The Horrors Archives

This fall, Foo Fighters, Miley Cyrus, Destroyer, and Protomartyr are just a few of the acts with hotly anticipated new releases. Find a preview of the season's most talked-about forthcoming releases below, with all the singles, links, and info you'll need to prepare. (We'll update this post with more releases as they're announced.) September 15 Foo Fighters - Concrete and Gold Concrete and Gold is the ninth studio album from Dave Grohl’s band, and their first since 2014’s Sonic Highways. The band has released two singles so far, “Run” and “The Sky Is a Neighborhood,” and have performed “Sunday Rain” and “La Dee Da” in concert. It was produced by mega-producer Greg Kurstin, and features guests such as Boyz II Men, Paul McCartney, and Alison Mosshart. It also features an appearance from a musician Grohl has described as “the biggest pop star in the world,” which he’s since attempted to retract. (It’s probably Lady Gaga, though.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?vifwc5xgI3QM Ariel Pink - Dedicated to Bobby Jameson Dedicated to Bobby Jameson is Ariel Pink’s first album since 2014’s sprawling freak-out pom pom. The titular figure in the album title is a cult singer-songwriter favorite of Pink’s, who recently chronicled the story of his downfall at the hands of the music industry in a clincally detailed, serialized 2015 Blogspot narrative partially written in third person. The tracks Pink has released so far from the record, his debut on Mexican Summer, are less savage and more streamlined pop songs than the material on pom pom, despite the sheen of damaged distortion layered over the sneakily infectious, meandering psych of “Time to Live.” Also check out the sleepy “Another Weekend” and the reverb-drenched romance-pop of “Feels Like Heaven.” A notable treat to look forward to at the end of Bobby Jameson’s run time: a guest spot from Dam-Funk on “Acting.” Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton - Choir of the Mind It’s a big year for Broken Social Scene affiliates, with strong showings by the full collective and Feist solo. Coming up: New album from Stars and from Metric frontwoman Emily Haines, who’s reviving her old Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton moniker for only the second time since 2006’s Knives Don’t Have Your Back. Haines produced Choir of the Mind herself, and the “choir” part is literal: Advance tracks “Fatal Gift,” “Planets,” and “Statuette” demonstrate the rivers of layered vocals that form the album’s signature sound. "The through-line of this record is a fascination with feminine strength and what that looks like," Haines told Toronto’s The Globe and Mail. Lee Ranaldo - Electric Trim Electric Trim is the latest dispatch from Sonic Youth founding guitarist Lee Ranaldo, who sporadically released solo material while doing time in his old band and has increased his output since their 2011 dissolution. Like 2013’s Last Night on Earth, it features Ranaldo’s backing band the Dust (with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth on drums), augmented this time by an all-star cast of guest musicians: superhuman Oneida percussionist Kid Millions; guitarist Nels Cline of Wilco and his own improv-oriented ensemble; and songwriter Sharon Van Etten, who provides backing vocals. The acclaimed novelist Jonathan Lethem, whose works are often shot through with music both real and imagined, contributed lyrics to six songs. So far, we’ve heard “Circular (Right as Rain)” and “New Thing,” both of which came accompanied by videos. Hundred Waters - Communicating Experimental electronic trio Hundred Waters represent the intimate, orchestral side of Skrillex’s label OWSLA, and they keep busy. In the years since 2014’s The Moon Rang Like a Bell, there’s been a full album’s worth of remixes, a Skrillex edit of “Show Me Love” featuring Chance the Rapper and Moses Sumney, and four editions of FORM Arcosanti, the Arizona musical festival the band founded. Already this year, Hundred Waters released the Currency EP, a five-track collection intended to hold fans over until the arrival of their third full-length, Communicating. “Particle,” a song from Currency, reappears on the new album, joined by new songs like “Blanket Me” and “Fingers.