FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: Jamila Woods/PHOTO CREDIT: Elizabeth De La Piedra
Essential October Releases
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IT is that time again…
IN THIS PHOTO: Hannah Diamond
when we look ahead to the great albums due next month – as it is a Bank Holiday, I am publishing this earlier than I would so that you get extra notice! These are albums that are worth putting some money aside for. September was a pretty packed and exciting one. October is not going to let us down in that sense. There are more than a few huge albums that are well worth pre-ordering. I will come to those now. Let us begin with a couple of albums that are due out on 6th October. Starting out with Hannah Diamond and her album, Perfect Picture. I am recommending this album, as Diamond is a fantastic London artist with a very bright future. She is someone who has this incredible sound and unique songwriting ability. Go and pre-order the album. Although there is not a lot of detail about the album and its themes, I want to bring in some information regarding Diamond. She has been on the music scene a while now. I think Perfect Picture will take her to a new level. I want to go back to 2016. The earliest days in terms of her music, FADER spoke to an artist who some assumed was a computer voice. Male producers sampling a woman’s voice. This authentic and very real talent was being doubted. From 2016 to now, Diamond has proved any doubters wrong. Fighting back against a sexist industry that was criticising PC Music (a record label and art collective based in London and run by producer A. G. Cook):
“Do you think it comes down to presentation? People often assume a guy playing a real instrument is somehow immediately more authentic.
Yes. I personally think sometimes it comes down to being a female in the music industry. There's still this stigma that women are just a voice on a track and there are 10 guys behind her making her the person she is. I wasn't aware of that at all until I got involved in music. There's a real undertone of misogyny in the way people think about women in music.
What did you make of the criticisms of PC Music when it first emerged that the women were being used as decoration?
It's female-fronted in the sense that when we put out [Diamond's debut single] “Pink and Blue,” it got a lot of views and a lot of plays, but it wasn't supposed to be like that. When it started it was really organic and we weren't really concerned with gender. It was me and A. G. Cook and a bunch of friends, and we just thought that if we're all going to make music, then we needed a place where it all could live. But that criticism was so counter-productive; by criticising guys being behind all these girls and pushing them to the front and saying we were just being used as a mascot or whatever, it almost takes any credit away from the roles the women have played in their image, their songwriting, and where they've got to now. A lot of the articles made those assumptions and really played down the parts that we'd played, so it was counter-feminist I guess.
PHOTO CREDIT: Maisie Cousins
The suspicion directed at PC Music is that it's all an inside joke that some people don't feel part of. Can you see that?
I can definitely say I'm not taking the piss out of pop music. I listen to pop music pretty much all day. It's not coming from a place of wanting to take the piss out of it at all. Also the music side of what I do sort of happened by accident. I've been musical my whole life—I used to play instruments at school—but I didn't think to myself, 'oh, you know what, I'm going to set out to be a pop star' or ‘a conceptual artist who criticises pop music.' When I was in my third year at university I was studying Fashion Communication, so I was doing a lot of image-making stuff, and I got friendly with A. G. Cook because we were working on the same magazine. So we started collaborating—he made a mix and I did a photoshoot to accompany it. It went from there. We made some tracks and then we were like, “What can we do with them?” So we uploaded them to Soundcloud. It wasn't like we'd planned anything out.
If you wanted to get your personality across but could only use one medium—either music or photography—which would encapsulate you better?
I think it would be music because you can understand what kind of a person I am. The best track for that is probably “Attachment.” That's the one that speaks to who I am the most. I think a lot of people are confused by the imagery because it's very hyper and shiny and glossed up and fake, but then the songs are more raw and emotional.
How did the collaboration with Charli XCX on “Paradise” come about?
Quickly [laughs]. Charli basically got in touch and was like, “Oh by the way I'm putting out an EP, there's this song I worked on with SOPHIE, he told me you love it so I really want you to be on it and will you record it this week?” So obviously I said yes. I recorded it and sent it to her all within the space of two weeks. She'd already recorded a demo for it and she'd already written the song so she asked me to do it as a duet with her. SOPHIE's DJed it at quite a few different things, like Field Day and Pop Cube. It was a demo that they'd had for a little while that they both really liked. I loved it as well, so I was so excited when she asked me to be on it because out of all the things I knew they'd been working on I was obsessed with this one.
