s not ready to let go, repeating the word “dream” as if to actively latch onto it, the place where she’s still grieving the loss of a friend. Soon we find her escaping to the coast to clear her mind, though, she admits, “It isn’t long before I’m thinking again.”

In the midst of lockdown, and despite the challenges it presented, Vick and her longtime collaborator decided to travel to Anacortes, Washington to record a new Boy Scouts album at The Unknown, the converted church studio operated by Nicholas Wilbur and Phil Elverum. It arrives two years after her Anti-/Epitaph debut, Free Company, a gorgeous album chronicling the dissolution of a relationship that was also her most collaborative and polished effort to date. A prolific artist with a decade’s worth of home-recorded material before what qualifies as her first studio outing, Vick has a gift for retaining a rich, mesmerizing quality across her recordings, regardless of where they took shape. Wayfinder ostensibly continues down the path she embarked on Free Company, inviting a dozen collaborators, most prominently Steinbrink and Vick’s brother Travis, to join her without ever disrupting its natural flow. Vick understands the pressures of taking center stage, but does so anyway: “Now that I have the floor/ I want nothing more/ Than to open the door/ That I shut before,” she sings on ‘The Floor’, the rhymes making it sound all too easy.

Some of the additional flourishes that may not have graced Boy Scouts’ earlier work are often what elevate the songs on Wayfinder. Sometimes it’s the instruments that hang in the background: on ‘Charlotte’, a poignant song reflecting on a 50-year romance, the aching tenderness in Vick’s voice is echoed by soft ripples of strings, cymbal, and supple bass. The sound of a mellotron sways through ‘Didn’t I’ as the singer reminisces on pondering existential questions with a friend, underlining the sense of nostalgia before the cello brings it to a dramatic climax. Backing vocals from Vick’s tour mate, Melina Duterte of Jay Som, enliven ‘Big Fan’, a groovy meditation on friendship. On at least one occasion, the record catches you off guard completely, as with the hard rock riff that suddenly bursts through the opener ‘I Get High’, coexisting briefly and semi-harmoniously with the nylon guitar and gentle harmonies that preceded it.

Whether or not that detail works, it’s a potent evocation of the kind of chaos Vick attempts to sift through in her music. As she spends much of the album navigating conversations both imaginary and real, her strength as a songwriter remains its most compelling attribute. Her playful sincerity shines through on ‘Lighter’, in which she cleverly relays an argument where one accuses the other of borrowing their light: “You’d say, ‘Do you even try to remember the good times?’/ And I’d say, ‘Only every night when I’m still without your light’.” The fact that music serves to counter the darkness that’s left behind is evident in both her writing and performances. The admission, on a track called ‘A Lot to Ask’, that “Nothing’s funny in this aftermath” would purely be a somber one if her songs weren’t filled with such a vibrant sense of humour, which highlight ‘That’s Life Honey’ frames as the only antidote to life’s tragedies. By the end, Vick is lucid enough to know she doesn’t have the answers, but is once again lost in thought, wondering if the feeling even got through. “Maybe things are just as they seem,” she muses, followed by a promise we can hold onto: “I’ll see you in the next dream.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers Announce 2022 Tour Dates

Konstantinos Pappis
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Red Hot Chili Peppers Announce 2022 Tour Dates

Red Hot Chili Peppers have revealed the details of their 2022 world stadium tour, their first since guitarist John Frusciante rejoined the band in 2019. Teased last month with a silly news video, the 32-date tour will kick off on June 4 in Seville, Spain and will take them across Europe, UK, and US, with support from the likes of the Strokes, Beck, HAIM, St. Vincent, and Anderson .Paak, plus Thundercat and King Princess opening select dates. Tickets go on general sale from 10 am next Friday, October 15 here. Check out the full list of dates below.

Red Hot Chili Peppers 2022 Tour Dates:

Sat Jun 04 – Seville, Spain – Estadio La Cartuja De Sevilla=
Tue Jun 07 – Barcelona, Spain – Estadi Olimpic=
Fri Jun 10 – Nijmegen, Netherlands – Goffertpark=
Wed Jun 15 – Budapest, Hungary – Puskas Stadium=
Sat Jun 18 – Firenze, Italy – Firenze Rocks
Wed Jun 22 – Manchester, UK – Emirates Old Trafford=
Sat Jun 25 – London, UK – London Stadium~
Wed Jun 29 – Dublin, Ireland – Marlay Park~
Fri Jul 01 – Glasgow, UK – Bellahouston Park~
Sun Jul 03 – Leuven, Belgium – Rock Werchter
Tue Jul 05 – Cologne, Germany – RheinEnergieStadium=
Fri Jul 08 – Paris, France – Stade de France~
Tue Jul 12 – Hamburg, Germany – Volksparkstadion=
Sat Jul 23 – Denver, CO – Empower Field at Mile High*
Wed Jul 27 – San Diego, CA – Petco Park*
Fri Jul 29 – Santa Clara, CA – Levi’s Stadium+
Sun Jul 31 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium+
Wed Aug 03 – Seattle, WA – T-Mobile Park^
Sat Aug 06 – Las Vegas, NV – Allegiant Stadium^^
Wed Aug 10 – Atlanta, GA – Truist Park^
Fri Aug 12 – Nashville, TN – Nissan Stadium^
Sun Aug 14 – Detroit, MI – Comerica Park^
Wed Aug 17 – E. Rutherford, NJ – Metlife Stadium^
Fri Aug 19 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field^
Sun Aug 21 – Toronto, ON – Rogers Centre^
Tue Aug 30 – Miami, FL – Hard Rock Stadium^
Thu Sep 01 – Charlotte, NC – Bank of America Stadium^
Sat Sep 03 – Philadelphia, PA – Citizens Bank Park^
Thu Sep 08 – Washington, DC – Nationals Park^
Sat Sep 10 – Boston, MA – Fenway Park#
Thu Sep 15 – Orlando, FL – Camping World Stadium^
Sun Sep 18 – Arlington, TX – Globe Life Field^