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?vo1v7mGD14lo Open Mike Eagle - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream After last year’s Paul White team-up Hella Personal Film Festival, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream will serve as Open Mike Eagle’s first solo outing in three years. The west coast-based rhymer and future Comedy Central host has so far released two tracks from the effort: the wistful “95 Radios” and the angst-filled “Brick Body Complex.” Open Mike Eagle’s work often carries a satirical bent, but those tracks—two glimpses at African-American anxiety—point to a more emotional focus. September 22 Moses Sumney - AROMANTICISM AROMANTICISM follows Moses Sumney’s excellent 2016, which included the standout tune “Lonely World,” lending additional vocals to Solange’s A Seat at the Table, and a placement on Insecure soundtrack. More recent cuts like the haunted “Doomed” and the multipart “Quarrel” prove that his run wasn’t at all a fluke. Described as a “concept album about lovelessness as a sonic dreamscape,” AROMANTICISM comes in at 11 tracks and serves as Sumney’s debut LP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vCMyRfIpNvPs Hiss Golden Messenger - Hallelujah Anyhow M.C. Taylor’s band is releasing their second studio album in the last 365 days. We’ve heard two songs from Hallelujah Anyhow, which follows 2016’s Heart Like a Levee: bluesy roots rocker “Domino (Time Will Tell)” and mellow, spiritually-tinged closer “When the Wall Comes Down.” Most important is the art, which begs to be framed. The Clientele - Music for the Age of Miracles The Clientele, among the UK’s most reliable working purveyors of pastoral, meditative indie-rock, are putting out their eighth LP in late September. It’s the group’s first full-length since 2010, though singer-songwriter Alisdair McLean has kept busy throughout that time releasing two albums with Amor de Días, his tropicalia-informed duo with his partner Lupe Núñez-Fernández. The two singles from the new record, “Lunar Days” and “Everyone You Meet,” embody Maclean’s unit’s career-long approach to songwriting and arrangement, mixing dream-pop with gestures of psych-rock and folk, steeping the mix in glossy reverb to create the musical impression of a faded photograph. Wolves in the Throne Room, Thrice Woven On Wolves in the Throne Room’s fifth album Celestite, released in 2014, the Pacific Northwest band fully abandoned the woolly and naturalistic black metal on which they made their name, turning instead toward long stretches of icy synth ambience. In live performances since then, the band has triumphantly returned to its roots, and based on what we’ve heard so far, the follow-up Thrice Woven is unmistakably a metal album. Album opener “Born From the Serpent’s Eye,” released with a video in July, features a placid bridge with vocals from Swedish singer Anna Von Hausswolff. “Angrboda,” the heavy and thrashing second single, is dedicated to victims of the Ghost Ship fire. Steve Von Till of kindred spirits Neurosis provides vocals on the album’s second track, “The Old Ones Are With Us.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?vOnLTFeiXiiA The Horrors - V The British goths last released an album in 2014, and the upcoming V (their fifth) will be their first outside of the tastemaking stable XL since 2009. The first offering “Machine” swirls with static and feedback, but the six minute-long “Something to Remember Me By” is a tender, bouncy synth-pop single that offers a more promising future for this band and the album. Tricky - ununiform Recorded in Berlin, ununiform is set to be the Bristol legend’s fourth album in as many years. His preluding releases this year includes “Escape”—a contribution for the critically lambasted Ghost in the Shell—and the lurching “When We Die.” The latter is notable for featuring Martina Topley-Bird, marking two’s first collaboration in 15 years. It’s a reunion, but Tricky will likely continue his forward-thinking attempts to broach new sonic grounds instead of purposefully retreading old grounds. September 29 Protomartyr - Relatives In Descent Protomartyr, Detroit’s great post-punk chroniclers of the down-and-out and the evil forces that conspire to keep them that way, return this year with Relatives in Descent. It’s their fourth full-length and the follow-up to 2015’s The Agent Intellect. So far we’ve heard “A Private Understanding,” which found frontman Joe Casey in a particularly loquacious mood, holding forth about Elvis and Stalin over quietly dissonant guitar; and the comparatively taut and restrained “My Children.” Since emerging with two fistfuls of fearsome garage rock on their criminally unavailable-for-streaming