anticipated fall 2022 albums

87 albums we're anticipating for fall 2022

Labor Day is behind us, and we’re in the home stretch of 2022, with just a few months left before we start going holiday gift shopping, breaking out the sweaters, and making year-end lists. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; there are still plenty of warm days (and outdoor music festivals) ahead, and plenty more sure-to-be-great albums due this year. We’ve rounded up a list of 87 albums that we’re excited to hear this fall, and even this lengthy list doesn’t represent all the great stuff that’s gonna drop before the end of 2022, some of which probably isn’t even announced yet. Fall technically starts on September 22, but our list begins this week (9/9), partially because there are some heavy hitters out this week that weren’t announced yet when we made our list of anticipated summer albums. And we stuck to albums with concrete (or concrete-ish) release dates, though we’re still crossing our fingers for new albums from Cardi B, SZA, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Sky Ferreira, 100 gecs, Rihanna, Frank Ocean, and other up-in-the-air stuff.

Read on for the list in alphabetical order and let us know what albums you’re looking forward to this fall…

Acephalix – Theothanatology

due 9/30 via 20 Buck Spin

San Francisco’s Acephalix (who share members with Vastum, Lawless, and more) make a truly nasty blend of death metal and crust punk, and they’re set to return with their first album in five years very soon. As the recent singles prove, they sound as punishing as ever.

Acid Klaus – Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance-Pop Producer, Melvin Harris

due 11/18 via Zen FC

Sheffield electronic musician Adrian Flanagan has played in The Fall, The Moonlandingz, International Teachers of Pop and more, but here goes solo with this concept album about, as the title helpfully explains, “The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance-Pop Producer, Melvin Harris.” Every song features a different collaborator, including Richard Hawley, actress Maxine Peake and more. The album is out on Yard Act’s Zen FC label.

The Afghan Whigs – How Do You Burn?

due 9/9 via Royal Cream / BMG

The Afghan Whigs’ ninth album, and first in five years, was made like a lot of recent records — remotely during lockdown. Adding to How Do You Burn’s mood, already darkened by the pandemic, elections and protests, is the specter of the late Mark Lanegan who appears on two songs, and gave the album its title.

Pre-order How Do You Burn? on vinyl.

Alvvays – Blue Rev

due 10/7 via Polyvinyl

Blue Rev is Alvvays’s first record since 2017’s Antisocialities, and was made following some rough stuff for the band–on top of the pandemic, nearly all their gear was ruined in a basement flood and singer/songwriter Molly Rankin’s recorder full of demos was stolen. Even so, the singles are great, as hazy and noisy as they are poppy and lyric-driven.

Blue Rev is available for pre-order on blue marble vinyl.

Aoife Nessa Frances – Protector

due 10/28 via Partisan

Irish singer/songwriter Aoife Nessa Frances signed to Partisan for her sophomore album, which she wrote after moving to rural Ireland. “I might have been running away from my problems,” she says. “I was disconnected from myself and from nature, but I found peace far away from the city, where there were no distractions. I isolated myself with nothing to do but make music.” She recorded Protector with a full band, including strings and clarinet, and the resulting songs have been her most intricately crafted yet, compelling and textured.

Archers of Loaf – Reason in Decline

due 10/21 via Merge

“What I really think about going back to the Archers and doing a new record is that the three other members of this band are awesome,” says Archers of Loaf frontman Eric Bachmann of the band’s first new album in 24 years. “It’s not about responding to the past or whatever our bullshit legacy is. I just wanted to work with these guys because I knew the chemistry we had and that we still have. I knew that was rare.” Single “Screaming Undercover” certainly sounds like the Loaf we remember.

Pre-order Reason in Decline on red and purple swirl vinyl.

Arctic Monkeys – The Car

due 10/21 via Domino

Arctic Monkeys are returning with their seventh album, and going by the lead single, it seems like it picks up where the loungey vibes of 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino left off, but with an even greater emphasis on sweeping string arrangements. Except “sci-fi is off the table” this time, Alex Turner says.

Pre-order on custard vinyl.

Autopsy – Morbidity Triumphant

due 9/30 via Peaceville

Autopsy, the veteran death metal/death doom band formed by Chris Reifert after his departure from Death, released some of the most classic DM albums of all time in the late ’80s, and they’re extremely influential on the new wave of death metal bands that has been dominating heavy music today. They’re also still active, and about to return with their first album in eight years. Lead single “Skin By Skin” finds them still sounding gnarly as hell.

Backxwash – His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering

due 10/31 via self-release

Noisy industrial rap artist Backxwash has become one of the most thrilling underground artists on the planet, and we haven’t heard a note of her followup to last year’s great I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses yet, but our hopes are very high.