Charli's got a knack for taking more left-field stuff and trying to squeeze it into a mainstream place. Are you excited about the PC Music sound reaching a bigger audience?
Yeah, definitely. I'm also excited for A. G. [who Charli has also been in the studio with] and SOPHIE from a friend's perspective. It makes me feel really emotional—it's nice when you see your best friends doing really well and becoming successful. I think with Charli she maybe connects with us because she came from a similar place; I remember before she had a chart hit, I went to see her play at XOYO with Brooke Candy, so a lot of people who were into her music were quite underground. It's so nice that she's supportive of other people, I think that's really important.
What's your favourite line in the song?
[Sings] Sweet like a cherry drop, so please don't let it stop. It's so nice. We did some bits where we recorded some harmonies. You know how in my music, we also do a few fuck-y bits with sound or pitch, we've kept a little bit of that in, but in a more traditional pop way. So still a little bit wacky, but done through a harmony so it's a bit more pop-ready.
How do you think your love of pop music filters into your own music?
G. Cook knows the kind of music I love, which is like Mariah Carey and ‘90s and 2000s pop, and so some of the sounds he used were things he knew I really liked in the stuff I listened to. For example, in Mariah Carey's tracks there's like a chime-y twinkle, arpeggios down kind of thing. Little details like that get pulled into it from the pop music I like, and then also stuff from old school garage as well. I really like “Babycakes” by 3 Of A Kind so some of the synth sounds from that I'm really into”.
Moving onto another album from 6th October. The second and final album from this week you need to pre-order is Sufjan Stevens’ Javelin. You can go and pre-order it here. I would suggest people do, as it looks like it will be among the very best albums of the year! Such a prolific artist who has captivated people with his incredible music, his latest work is going to rank alongside his most accomplished and striking:
“Each track on Javelin starts intimately: the trickle of an acoustic guitar, the patter of a lidded piano, and the cascade of a coruscant arpeggio. And then, of course, there is that disarming voice, the throughline in one of the most eclectic catalogs of any songwriter this century - soft but strong, as if the very scenes of hurt and hope it is about to share have only galvanized it through the decades. Javelin pairs musical sweep with emotional breadth, an entire lifetime of feeling woven into 42-minutes. On Javelin, Sufjan, as you may know him best, returns: offering gorgeous if pained glimpses of himself, so that we may see ourselves more fully. This album is classic Sufjan. A must own”.
Let’s move along to a very busy 13th October. There are a few from this week I want to bring to your attention. The astonishing Irish-born CMAT prepares to release her hotly-anticipated second album, Crazymad, For Me. This is one that you really need to pre-order. Her songs are truthful, accessible and very funny. Brimming with charm and passion, this is an artist that is going to be releasing music for a very long time! It is going to be among this year’s most essential albums. CMAT is an extraordinary artist:
“Second album CrazyMad, For Me takes popstar CMAT through a reinvention of what came before: this is the grand statement of an ambitious mature sound, a textured sonic feel and details of a complex emotional and metaphorical landscape. “It’s an abstract break-up album… about what happens when you are still angry about something that happened 10 years ago.” It’s grand, full of hooks and picture-painting lyrics projected by her singular vocals. It’s the mainstream indie that CMAT loved as a teenager, filtered through 20th century country music, amplified by knowledge of 80s and 90s pop hits with a slide guitar and a camp twist. Complex, intimate and with influences far-flung across time and place, CrazyMad, For Me is an instant classic album for the broadest audience”.
Taking things in another direction, I would urge people to seek out is Goat’s Medicine. Pre-order this beauty, as the music of Goat is exotic, mysterious, entrancing, powerful, colourful, strange, beautiful…and everything in between! They are a collective with a distinct aura that every music fan needs to experience. Rough Trade explain what we can expect from their upcoming album:
“It is hard to know how many times the mythology and mystery of Goat’s backstory can be written about, but new release ‘Medicine’ does away with any need to dwell on the past, returning with a more introspective, slightly mellower psych-folk sound that remains recognisably them.
There is a consistently restrained, warm feel across the whole work, and the band suggest that the overall theme of the album is about “the impermanence of life in different ways: sickness, relationships, love, death and how our time is finite”.