debut No Passion All Technique, Protomartyr have explored ever darker and more abstract territory with each release, and from what we’ve heard so far, Relatives in Descent will be no exception. Shania Twain - Now The thing about Brad Pitt that didn’t impress Shania Twain much? It was his nudes. The veteran country-pop superstar returns this fall with Now, her first new album since 2002’s Up!. In the intervening 15 years, Twain divorced and remarried, made her Vegas debut, and played a so-called farewell tour. As we’ve heard on first joyous singles “Life’s About to Get Good” and “Swinging With My Eyes Closed,” she’s back to tell us about love lost and found. Miley Cyrus - Younger Now Once perhaps the most controversial star in pop, Miley Cyrus is consciously pulling back with her sixth album Younger Now. Where 2013’s Bangerz dove headfirst into the sounds and imagery of rap and 2015’s Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz was a fully stoned space escapade with Wayne Coyne and friends, Younger Now positions her as a meditative singer-songwriter. Lead single “Malibu” was a stripped-down paean to domesticity, and on the title track she almost explicitly sheds the skin of her former self. Neither song, though, reaches the highs of her more problematic personas, though her celebrated covers of new standards show that the potential is still there for a rewarding album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v-LX2kpeyp80 Ben Frost - The Centre Cannot Hold Following the surprise success of 2014’s A U R O R A, the heavy minimalist musician Ben Frost holed up for 10 days in the studio with Chicago noise rock maven Steve Albini. Frost has already released an incendiary EP from those sessions entitled Threshold of Faith, and soon he’ll drop an accompanying full-length called The Centre Cannot Hold. The EP was a bracing listen, with much crisper and more immediate sonics than A U R O R A, swapping out that record’s drummer-assisted bombast for harsh and hermetic drone. Since the two records are culled from the same material, it seems reasonable to expect a similar vibe on The Centre Cannot Hold. Primus - The Desaturating Seven Most of Primus’ music sounds like something that might run through a young child’s head in a nightmare, but the newest record from the demented funk-metal veterans is actually inspired by a creepy-as-hell children’s book: The Rainbow Goblins by Ul De Rico. Coming three years after their 2014 album covering the soundtrack to 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, the curdled children’s-fable theme seems like a fitting followup. Lead single “The Seven,” by Claypool’s own account, illustrates a pretty heavy ‘80s-King-Crimson influence; it’s always been a reference point for much of the band’s work, but with the proggy irregular meter dominating this one, you’ll think of both Fripp’s band and some of Primus’ early classics. The Desaturating Seven is also Primus’ first album of original songs since 1995’s Tales From The Punchbowl with the trio’s original lineup with drummer Tim Alexander. Claypool’s experiences reading De Rico’s book to his own kids apparently inspired the album--God help those poor, scared kids. The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Always Foreign Emo will never die, though you will. The multi-man Connecticut band are releasing their first record since 2015’s widely acclaimed Harmlessness, which sold them as one of the most ambitious, sprawling bands working today. Funny enough, the first song we heard from that record was the fairly short “Dillon and Her Son,” which was followed by the more comprehensive "Marine Tigers." Of Always Foreign, singer David Bello said: “When we started writing we were fresh off Trump being elected, so there’s an anger to the album that’s different from what we’ve done in the past. There’s a lot more resistance thinking throughout the songs—not in a way that’s strictly anti-Trump, but also addressing things like white supremacy and controlling elements of the state.