Bat for Lashes – TBA

release date and label TBA

Bat for Lashes released her last full-length album, Lost Girls, in 2019, and it looks like it shouldn’t be too much longer until her next one. In August she said she’d recorded the last song for The Dream of Delphi and that it was “almost ready.” Stay tuned.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChDG1FwpNvH/

Beth Orton – Weather Alive

due 9/23 via Partisan

On her first album in six years, Beth Orton breaks free from the “folktronic” sound associated with her, instead making an experimental album with a group that includes jazz poet Alabaster dePlume, drummer Tom Skinner (The Smile, Sons of Kemet), Shahzad Ismaily and bassist Tom Herbert (The Invisible). It’s also her first self-production. “This record is a sensory exploration that allowed for a connection to a consciousness that I was searching for,” says Beth.

Pre-order Weather Alive on clear vinyl.

The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field

due 9/16 via Carpark

The Beths’ third album is a global production, recorded mostly in New Zealand in 2021 but following a four-month lockdown interruption they then finished while on their North American tour, “mixing in hotel rooms and green rooms and in the back of the tour bus.” Circumstances don’t seem to have phased them much — first single “Silence is Golden” is fantastic.

Preorder Expert in a Dying Field on canary yellow vinyl.

Big Joanie – Back Home

due 11/4 via Kill Rock Stars/Daydream Library Series

In just a few short years, UK indie-punk trio Big Joanie have gained the support of Bikini Kill (who took them on tour), Thurston Moore (who formed his Daydream Library Series label to release their debut album Sistahs), Jack White (who released their Solange cover on Third Man), and more, and once you click play on their gripping music, it’s easy to see why they’ve made fans like these. Back Home is their sophomore album, and lead single “In My Arms” is a very promising first taste.

Bill Callahan – YTI⅃AƎЯ

due 10/14 via Drag City

“I wanted to make a record that addressed or reflected the current climate,” Bill Callahan says of his new album. “It felt like it was necessary to rouse people — rouse their love, their kindness, their anger, rouse anything in them. Get their senses working again. I guess there was already plenty of anger! But we needed a better anger.”

Update (9/12): first song out now:

Birds In Row – Gris Klein

due 10/14 via Red Creek

French post-hardcore greats Birds In Row are now signed to Cult of Luna’s Red Creek Recordings and gearing up for their first album in four years, and both singles have been stunning. Read our track review of “Water Wings” for more.

Bjork – Fossora

due 9/30 via One Little Independent

What to expect from Bjork’s 10th album? She hashtagged it as #biologicaltechno, and says it was inspired by home dance parties during the pandemic. More specifically, she says, “sonically it is about bass, heavy bottom-end” with six clarinets and a “punchy sub.” The album features appearances by serpentwithfeet, her son Sindri and daughter Ísadóra, as well as Indonesian dance duo Gabber Modus Operandi. Other clues: “Fossora” is the feminine Latin word for “digger” and first single “Atopos” is a type of “carnivorous air-breathing land slugs.” Things could get dirty and, judging by the very shroomy artwork and new video, trippy.

Black Math Horseman – Black Math Horseman EP

due 10/21 via Profound Lore

Sera Timms has been busy over the years with her projects Ides of Gemini, Black Mare, ZUN, LVXURI, and more, and now her once-defunct band Black Math Horseman are back with their first new release in 13 years! The first taste is the nearly-eight-minute “The Bough,” which finds Black Math Horseman’s gothy, psychedelic post-metal in fine form.

Bonny Light Horseman – Rolling Golden Holy

due 10/7 via 37d03d

The trio of Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman made one of our favorite albums of the year with their 2020 debut, and its follow-up is looking very promising too. The band have expanded their repertoire beyond renditions of traditional tracks to focus on original songs, and it all sounds fantastic so far, from their harmonious “first West Coast song” “California” to the warm, laid back “Summer Dream.”

Pre-order ‘Rolling Golden Holy’ on galaxy blue vinyl.

Broken Bells – INTO THE BLUE

due 10/7 via AWAL

The first record from Broken Bells in eight years, INTO THE BLUE, is also the first first for the duo to incorporate samples into their orchestral pop sound. That’s familiar territory for Danger Mouse, but maybe not James Mercer. In any case, the album’s opening tracks “Saturdays” and “We’re Not in Orbit” are terrific examples of their brand of cinematic pop.

Pre-order Into the Blue on vinyl.

Built to Spill – When the Wind Forgets Your Name

due 9/9 via Sub Pop

When the Wind Forgets Your Name is just Built To Spill’s first album for Sub Pop but it feels like a match made in heaven, or at least the Pacific Northwest. Bandleader Doug Martsch produced the album and he made it with Le Almeida and João Casaes of Brazilian psychedelic jazz rock band, Oruã. “We rehearsed at their studio in downtown Rio de Janeiro and I loved everything about it,” Martsch says. “They had old crappy gear. The walls were covered with xeroxed fliers. They smoked tons of weed.”

Preorder on rainforest green Loser Edition vinyl.

