This week’s assortment of new albums springs into action with something for everyone. Feist‘s sixth album, Multitudes, contains just that; crafted from a series of experimental live performances, it’s a reflection on the artist’s recent joy and grief. On Keep Your Courage, Natalie Merchant gives mythical tales of triumph and bravery a modern folk twist. Swedish troubadour Kristian Matsson aka The Tallest Man on Earth finds an unlikely collaborator in Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn for his seventh album, Henry St.. Fenne Lily relocated from Bristol to North Carolina to write and record Big Picture with Christian Lee Hutson, Brad Cook, and Jay Som’s Melina Duterte.
Following a career retrospective compilation and two albums as a member of Bonny Light Horseman, Eric D. Johnson returns with Fruit Bats‘ charming 10th album, A River Running to Your Heart. Acoustic blues and sunshine pop collide on SEA/SONS, the debut from Fort Worth’s Abraham Alexander. With Sean Ono Lennon in the producer’s seat, glamourous psych-rockers Temples are at the gates of dawn on Exotico. Now into their fifth decade as a band, thrash titans Metallica unleash their uncompromising 11th album, 72 Seasons.
PRESS PLAY on these new releases below. Listen for spotlights on new records like these (and more) every Friday on the XPN Morning Show and Indie Rock Hit Parade.
Feist – Multitudes
CHECK OUT: “Borrow Trouble” “Love Who We Are Meant To”
Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage
CHECK OUT: “Come on, Aphrodite (feat. Abena Koomson-Davis)” “Tower of Babel”
The Tallest Man on Earth – Henry St.
CHECK OUT: “Every Little Heart” “Henry St.”
Fenne Lily – Big Picture
CHECK OUT: “Lights Light Up” “Dawncolored Horse”
Fruit Bats – A River Running to Your Heart
CHECK OUT: “Rushin’ River Valley” “We Used to Live Here”
Abraham Alexander – SEA/SONS
CHECK OUT: “Tears Run Dry” “Blood Under the Bridge”
Temples – Exotico
CHECK OUT: “Gamma Rays” “Cicada”
Metallica – 72 Seasons
CHECK OUT: “Lux Æterna” “If Darkness Had a Son”
FURTHER LISTENING…
Angel Olsen – Forever Means EP, Ann-Margret – Born to Be Wild, Black Thought and El Michaels Affair – Glorious Game, David Bowie – Aladdin Sane (50th Anniversary Reissue), The Hidden Cameras – The Smell of Our Own (20th Anniversary Edition), Hippo Campus – Wasteland EP, Joe Bonamassa – Tales of Time, John Vanderslice – Crystals 3.0, Kara Jackson – Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?, Kid Koala – Creatures of the Late Afternoon, Neil Young with the Santa Monica Flyers – Somewhere Under the Rainbow, Nicole Yun – Matter, Pet Shop Boys – Annually 2023, Poison Ruïn – Härvest, Shannon Lay – Covers Vol. 1, Spencer Cullum – Coin Collection 2, The Wood Brothers – Heart is the Hero, Xylouris White – The Forest in Me, Various Artists – Happy Land: A Compendium of Alternative Electronic Music from the British Isles 1992-1996 (Volume 2)