At times the album’s sound has nods to classic Swedish 70s psych/prog/folk acts such as Arbete and Fritid, Charlie and Esdor and Träd, Gräs and Stenar. ‘Vakna’ takes on this influence, progressing across nearly six minutes of swaying, warping guitar solos, without ever breaking out into chaos.
The Medicine of the title may refer to a number of salves, or the value of relationships and love: “For our families, friends, society, this could be done through the use of psychedelics, through meditation, through learning from other people, staying curious and never settling for a ‘solid’ identity”.
Flute is foregrounded throughout, threading across several tracks from the opener ‘Impermanence And Death’. It duets elegantly with keening synth lines through the beautiful ‘You’ll Be Alright’, and leads the melody of the closing track ‘Tripping In The Graveyard’. ‘TSOD’, with its backdrop of sitar and acoustic guitar, has an indelible vocal melody that could be a lost George Harrison recording.
The title of the full album version of first single, ‘I Became The Unemployment Office’, comes from an expression for someone taking advantage of you. The joyous, echo-laden groove of penultimate track ‘Join The Resistance’ bursts into life and continues to build to a moment of release with a huge Sabbath-esque riff.
Whatever your dosage, and regardless of your remedy, it is now time to take your medicine”.
An album I really excited about comes from the sensational Holly Humberstone. One of our brightest talents, she releases Paint My Bedroom Black on 13th October. This is her debut album. One that she has poured her heart and soul into. Go and pre-order the album. It is a phenomenal work from an artist who is impossible to ignore. Such a strong and inspiring songwriter. If you have not heard Humberstone’s music before, I would suggest you get her debut album. It will tell you all you need to know about an amazing musician:
“Critically acclaimed and award winning singer songwriter Holly Humberstone releases her highly anticipated debut album Paint My Bedroom Black on Polydor/ Darkroom / Geffen. Always inspired by her environment and how that affects her sense of self andidentity, from her parent’s Haunted House to flatshares in London with The Walls Are Way To Thin, Paint My Bedroom Black represents Holly’s coming of age, growing from unknown singer at her parent’s piano to the most exciting alternative pop stars of her generation. The dark and other worldly space Holly has built and invited fans into, both sonically and visually, has been lucid and visceral, with the camera always on her shoulder, a lens into her chaotic thoughts and deep feelings”.
A couple more to get through for this week. Another stunning artist, Jamila Woods’ Water Made Us is required listening! An artist I have followed for a while now, like Humberstone, an amazing and memorable album cover is the first thing we see. The second sensation is discovering music that is soul-moving and unforgettable. Go and pre-order this wonderful album. It is one that, once heard, you will want to revisit again and again:
“On her expansive new album Water Made Us, Chicago musician and poet Jamila Woods shines anew as she asks the question, what does it mean to fully surrender into love? Across Water Made Us, Jamila embraces new genres, playful melodies, and hypnotizing wordplay, as she wades through the exhilarating tumult of love’s wreckage and refuge.
While 2017’s Heavn saw Jamila celebrating her community within a lineage of Black feminist movement organizing, and 2019’s Legacy! Legacy! reframed her life’s experiences through the storied personas of iconic Black and brown artists, Water Made Us is self-revelatory in an entirely new way, making this her most personal album yet. Made together with LA-based producer McClenney, and boasting features from longtime friends and Chicago natives such as Saba and Peter CottonTale, Water Made Us is a sprawling and intimate portrait of self-reflection, cleverly designed to echo the different stages of a relationship: the early days of easy compromising, flirtatiousness, and fun; the careful negotiation through moments of conflict or hurt; the grieving of something lost; and the tender realization at the end of it all that the person who is gone never really leaves, but stays with you as you find yourself ready to try again, refreshed and reassured.
The album’s title - taken from a line in album highlight “Good News” – is a subtle reference to the famous Toni Morrison quote “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.” It’s this sentiment – of memory, place, and returning – that acts as a pillar for the album’s arc. Water Made Us reminds us that at its best love is a warm, still ocean. Deep, shimmering, and endless in its wonder. And at its worst love can be a riptide that takes us so far away from ourselves we can hardly find our way back, hardly even remember how to swim. And yet Jamila surrenders to this surf - every wave and undertow – because maybe even the most painful endings can in fact be an invitation that calls her back home, back to shore, back to herself”.