Carly Rae Jepsen – The Loneliest Time

due 10/21 via 604/Schoolboy/Interscope

It’s been a few years since Carly Rae Jepsen released Dedicated (and its accompanying album of b-sides), but in case you need a reminder of her aptitude for making dynamic pop music, she’s offered the Rostam-produced “Western Wind” and the slick, summery anthem “Beach House,” both of which have our hopes high for The Loneliest Time this fall.

Pre-order ‘The Loneliest Time’ on black vinyl.

The Casual Dots – Sanguine Truth

due 9/23 via Ixor Stix Records

The Casual Dots, aka the trio of singer-guitarist Christina Billotte (Slant 6/ Quix*o*tic), guitarist Kathi Wilcox (Bikini Kill) and drummer Steve Dore (Deep Lust), are finally releasing a second album some 18 years after their self-titled debut. Like their debut, Sanguine Truth was recorded at DC’s famed Inner Ear Studios with Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto producing and Don Zientara engineering. Driving opening cut “The Frequency of Fear” has them picking right up where they left off.

Christine and the Queens – Redcar les adorables étoiles

due 9/23 via Because Music

Via his new alias Redcar, Christine and the Queens has made his first record since 2020 with a stellar, self-produced single already released. The aesthetic of “Je te vois enfin” is distinctly ’80s inspired, but knowing Christine and the Queens, the album is sure to cover lots of other ground too.

City of Caterpillar – Mystic Sisters

due 9/30 via Relapse

Even with the screamo revival that’s been growing and growing over the past few years, there’s still no band in the world like screamo legends City of Caterpillar, so it’s amazing news that they’re about to return with their first album in 20 years. It finds them not just tapping into what made their classic debut so great, but pushing forward.

Pre-order on pink vinyl.

The Comet Is Coming – Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam

due 9/23 via Impulse! Records

A trio of high-octane electronic/jazz fusion artists, The Comet Is Coming have made their mind-bending third album, a direct followup to 2019’s Trust In The Life Force Of The Deep Mystery. Shabaka Hutchings (of Shabaka and the Ancestors and Sons of Kemet), Dan Leavers (Danalogue), and Max Hallett (Betamax) recorded this year’s album at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio in England, where they experimented with sampling in their soundscapes more than ever before.

Crack Cloud – Tough Baby

due 9/16 via Meat Machine / Crack Cloud Media Studio

“The name Tough Baby is an allusion to our Planet. To our Culture. And to our Selves.” says Crack Cloud singer/lyricist Zach Choy. The Vancouver collective set the bar high with their 2020 debut album Pain Olympics — a record they made with no plans to make another — but they are staying ambitious with another danceable, apocalyptic vision. For a taste of the album’s scope, “Please Yourself” is a widescreen post-punk anthem about apathy, social media and pop culture idolization: “I don’t think you really want change / If faking’s enough to feel okay.”

Daphni – Cherry

due 10/7 via Jialong

The line between Dan Snaith’s two primary musical projects is pretty blurry these days; Daphni tracks tend to be more go-hard, four-or-the-floor bangers than Caribou which can be dreamy and introspective. For Cherry, the first Daphni album in five years, Snaith says, “There isn’t anything obvious that unifies it or makes it hang together. I think it was good that it was made without worrying about any of that. I just made it. It’s weird that when the tracks were put in what felt like the right order it took on a new coherence, where it pings quickly from one idea to the next and, at least for me, hangs together in a way that feels unified.”

Dead Cross – II

due 10/28 via Ipecac

Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, etc), Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer), Justin Pearson (The Locust, Deaf Club, Retox, etc), and Michael Crain (Retox) are always busy with a variety of projects, and when they come together as Dead Cross, they form a metalpunk supergroup that’s always worth paying attention to. They’ve got two songs out from their upcoming sophomore album so far, and both are ragers.

Pre-order on CD.

Death Cab for Cutie – Asphalt Meadows

due 9/16 via Atlantic

Over two decades into their career, Death Cab for Cutie continue to evolve. For their tenth full-length album, the John Congleton-produced Asphalt Meadows, advance singles have run the gamut from the distorted rock of “Roman Candles” to the sweeping majesty of “Foxglove Through the Clearcut.” It’s a testament to their range, and has us looking forward to finding out where else they’ve taken their sound on the album.

Pre-order ‘Asphalt Meadows’ on pink vinyl.

Dr. Acula – Dr. Acula

due 10/28 via Silent Pendulum Records

Dr. Acula used to call themselves “party grind,” but speaking about their first album in 10 years, bassist Rob Guarino says, “To put it frankly, this chapter of Dr. Acula is a ‘party’s over’ vibe.” It’s a wiser, more mature version of Dr. Acula, but still as batshit as they’ve ever been.

Dry Cleaning – Stumpwork

due 10/21 via 4AD

Like their great 2021 debut, UK group Dry Cleaning worked with producer John Parish at Rockfield Studio in Wales for their sophomore album but they had more time to make this one, which allowed for more experimentation and exploration. That includes more synthesizers and more pop-like song structures alongside Florence Shaw’s distinctive, bone-dry sprechgesang, as you can hear on “Anna Calls from the Arctic.”

