Labour Day week is always hard. Back to school, back to work, and the realization that the excuses we had for taking it easy over the past couple of months is gone. For many, September, October, and November are the busiest times of the year as everything goes 0-100 in about 2.7 seconds. New Music Friday might help take the edge off things.
Singles
1. Good Neighbours, People Need People (Polydor/Universal)
Here’s duo formed last year in London. After a substantial amount of critical praise, not to mention a couple of nominations for awards sponsored by the BBC and the Brit Awards, Oli Foxx and Scott Verrill are almost ready to release their debut album, Blue Sky Mentality, on September 26. One to watch.
2. HiFi, She’s My Girl (Generic Records)
This is a true anomaly. HiFi is a duo featuring singer/songwriter Gary Lekowith and guitarist Richie Shields. Both have collaborated with Alice Cooper, Ace Frehley, Mountain, and Sebastian Bach. They’ve played with musicians who have been hired by Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and Joan Jett. Their producer was behind hits for Deelite (yes, Groove is in the Heart), Erasure, and Sinead O’Connor. So what? This is a new band and a debut single aimed at the alt-rock market from a couple of guys in their 70s. You are never too old to rock’n’roll.
3. Vance Joy, Divine Feelings (Liberation)
It’s been a moment, hasn’t it, Vance Joy? Yes, there were the collaborations with Noah Cyrus and Shouse, but this is the first solo material since 2022. This is the first half of a double A-side that will be released next month.
4. Portugal. The Man, Denali (Thirty Tigers)
The Alaska-born, Portland-based band with the wayward punctuation has returned with a new single (their first since this summer’s surprise uLu Selects Vol #2 EP) that gets a little deeper into the world of synths and distorted guitars. In other words, this is the territory where the band started. It’s even named after a mountain in Alaska.
5. Rare Americans, Give Up First (Frontside/Crooked City)
No, they’re not American. They’re actually a four-piece Canadian-Slovak band from Vancouver who have a Juno award nomination to their name. This is the latest single from their seventh album (S)KiDs–or, more accurately, the deluxe version of the album released back in the spring and taken from their feature-length animated film. Like Blink-182? Try this.
6. Softcult, 16/25 (Easy Life)
The Arn-Horn siblings, Mercedes and Phoenix of Kitchener, Ontario, have been releasing singles under this name (they once traded under Courage My Love) and are now finally ready for a new album, When a Flower Doesn’t Grow, which is due January 30. Yes, we’re already looking that far ahead. This single, released to coincide with the announcement of the new album, is about the predatory behavior of older men who have a thing for grooming young women.
7. Tame Impala, Loser (Sony)
After creating some excitement with his first single in five years about a month ago (End of Summer), Tame Impala (aka Kevin Parker of Perth, Australia) has a new single from what he calls his “new era.” The video features Joey Keery, whom you might remember from Stranger Things and Fargo. When new album, Deadbeat, drops on October 17, there will be a feeding frenzy.
Albums
1. Big Thief, Double Infinity (4AD)
Feeling folky? Then you might want to check out the sixth album from Brooklyn’s Big Thief. This is the first album featuring the group as a trio (a quartet if you want to include their favourite producer). Everything came together–50 or 60 songs but cut down to just nine tracks–derived from hours of improvisations with a variety of collaborators. It includes a song inspired by missing a flight having to drive up through Thunder Bay.
2. David Byrne, Who is the Sky? (Matador)
Byrne has always been quirky and weird and this album delivers on his first album since 2018 and 11th solo album overall. He gets pretty wacky–there are odes to his apartment, the glories of moisturizing properly, and running into the Buddha at a party in NY–but there’s a undertone of doom that pops up when you least expect it. There are more polyrhythms to enjoy, too, thanks to drummer Tom Skinner whom you might remember from the Radiohead side project, The Smile. This comes out just as David got married at age 73.
3. Cut Copy, Moments (Cutters Records)
More dance-y rock from Melbourne’s Cut Copy–finally–after almost five years since the last album, a hiatus necessitated by leader Dan Whitford becoming a father for the first time. So how about a children’s choir to fill out a single? Why not?
4. Suede, Antidepressants (BMG Rights Management)
Suede says they’re having their best year in at least a decade. This album–I’ve seen several five-star reviews–will keep things going. There’s still the pre-Britpop shimmer to the band’s sound, but they’ve also accessed influences from The Cure, Killing Joke, and a few others from that era of British music. Less glam and more doom, but in a catchy way.