Don’t Miss New Albums From AVTT/PTTN, Jake Xerxes Fussell/James Elkington, FKA twigs & More

The Avett Brothers teamed with Faith No More/Mr. Bungle frontman Mike Patton on a joint new album, AVTT/PTTN. The unexpected collaboration between brothers Scott Avett and Seth Avett and Patton includes eight new original songs co-written by Patton and the Avetts, along with their interpretation of “The Ox Driver’s Song.” Patton, Scott Avett and engineer Dana Nielsen co-produced AVTT/PTTN. The new songs were created from ideas generated by Scott Avett, with Patton reconfiguring the initial concepts before they finally took shape through Seth Avett’s solidifying arrangements.

“Mike’s part of our DNA, like the fabric of our youth,” Scott Avett stated. “Literally, we studied him. He’s a dear friend now, but when we were younger, I was imitating him.”

“My peculiar challenge in this was to become a long distant cousin,” Patton revealed. “A brother that was orphaned. Maybe they kept him in the chicken coop or some shit. They brought him out years and years later.”

“This is what art is,” Scott Avett added. “This is what making is supposed to be: in secret and with no ambition.”

Long-time collaborators Jake Xerxes Fussell and James Elkington linked up on the newly released soundtrack album, Rebuilding, out today on Fat Possum Records. The album provided the soundtrack to the Max Walker-Silverman-written and directed film of the same name starring Josh O’Connor, Lily LaTorre, Meghann Fahy, Kali Reis and Amy Madigan. After premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the movie arrives in theaters today.

“I could hear the cinema in it right away,” Walker-Silverman said. “[Fussell’s] music is rooted firmly in all the folkloric traditions I love but not at all nostalgic. And that was much like the film we were making; a story in which the past is all around but firmly of the here and now. And since so much of his music has no lyrics, Jake already understood the challenge of telling a story through instrumentation alone.”

EUSEXUA Afterglow is the second 2025 FKA twigs album, following the release of EUSEXUA in January. “Initially conceived as a deluxe album to EUSEXUA,” the 11-track Afterglow “evolved into a full-fledged body of work.” The song “Wild and Alone” features PinkPantheress.

Canadian singer-songwriter Colter Wall released his new album, Memories And Empties, today through La Honda Records/RCA Records. The 10-song collection was recorded by Wall with producing partner Pat Lyons, who plays in Wall’s touring band The Scary Prairie Boys. Sessions were held in Nashville at the storied RCA Studio A.

“There’s some cowboy vernacular and western-isms that crept their way into a few of these songs, but mostly, I was pointed towards more country themes,” Wall said. “And the sound is representative of that.”

Of Mice & Men issued a new album, Another Miracle, via Century Media Records. The Southern California rockers self-produced their ninth studio album and follow up to 2023’s Tether. Frontman Aaron Pauley also mixed and mastered Another Miracle. The band shared a note for fans on the new record:

“We’re excited to be sharing our new album, Another Miracle, with you all. It’s been a long time in the making, and the cumulation of countless hours of collaboration and hard work. We hope that our fans, old and new, will really enjoy it since we’ve not only raised the bar on the melodic side, we’ve also doubled down on the heaviness all over the album and made what we feel is an incredibly strong and authentic representation of who Of Mice & Men is in 2025.

“We want to thank our fans for the years of support. We’re incredibly proud of Another Miracle, and we hope you enjoy the album as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.”

Mount Pleasant is country-pop singer Kelsea Ballerini’s new six-song EP. The release follows her 2024 full-length, Patterns.

“I have always made records – whether songs, EPs or albums – to capture a moment in time,” Ballerini said. “Mount Pleasant is a collection of six songs I’ve written throughout the summer, marking a chapter of heavy self-examination, longing and stepping further into who I am as a 32-year-old woman.”

Virginia-native “Black disabled Grenadian-Jamaican-American” JJJJJerome Ellis released Vesper Sparrow. The writer/visual artist/musician’s recording moniker reflects being a person who stutters, which impacts performance, “I still stutter on the saxophone, but it’s different,” Ellis said, and was a key component of the album, “The stutter becomes a structuring moment.” Vesper Sparrow was recorded by Ellis with contributions from Haruna Lee on flute, James Harrison Monaco on piano and Ronald Peet and S T A R R (busby) providing vocals. Ellis described the new album on their website:

Vesper Sparrow continues Ellis’s ongoing study of the intersections between music and sound, stuttering, and Blackness, through the lens of time. Rooted in Ellis’s connection to Black religious tradition and inheritance, the album weaves granular synthesis, pop production, spoken word, and Caribbean and Black American musical lineages into atmospheric soundscapes shaped by saxophone, organ, hammered dulcimer, electronics, and their voice. Ellis chipped away at large slabs of recordings to reveal the album like a marble sculptor.

Singer-songwriter Orville Peck shared a seven-song EP, Appaloosa, through Warner Records. The EP arrives between Peck’s stint on Broadway portraying the Emcee in Cabaret and acting in the upcoming feature film Street Fighter as the masked character Vega. Peck’s last album was the guest-filled 2024 release Stampede. Frequent recent collaborator Noah Cyrus, who appeared on Stampede, contributed to the Appaloosa track “Atchafalaya.”

Drive-By Truckers reissued their 2003 album, Decoration Day, with an expanded version, The Definitive Decoration Day, arriving today via New West Records. Decoration Day was the first DBT album to feature one-time member Jason Isbell, and introduced “Sink Hole,” “Marry Me,” “My Sweet Annette,” alongside Isbell’s first songs with the band, “Outfit” and the title track. The Definitive Decoration Day presents a remixed and remastered version of the original 15-track album, as well as the previously unreleased double live album, Heathens Live at Flicker Bar, Athens, GA – June 20, 2002.

“Considered by many (including me) to be DBT’s masterpiece, this is the ultimate version of Decoration Day, sounding better than ever,” said DBT’s Patterson Hood.