FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS PHOTO: The cover for St. Vincent’s All Born Screaming (out on 26th April)
Essential April Releases
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EVEN though we are in March….
PHOTO CREDIT: Taylor Swift
I am looking ahead to April and the great albums due. It is a busy and eclectic month for releases. I think that some of the best albums of the year so far are out next month. Ones I am predicting will be huge next month. Let’s start with albums out on 5th April. It is a packed week, though there are four that I think you need to pre-order. The first is from the mighty Bob Vylan. Humble As the Sun is an album that you will want to add to your collection. Here are more details about the album:
“When Bob Vylan won the first Mobo award for Best Alternative Music Act in 2022, the punk-grime duo took to the stage and used the platform to speak about how they managed to achieve the impossible as independent artists in a genre-defying space. “We released an album this year that we produced entirely, mixed entirely, recorded entirely, all from my bedroom…so everybody that’s here, bigging up Atlantic and bigging up Warner, fuck that, us man did it ourselves”.
It was an acceptance speech that rattled the room and built anticipation for their next projects.
Humble as the Sun, the latest album from Bob Vylan continues with much of the rage and urgency that they have come to be known and loved for, but this latest project shows that they are now stronger and wiser, bolstered by the wins and learnings that they have fought hard for along the way. The resulting tracklist aims to leave the listener feeling power alongside their anger, and brings a fresh and compelling blend of punk, rock, grime and rap together in an experimental way.
Following on from the last album, Bob Vylan Presents the Price of Life, the message woven throughout Humble as the Sun remains dark in places but is high-energy, defiant and unapologetic in its critique of a broken social and political system that so many have fallen victim to, but feel powerless against.
This album is for the underdogs, the ones who come out swinging and those who refuse to be defeated in the face of injustice, and aims to remind listeners that anger is a fire that can be harnessed and put to use. The album creation started from a conversation with the sun, which is, after all, a big ball of fire that sustains life.
From masculinity to myths about the G Spot, the themes and topics explored on Humble As The Sun make for an often humorously empowering celebration of the peoples ability to endure, overcome and bring about change.
The lyricism on this album is even more layered than their previous projects, still darkly humorous, anti-establishment and unforgiving but at times pauses to deliver much-needed words of afrmation to listeners, “You are loved. You are not alone. You are going through hell but keep going.” Bobby assures the listener, ofering an antidote to the state of the world, aiming to give some power and agency to those who hear it. At a time when so little trust or faith exists between the people and the powers that be, Bob Vylan ofers out a hand in the despondent darkness that has overwhelmed so many in the shadow of a burning planet. They guides the listener to a place where they can see some light and feel empowered to do something, to fight back, to continue pushing forwards despite the challenges faced along the way.
Mixing all of the best quintessentially British - and Jamaican - musical elements from punk to drum and bass, grime and rock, Bob Vylan creates a sound that reflects the state of the nation, at once voicing the frustrations that normal people have, while also highlighting one’s ability to persevere, overcome hardship and to change”.
Moving on to Dana Gavanski’s Late Slap. This is an album that I think you should investigate. An artist that I really like that others may not be aware of, go and pre-order an album that is not going to disappoint. She is a tremendous talent with a singular voice. Someone who goes from strength to strength. Her upcoming album looks like it may be her best so far:
“There’s a party in Dana Gavanski’s head and everyone’s invited- well, kind of. Late Slap, Gavanski’s third album, gives voice to the highs and lows of the mindscape in all its joys and terrors, injecting some much needed playfulness into the process of writing about emotionally hard things.
Gavanski fleshed out the demos with her band before taking the album—and the band—to Mike Lindsay (Tunng, LUMP) at MESS, the producer’s studio in Margate. The five-piece, which includes Gavanski’s fellow co-producer James Howard (Rozi Plain, Alabaster dePlume), tracked the record over five days.