Stumpwork is available for pre-order on white vinyl.

Dungen – En Är För Mycket och Tusen Aldrig Nog

due 10/7 via Mexican Summer

If you’re wondering, the title of Swedish psych greats Dungen’s first proper studio album in seven years translates to “One is Too Much and a Thousand is Never Enough” which may hint at the band’s creative process. Gustav Ejstes, Reine Fiske, Mattias Gustavsson, and Johan Holmegard have been working on the record since 2017 with producer Mattias Glavå who also worked on 2015’s Allas Sak. “We’d be in his studio, where he has all this amazing gear, and he’d be encouraging me to go with every weird idea and not to feel any pressure,” Ejstes says. “He would say, ‘Let’s use this rhythm box or this sample or this loop,’ and I’d be like, ‘can we do that on a Dungen record?’”

Enumclaw – Save the Baby

due 10/14 via Luminelle

Tacoma, WA band Enumclaw have been on the rise since releasing their debut EP, Jimbo Demo, in 2021. Citing Oasis’ ascent as his inspiration, lead singer and guitarist Aramis Johnson has big ambitions for the band, saying that writing and recording Save the Baby “really felt like it was my last shot to make it out of here, from a mental perspective, from a career perspective.” The grungy tracks they’ve released so far have made an immediate impact, and the best one yet is their most recent single, the heartfelt “Park Lodge.”

Pre-order Save the Baby on vinyl.

Ezra Collective – Where I’m Meant To Be

due 11/4 via Partisan

Where I’m Meant To Be is UK jazz group Ezra Collective’s sophomore album, and so far both singles have been great examples of the band’s ability to offer a forward-thinking take on jazz while honoring the genre’s history. Recent single “Life Goes On” featuring Sampa the Great incorporates hip hop and Afrobeat, and other guests on the album include Kojey Radical, Emeli Sande and, Nao.

Pre-order the album on orange vinyl.

Freddie Gibbs – $oul $old $eparately

due 9/30 via Warner

After years as an underground fave, Freddie Gibbs signed to Warner last year, and his first album for the major label is set to drop this month. New single “Too Much” finds him embracing mainstream appeal without abandoning the rapping style that made us fall in love with him in the first place.

High Vis – Blending

due 9/30 via Dais

The members of High Vis hail from the UK hardcore scene, and their 2019 debut LP No Sense No Feeling leaned heavily on post-punk, but for their upcoming LP Blending, they’re channelling Britpop and baggy through a hardcore lens, and they consider this to be the first time they’ve truly found their voice. The great lead singles back up that claim.

Pre-order on peach marble vinyl.

Hippie Trim – What Consumes Me

due 9/16 via Supervillain

There’s no lack of bands doing the whole emo/grunge/shoegaze/post-hardcore thing, but Germany’s Hippie Trim stand out from the pack with songs that avoid retro stereotypes and make unpredictable moves. (They’ve also gained the support of Drug Church, whose vocalist Patrick Kindlon sang on their 2019 debut LP.) Their sophomore album drops soon, and all the singles have been different and great.

Holy Fawn – Dimensional Bleed

due 9/9 via Wax Bodega

Blurring the lines between post-rock, post-hardcore, black metal, electronic music, and more, Holy Fawn have become one of the most uniquely interesting bands in underground rock and their long-awaited sophomore album finally drops this month. Read our track review of the title track for more.

The House of Love – A State of Grace

due 9/16 via Cherry Red

“It is the best set of songs I have written for years,” says House of Love frontman Guy Chadwick of House of Love’s first album in nine years. “The pandemic ironically gave me the time and space to develop and arrange the songs.” While A State of Grace is missing textural guitarist Terry Bickers, it was made with producer Warne Livesay who worked on the band’s 1992 album Babe Rainbow.

Indigo Sparke – Hysteria

due 10/7 via Sacred Bones

The National’s Aaron Dessner produced Indigo Sparke’s sophomore album, calling it “cohesive and timeless and inspired to me in a way that I know I will keep coming back to.” From the pair of intense, emotive folk songs she’s shared so far, it’s shaping up to be a big step forward from her 2021 debut.

Pre-order ‘Hysteria’ on transparent cloudy clear vinyl.

Jockstrap – I Love You Jennifer B

due 9/9 via Rough Trade

UK duo Jockstrap — Taylor Skye and Black Country, New Road’s Georgia Ellery — are not concerned with genre in the slightest, as they gleefully put everything that suits their fancy into the blender, from techno and R&B to folk, rock, etc etc. “I Love You Jennifer B is a collection of Jockstrap tracks that have been 3 years in the making,” they say. “Everything on it is pretty singular sounding so we hope there is a track on there for everyone and something that speaks to you and says ‘I’m a banger.’”

Preorder I Love You Jennifer B, on green vinyl.

