Music
Preview
The 16 albums we can’t wait to hear in September
Including new records from Rina Sawayama, Pixies, Death Cab For Cutie and Titus Andronicus
All change please. The kids are back at school, there’s a new PM headed to Downing Street and a summer spent figuring out how to stay cool is slowly becoming an autumn figuring out ways to avoid putting the radiators on. As bands start limping back from festival season, release schedules start getting interesting again – with some of the year’s biggest names looking to land albums over the next few months.
Here are our picks of the best new records to keep an ear out for during September.
2 September
Mo Troper – MTV
“Nobody knows power pop like Mo Troper knows power pop. The guy even wrote something close to a defining thesis on the genre which, off the back of albums like Dilettante and MTV, he’s more than qualified to do. Troper’s songs are noisy, fuzzy and catchy beyond all belief, like cycling through the dial of a blown-out car stereo in 1974. Talk to any American indie band for more than 15 minutes and you can be guaranteed they’ll bring up Mo Troper at some point. He’s that good.” Mark
9 September
The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness – The Third Wave Of…
“In recent years, Spain has emerged as a last post for the kind of indie pop that Glasgow churned out effortlessly in the 80s and 90s. Labels such as Meritorio, Pretty Olivia and Bobo Integral have acted as keepers of the flame for a whole new generation of janglers from all around the globe, with the latter bringing us this veritable cornerstone of Spanish-Scottish relations, built around the melodic majesty of Gonzalo Marcos and Dropkick’s Andrew Taylor. For fans of Teenage Fanclub, Big Star and 90s power pop.” Mark
16 September
FLETCHER – Girl Of My Dreams
“The American singer-songwriter has managed to stir up quite a bit of buzz surrounding her debut album, and not just because of the three solid EPs she’s delivered over the past three years. Internet drama aside, ‘Becky’s So Hot’ is a funny, tongue-in-cheek piece of writing that vents the frustration of an ex upgrading. It’s the album’s lead single that makes me particularly excited for this one – ‘Her Body Is Bible’ is a sexy, vulnerable and ultimately powerful piece of pop that paves the way for an excellent debut LP.” Caitlin
The Beths – Expert In A Dying Field
“The Beths’ two previous albums were the kind of hooky, lovely, perfectly written, perfectly executed indie pop that makes everything feel just right. In that light, It’s a bold claim to suggest that Expert In A Dying Field is their best yet. Yet it just takes two songs to turn a bold claim into a hard fact. The raucous ‘Silence Is Golden’ is catharsis via volume, but they’ve never written a chorus as joyful and poptastic as ‘Knees Deep’. Wonderful.” Mark
Rina Sawayama – Hold The Girl
“Rina Sawayama has been climbing steadily towards pop stardom for five years, since the release of her self-funded EP RINA in 2017. Even in her more emotional moments she’s a joyful listen, someone who always makes it sound like each track has been immense amounts of fun to craft. Take, for example, this line from lead single ‘This Hell’: “The devil’s wearing Prada and loves a little drama”. With four explosive singles released already, Hold The Girl looks to be one of 2022’s strongest pop offerings.” Caitlin
Gogol Bordello – SOLIDARITINE
“It’s been five years since we last heard from the gypsy punks but we can thank Vladimir Putin for bringing them back. Playing a secret show for Ukrainian troops last month, Boyarka-born Eugene Hütz told soldiers what his new album stood for: “Music is a very serious weapon of defence for people for whom burning out and getting tired of war is not an option”, before pitching full-tilt into a new set full of refugee rock and hat-tips to Zelensky, “the man with the iron balls”.” Paul
Noah Cyrus – The Hardest Part
“After several EPs and a Grammy nomination in 2021, Noah Cyrus finally releases her debut album this month after teasing us with singles ‘I Burned LA Down’, ‘Ready to Go’, and, my personal favourite, ‘Mr. Percocet’. While originally scheduled for release in July, Cyrus made fans wait just a few months more for her debut full-length release. The Hardest Part was produced by long-time Artic Monkeys and Wolf Alice collaborator Mike Crossey and provides a platform for Cyrus to share her lived-experience of substance abuse and heartache. Noah’s vocals definitely have a warmth of nostalgia for anyone who grew up on a diet of Hannah Montana (played by her sister, Miley) but she has worked hard to define her own sound – and to earn a permanent place on my playlists over the recent years.” Orlaith
