Best New Releases, May 30: Ty Segall, Alan Sparhawk, and more

It may be a shorter week due to the holiday weekend, but the week’s certainly long on great new music. Among the best new releases out today are the latest from prolific singer/songwriter Ty Segall, yet another radical change in direction (and arguably a return to form?) from Alan Sparhawk, plus experimental jazz, doomgaze, dream pop and more. Here are the week’s best new releases.

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Ty Segall – Possession

After sprawling out into a psychedelic prog epic with 2024’s Three Bells, and then a more experimental instrumental offering with Love Rudiments from later that year, Ty Segall gets back to making a more concise set of songs with Possession. But to call it straightforward isn’t accurate; Segall loads up these songs with strings, piano, all manner of ornate art-rock flourishes, and it suits him well. Sometimes, Possession is just great guitar rock, like on the title track, but on opener “Shoplifter,” there’s a lot more detail to take in, and there’s an elegance to “Skirts of Heaven” that elevates his glam-influenced songwriting. Possession contains some of Segall’s most richly elaborate arrangements and killer hooks alike, and we’ll have more to say on it soon. – Jeff Terich

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)

Alan Sparhawk – With Trampled by Turtles

Following last year’s experimental White Roses, My God, former Low frontman Alan Sparhawk strips his sound back with the aid of fellow Duluth artists Trampled by Turtles on a gorgeous new collaboration. It’s our Album of the Week. In our review, we said, “in the red clay and woodgrain, here, you can more easily make out the kind of haunting melodies that Sparhawk crafted in his former band and the depth of emotions that has made that band’s music so enduring.” – Jeff Terich

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon (vinyl)

Aesop Rock – Black Hole Superette

Prolific rapper Aesop Rock has released few albums during his career that you couldn’t call a highlight, though his past few—2020’s Spirit World Field Guide, 2021’s Garbology and 2023’s Integrated Tech Solutions—are all pretty stacked. (Not to mention his great appearances on records by clipping. and billy woods in the past two years.) Black Hole Superette is no exception, a stellar and sprawling set of complex productions and labyrinthine lyricism, as well as a well selected team of guests, including Armand Hammer and Open Mike Eagle. Yeah, of course it’s great—Aesop Rock did it again.

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Turntable Lab (vinyl)

Amy Millan – I Went to Find You

Amy Millan, vocalist in Stars and longtime member and collaborator of Broken Social Scene, offers up her first new set of solo material in 16 years on I Went to Find You, a more personal set of songs that showcase a journey of self-discovery as well as a tribute to the people closest to her. It’s unsurprisingly gorgeous, whether driven by a high-energy synth-pop pulse on “Make Way for Waves,” rife with twinkling atmosphere on “Wire Walks,” or opening up into a somber and beautifully unfussy ballad on “The Overpass.” And it’s well worth the 16 years it took to get here. – Jeff Terich

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp

Planning for Burial – It’s Closeness, It’s Easy

Thom Wasluck, aka Planning for Burial, last released a new album eight years ago with 2017’s Below the House, and has since released a number of one-off and compilation tracks. But It’s Closeness, It’s Easy is a powerful return, rushing out of the gates with the dense, explosive doomgaze of “You Think,” delving into a blissful ambient haze with “(blueberry pop)” and layering on the dense, low-end guitar fuzz with “A Flowing Field of Green,” which we recently named an Essential Track. A thrilling return, and one we’ll have more to say about soon. – Jeff Terich

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon (vinyl)

Moonrisers – Harsh & Exciting

The debut album from Detroit duo Moonrisers is perhaps best described as a folk album—the elements of folk and bluegrass are recognizable in their earthy instrumentals, which are given ample room to breathe, like landscapes slowly unfolding before you. But there’s a darker, dirtier element to their sound as well, guitarist Libby DeCamp’s downtuned guitar riffs showcasing both a bluesiness and a heaviness that sets it apart. The ten tracks on Harsh & Exciting are gritty and raw, but gorgeously rich as well. When bits of mandolin and pedal steel slowly start to awaken in the standout “All Your Hiding,” it’s a beautiful and emotional moment that feels somehow more colossal than the gentle and restrained sum of its parts. – Jeff Terich

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon (vinyl)

Labrador – My Version Of Desire 

Philly’s Labrador has labeled its twangy and crunchy anthems “Maximum Alt-Country” and there’s no doubting this trio takes its catchy songcraft straight to the glorious max on their sprawling new slab, My Version Of Desire. Ace tunesmith, singer and guitarist Pat King leaves no stylistic stone unturned on this absolutely stellar batch of tunes that will stick in your brain long after they are done spinning. Whether strumming Westerberg-like heart-on-sleeve balladry and cranking out working-class rockers from the school of Bruce, A.M. and Being There-era bar-band Americana and Big Starry power-pop goodness, King and company cook up good ol’ contagious riffs and saccharine melodies like there’s no tomorrow. – Brad Cohan    

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp

Joe Morris & Elliott Sharp – Realism

Avant-garde maestros Joe Morris and Elliott Sharp have long cemented themselves as true and undying originals in the annals of guitardom. Their wizardry in the experimental music, jazz and free-improvisation landscapes is unrivaled, both investigating sonic planes very few guitarists even dare to roam. Over a combined decades and decades of blazing new trails, Morris and Sharp have never joined forces. Until now. Realism is the guitar duo recording you’ve been waiting for that lives up to the billing: the sounds are like nothing you’ve ever heard before–courtesy of two remarkable veteran players at the top of their respective games. The dizzying array of strings-bending shapeshifting, augmented by electronics and effects-driven swooshes and spurts, is truly a marvel to hear as it unfolds. The Morris/Sharp duo speak in a cosmic dialogue seemingly only they are privy to; the psychedelic abstractions squiggling and floating in from some other unexplored dimension. Realism is a clinic in alien guitarscapes that needs to be heard to be believed. – Brad Cohan    

Listen/Buy: Bandcamp