Junior Boys – Waiting Game

due 10/28 via City Slang

For their first album since 2016’s Big Black Coat, Junior Boys bandmate Jeremy Greenspan asks, “What if I created an immersive environment… [by] recording huge amounts of material but layering it imperceptibly into as quiet a place as I can?” The resulting sound is meditative and melancholic, building on Junior Boys’ rich 20-year catalog.

KEN mode – NULL

due 9/23 via Artoffact Records

Post-hardcore/noise rock band KEN mode are finally ready to return with their first album in six years, and the sprawling lead single “A Love Letter” really says “we’re back.”

Khruangbin & Vieux Farka Touré – Ali

due 9/23 via Dead Oceans

“I want this album to convey love,” says Vieux Farka Touré of his collaboration with Khruangbin that pays tribute to his late father, Ali Farka Touré. “It is about the love that Ali brought into the world. It is about the love that I have for him and that Khruangbin has for his music. It is about pouring your love into something old to make it new again.” Adds Khruangbin, “We made this album to honor Ali’s life and body of work. We hope this collaboration enlightens more people to Ali’s musical legacy.”

Ali is available for pre-order on jade vinyl.

L.S. Dunes – Past Lives

due 11/11 via Fantasy Records

If you like early/mid 2000s emo/post-hardcore, L.S. Dunes just might be your new favorite supergroup. They’re fronted by Anthony Green (Circa Survive, Saosin, The Sound of Animals Fighting, etc), and the lineup also includes Thursday’s rhythm section (bassist Tim Payne and drummer Tucker Rule) and guitarists Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance) and Travis Stever (Coheed and Cambria), and they scratch the same itch as all of those bands without ever sounding like one in particular.

Lande Hekt – House Without a View

due 9/23 via Get Better Records

Muncie Girls leader Lande Hekt made her solo debut with the fantastic Going to Hell last year, and its followup is shaping up to be another stunner, with songs exploring her queer identity, her relationship to gender, and childhood trauma done in her raw, honest style.

Pre-order ‘House Without a View’ on purple marble vinyl.

Luke Haines & Peter Buck – All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out

due 10/28 via Cherry Red

Back in 2020, former Auteurs frontman Luke Haines and former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck teamed for the excellent Beat Poetry for Survivalists, and now they’ve announced a follow-up. Across 17 tracks, Haines and Buck attempt to find out why all the kids are super bummed out, in their own twisted, surrealist, acid-fried way. The album features regular Buck collaborators Scott McCaughey and Linda Pitmon, as well as Patti Smith Group’s Lenny Kaye.

Makaya McCraven – In These Times

due 9/23 via International Anthem / Nonesuch / XL

Modern jazz great Makaya McCraven has been very busy over the years, with an album of reworked Blue Note classics, an album of a reworked Gil Scott-Heron LP, and a deluxe edition of his great 2018 album Universal Beings, and now he’s finally ready to release his first proper new album since that one. Its impressive cast of contributors includes Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, Macie Stewart, Joel Ross, and more.

Marina Allen – Centrifics

due 9/16 via Fire

“I went into writing Centrifics knowing I wanted to give myself permission,” says Marina Allen of the follow-up to last year’s excellent Candlepower. “I was fed up with hiding myself and a fierceness started to enter the songs, which I leaned into. The entire time I was writing, I just kept saying ‘yes,’ that was my only rule.” We’re saying yes to gorgeous first single ​​”Superreality,” which finds her folk-pop style — steeped in The Carpenters, Linda Perhacs, and The Roches — in excellent form.

The Mars Volta – The Mars Volta

due 9/16 via Clouds Hill

Sometimes reunion albums exist to give you a new taste of the artist’s glory days, but the singles from The Mars Volta’s first LP in 10 years show off an album unlike any other this band has released. It’s more subtle, more ethereal, and very promising.

Pre-order on LP or CD.

Melody’s Echo Chamber – Unfold

due 9/30 via Fat Possum

Reviving a once-scrapped project made between Melody’s Echo Chamber’s self-titled 2012 debut and 2018’s Bon Voyage, Unfold reveals a “lost” album that Melody returned to once she’d moved well past her breakup with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. Melody says, “I wrote bits of the songs around the world while swirling with the clouds around the globe, moving too fast. I remember trying to blow those bubbles of creation for us into very uncertain windows of space and time.”

M.I.A. – MATA

due M/D via Island Records

M.I.A. is back with her first album since 2016’s AIM, via her new label home of Island Records. Producing credits include Rex Kudo, T-Minus, Boaz van de Beats, and Diplo, and Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj reportedly have guest verses. The LP doesn’t have a release date yet, but M.I.A. took to Instagram to say “If MATA isn’t out Sept I will leak it myself.”

Mindforce – New Lords

due 9/16 via Triple B

Mindforce’s 2018 LP Excalibur was the talk of the hardcore scene, so there’s already a ton of anticipation within hardcore for its long-awaited followup, but New Lords has the potential to appeal to even wider audiences, with a thrashy, metallic, and often-catchy take on hardcore that fans of anything from Power Trip to Drain to Turnstile should not sleep on.

