Notable Releases of the Week (11/18)

It’s the week before Thanksgiving, holiday music is in full swing, and multiple year-end lists are already out. But the river of new music is still flowing, and this week brings one of our most anticipated albums of the year: the followup to our our #1 album of 2019. I highlight six new releases below, and Bill talks about more in Bill’s Indie Basement, including Röyksopp, Richard Dawson, Acid Klaus, the Yard Act dub album, and more.

On top of that, honorable mentions include Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Brockhampton, Soulside, Phony Ppl, Candlemass, Honey Dijon, isomonstrosity, 38 Spesh & Harry Fraud, Badge Époque Ensemble & Lammping, Nadine Khouri, Gatherers, Mourning, Juicy J & Lex Luger, Roddy Ricch, Daniel Bachman, -(16)-, The Real McKenzies, Pole, Apollo Brown & Philmore Greene, Anna Mieke, Ian Wayne, Meekz, Infall, Smirk, Pulse Emitter, Snake Chain, Thaiboy Digital, Rod Wave, Dave East, Buda & Grandz, & DJ Drama, saoirse dream, Kaash Paige, Lowlife, Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas), Nickelback, the Sneaks EP, the Omerettà The Great EP, the Doomsday EP, the YUNGMORPHEUS EP, the Blacklisters EP, the Key Glock EP, the Hit Like A Girl EP, the Saweetie EP, the Kerosene Heights / Rose Funeral / Drunk Uncle / Thorn Tire split, the covers album by Billy Strings and his dad, the Chat Pile soundtrack album, the Colin Stetson soundtrack album, the Animal Collective soundtrack album, the Willie Nelson live album, and The Beach Boys’ ‘Sail On Sailor – 1972’ box.

Read on for my picks. What’s your favorite release of the week?

Gladie – Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out
Plum Records

Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out is the second album by Gladie — the current band fronted by former Cayetana vocalist Augusta Koch — but it’s really an album of firsts. It’s Gladie’s first album since Augusta and her musical/romantic partner Matt Schimelfenig cemented a full-band lineup with guitarist Pat Conaboy (Spirit of the Beehive), bassist Dennis Mishko (ex-Tigers Jaw), and drummer Miles Ziskind (Honey, Witching), and it’s Augusta’s first since getting sober. “I think it’s mostly what all the songs are about at their core,” she told Mia Hughes in a new interview for Stereogum, “because the one thing I wish I knew when I stopped drinking was that you would just have a lot more feelings.” Those many feelings, as well as Augusta and Matt’s recent engagement, fuel Augusta’s songwriting on this record, which is one of the strongest albums Augusta has written in her decade-long career. It’s got a ton of range, from punk rippers to atmospheric indie rock to songs fleshed out by string and horn arrangements, and Augusta powers these songs with melodies that stick on first listen and some of the most impassioned, impactful lyricism of her career. Gladie may have started out as a side project before Cayetana called it quits, but with Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out, they fully step out of Cayetana’s shadow. They’re a great indie-punk band in their own right, and Augusta’s songwriting is just hitting harder and harder.

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Caitlin Rose – CAZIMI
Missing Piece Records

Caitlin Rose is back with her third album and first in nearly a decade, CAZIMI, which gets its name from the astrological term that’s used to describe when a planet is so close to the sun that it’s “in the heart” of it. Speaking about the long break between albums, Caitlin said that she began writing for it back in 2014 and embarked on multiple unfinished demos sessions (with Justin Young of The Vaccines, Daniel Romano, Sam Cohen and others), before her childhood friend Jordan Lehning (who’s also worked with Caroline Spence, Joshua Hedley, Orville Peck, and more) came into the picture and helped Caitlin make exactly the album she wanted. She began to record in February of 2020, and then you-know-what happened, and the album continued to grow in various ways throughout the pandemic. Caitlin, who used to be regularly described as an alt-country singer, frequently departs from that on this album, which is much more of an alternative, Americana-friendly pop record. “I never really sounded like country music – I sounded like me doing country music, which is a very different thing,” Caitlin said in a recent interview with The Line of Best Fit. On this record, she doesn’t sound like she’s trying to fit into any boxes; country rock songs like the Courtney Marie Andrews-assisted highlight “Getting It Right,” folk songs like “Carried Away,” and pop songs like “Modern Dancing” all feel right at home on CAZIMI, and it all just sounds like Caitlin Rose being herself.

