And we’re back, after I missed a non-December monthly playlist for the first time in something like six or seven years, thanks to the combination of the late draft, trade deadline, Gen Con, and my big family vacation to the UK, so this playlist covers stuff from two months rather than just the one. We’ve got a ton of potentially great new albums and EPs due out the rest of the year, including stuff from the first four artists here, plus something new from the Arctic Monkeys, Suede, Christine & the Queens, Editors, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dry Cleaning, and more. As always, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the Spotify playlist here.
The Beths – Knees Deep. The Beths have released three fantastic singles ahead of their album, Expert in a Dying Field, due out on the 16th. I have gotten much worse at predicting which bands will break out into broader success, but man, if any band seems poised to do so right now, it’s the Beths.
The Wombats – Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This? One of my favorite bands going, the Wombats are putting out a six-track EP in November, just nine months after releasing their latest album, and this title track is a banger.
GIFT – Gumball Garden. The first time I heard this I was sure it was Tame Impala, or a Kevin Parker side project. It’s that precise psychedelic-rock vibe – or you might think DIIV if you’re familiar with them – and the vocalist sounds a good bit like Parker, but there’s no connection. GIFT is a five-piece band from Brooklyn and their debut album, Momentary Presence, is due out on October 14th. I love the whole track but the surprise guitar riff around the 1:35 mark is next-level.
Sports Team – The Drop. Sports Team’s second album, GULP!, is due out on September 23rd, a two-month delay due to production issues, but we’ve got four strong singles from the album now, including this, “R Entertainment,” “The Game,” and “Dig,” showing some versatility beyond their initial art-punk style.
STONE – Waste. Heavy post-punk music from a band led by the son of John Power, former lead singer/guitarist of the La’s (“There She Goes”) and Cast (“Alright,” “Sandstorm”), which is quite the way to rebel against your parents, I guess.
YUNGBLUD – Don’t Feel Like Feeling Sad Today. I’m not a big YUNGBLUD fan but this is a perfect little 2-minute punk-pop song.
The Mars Volta – Blacklight Shine. TMV’s first album in a decade, just called The Mars Volta, will drop on September 16th, and will feature this track as well as their latest release, “Vigil,” both of which are experimental yet also somehow rather accessible.
The Lounge Society – No Driver. This punk/post-punk quartet comprises four teens from Yorkshire who’ve been releasing music since 2020 and just released their debut album Tired of Liberty on Friday.
Young Fathers – Geronimo. The Mercury Prize winners return with their first new music since 2018’s tremendous album Cocoa Sugar, bringing a track that combines multiple genres with just a dash of rap mixed in.
Black Honey – Charlie Bronson. Definitely a rougher edge this time around from the Brighton indie-rockers, although you can still hear their melodic tendencies underneath the grit.
Two Door Cinema Club – Wonderful Life. This Northern Irish band will release its fifth album, Keep on Smiling, on Friday; this lead single came out in mid-July and is more of the electro-pop we’ve come to expect from the trio, maybe skewing a little more towards rock than “I Can Talk” or “Sleep Alone” did.
The Killers – boy. A leftover track from before last year’s Pressure Machine, one that sounds like it belonged on 2020’s Imploding the Mirage.
Martin Courtney – Sailboat. Courtney is the lead singer/guitarist for Real Estate, but released his second solo album, Magic Sign, this summer; this track might be my favorite thing he’s done, a soft psychedelic-rock track that features a perfectly timed guitar riff that elevates the song into something more.
Sam Fender – Alright. A B-side from the Seventeen Going Under sessions, this could easily have appeared on the album, and I do think it’s a good rule of thumb that when an artist’s B-sides are good enough to consider as singles in their own right (or, say, to include on one of my playlists), then the artist is pretty damn good.
Stella Donnelly – How Was Your Day? Donnelly is an acclaimed singer/songwriter in her native Australia, but hasn’t received a ton of attention outside of it, although her quirky vocal style and hooky melodies would fit in well in the British indie scene. Her second album, Flood, dropped a week ago. I am also obligated to mention that, according to Wikipedia, Donnelly’s mother is Welsh.
Rina Sawayama – Catch Me in the Air. Sawayama is a pop artist at heart, and this is one of her most straightforward pop tracks so far, with a big hook in the chorus.
Lizzo – 2 Be Loved (I Am Ready). I thought Special was generally strong, with two big standout tracks in “About Damn Time” and this song, which I think most clearly reflects her work with Prince before he died.
Broken Bells – We’re Not in Orbit Yet… James Mercer (the Shins) and Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) are back with their first new music since 2019’s “Good Luck” and first new album since 2014’s After the Disco with a track that reminds me in good ways of “The High Road” off their first record.
Tei Shi – GRIP. Tei Shi ended up in a fight with her old label after they refused to pay her the rest of her advanced for her last album, La Linda, and wrote this song in 2021 about the experience.
Death Cab for Cutie – Here to Forever. DCFC return with their tenth album, Asphalt Meadows, on September 16th, featuring this very upbeat song with an existentialist message as well as “Roman Candles.”
Jack White – A Tip From Me to You. A surprise second album from White, Entering Heaven Alive, dropped in July, this one more acoustic/downtempo and less experimental than this spring’s Fear of the Dawn.
The Linda Lindas – Tonite. The Linda Lindas are media darlings, which makes me worry their label (or manager) will turn them into some bland pop act, which is largely what happened to the Donnas back in the 1990s. This is a cover of a Go-Go’s song the Lindas often cover live, and it’s a great version, but ironic because the Go-Go’s were also co-opted by the mainstream music industry.
The Front Bottoms – More than It Hurts You. From their new EP Theresa, this track feels like a throwback to the earliest days of emo, with the overly earnest vocal delivery but an inherent pop sensibility underneath the emo trappings.
Muse – Kill or Be Killed. I fell off the Muse bandwagon probably around The Resistance in 2009, although I’d been a big fan of their earliest work, and this track has a strong “Muscle Museum” or “Cave” vibe to me, so maybe they’re going back to their roots a little bit.
Archers of Loaf – In the Surface Noise. I wasn’t a big Archers of Loaf fan in their 1990s heyday, but they are about to release their first new album in 24 years, Reason in Decline, on October 21st, and I do like this vaguely psychedelic-rock track.