Best New Releases, Sept. 13: Nilüfer Yanya, Floating Points, and more
The big days for new music keep getting bigger! As we head deeper into the fall, the list of new releases only grows longer. Among this week’s best new releases is the return of a stellar singer/songwriter, a phenomenal dance record, some noise rock legends making their return, and more.
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Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor
Nilüfer Yanya is an outstanding songwriter with a tendency to craft songs with a great deal of instrumental depth and melodies that slowly reveal themselves. Her 2022 album PAINLESS was one of that year’s most repeatedly rewarding standouts, and its follow-up once again reveals the British artist’s sophisticated compositional sensibility. While she leans a little farther away from her more urgent rock material, everything here is stunning, worth revisiting both because a first listen isn’t enough to pick up on all the nuances but also because the songs are simply that good. We’ll have more on this one soon.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Floating Points – Cascade
Three years after his masterful collaboration with Pharoah Sanders, Promises, Sam Shepherd offers up some of his most corporeally satisfying dance music to date. His new album Cascade is our Album of the Week, and in our review of the album, we said, “Cascade spirals like a blown pinwheel, spinning and shimmering in literally dizzying fashion, sending listeners dancing, stumbling abruptly, and dancing again.”
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
The Jesus Lizard – Rack
The Jesus Lizard split up at the end of the 1990s, eventually reuniting in 2009 for a series of live performances, and then sporadic tour dates in the years since. But it’s been over 25 years since the Chicago noise rock group last released an album of new music. Rack, which features the group’s original lineup, is their first set of new songs since 1998’s Blue, and it’s just as raucous and rowdy an album as you could hope for from the veteran bruisers. We’ll have more on this one soon.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Kal Marks – Wasteland Baby
Boston post-hardcore veterans Kal Marks return two years after the release of the outstanding My Name Is Hell with a more exploratory and even more personal album, Wasteland Baby. Inspired in large part by vocalist Carl Shane’s own experience becoming a father in a world that’s falling apart, it explores complex and introspective themes through some of the most exploratory and eclectic songs they’ve ever written. It’s fantastic. Read about the influences behind Kal Marks’ new album.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
The Bug – Machine
Kevin Martin released a series of EPs titled Machine in the past year, all of which served as an introduction to his next project. Machine, the full-length version, compiles tracks from those recordings into his first release for Relapse and follow-up to 2021’s Fire. But where that album backed furious dancehall with industrial-strength beats, this album leans heavier into slower moving instrumentals full of menace and dread, which is fitting given Martin’s new partnership with a long-running metal label. We’ll have more on this one soon.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Cursive – Devourer
Omaha’s Cursive are closing out their third decade as a band with their first release through Run for Cover, their 10th album overall, and a strong showcase for their shape-shifting indie rock. Driven by Tim Kasher’s narrative-driven songwriting, Devourer finds the band channeling their punk rock roots in hard-driving standouts like opener “Botch Job,” showcasing some dazzling harmonized guitar leads in “Imposturing,” and some of their best pop hooks in “Up and Away.” Three decades on, and Cursive show no signs of slowing—or running out of good ideas.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Fentanyl – Fentanyl
Bay Area hardcore outfit Fentanyl—featuring members of Spiritual Cramp, SPY and World Peace—return with their self-titled sophomore album, which lines up 15 minutes of blistering, raw hardcore punk with a decidedly old-school sensibility and an unrelenting intensity. This is no-frills, no-nonsense stuff—garagey guitar tones, 30-second bashers, and a primal aggression throughout, the kind of cathartic, pissed-off punk that sounded great in the 1980s and somehow still scratches the itch after all this time. Stay tuned for more on this album.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
The War on Drugs – Live Drugs Again
The War on Drugs have been road warriors for over 15 years, making their way from small venues to bigger theaters, and building up their live show into something even more powerful over time. Live Drugs Again, their second live album, showcases the band’s ability to command a crowd with dynamic live takes on songs from their 2021 album I Don’t Live Here Anymore, as well as some choice cuts from past albums like 2014’s Lost In the Dream. An excellent document of a great band, doing what they do best.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
