I believe this is the longest monthly playlist of new music I’ve ever posted, running 30 songs and just shy of two hours, thanks in large part to a huge spate of new album releases in the last four weeks. Even at that I could have included more tracks and have more songs and albums I still want to check out, but the calendar had other ideas so I decided to call it a day and post this before October loomed. You can access the playlist directly here if you can’t see the widget below.

The Wombats — Bee-Sting. The Wombats put out a new album in February, a solid record but a little bit of a letdown after the amazing Glitterburg, so the appearance of this new single last week was both a big surprise and a huge boost to a month already replete with great new songs.

Thrice — Only Us. Thrice, featuring friend of the dish Riley Breckenridge on drums, will release its new album Palms on the 14th, with this the second very strong single already to appear from the record.

Art Brut — Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!. I remember a reader (Bill S., I believe) recommending Art Brut to me about a decade ago, but at the time I found their sound a little too out there, almost deliberately non-musical in certain ways, including the vocals. This song seems written to address everything I didn’t like about their earlier stuff, and has a sort of Wombats/Arctic Monkeys vibe to the lyrics and music.

Nation of Language — Reality. This Brooklyn-based quartet appear to have fallen asleep in 1982 and just woken up without recognizing anything has changed in the world of music – and, as someone who came of age during that synth-heavy era of New Wave, I love it.

Broods — Peach. I adore Georgia Nott’s voice, so hearing her get autotuned up in the pre-chorus here is a bummer, but the hook in the chorus itself is tremendous and we do get to hear her sultry voice in its natural environment during the verses.

Ten Fé — Not Tonight. Ten Fé’s album Hit the Light was my #10 record of 2017, and they’re back now with more of the same ‘70s soft-rock sound just slightly updated with the technology of contemporary music.

Black Honey — Midnight. I might be the biggest Black Honey fan going; I think I’ve liked every single they’ve released so far over the last three years, and now we get their first full-length album, called Black Honey, on the 21st. This is on the poppier end for the group, but I’ve liked their stuff more when they keep this upbeat tempo.

Eric B. & Rakim — I Know You Got Soul ( The Double Trouble Remix ). I waffled a little on including this track; it’s a circa 1988 remix of the song I’ve named the greatest rap song of all time, and it’s not as if you could improve on perfection. But the remix is by Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, and Danny Poku, better known as D-Mob (“We Call It Acieed”), and backs up Rakim’s vocals with the music of the Jackson Five’s “ABC,” with Kool & the Gang’s “Funky Stuff” in the interludes. It works shockingly well.

Wild Nothing — Shallow Water. If you wanted Wild Nothing to revisit the sound of Nocturne, this track is for you.

Spirit Animal — World War IV. Spirit Animal’s album Born Yesterday is a strange mix of bold, almost bombastic rockers like this one and “The Truth,” and songs that seem like Twenty-One Pilots impressions. (I was going to say “bad Twenty-One Pilots impressions, but that seemed redundant.) If these guys stick to big, macho riffs in traditional rock sounds, they could be huge.

Foxing — Nearer My God. These St. Louis indie-rockers released their latest album, with this the title track and the best song I’ve heard from the record, on August 10th. Conor Murphy’s vocals really shine here as he hits notes I couldn’t hit if I took a football to the groin.

Drenge — Outside. I loved this British duo’s debut album, which took forever to show up in tHe U.S. even though they’d found some success in England, but thought they changed their sound too much for their follow-up record. This sounds more like their first LP – straight-up guitar and drum heavy rock with a little British snarl to it.

Alkaline Trio — Demon and Division. Alkaline Trio’s album Is This Thing Cursed? just dropped on Friday, the 31st, so I haven’t gotten into it yet, but this song, released a few weeks earlier as a single, is another strong power-pop (don’t call it “emo!”) single from Skiba & co.

Death Cab for Cutie — Northern Lights. Thank You for Today dropped on August 17th, with “Gold Rush” still my favorite off the record but this upbeat “Soul Meets Body”-ish track among my favorites from the rest.

Allie X — Science. Alexandra Hughes, who records as Allie X, covers a wide range within electronic indie-pop, but she has a knack for sweetly dark melodies, like this one on the third single from her upcoming album Super Sunset. If you like Sia’s music and vocal style, Allie X is the better version, without the commercial trappings or the wig.

St. Lucia — Bigger. I’m optimistic about St. Lucia’s upcoming third album, Hyperion, which is due out on the 21st, given how bouncy and fun the three singles have been – maybe not as impactful as the singles from his debut, but I think stronger than most of the material on 2016’s Matter other than “Dancing on Glass.”