‘Ears Were Growing,’ encapsulates the eighties zeal of Talking Heads or Klaus Nomi, pitching fantasy against reality through a playful lyric about negative self-talk, the domestic interior, and their way of creating a kind of Stockholm Syndrome equal parts comfort and fear. ‘Ribbon,’ is a tender song about the recent loss of a childhood friend, looks at the world through the lens of grief, marveling at the way the familiar suddenly loses its meaning and shape. The gently propulsive ‘Song for Rachel’ approaches the same subject matter from another angle, finding release in the simple, straight-to-the-point chorus refrain of “Cause’ you’re gone/ it’s just that I’m lost/ and I don’t know how to feel.” Not knowing how to feel, Gavanski shows us, is as valid and important a feeling as any other.
Late Slap’s unsettling artwork places the album themes in plain sight, Gavanski’s ambiguous, animated expression and screened-out black eyes bearing witness to what might be a revolving exhibition of contradictory images: cute play-fighting kittens giving way to pictures of suffering and war, golden hours dissolving into lost hours never to be reclaimed. But Late Slap is also what its title suggests - a sudden jolt, a shock to the system that seeks to reconnect with the messy flesh-and-thought humanity of simply being human. The album’s tension between cynicism and trust, openness and despair, melodrama and silliness, ultimately invites the listeners in (throw your coat on the bed over there, stranger). It welcomes you at the door, and beckons you to find tenderness in a world doing its best to desensitize us”.
An album I am particularly looking forward to is Jane Weaver’s Love In Constant Spectacle. With one of the best album covers of the year so far, this eye-catching album promises riches inside. Weaver is one of our finest and most consistent albums. Go and pre-order your copy. I am excited to see what comes from this album:
“Recalibrating her singular journey in the British musical landscape with her most open-hearted, direct and intimate collection of material yet. Love In Constant Spectacle evokes spectacular imagery and distills the artists’ vision in its purest form, elevating her inimitable sound and poetic vision to new heights.
Recapturing the melancholy of her early work whilst propelling it forward, she sketches scenes as we watch new colours, shapes and languages emerge and fill the frame. Love In Constant Spectacle sees her take measured steps towards a vivid, dreamlike record, that offers resolve in the face of life’s inevitability.
The foundations of Weaver’s sound are still evident – lush motorik drums, pulsating bass, custom modded synths and exotic fuzz pedals - but the stream is awash with scrabble piece poetry and Letraset lullabies leading to lush escapism, the free abandon that you’d associate with free jazz and the avant-garde. But, as determined and visionary as Weaver might be, Love In Constant Spectacle wasn’t executed without assistance. Here we find a long mooted unison with Jane’s first ever producer, John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), who has shared Weaver’s process in the surrounds of Rockfield Studios and Geoff Barrow’s Invada studio.
Love In Constant Spectacle is otherworldly, it is both intimate yet distant, a surrealist interpretation of the foundations that make us human – the stories and landscapes it paints are habitats of their own. A voyage into undisclosed pastures, it’s a heartfelt manifesto from an artist that continues to boundlessly evolve with each chapter in her career”.
I think I might cover off two more albums out on 5th April before moving to 12th. One that I feel is going to be hugely well received is Khruangbin’s A la Sala. A real treat from the trio, their fourth studio album is going to be sensational. I would encourage people to pre-order an album that is going to rank alongside this year’s most rewarding and strong:
“Khruangbin’s fourth studio album, A La Sala (“To the Room” in Spanish), is an exercise in returning in order to go further, and doing so on your own terms. It continues the mystery and sanctity that is the key to how bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, Jr. and guitarist Mark “Marko” Speer approach music. It’s a gorgeously airy record completed only in the company of the group’s longtime engineer Steve Christensen, with minimal overdubs. It’s a window onto the bounties powering Khruangbin’s vision, a reimagining and refuelling for the long haul ahead. A La Sala scales Khruangbin down to scale up, a creative strategy with the future in mind.