Pre-order our exclusive splatter vinyl variant.

Mykki Blanco – Stay Close To Music

due 10/14 via Transgressive

Mykki Blanco’s 2021 LP Broken Dreams & Beauty Sleep was great, and their upcoming Stay Close To Music was born out of those same sessions with producer FaltyDL. It also features a ton of amazing guests, including R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, ANOHNI, Jónsi of Sigur Ros, Devendra Banhart, Kelsey Lu, Saul Williams, and more.

Nikki Lane – Denim & Diamonds

due 9/23 via New West

It’s been over five years since alt-country great Nikki Lane released an album (and in that time, she did a duet on Lana Del Rey’s 2021 album Chemtrails Over the Country Club), and now she’s finally ready to return with Denim & Diamonds. The album was produced and mixed by Josh Homme, and Nikki’s band for the album includes three of Josh’s Queens of the Stone Age bandmates, Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders, Autolux/Jack White drummer Carla Azar, and Nikki’s pedal steel player Matthew Pynn. Lead single “First High” is already one of the year’s best country songs so far.

The 1975 – being funny in a foreign language

due 10/14 via Dirty Hit/Polydor

The 1975 have shared two songs from their anticipated fifth album, the string-laden, Bon Iver-ish “Part of the Band,” and the ’80s pop-leaning “Happiness,” and knowing them, there are probably like 20 other styles of music on this album. We’re ready for whatever else they have in store.

Pre-order on clear vinyl.

No Devotion – No Oblivion

due 9/16 via Velocity Records

It’s been over a decade since Thursday released new music, but Geoff Rickly’s newer band No Devotion are set to return with their sophomore album (mixed by Dave Fridmann, who also produced the last three Thursday albums), and its soaring singles pick up where Thursday’s atmospheric later material left off.

OFF! – Free LSD

due 9/30 via Fat Possum

Circle Jerks and early Black Flag vocalist Keith Morris’ supergroup OFF! are gearing up to return with their first album in eight years, and first with their new lineup. They’ve now got Trail of Dead bassist Autry Fulbright II and jazz drummer Justin Brown in the band, and there’s also some jazz on the record, along with plenty of the band’s usual ’80s-style hardcore punk.

Pre-order our exclusive translucent orange vinyl variant.

Old Fire – Voids

due 11/4 via Western Vinyl

Producer and composer John Mark Lapham, who was a member of mid-’00s band The Earlies, now records eerie, atmospheric music as Old Fire. His second album under the moniker features lead vocal turns from Bill Callahan, Julia Holter, Loma’s Emily Cross and Adam Torres, as well as instrumental contributions from Thomas Bartlett (Doveman), Thor Harris, Joseph Shabason (Destroyer, Fresh Pepper), Semay Wu, and more. Callahan contributes lead vocals to a gorgeous, contemplative cover of John Martyn’s “Don’t You Go.”

Open Mike Eagle – Component System With The Auto Reverse

due 10/7 via Auto Reverse Records

Open Mike Eagle calls Component System With The Auto Reverse a “part solo album and spiritual mixtape, part green room cipher, and part showcase for Eagle’s Auto Reverse Records,” but whatever it is, we have high hopes for a new project from one of the most consistently great underground rappers around. Especially with contributions from Armand Hammer, R.A.P. Ferreira, Aesop Rock, Diamond D of DITC, Madlib, and more.

The Otolith – Folium Limina

due 10/21 via Blues Funeral Recordings

It was a real bummer when Salt Lake City doom-folk band SubRosa broke up in 2019, but the good news is that four of the band’s members have continued on in new band The Otolith. Their debut album comes out this October, and the 13-and-a-half minute lead single pretty much picks up where SubRosa left off.

Pinkshift – Love Me Forever

due 10/21 via Hopeless

Pinkshift quickly became one of the most talked-about new punk bands around off the strength of their early singles (that eventually comprised 2021’s Saccharine EP), and now they’re set to release their first full-length, Love Me Forever, on their new label home of Hopeless Records. It was produced by Will Yip, and every song we’ve heard from it sounds like a massive leap from their already-great debut EP.

Plains – I Walked With You A Ways

due 10/14 via ANTI-

Waxahatchee made her best album yet with 2020’s excellent Saint Cloud, and it’s exciting that she’s continuing to go in a country direction on her next project, a one-off collaboration with Jess Williamson under the moniker Plains. The pair set out to make what Jess describes as “the kind of classic timeless songs that we both grew up singing along to,” and the songs we’ve heard so far have the feel of instant-classics, with Katie and Jess delivering timeless, gorgeous vocal harmonies.

Preoccupations – Arrangements

due 9/9 via Flemish Eye

After two albums that put more of an emphasis on keyboards, Vancouver’s Preoccupations fell back in love with guitars which dominate their fourth album, Arrangements. As to the album’s themes, frontman Matt Flegel says, “The lyrics are pretty conspicuous and self explanatory on this one, but it’s basically about the world blowing up and no one giving a shit.”