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Weyes Blood – And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
Sub Pop

Weyes Blood is finally back with a followup to her great 2019 album Titanic Rising (our #1 album of that year), and And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is cut from a similar cloth, using ’70s-style baroque pop arrangements as a vessel for conveying entirely modern themes. Read Bill’s full album review for much more.

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Fousheé – softCORE
RCA

Fousheé is probably best known for her viral 2020 single “Deep End,” as well as recent collaborations with Steve Lacy (she co-wrote “Bad Habit”), Ravyn Lenae, Saba, Vince Staples, and others, but I don’t think any of that could prepare you for the wide, unpredictable range of her new album softCORE. Outside of a few songs, the woozy R&B of “Deep End” is nowhere to be found on this record. Instead, she embraces everything from punk to industrial to tender folk music, sometimes on the same song (like the thrilling recent single “I’m Fine”). It’s frequently a loud, abrasive, aggressive record, and Fousheé’s screams and shouts are just as infectious as her airy singing voice. It’s not everyday that an artist entirely subverts expectations like this, especially in the major label realm.

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Squint – Wash Away EP
Sunday Drive Records

One of my favorite shorter releases I’ve heard this year is Feel It, the debut EP by St. Louis melodic hardcore band Squint. In just 9 minutes, they cemented themselves as a total force, with catchy, anthemic, hardcore-informed songs that recall anything from Title Fight to Drug Church to Anxious. Before the year ends, they’re putting out a second EP, Wash Away, with four more songs in under eight minutes, and it’s more proof that this is a band who should be on every punk/hardcore fan’s radar. Squint, whose members previously played in Time and Pressure, New Lives, and Choir Vandals, really understand how to churn out big chords and big hooks without losing any of the aggression and kinetic energy of hardcore. There’s clearly a very big appetite for bands who can do this right now (see: Turnstile’s Grammy nominations), and if you’ve found yourself craving this type of thing, I can’t recommend Squint enough.

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Hospital Gown – Diamond Life 2
Born Losers Records

Not only did The Sound of Animals Fighting just release their first song in 14 years this week, founder Rich Balling also releases his debut album by his new hyperpop-leaning solo project Hospital Gown. As fans of Rich’s many projects know, his strength lies in curation just as much as it does in songwriting — The Sound of Animals Fighting have a rotating all-star cast; his Pyramids project has featured collaborations with members of Mineral, Cocteau Twins, Jesu, Ulver, and more; his Sailors With Wax Wings project featured members of Slowdive, Unwound, Katatonia, My Dying Bride, Krallice, Marissa Nadler, and more; and his White Moth project featured Lydia Lunch and members of Frodus, Weakling, Dälek, Krallice, and more. So on and so forth. Hospital Gown is cut from that same cloth; it largely exists within hyperpop, which itself is sort of a genre that contains a multitude of genres, and it also dives into everything from screamo to hip hop. The guests on Diamond Life 2 are not just multi-genre but also multi-generational, including members of Funeral Diner, pageninetynine, Ink & Digger, RX Bandits, Record Setter, Modern Color, Teen Suicide, and more, alongside Kreayshawn, GFOTY, Lord Byron, Jaye Naima, Cindytalk, Jeancantskate, and still a handful of others. And it’s not just that Hospital Gown has such a crazy cast, it’s also the specific pairings that Rich comes up with — “I Can Count My True Friends on One Hand” features both Kreayshawn and Record Setter vocalist Judy Mitchell, a pairing that only someone with a mind like Rich Balling could even begin to dream up, and it works. The album’s all over the place and features collaborations by artists who might not have otherwise ever met, or even known the other person existed, but Rich’s eccentric vision ties it all together. The end result is not just a crazy experiment, it’s also genuinely fun to listen to.

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Read Bill’s Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including Röyksopp, Richard Dawson, Acid Klaus, Frankie Rose‘s new Fine Place project, the Yard Act dub album, and more.

Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases archive or scroll down for previous weeks.

For even more metal, browse the ‘Upcoming Releases’ each week on Invisible Oranges.

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