The trio’s collective musical DNA, the years spent constructing it in Houston’s local-meets-global cultural stew, ensures the band continues to sound like no one but itself. A cascade of crisp melodies emanates from Marko’s reverb-heavy electric, dancing gently around Laura Lee’s minimalist almost-dub bass triangles, while DJ’s drums serve as the tightened-up pocket and unwavering dance-floor on which all this movement takes place.
Khruangbin’s aspirations and commitment to playful creativity even extends to A La Sala’s vinyl packages, of which there will be seven distinctive covers and colour-sets. Designed by the band using Marko’s multitude of travelogue photos, the images are windows from the band’s living room onto a set of daydreams, scenes of impossible skies, external glances that illuminate what is going on inside. Each cover image comes with a matching colour vinyl. These too are all about looking out and looking back, in order to better look ahead”.
The last two weeks of April are pretty busy when it comes to top-quality albums you need to order. There are three from 12th April that you will want to check out. girl in red’s I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! is an album that I am looking forward to. I think that this is going to be another that everyone needs to listen to. You can pre-order it here. It is going to be a must-hear album. If you are new to girl in red and require more details, hopefully the below should fill in some gaps:
“I'm Doing It Again Baby! is the eagerly anticipated sophomore album from Norway born and Oslo-based singer-songwriter Girl in Red. This 10-song album chronicles the artist’s last two and a half years with honesty and wit, and a willingness to play around with her music. With I'm Doing It Again Baby!, Girl in Red is building her music into something “more ambitious, and more exciting, and more idea-driven.” Exploring themes like confidence, criticism, self-esteem, and vulnerability, Girl in Red produced the album with frequent collaborator Matias Tellez”.
Another terrific album out on 12th April is Maggie Rogers’ Don't Forget Me. One of the most accomplished and original songwriters in the music world, her forthcoming album will highlight her many gifts. This is an album that you should add to your collection. Available for pre-order, do consider grabbing hold of Don’t Forget Me:
“Grammy Award-nominated songwriter / producer / performer Maggie Rogers releases Don’t Forget Me, her third studio album, via Capitol Records. She co-produced Don’t Forget Me with Ian Fitchuk (Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris) at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, writing eight of its 10 songs with him and penning two alone. There’s a warmth to Don’t Forget Me. It's an album that sounds like a Sunday afternoon. Worn in denim. A drive in your favourite car. No make up, but the right amount of lipstick. Something classic. The mohair throw and bottle of Whiskey in Joan Didion’s motel room. An old corvette. Vintage, but not overly Americana”.
There are loads of wonderful albums out in April, so do investigate them all and see which ones best suit your tastes. I want to highlight four from 19th April worthy of further study. Lucy Rose’s This Ain’t The Way You Go Out is an album you will want to pre-order. Another release that has a striking cover, I am particularly intrigued to see what lucy Rose offers us with her new album. She is one of our most important artists:
“British musician Lucy Rose released a third album, No Words Left, back in 2019. It garnered the strongest critical acclaim of her career and culminated in a sell- out show at London's Barbican theatre. It was a record that ruminated in a sort of hushed reverence, emotionally charged and deftly delivered.
Lucy had planned to spend some well- earned time at home in the record's aftermath, having toured relentlessly since her late teens. She'd balanced that precariously spinning plate by forming her own record label too, Real Kind Records, putting out new records by artists she admired and thought deserved her due care and attention. With both plates spinning, she managed to catch them just before the pandemic ensured her plan for some rest and recuperation became an enforced reality. She welcomed her first child, Otis, in the summer of 2021. All was well until she was diagnosed with a rare form of pregnancy induced osteoporosis.
With a life being lived upside down, and only now without the indignity of excruciating pain, making music wasn't seeded top of Lucy's priority list. Any fleeting thought of writing a new record, or even sitting down with a guitar or at a piano, took a back seat to building up the strength to walk and care for Otis. As her confidence started to rebuild, so did her usual inhibitions in the making of music. Inspired by a trip to America with friend and rapper Logic, she later worked with renowned producer Kwes to finish the record.
