PRESS PLAY: New Albums out August 23rd

From homespun balladeering to uncategorizable experimentation, this busy release week truly has it all. Fresh off a mosh pit-inducing headlining set at this year’s NonComm, Fontaines D.C. showcase the next step in their sonic evolution on Romance. As their creative partnership approaches its fourth decade, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings share top billing for just the second time on Woodland, named in honor of their Nashville studio which was destroyed in a tornado in 2020. Magdalena Bay are at their glittery best on Imaginal Disk; the LA-via-Miami duo’s second LP is a psychedelic sci-fi journey that feels eerily down-to-earth. On their fifth full-length, You’ll Have to Lose Something, Philadelphia’s The Spirit of the Beehive tackle inter-band relationships and heartbreak under a fog of warped samples and atmospheres.

Though members Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia have reunited a handful of times over the years, The Bed I Made is the first new album by PNW indie legends The Softies in nearly a quarter century. An in-demand producer and engineer who’s worked with boygenius, Speedy Ortiz, and Weyes Blood, Sarah Tudzin thunders back with her third illuminati hotties LP, the confident and playful POWER. Louisiana-born powerhouse Lainey Wilson embodies her declaration that “Country’s Cool Again” on her Miranda Lambert-featuring fifth album, Whirlwind. On Kantos, his first new album in five years, singer/composer Kishi Bashi celebrates humanity’s boundless possibilities in the face of looming technological overthrow.

Listen for spotlights on new records like these (and more) every week on the XPN Morning Show and Indie Rock Hit Parade.

PRESS PLAY on these new releases

Fontaines D.C. – Romance
CHECK OUT: “Starburster” “Favourite”

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – Woodland
CHECK OUT: “Empty Trainload of Sky” “Hashtag”

Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk
CHECK OUT: “Image” “Death & Romance”

The Spirit of the Beehive – You’ll Have to Lose Something
CHECK OUT: “Let the Virgin Drive” “I’ve Been Evil”

The Softies – The Bed I Made
CHECK OUT: “I Said What I Said” “California Highway 99”

lluminati hotties – POWER
CHECK OUT: “Can’t Be Still” “Didn’t (feat. Cavetown)”

Lainey Wilson – Whirlwind
CHECK OUT: “Hang Tight Honey” “Country’s Cool Again”

Kishi Bashi – Kantos
CHECK OUT: “Icarus IV” “Colorful State”

The PRESS PLAY-list

FURTHER LISTENING

The Alan Parsons Project – Pyramid (Box Set), Atlas Genius – End of the Tunnel, Benny Trokan – Do You Still Think of Me, Body Meat – Starchris, Brian Gibson – Thrasher (Original Soundtrack), Bryce Dessner – Solos, Chime School – The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel, The Get Up Kids – Something to Write Home About (25^th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), Giant Day – Glass Narcissus, GIFT – Illuminator, Heems – VEENA LP, Ian Anderson – 8314 (Box Set), Joe P – Garden State Vampire, Lisa Loeb & the Hollow Trees – That’s What it’s All About, Malice K – AVANTI, Mark Lanegan – Bubblegum XX, The Medium – City Life, The National Parks – Wild Spirit , Nervous Eaters – Rock n Roll Your Heart Away, Nicole Miglis – Myopia, Oh He Dead – Ugly, PEGG – PEGG, Psychic Lines – Sunset on Sunset, Ruthie Foster – Mileage, Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet, Sofi Tukker – BREAD, Steve Cropper – Friendlytown, 311 – Grassroots (30^th Anniversary Edition), Throbbing Gristle – TGCD1 (Reissue) / The Third Mind Movements (Reissue), Uniform – American Standard, Wayne Shorter – Celebration, Volume 1