Poster Paints – S/T

due 10/14 via Ernest Jenning Record Co / Olive Grove Records

Formed during the pandemic by Frightened Rabbit guitarist Simon Liddell (he was a touring FR member before joining the band as a full contributing member in 2014) and singer/songwriter (and current Vaselines keyboardist) Carla J Easton, Poster Paints explore the duo’s love of the Glasgow indie scene they grew up with, as well as shoegaze and dreampop. Their debut EP, released in May, was terrific and their self-titled debut album features Jonny Scott from CHVRCHES, Graeme Smillie from Arab Strap, Suse Bear from Pictish Trail, Andy Monaghan from Frightened Rabbit and more.

Ripped To Shreds – 劇變 (Jubian)

due 10/14 via Relapse

San Jose’s Ripped To Shreds have built up a reputation as one of the best newer grindy death metal bands around, and they recently made a much-deserved jump to Relapse Records, who will put out their new album 劇變 (Jubian) this October. Lead single “Reek of Burning Freedom” is ruthlessly heavy, and extremely promising.

Robyn Hitchcock – Shufflemania!

due 10/21 via Tiny Ghost

“What is SHUFFLEMANIA!?,” Robyn Hitchcock asks for you, the listener. “It’s surfing fate, trusting your intuition, and bullfighting with destiny. It’s embracing the random and dancing with it, even when it needs to clean its teeth. It’s probably the most consistent album I’ve made. It’s a party record, with a few solemn moments, as parties are wont to supply. Groove on, groovers!” The album features lots of guests, including his former Soft Boys bandmates Kimberley Rew and Morris Windsor, as well as Johnny Marr, The Raconteurs’ Brendan Benson, Sean Ono Lennon, Kelley Stoltz, and Dr Dog’s Eric Slick. First single “The Shuffle Man” is great.

Sampa The Great – As Above, So Below

due 9/9 via Loma Vista

With As Above, So Below, Sampa The Great flexes her dance-ready musicianship, fuses hip hop with African genres Kwaito and Amapiano, and more. The album sheds light on the music she listened to growing up in Botswana, digging into her personal music history as she did on her 2019 debut The Return.

Pre-order As Above, So Below on vinyl.

Santigold – Spirituals

due 9/9 via Little Jerk

It’s been over six years since the last Santigold album, but that finally changes this year, and speaking about her songwriting process, Santi says, “I decided to create the future, to look towards where we are going, to create beauty and pull towards that beauty.” She also spoke about channelling punk rock energy on lead single “High Priestess,” but that “the energy [she] was looking for couldn’t be the old version of punk rock, it had to be the future sound of punk rock.” The guest-filled album features SBTRKT, Rostam, Boys Noize, Dre Skull, Nick Zinner, and more.

Shannen Moser – The Sun Still Seems To Move

due 9/30 via Lame-O Records

Their first release in four years, Shannen Moser’s The Sun Still Seems To Move explores grief and life in transition, with a rich sound rounded out by banjo, saxophone, cello, lap steel, woodwinds, and synths. Shannen says, “I really wanted to make a thing that I had never made before, because I was feeling a way that I had never felt before.”

Shygirl – Nymph

due 9/30 via Because Music

Shygirl is ready to followup a great run of EPs, singles, and collaborations with her debut album, Nymph. It’s got a handful of awesome guests and producers (including Mura Masa, Arca, Sega Bodega, Danny L Harle, Bloodpop, Vegyn, Kingdom, and more), and the singles suggest that her mix of experimental pop and rap just gets even better and more unique.

Skullcrusher – Quiet the Room

due 10/14 via Secretly Canadian

Helen Ballentine has been releasing delicate folk music as Skullcrusher for a few years now, and her debut full length is set to be her best, most fully realized release yet. Drawing inspiration from her childhood in Mount Vernon, NY, the candid, haunting songs we’ve heard so far really stick with you, especially the title track, which she wrote on her childhood instrument, the piano, instead of her usual guitar.

Slipknot – The End, So Far

due 9/30 via Roadrunner

Nu metal is back (whether you like it or not), and not only are Slipknot now a major influence on a lot of younger heavy bands, they also continue to out on life-affirming shows and put out great new music. Their seventh album arrives soon, and three very different-sounding songs are out from it now.

Pre-order on clear vinyl or CD.

Sloan – Steady

due 10/21 via Yep Roc

Sloan’s 13th album comes out just after the 30th anniversary of their debut album, Smeared, and the title reflects the Canadian power pop greats’ approach to the music biz and longevity. “They say if you want to go fast go alone but if you want to go far go together,” says bassist Chris Murphy. “I don’t know if there are many other bands you can name that are still making records with their original line up 30 years in. Look it up!”

Sorry – Anywhere But Here

due 10/7 via Domino

For their second album, London duo Sorry (Louis O’Bryen and Asha Lorenz) teamed up with producers Ali Chant (who worked on their debut, 925) and Portishead’s Adrian Utley. “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. “I just did what everyone else did, I went a bit mad.”