The last album from 13th October that you need to get involved with is Margo Price’s Strays II. Again, you might not know Price’s music, though I give you a gold guarantee. This is an artist that you will need to follow and hear. Go and pre-order Strays II. I have been a fan of Margot Price for a while now, so I know that she is going to deliver something phenomenal with her upcoming album. She is ensuring that October is a wonderful month for new music:
“Strays II expands on Margo Price’s 2023 opus Strays with nine brand new songs, all recorded at Strays producer Jonathan Wilson’s Topanga studio during the same life-changing sessions as the rest of the album– and partially written amidst the formative, six-day psilocybin trip that Margo Price and Jeremy Ivey took the summer prior. On Strays II Margo Price is re-joined by Strays collaborators Jonathan Wilson and Mike Campbell, along with new collaborators Buck Meek of Big Thief, and singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ny Oh.. Together they dive deeper into the sacrifices it takes to find freedom, the grit it takes to make it, and the consequences that come with all of it”.
Let’s move ahead to 20th October. Four albums from this week that you will want to discover and play. The first comes from Bombay Bicycle Club. The established and acclaimed British band release My Big Day then. Go and pre-order this gem. A band who always bring something incredible to the masses, this is going to be another smash. There is not a tonne of information available about it. That said, this is what Rough Trade say:
“Heading back to the band’s studio in London, Bombay Bicycle Club have lovingly crafted album six – My Big Day. It’s a powerful, expansive body of work, replete with an irrepressible dose of joy. My Big Day also found the band’s studio door wedged open for a collaborative experience, inviting the likes of Jay Som, Nilüfer Yanya, and Holly Humberstone and Damon Albarn who all feature. On first listen, Bombay Bicycle Club have opened up the curtains and let this revelatory set of vibrant, joyous compositions bask in the sunshine. It’s an album that means business, sculpted by one of Britain’s best guitar bands”.
The debut album from Lush’s co-found Emma Anderson, Pearlies is intriguingly titled. I am really looking forward to it. Released via Sonic Cathedral, everyone needs to pre-order this album. I am going to be very interested to hear what the amazing Anderson offers on her debut solo outing. It is going to be another album that will nestle among the best of this year:
“Following the news that all three Lush albums are going to be reissued, Emma Anderson, the band’s co-founder, releases her debut solo album, Pearlies, via Sonic Cathedral.
One of the most underrated British songwriters to emerge from the era that encompassed shoegaze and Britpop, she has teamed up with producer James Chapman (aka Maps) for this collection that combines effervescent electronic pop with psych and folk textures with lyrics covering themes such as confronting your fears, embracing independence and moving on in life. It arrives fully formed with a burnished beauty (aided by the mastering skills of Heba Kadry) that belies its somewhat protracted creation, which began with Emma feeling disillusioned after Lush’s 2016 reunion came to an abrupt end. Left with songs and bits of music originally intended for the band, she began working with cellist and string arranger Audrey Riley and Robin Guthrie, formerly of the Cocteau Twins, both of whom encouraged her to sing her own songs. Covid put a temporary halt on proceedings, but the decision had been made.
When Sonic Cathedral introduced her to James Chapman at the start of 2022, Pearlies quickly took shape and blossomed into a masterpiece, the perfect mix of Emma’s incredible, idiosyncratic songwriting and James’ electronic production nous. Plus, a little extra guitar magic on four tracks courtesy of Richard Oakes from Suede. The finished album has somehow written its own narrative. By her own admission, Emma tends to write words and “see what comes out”, but Pearlies seems to tell the story of her decision to go it alone, with opener ‘I Was Miles Away’ posing the question: “See if I make it on my own”. The rest of the album provides the answer as it takes in everything from the unexpectedly funky first single ‘Bend The Round’, to folky finger-picking and film theme references, via psych leaning electronic pop reminiscent of Goldfrapp or Melody’s Echo Chamber. It concludes with ‘Clusters’, a stunning, Stereolab-style groove which begins with the line “and now the party’s over, the music’s at the end”. Thankfully, that is not the case. This incredible album is just the start of Emma’s long-awaited solo journey”.