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v1VgfM-MVjkw Torres - Three Futures Three Futures takes its name from a characteristically forlorn and enigmatic line in the title track: “You didn’t know I saw three futures / One alone and one with you / And one with the love I knew I’d choose,” sings Torres, a.k.a. Georgia-raised, Nashville-trained, Brooklyn-based songwriter Mackenzie Scott. Like 2015’s Sprinter, Three Futures was recorded in England with producer Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Bat for Lashes). The new album—Torres’s 4AD debut—is a bold step forward, embracing a glossy, doom-filled sonic palette to compliment the cold power of Scott’s voice. Get a first taste with the video for “Skim,” and witness Torres’s ability to make a statement with what’s left unsaid. October 6 Liam Gallagher - As You Were He said he’d never do it, but of course he did. Former Oasis singer Liam Gallagher swaggers back to the stage with As You Were, his first-ever solo album. The younger Gallagher has always been better known for witty ripostes than for lyrics, so he’s recruited some professional help this time around, including Adele producer Greg Kurstin. The results so far have been pretty good: First single “Wall of Glass” is a killer, while apology ballad “For What It’s Worth” and the gently psychedelic “Chinatown” are likely to please any longtime Oasis fan. Just don’t look back (in anger): The new album from estranged brother Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds is expected in November. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vYdJc7-ZEuT0 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Kid Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s breakthrough album of last year, EARS, was an experimental tour-de-force, a testament to the Los Angeles singer and electronic composer’s rare ability to wide variety of unfamiliar sounds out of her synthesizers and transforming her voice into monolithic vocoder chorales. The Kid, a concept album that supposedly traces different stages in the standard lifespan and development of a human being, promises to be a more pop-song-oriented release. Tellingly, the release of its first groove-based singles, “An Intention” and “To Follow And Lead,” was preceded by a lush cover of Sade’s “By Your Side.” The songs Smith has released have been at turns slinky and pleasantly neurotic, juggling R&B, Afrobeat, and dream pop influences into amalgamations that still defy any easy characterization, but are still more immediate than anything Smith has previously released. Kele Okereke - Fatherland The Bloc Party frontman has tended to experiment with dance music on his solo records, even as the group he leads has incorporated beats into its own more rock-oriented sound. But with his third solo album Fatherland, Kele Okereke has shifted towards more intimate acoustics. “Yemaya” quavers with plucked guitar and violin accents, and “Streets Been Talkin’” is a folk song that blooms into something brighter. The best new offering, though, is “Grounds For Resentment,” a duet with Years & Years lead singer Olly Alexander, who, as the queer lead singer of a popular crossover British rock band, is a kindred spirit of Okereke’s. Cults - Offering The New York band are releasing their first album since 2013's Static. They've shared the gauzy title track, as well as "I Took Your Picture." Somewhat surprisingly, they've claimed that Pink Floyd are a big influence on this record. Wolf Parade - Cry Cry Cry Cry Cry Cry is the reunited Wolf Parade's first new album in seven years. It follows last year's post-reunion release, EP4. We've heard new songs "Valley Boy" and "You're Dreaming," both of which sound like signature Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner songs. They'll also be touring behind the new record. Kelela - Take Me Apart Kelela has carved out a space for herself as the foremost R&B vocalist adjacent to underground club sounds, thanks first to her Fade to Mind mixtape Cut 4 Me and the 2015 Hallucinogen, which featured “Rewind,” a fantastic booty bass homage that easily transcended her influences. Take Me Apart will be her first proper studio album, and its first single, the booming “LMK,” suggests that the singer has a firm grasp on the appeal of her music. Still, with that being the only song released so far, the potential for surprise is in store. