Best New Releases, August 9: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, And So I Watch You From Afar, and more
August is typically a slow month for new music, a fact that we acknowledge and, frankly, celebrate. (We’ve got some good stuff cooking for September and it’ll be nice to have the extra time to get it right.) That being said, there’s still plenty of great new music to hear today, including the latest from everyone’s favorite hyper-prolific Australian psych-rock band, catchy emo/power pop, dynamic post-rock, punk, rap, shoegaze and a reissue of a not-that-old favorite. Here are our picks for this week’s best new releases.
Note: When you buy something through our affiliate links, Treble receives a commission. All albums included are chosen by our editors and contributors.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – FLIGHT b741
Prolific Australian psych-rock group King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard continue building on their already sprawling catalog with yet another new release. After releasing two versions of last year’s synth-driven The Silver Cord, the group goes back to what they do—riff-driven rock music—with the fun, summertime rock ‘n’ roll of FLIGHT b741. It features elements of glam rock, southern rock, and just about any other kind of rock you could possibly want while the top’s down and the sun’s out. Turn it up; we’ll have more on this one soon.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
And So I Watch You From Afar – Megafauna
Belfast post-rock/math-rock group And So I Watch You From Afar deliver a stunning new set of songs that showcase not just the intricacy of their performances and technical ability, but the stunning depths of their arrangements as well. In our review of Megafauna, Gareth O’Malley said, “across these nine songs and 43 minutes, the quartet sound larger than life and truly revitalized for their brief excursion into soundtrack territory—you can’t put that particular genie back in the bottle, and the band stretch themselves where it counts, to deliver something that seems as close to the platonic ideal of an And So I Watch You From Afar record in 2024.”
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Mavi – Shadowbox
North Carolina rapper returns two years after the release of his 2022 album Laughing So Hard, It Hurts with a new set of songs both introspective and personal. His latest album Shadowbox finds Mavi addressing topics such as grieving and addiction, delivered with a poetic lyrical approach and a warm, low-key production style provided by collaborators such as Lil Chick and Beach Noise. It’s moving and soulful, and it’s a welcome return from the emcee. We’ll have more on this one soon.
Listen: Spotify
Oso Oso – Life Till Bones
Jade Lilitri introduced his emo project Oso Oso back in 2015 with the release of True Stories of Real People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters, which reached a new level of critical acclaim with 2019’s Basking in the Glow. Lilitri and company’s latest, Life Till Bones, is an expectedly magnetic and hook-laden set of emo and power pop gems, including the bright jangle of “All My Love” and the Phoenix-style alt-rock groove of “That’s What Time Does.” An outstanding 29 minutes of indie rock, and we’ll have more on this one soon.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon (vinyl)
Fucked Up – Another Day
Following the release of last year’s One Day, notably written and recorded with a 24-hour deadline, Fucked Up follow that up with another set of thematically linked songs with interconnected elements and punk rock immediacy. In our review of the album, Greg Hyde said, “they have delivered a suite of songs that will be most enjoyable to those singing and moshing along to them at their shows, which is where their music has always been best appreciated.”
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Belong – Realistic IX
New Orleans group Belong always blurred the lines between ambient and shoegaze, their sound calibrated to ride the frequency at the exact halfway point between Tim Hecker and My Bloody Valentine. Their first new album in over a decade, Realistic IX, leans ever closer to actual song-based material without ever fully embracing pop. There are urgent rhythms and bright melodies amid their layers of noise and static, and it’s surprisingly summery and infectious for an otherwise abstract group. We’ll have more on this one soon.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Spoon – They Want My Soul Deluxe
This month is the 10th anniversary of Spoon’s They Want My Soul, a high point in a career that’s been pretty consistently strong from the late ‘90s on up to their most recent album, 2022’s Lucifer on the Sofa. Yet They Want My Soul found the group experimenting more with production, blowing out the distortion on songs like “Rent I Pay,” floating off into trip-hop bliss in “Inside Out” and embracing synth-pop with “Outlier” and “New York Kiss.” This 10th anniversary reissue includes an entire bonus disc of alternate versions and demos, including a stark version of “Do You” titled “The Way Love Comes,” or a solo piano version of “Inside Out.” It’s fun to hear these songs in more stripped down form, but what stands out most is how strong Soul in its original form remains, one decade down the line.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