This Ain't The Way You Go Out is an album constructed from the ashes of despair, nurturing the tiniest of green shoots and giving life to something that had looked otherwise spent. It's a new era for Lucy, and an era in its purest, truest sense. An artist re-awakening herself to the power of music, and having a lot of fun in the process of its discovery and delivery”.
It is always a treat when we get a new Pearl Jam album. Many would not have expected one this year. Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter comes four years after Gigaton. Even if you are not a diehard Pearl Jam fan, I think that this is an album that you will want to pre-order. NME provided further details about the legendary band’s upcoming album in a feature from last month:
“Pearl Jam have announced their new album ‘Dark Matter’ and shared the title track – check it out below.
The band’s 12th album – the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Gigaton‘ – is out April 19 via Monkeywrench Records, and can be pre-ordered/pre-saved here.
The band have already hinted at what fans can expect from the new record, with guitarist Mike McCready recently sharing that it’s “heavier than you’d expect”.
“We have a bunch of songs tracked,” he said in an interview with Classic Rock. “We worked with Andrew Watt, who’s a younger pop producer-type guy, but he’s really a rock guy at heart — I think we’re his favorite band. When we were in the studio with him this past year, he really kicked our asses, got us focused and playing, song after song.”
McCready continued: “There’s the melody and energy of the first couple of records. Andrew pushed us to play as hard and melodic and thoughtful as we’ve done in a long time. I feel like Matt Cameron’s drumming has elements of what he did in Soundgarden.”
Watt has previously worked with artists including Miley Cyrus, Post Malone and Lana Del Rey, and also has also had credits on albums from rock artists like Ozzy Osbourne.
As for his own contribution, McCready said “you’re gonna hear a lot more lead guitar from me, stuff I haven’t done in a long time”.
Reviewing ‘Gigaton’ in 2020, NME said the album saw “one of the biggest rock bands in the world return to semi-brilliance”. The three-star write-up continued: “Eddie Vedder and co.’s 11th album won’t change your life, but should boast enough vitriol to satisfy long-term fans”.
On 19th April, we also receive another wonderful album in the form of Pillow Queens’ Name Your Sorrow. An album I am already tipping to be nominated for the Mercury Prize later in the year, this Irish band are among my favourites. I have been following them for years now. You can pre-order their upcoming album here:
“After forming in 2016, Pillow Queens released a series of singles, honing their craft and working towards their first album, In Waiting (2020). Along the way there has been acclaim from UK and American press, many sold-out gigs and an appearance on James Corden's Late Late Show. After signing with Canada’s Royal Mountain Records, they released a follow-up album, Leave the Light On in 2022, touring the UK, US and Europe extensively, including shows at Austin’s SXSW and supporting Phoebe Bridgers in Glasgow.
Three albums in three years indicates a serious work ethic, for their new album Name Your Sorrow they stuck to a strict schedule. They showed up every day from 9-5, in a windowless Dublin room to just play, swap instruments and experiment. From there, they decamped to a rural retreat in County Clare along the Atlantic coastline of Ireland, to immerse themselves further. “ The palpable shift in sound and tone is possibly the result of working with a new producer, Collin Pastore from Nashville, who has produced boygenius, Lucy Dacus and Illuminati Hotties. The band holed up for three weeks at Analogue Catalogue studio in Newry, and quickly noticed that the change of scene and personnel impacted on the record.
The result of combining new experimentation, heartfelt lyrics and a sound that pinballs from quiet and loud offers a kind of catharsis. Of picking through the shrapnel to find slivers of hope. Previously, the band have road-tested new tracks live, playing them to an audience and reworking them based on the crowd’s reaction. They haven’t done that this time, because the songs already feel fully formed. The band also had to unlearn the process of questioning whether a song sounded like “a Pillow Queens song”. There are definite links to the last two albums, but Name Your Sorrow feels like a triumphant step in another direction”.