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vePi5BLJogyA The Darkness - Pinewood Smile Rock and roll, motherfuckers! Once heralded as the saviors of modern rock by listeners endorsing a cockier version of the genre, the Darkness went on a long hiatus before returning in 2011. Pinewood Smile is their third album since coming back, and has them still sounding like a sleazy, sweaty hair band. They’ve released one single thus far, “All the Pretty Girls.” October 13 A. Savage - Thawing Dawn As one half of the songwriting team that drives Parquet Courts, Andrew Savage sometimes seems to overflow with ideas: graphomaniacal lyrics delivered in a frantic rush, lovingly crafted album art and zines, quasi side projects, left-turn EPs filled with noise and instrumental abstraction. You can add his first solo album Thawing Dawn--to be released under the cheekily appropriate stage name A. Savage--to that pile. Recorded with a backing band featuring members of PC Worship, Woods, Ultimate Painting, and Psychic TV, it presents a mellower side of Savage that will nonetheless be easily recognizable by Parquet Courts fans. So far we’ve heard “Wild, Wild, Wild Horses” (not a Rolling Stones cover) and “Winter in the South.” Neither of them would stick out much within the context of Savage’s main gig, and with a band as consistently rewarding as Parquet Courts, that’s not a bad thing. October 20 Tegan and Sara - The Con X: Covers This isn’t a Tegan and Sara album—it’s a Tegan and Sara covers album. For the 10th anniversary of The Con, the Quin sisters asked other artists to create new versions of songs like “Back in Your Head” and “Call It Off.” Featured artists haven’t been announced yet, but expect plenty of like-minded friends and past tour openers. Album proceeds support the Tegan and Sara Foundation, the Quins’ charity for LGBTQ women and girls. Bully - Losing Bully, the alt-rock unit led by Nashville singer-songwriter Alicia Bognanno, is releasing the followup to their acclaimed 2015 debut Feels Like. It’s their second LP, due on Sub Pop instead of Columbia this time around. Bognanno produced and engineered the record herself. Since Feels Like, the band has released “Right” for the Our First 100 Days benefit compilation, and put out Losing’s ravaged debut single (and also its opening track) “Feel the Same.” Losing is set to continue Bognanno’s impassioned, commanding grunge revival in style, and on her own terms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vT-I425JAhok Destroyer - ken Destroyer took four years after 2011’s acclaimed Kaputt to follow up with Poison Season. Ken—which takes its name from an esoteric Suede reference—arrives at half that time and is preceded by the lead single “Sky’s Grey,” which comes with starry synths and Dan Bejar’s abstract, literary lyricism (“I’ve been working on the new Oliver Twist”). It points to the standard Destroyer affair, which should be good news. Makthaverskan - III If you like your dream-pop biting and heartfelt, look no further than Sweden’s Makthaverskan, who are releasing their first record since 2014’s excellent II. They’ve released one song, the sparkling “In My Dreams.” October 27 Weezer - Pacific Daydream The 11th album by the alt-rock legends has the potential to be its most bizarre yet, which is really saying something given the latter-day history of this band. First single “Feels Like Summer” sounded like it could have been written by Foster the People but its accompanying video featured a lavish Guns N’ Roses parody, a bit that Weezer carried out into its live performances. Second single “Mexican Fender” is a more typical stomper, but with a sort of cloying sunniness that still feels a bit put on. One gets the sense that Rivers Cuomo is mostly in it for the subversion now, so this one, at the very least, should be interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vDNuxKbtFjV0 Julien Baker - Turn Out the Lights Julien Baker’s sophomore solo effort features the lead single “Appointments,” which features the sparse, emotive songwriting that marked her 2015 debut Sprained Ankle. Turn Out the Lights will serve as her debut LP for Matador. Though they share the same label, Turn Out the Lights bears no relation to the Interpol classic of a similar name. November 3 Converge - The Dusk in Us Hardcore/metal godheads Converge have not released a proper studio album since 2012’s excellent All We Love We Leave Behind, though they’ve stayed busy with reissues and live records in the meantime. That changes with forthcoming full-length The Dusk In Us. As always, guitarist Kurt Ballou handles recording duties himself. The band fired a warning shot in July with first single “I Can Tell You About Pain” (and a B-side that didn’t make the album called “Eve”), then followed it with “Under Duress” a month later. Like many great punk institutions, Converge likes to keep things in house: as always, guitarist Kurt Ballou handles recording and mixing duties on The Dusk In Us himself.

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