Pre-order Anywhere But Here on opaque seafoam vinyl.

Special Interest – Endure

due 11/4 via Rough Trade

New Orleans no wave punks Special Interest describe the process for their Rough Trade Records debut as “inverted,” as usually they work out songs though live performances, but the pandemic meant they stayed put. It did lead to new sonic experimentation, though, as well as som of their poppiest, most immediate songs to date — like “Midnight Legend” featuring Mykki Blanco.

Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen

due 9/9 via Stones Throw

Sudan Archives’ highly anticipated, long-teased sophomore album explores themes of “race, womanhood, and the fiercely loyal, loving relationships at the heart of Sudan’s life with her family, friends, and partner,” all with the fierce and fun sound that’s become her signature.

Pre-order it on “orange dream” vinyl.

Suede – Autofiction

due 9/16 via BMG

Autofiction is Britpop greats Suede’s fourth full-length since reforming in 2010, and it finds Brett Anderson, Mat Osman, Simon Gilbert, Richard Oakes and Neil Codling working once again with producer Ed Buller, who has been behind the boards for all their best albums. It also has the band getting back to basics. “Autofiction is our punk record. No whistles and bells,” says Anderson. “Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess.”

Taylor Swift – Midnights

due 10/21 via Republic

Taylor Swift surprise-announced Midnights, her tenth album, while accepting a video of the year award at the VMAs for “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” last weekend. She then took to Instagram to further tease the album, describing it as “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.” Little else is known about the LP–no singles released (yet), and on the cover, tracks are labeled only by number. Let the anticipation begin.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – When the Lights Go

due 9/9 via Nice Age

Orlando Higginbottom hasn’t released a Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs album since his 2011 debut, but he’s making up for lost time with When the Lights Go, a 17-track double album that finds him taking a gentler but still danceable approach to electronic music. If the singles released so far, like the moody “Blood in the Snow,” are any indication this will be worth the wait.

Tribal Gaze – The Nine Choirs

due 9/16 via Maggot Stomp

Tribal Gaze hail from the same fertile Texas hardcore/metal scene that birthed bands like Creeping Death, Frozen Soul, and Power Trip, they recently signed to one of the leading labels in the current wave of death metal, Maggot Stomp, and they made their debut LP with one of the best current producers in hardcore, Taylor Young (Regional Justice Center, Drain, God’s Hate, etc). And not only are they in very good company, they also make some of the best hardcore-infused death metal we’ve heard this year.

Weyes Blood – And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow

due 11/18 via Sub Pop

UPDATE: Weyes Blood has officially announced her new album And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, which she says is part two of a trilogy that began with Titanic Rising. That has our hopes high, as does the gorgeous first single, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody.”
PREVIOUSLY: Weyes Blood’s last release was 2019’s incredible Titanic Rising, and we’ve been looking forward to a follow-up ever since. Based on what she’s been tweeting, hopefully we won’t have much longer to wait.

Pre-order ‘And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow’ on purple “Loser Edition” vinyl.

Whitney – Spark

due 9/16 via Secretly Canadian

While their soulful songwriting style remains on their first album of originals in four years, Spark promises to be a very different record than they’ve made before. After writing songs during pandemic lockdown — which they spent in Portland, OR — they teamed up with producers Brad Cook and John Congleton, who helped them incorporate synthesizers and sampled beats into their sound. First single “Real Love” is promising.

Pre-order Spark on white vinyl.

Wild Pink – ILYSM

due 10/14 via Royal Mountain Records

ILYSM follows Wild Pink’s lead singer John Ross’s experience battling cancer, with moving, acoustically-driven and danceable, synth-heavy singles alike already released. Guest appearances come from J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., Julien Baker, Ryley Walker, Yasmin Williams, and Samantha Crain.

The Wonder Years – The Hum Goes On Forever

due 9/23 via Hopeless

Having started out as pop punk devotees, The Wonder Years increasingly defied the genre with each album before fully transcending it on 2018’s Sister Cities, and judging by the singles, The Hum Goes On Forever feels like a culmination of everything they’ve done yet, with the instant-satisfaction of their early/mid 2010s records and the maturity of Sister Cities.

Pre-order on blue vinyl.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cool It Down

due 9/30 via Secretly Canadian

Cool It Down will be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first album in nearly a decade, and their first release on an independent label since their early Eps on Touch & Go. Lead single “Spitting Off the Edge of the World” features Perfume Genius, and it’s a slower, more ethereal song than you might expect the YYYs to make their grand return with, but a strong comeback nonetheless.

Pre-order YYYs on opaque yellow vinyl.

Young Jesus – Shepherd Head

due 9/16 via Saddle Creek

Saddle Creek-signed indie cult faves Young Jesus are returning with a new LP soon, and if it’s got more where the genuinely gorgeous Tomberlin-featuring “Ocean” came from, it’s gonna be a very good one.

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