=with special guests A$AP Rocky and Thundercat
~with special guests Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals and Thundercat
*with special guests HAIM and Thundercat
+with special guests Beck and Thundercat
^with special guests The Strokes and Thundercat
^^with special guests The Strokes and King Princess
#with special guests St. Vincent and Thundercat

Tears for Fears Announce First New Album in 17 Years, Release Video for New Song

Konstantinos Pappis
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Tears for Fears Announce First New Album in 17 Years, Release Video for New Song

Tears for Fears, the duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, have today announced their first album in 17 years. The Tipping Point arrives February 25 via Concord, and the LP’s title track is out now. Check out its accompanying Matt Mahurin-directed video below, and scroll down for the project’s cover art and tracklist.

Of the album, which was originally set for release in 2017, Orzabal said in a statement: “Before everything went so right with this album, everything first had to go wrong. It took years, but something happens when we put our heads together. We’ve got this balance, this push-me-pull-you thing – and it works really well.”

Smith added: “If that balance doesn’t work on a Tears For Fears album, the whole thing just doesn’t work. To put it in simple terms, a Tears For Fears record and what people perceive to be the sound of Tears For Fears – is the stuff we can both agree on.”

For the new album, Tears for Fears teamed up with longtime collaborator Charlton Pettus, as well as producers and songwriters Sacha Skarbek and Florian Reutter. “Suddenly, for the first time in a long time, we felt like we had someone in our corner who understood what we were trying to do,” Orzabal said. “We felt like we had somebody on our side. It was the first time in a long time that we decided – we have to do this.”

Tears for Fears’ last album was 2004’s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending.

The Tipping Point Cover Artwork:

The Tipping Point Tracklist:

1. No Small Thing
2. The Tipping Point
3. Long, Long, Long Time
4. Break the Man
5. My Demons
6. Rivers of Mercy
7. Please Be Happy
8. Master Plan
9. End of Night
10. Stay
11. Let It All Evolve [deluxe edition]
12. Secret Location [deluxe edition]
13. Shame (Cry Heaven) [deluxe edition]

 

Cat Power Announces New Album, Covers Frank Ocean and The Pogues

Konstantinos Pappis
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Cat Power Announces New Album, Covers Frank Ocean and The Pogues

Cat Power has announced a new covers album, simply titled Covers, which will be released on January 14, 2022, via Domino. Today’s announcement comes with the release of her rendition of Frank Ocean’s ‘Bad Religion’ and The Pogues ‘A Pair Of Brown Eyes’. Chan Marshall also performed ‘Bad Religion’ on The Late Late Show With James Corden last night. Watch her performance, listen to both tracks, and check out the album’s full tracklist and cover artwork below.

According to a press release, Marshall’s rendition of ‘Bad Religion’ originated from her performing her Wanderer track ‘In Your Face’ on tour. “That song was bringing me down,” she explained. “So I started pulling out lyrics from ‘Bad Religion’ and singing those instead of getting super depressed. Performing covers is a very enjoyable way to do something that feels natural to me when it comes to making music.”  

Produced entirely by Chan Marshall, Covers also includes her versions of songs by Bob Seger, Lana Del Rey, Jackson Browne, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, The Replacements, and more, along with a new take on her own song ‘Hate’, from 2006’s The Greatest, retitled ‘Unhate’. Completing a trilogy of sorts, it follows Cat Power’s previous mostly-covers collections Jukebox (2008) and The Covers Record (2000). 

Covers Cover Artwork:

Covers Tracklist:

1. Bad Religion – Frank Ocean
2. Unhate – Cat Power – Chan Marshall
3. Pa Pa Power – Dead Man’s Bones
4. A Pair Of Brown Eyes – The Pogues
5. Against the Wind – Bob Seger
6. Endless Sea – Iggy Pop
7. These Days – Jackson Browne
8. It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels – Kitty Wells
9. I Had A Dream Joe – Nick Cave
10. Here Comes A Regular – The Replacements
11. I’ll Be Seeing You – Billie Holiday

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