The fantastic Pip Blom is going to release her new album, Bobbie, on 20th October. This is one you’ll want to pre-order. Definitely an artist who ranks among the best on the scene right now, it doe seem that the latest album was a chance to re-centre and start again. It is going to be a slightly new direction from Pip Blom. I am really interested to hear what Bobbie offers. An album that I guarantee you will like:
“For her third album, Bobbie, Dutch singer-songwriter Pip Blom decided to rip it up and start again. After making her name as one of the brightest indie rock singers around through two albums – 2019 debut Boat and 2021 follow-up Welcome Break – and a lauded live show honed over gruelling years of touring, the new album sees her take a delightful left turn into thumping, carefree synth pop. This 12-track collection features collaborations with Personal Trainer and Alex Kapranos”.
Let’s finish off 20th October with The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light. The new album from The Streets, the Mike Skinner-driven project is going to get plenty of attention. Listening back to his classic 2002 debut, Original Pirate Material, how many people thought that The Streets would be making music over twenty years later?! I guess genius was there from the start, but few would have predicted such a long and rich career. You will want to pre-order an album that is very much business as usual from The Streets:
“The album is a classic Streets album - filled with Skinner’s trademark lyrical wizardry and beats honed over a decade of building his other career as a legitimate bass/rap DJ in clubs - all songs written by Skinner but featuring vocal contributions from longtime collaborators Kevin Mark Trail and Robert Harvey, as well as a track featuring Teef.
The songs on the album soundtrack the film and also play the role of narrator of the film at times - and whilst neither the album or film exist without each other - both can be enjoyed separately”.
Even though 27th October is quite a busy one for albums, there are three that I want to focus on. The first is Angie McMahon’s Light, Dark, Light Again. She is an artist quite new to my ears, though I have heard her music and am now excited for McMahon’s forthcoming album. It is one that many others will want to pre-order. If you need more detail before making your decision, then this is what you can expect from Light, Dark, Light Again:
“To make her new album, Light, Dark, Light Again, Angie McMahon had to walk through the fire. The Melbourne singer-songwriter’s second LP was written from the ashes of a tough but transformative few years of relationship changes, private breakdowns and core-shaking revelations about self. At times, McMahon felt like falling apart. But instead, she pushed through and found that hope, joy and relief lies on the other side of pain. Light, Dark, Light Again is a record about facing the fear and learning it can be a portal to something bigger and better. It finds that the only certainty in life is that everything ends, and everything begins again – that there is life and death and life again, that there is light and dark and light again”.
Two more albums before we wrap up. If you want a sense of what is coming out in October – and I have missed out – then you can see them here. Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is among this year’s most anticipated albums. Go and pre-order a copy. You will want to hear this. Even if you are not a big Swift fan, it is going to be a remarkable album. Re-recording the 2014 album, fans around the world are really pumped about this. The new release of 1989 makes it Swift's fourth re-recorded album. It contains twenty-one, five of which are designated "From the Vault" - indicating unreleased songs that were written for 1989 but did not make the final track list in 2014.
The final album that you need to check out is DJ Shadow’s Action Adventure. The legendary U.S. D.J. not only gives us an album with an amazing cover; he has also put together one that could rank among his best work. For that reason, do make sure you secure your copy of an album that you will not want to pass you by:
“Action Adventure is DJ Shadow's seventh solo LP, an inward-looking project, made for Shadow alone without any collaborators. DJ Shadow explains, “This album is about my relationship to music. My life as a collector and curator. All my records and tapes.”“Ozone Scraper” is the lead single of the album campaign. It represents the feeling of transportation, of jet engines lifting the passenger somewhere impossible. It's one of DJ Shadow's favorites on the album, as it's an invitation to strap in and also sets the table for the kind of deep listening Shadow loves”.
I would normally put this feature out at the start of September but, as I am excited about the albums coming out then, I wanted to get a bit of a head start. I am sure there are some treasures above that you will ant to put some money aside for. From CMAT and Taylor Swift to Bombay Bicycle Club and DJ Shadow, it is an eclectic and quality-laden month! October is shaping up to be a very special one. Of course, more albums might be announced between now and then – so keep your eyes peeled! The albums above are ones that I feel…
YOU can’t go without.