Death Cab For Cutie – Asphalt Meadows
A lot has changed since 2018, when Seattle’s indie sweethearts Death Cab For Cutie last released an album, but now Ben Gibbard and co. are back with their wistful, bittersweet glimpse of the world. If ‘Foxglove Through The Clearcut’ is anything to go by, expect a lot of explosive, cinematic catharsis. John
The Tisburys – Exile On Main Street
“Think of your favourite 90s college rock bands. Chances are The Tisburys love them too. At various times on the boldly titled Exile On Main Street, the Philadelphia quintet sound like Gin Blossoms, Counting Crows, The Connells, Summerteeth-era Wilco, Automatic-era R.E.M. but there’s a lack of pretence that’s specifically Philly and even more specifically Tisbury. Single ‘Garden’ has been stuck on repeat around here for a few weeks now, but that’s just the tip of a wonderfully melodic iceberg. Instantly loveable and insistently memorable.” Mark
23 September
Maya Hawke – MOSS
“If you weren’t already impressed enough with Maya Hawke after her ridiculously charming turn in Stranger Things or her stunning debut album Blush, MOSS will likely seal the deal. Single ‘Thérèse’ suggests she’s still growing as a songwriter and finding new textures to enliven her hushed folk pop even further. The sky seems a low limit to set on such an undeniable talent.” Mark
Christine and the Queens – Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles
2020’s La vita nuova saw Héloïse Adélaïde Letissier take his artistry to the next level with arresting accompanying visuals and an intensely emotional core that garnered universal acclaim. Now the art pop powerhouse returns as alter ego ‘Redcar’, a suave, slightly mysterious figure who, in debut single ‘Je te vois enfin’, weaves images of pursuits through sun-dappled forests and young women waiting for their lovers beside trickling streams. I’m excited to see where else he leads us. Caitlin
Alex G – God Save The Animals
“Having dropped the (Sandy) prefix after 2019’s House Of Sugar, Alex Giannascoli returns to his good old moniker Alex G for his forthcoming ninth studio album God Save The Animals. Indeed, the first singles ‘Runner’, ‘Blessing’ and ‘Cross The Sea’ see the Philadelphia artist true to form with his left-field and lo-fi approach to indie, pulling in sweet but often dark sounds from the worlds of alt. rock, emo, folk and more.” John
30 September
Pixies – Doggerel
“2020’s Beneath The Eyrie cleared all the ghost train jams out the system and the first two singles off Doggerel feel like the Pixies have finally moved on from aping their own sound. Pushing for longer, stately songs with more orchestrated energy, the punk spirit of Surfer Rosa might be gone but there’s something rich and dark and wonderful to be found in the future. Anyway, since when has a new Pixies album ever not been exciting?”. Paul
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cool It Down
“It’s been almost 20 years since Fever To Tell (wait, that can’t be right…), and almost 10 years since their last album, but somehow the Yeah Yeah Yeahs still sound like they’re leading their own new wave. ‘Spitting Off The End Of The World’ is already one of the weightiest tracks of the yeah and recent single ‘Burning’ sounds like Spector’s Wall Of Sound dragging the 00s out of the bathroom by the ears.” Paul
Titus Andronicus – The Will To Live
“There’s a defiance in the title of Titus Andronicus’s latest slab of hard-rocking catharsis, inspired by myriad tragedies and heartbreaks suffered by frontman Patrick Stickles over the years since we last heard from him. Stickles has said that he learned that the fuller your life, the deeper the hurt, a lesson that he channels into another ambitious concept album – following on from the momentous The Monitor and The Most Lamentable Tragedy. Nobody, literally nobody makes rock music like Titus Andronicus.” Mark
Autumn Eve – Julie Odell
“Julie Odell has been making music for years but her debut is only just now coming out, making her punchy New Orleans indie folk still feel like a real discovery. The sun-flecked disjoint of ‘Cardinal Feather’ makes a worthy single to show everything Odell can do at once, but we’ve had enough of a sneak peak at the full sweep and swoon of the rest of the album to be excited for so much more to come.” Paul
Tickets are on sale now or soon for many of the names on this month’s list at ticketmaster.co.uk, with a lot of major tours and dates still to be announced this year.