Before I get to four album from 26th April you’ll want to pre-order, one of this year’s biggest arrives on 19th April. Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department comes off the back of her world-straddling and record-breaking Eras Tour – which is still going at the moment but has already been heralded a modern masterpiece – and sees her follow from 2022’s Midnights. You can order here. Last month, Billboard gave details of what we know so far about the album:
“Taylor Swift gave fans a lot more than they bargained for at the 2024 Grammys, dropping the bombshell news mid-acceptance speech that her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, is arriving this year.
The welcome news came as the pop star was accepting best pop vocal for her 2022 record Midnights — aka, the last album she announced without warning during an awards show acceptance speech. “This is my 13th Grammy – which is my lucky number, I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that,” she teased the crowd from the stage at Crypto.com Arena Sunday (Feb. 4). “I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years …”
Swift went on to reveal the pending arrival of The Tortured Poets Department before posting the album’s sultry cover almost immediately after she left the stage. “All’s fair in love and poetry…,” she captioned the artwork. “New album THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT.”
Later that night, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter took home a historic fourth album of the year for Midnights, but Swifties were probably more excited for the new LP announcement, especially because most were expecting that the musician would announce her long-awaited Reputation (Taylor’s Version) at the ceremony instead — so much so that “Rep TV” was trending ahead of the Grammys. Swift has been steadily releasing re-recorded versions of her first six albums since 2021. Following Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989, she only has her self-titled debut and Rep left to go — but clearly, fans will just have to wait a little longer as the Tortured Poets era takes hold
From the release date to the song titles, see everything Billboard knows about Swift’s 11th album The Tortured Poets Department below.
The Title
Obviously, the album is called The Tortured Poets Department — but fans suspect there are layers to that title. Namely, Swifties were quick to note how similar it sounds to a certain group chat shared by Swift’s ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn and Paul Mescal, as revealed by the two actors in a December 2022 Variety interview: “The Tortured Man Club.”
The Cover
In the black-and-white album cover shared by Swift moments after announcing the album, she poses in a black top and shorts with her arms wrapped around her body, lying back on white bedding. Similar to the original 1989 cover, the top half of her face is obstructed.
Stylist Joseph Cassell revealed on Instagram that the photo features Swift wearing a black cami tank top and matching high-rise briefs from Mary Kate and Ashley’s fashion brand The Row.
The Tracklist
Swift shared the album’s full tracklist one day after announcing the project, revealing that Tortured Poets has a total of 16 songs plus one bonus track:
“Fortnight”
“The Tortured Poets Department”
“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”
“Down Bad”
“So Long, London”
“But Daddy I Love Him”
“Fresh Out the Slammer”
“Florida!!!!”
“Guilty as Sin?”
“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”
“I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)”
“loml”
“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”
“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”
“The Alchemy”
“Clara Bow”
Bonus Track: “The Manuscript”
The Collaborators
The Tortured Poets Department tracklist featured two major collaborations: Post Malone, whose name is billed on track one, “Fortnight,” as well as Florence + The Machine on track eight, “Florida!!!”
Both Posty and Florence Welch have sung Swift’s praises in the past, with the rapper calling the pop star “a great f—in’ songwriter” in an October 2023 interview with Howard Stern, and Welch and Swift trading compliments in a 2015 Billboard interview.
“What sets Florence apart? Everything,” Swift said at the time. “Every time I’ve been around her, she is the most magnetic person in the room — surrounded by people who are fascinated by the idea of being near her”.
Wrapping up with April albums and we get to 26th. The first from that week that you need to check out is Fat White Family’s Forgiveness Is Yours. There are not that many details know about the album. Released through Domino, you can pre-order it here. If you do not know much about the band, I feel that this is an album where you do not need much about. You do not need to know about the band. You can start here and get so much from it:
“Fat White Family are back with the most sophisticated, vital and flamboyant creation of their career. The cult south-London band’s resplendent fourth album Forgiveness Is Yours, like everything they’ve done, has pushed them to the limits not only of their creative talent, but of their health, their sanity, their very existence”.
