Whatever you had on your 2023 ‘New Music Bingo’ card (New Rolling Stones? New Beatles?!), you might as well tear your expectations to shreds. A year after her well-deserved (though somewhat reluctant) induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, country treasure Dolly Parton embraces a glamorous and playful persona on Rockstar. For New Blue Sun, his official solo debut, OutKast’s André 3000 eschews spitfire bars in favor of exploratory flute-based instrumentals; Philadelphians may recall spotting André improvising around town while filming Dispatches from Elsewhere in 2019. Texas choral rock collective The Polyphonic Spree arrives with Salvage Enterprise, their first collection of new originals in nearly a decade. British ska-pop lifers Madness pair their signature nuttiness with a narration by actor Martin Freeman on their showy 13th album, Theatre of the Absurd Presents C’est La Vie.
Reflecting on the music of his own childhood, Carolina Chocolate Drops member Luther Dickinson offers homespun fun on Magic Music for Family Folk. Indie Rock Hit Parade session veterans (and Low Cut Connie collaborators) SUSU shake the rafters on their long-awaited debut, Call Susie. Following four decades of bouncy hits with Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure, Vince Clarke makes his stately solo debut with Sound of Silence, a suite of haunting instrumentals. An offshoot of his long-running project, The Music Tapes, Julian Koster’s Orbiting Human Circus packs whimsical charm into adaptations of Berlin and Gershwin on Quartet Plus Two. Continuing her celebration of ‘70s rock and pop icons, Juliana Hatfield follows previous tributes to The Police and Olivia Newton-John with Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO.
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