YONAKA — Teach Me To Fight. I loved this British quartet with a feisty-voiced female lead singer’s track “Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya” when it came out last year, and they’ve had a few singles in a similar post-punk, snarling vein, including this one, where Theresa Jarvis drops what should be an anthem for young feminists.

CLOVES — Hit Me Hard. CLOVES’s voice stunned me when I first heard her on “Frail Love,” a top ten song for me in 2015, but she was never going to find an audience just doing vocals and piano ballads, so a move into more pop territory was probably inevitable. I’m just glad she’s doing so with solid hooks and without surrendering any of her vocal power or the endearing way she articulates certain sounds.

Sarah Chernoff — You’re Free. Chernoff was the lead singer for the Superhumanoids, a sadly underappreciated dream-pop/electronica band that crafted gorgeous, textured music behind Chernoff’s soaring vocals. Her debut solo album was much more mellow, more in the style of torch songs than pop, but this new track splits the difference and I think provides the perfect platform for her vocal operatics. (I saw Superhumanoids live on their last tour, and met the band after the show. I can vouch for her singing prowess – this is exactly how she sounds in concert.)

Arkells — Relentless. These Canadian indie-rockers will drop their new album on October 19th, and this feels like it should be their breakout single here in the U.S., a danceable rock tune that’s easier than the preceding single “People’s Champ.” I just don’t understand why they used the keyboards from “La Macarena” in the background (sorry, you’ll never unhear this).

The Kooks — Kids. We got two new singles from the Kooks this month, this and “Chicken Bone,” with their new album, Let’s Go Sunshine, appearing on the 31st. I don’t think their sound has changed much at all, but I’m fine with that — Britpop itself may be dead but it’s not necessarily out of it as long as the Kooks are around.

Interpol — If You Really Love Nothing. Yet another album that appeared at the end of August (the 24th) that I still need to listen to, Marauder is Interpol’s sixth and so far has at least given us more hooks on its singles than El Pintor had on the final record.

Cullen Omori — Happiness Reigns. Omori, formerly of the Smith Westerns, just released his second solo album, The Diet, which I have seen compared to early Oasis but to me sounds a lot more like the aforementioned Kooks with a little Wild Nothing thrown in. This was my favorite track off the album.

Ovlov — The Best of You. Stoner rock with a Pinback vibe, most notable on this two-minute track off their latest album, TRU.

The Skull — Ravenswood. More doom metal from three former members of Trouble, still rocking the same Sabbath-ish vibe but with a crunchier, less metal guitar sound.

High On Fire — Electric Messiah. Sleep returned from a 19-year hiatus this spring with a new record, The Sciences, but front man Matt Pike didn’t ditch his primary band, High on Fire, whose music is hard and fast like ‘80s thrash or speed metal but with some stoner or sludge metal elements. This is the title track from their upcoming eighth album, due out October 5th.

Riverside — Vale of Tears. Polish progressive rock with a lot of Opeth to their sound with some shredding in the instrumental sections. Their new album Wasteland, their first since the death of founding guitarist Piotr Grudzi?ski, will drop on September 28th.

Voivod — Obsolete Beings. I’ve spelled out my concerns about Voivod’s new output before — it’s hard to accept anything without the late Denis D’Amour’s songwriting or guitar work as ‘real’ Voivod, and their forthcoming album The Wake (September 21st) will be their first record since 2006’s Katorz to exclude founding bassist Jean-Yves Thériault. But damn does this sound like peak Voivod circa Dimension Hatröss.

Omnium Gatherum — Refining Fire. Add one more album to the list of those that came out on August 31st that I need to listen to, Burning Cold, the latest record from this Finnish melodic death metal act. I did also like “Rest in Your Heart” from the same album, the music of which wouldn’t have been out of place on a pop-metal album in the late 80s with its huge synth lines and downtempo power-chord riffing.

Horrendous — The Idolater. I’ve been a big proponent of Horrendous, a Philly-based technical/progressive death metal band, even with their guttural, indecipherable vocals, because their music is intricate, experimental, and utterly fascinating. Their second album, 2014’s Ecdysis, was like nothing I’d ever heard before, and their follow-up, Anareta, wasn’t far behind. The first two tracks from their fourth album, Idol, which drops September 28th, are both absolute beasts of technical work, but this song feels like their songwriting has become more sophisticated since their last album. I could do without the blast beat, though.