I would also urge people to pre-order Pet Shop Boys’ Nonetheless. The legendary duo show no signs of slowing or dropping the quality! Do make sure that you pre-order it. Their latest work is amazing. You will not want to miss out on this album. It follows from 2020’s Hotspot. A duo that rarely put a foot wrong:
“UK electronic pop icons Pet Shop Boys return with a brand-new studio album Nonetheless, preceded by first single "Loneliness". Produced by James Ford, the music on Nonetheless is both uplifting and reflective, mixing electronics, live instruments, and orchestral arrangements. The songs are very melodic and quintessentially Pet Shop Boys with a fresh, open sound, bringing together classic strands of PSB song-writing and moving them in new directions.
Having sold in excess of 50 million records, Pet Shop Boys are easily the most successful UK duo of all time. BRIT awards and Grammy nominations have been numerous, including in 2009 when Pet Shop Boys won the BRIT for outstanding contribution to music; in 2000 Pet Shop Boys’ song-writing was rewarded with the Ivor Novello award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music - with over 70 hit singles spanning five decades, song-writing remains resolutely at the core of Pet Shop Boys’ continuing relevance and success”.
A band coming back from a while away, The Zutons’ The Big Decider. This is going to be a fantastic album from a truly distinct band. You can pre-order it here. I would suggest that people check this out. I am really looking forward to The Big Decider coming out. The band’s debut album, Who Killed...... The Zutons?, turns twenty on 19th April:
“Recorded at Abbey Road Studios with legendary songwriter and producer Nile Rodgers, alongside the band's original producer Ian Broudie. The multi-platinum selling band released three studio albums between 2004 and 2008, scoring 9 UK Top 40 singles including two Top 10s with ‘Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love?’ and the all- conquering ‘Valerie’, the latter a triple-platinum hit for Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse. Now they return to share the fruits of their extended time away. The Big Decider comes into view as an album of stark significance to the band, completed by Dave McCabe (guitar, lead vocals), Abi Harding (saxophone, vocals) and Sean Payne (drums, vocals). Written against the backdrop of a decade and a half’s worth of lived experience, it is born under the weight of family tragedies, lives lost and created, reality checks, and home truths faced up to and stared down. Wrestled into shape under the kind of steam that only decades-long friendships - with all their messy fall-outs, make-ups, breakdowns and ultimately love - can muster, The Big Decider became the sound of water passing under the bridge, and love for music, love for each other, and love for creating together becoming the most important thing of all”.
The final album I want to highlight might be the best from April. It is definitely going to be you cant afford to overlook. St. Vincent’s All Born Screaming comes out on 26th April. With an incredible cover and an interesting premise/theme, this is going to be an incredible album. One from a music queen and hugely innovative artist. St. Vincent produced All Born Screaming. She is a remarkable producer who does not get credit for that. All Born Screaming should correct that. Go and pre-order this essential album:
“Album number seven and St Vincent continues to thrill, educate and be innovative. Her first fully self-produced album (having co-produced every one of her previous efforts), All Born Screaming is St. Vincent at her most primal. Featuring Clark leading “a curated group of rippers” through the brawny “Broken Man,” the mordant catwalk sashay through the deafening assault of self-loathing that is “Big Time Nothing,” the sublime, elegiac earworm “Sweetest Fruit," All Born Screaming is equal parts spiritual desolation and rapturous acceptance. “If you’re born screaming, that’s a great sign,” says Clark, “because it means you’re breathing. You’re alive. My god. It’s joyous. And then it’s also a protest. We’re all born in protest in a certain way. It’s terrifying to be alive, it’s ecstatic to be alive. It’s everything”
April is a busy and wonderful album for releases! Some huge albums come out then. I have recommend some that you may want to pre-order and add to your collection. If you need some guidance as to which albums are worth spending some money on and time with, then I hope that the above…
IS of assistance.