Don’t Miss New Albums Out Today From David Gilmour, MJ Lenderman, Eggy, Fred again.. & More

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour returns with Luck And Strange, his first new solo album in nearly a decade. The LP, which includes a posthumous appearance from Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, follows Gilmour’s last solo album, 2015’s Rattle That Lock. Contributors include Guy Pratt and Tom Herbert on bass, Adam Betts, Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao on drums as well as keyboardists Rob Gentry and Roger Eno with string and choral arrangements by Will Gardner. Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson, composed the bulk of the album’s lyrics. Gilmour’s daughter, Romany, added vocals and harp to “Between Two Points,” while his son, Gabriel, provided backing vocals. Additionally, David’s other son, Charlie, wrote lyrics for the song “Scattered.”

Richard Wright appears on the album’s title track. His part was recorded during a 2007 jam at a barn within Gilmour’s home. The Pink Floyd keyboardist sadly died in 2008 at age 65. Co-produced by Gilmour and Charlie Andrew (alt-J, Marika Hackman), Luck And Strange was recorded over five months during sessions held in Brighton and London.

“We invited Charlie to the house, so he came and listened to some demos, and said things like, ‘Well, why does there have to be a guitar solo there?’ and ‘Do they all fade out? Can’t some of them just end?’ Gilmour said of working with Andrew. “He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine. He’s very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that. That is just so good for me because the last thing you want is people just deferring to you.”

Singer-songwriter MJ Lenderman released a new solo effort, Manning Fireworks, which is the Asheville, North Carolina-based musician’s first album on ANTI- Records. Lenderman co-produced Manning Fireworks with frequent collaborator Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina. Manning Fireworks follows Lenderman’s 2023 live album, And the Wind (Live and Loose!), and his 2022 breakthrough LP, Boat Songs. Press materials detailed Manning Fireworks:

Lenderman plays nearly every instrument on the album, routing sadness and shame through guitars that echo the sparkle of R.E.M. and the insistence of Drive-By Truckers. Writing where the poetic clarity of William Carlos Williams and the economy of Raymond Carver meet the striking imagery of Harry Crews, there are feelings of self-doubt and world weariness present, but the conditions are rendered with a precision and care that make his songs feel like short films, as Lenderman simply offers everyday anxieties and enthusiasms in uncanny ways.

Connecticut-based quartet Eggy released their long-awaited sophomore studio album, Waiting Game. The 10-song collection was produced by White Denim‘s James Petralli. Eggy — guitarist Jake Brownstein, drummer Alex Bailey, keyboardist Dani Battat and bassist Mike Goodman — recorded the follow-up to 2019’s Watercolor Days at Petralli’s home studio in Pasadena, California. The band had yet to perform any of the songs featured on Waiting Game live before entering the studio. Eggy issued a statement detailing the making of Waiting Game. Read the note:

“This album is something we’ve wanted to make for the past five years, but funny enough, it only took us three weeks to complete. Planning for this project came about rather serendipitously, when Dani and Alex met James Petralli following a White Denim concert in September. By April, we had taken up residence at his home studio in Pasadena, sharing beds and sleeping on sofas in the control room. We didn’t see much more than the four walls of the studio, save for the three blocks that surrounded, the two coffee houses within walking distance and the single sandwich shop around the corner.

“Like many of our favorite albums, this effort captures a very specific moment in time. For us, that means the amalgamation of experiences from four friends who have lived in the same house together through the pandemic, and shared in the same van rides for nearly three hundred days touring on the road. To us this album feels like a step towards maturity, as it sees the acceptance and departure from our 20’s (for most of us).

“Alex, our drummer and lone holdover at 27 years-old, was ushered into the lead vocalist role for the entire record. This was entirely by design during the songwriting process. Being a band born out of a music scene that emphasizes the live rendition, we chose to go against tradition and record music that had never been performed before. There was a sense of freedom in the writing process, that we didn’t have to imitate anything we had done before. Instead we felt encouragement to lean into every creative calling, push our own boundaries, and discover our limitations. A reflection of our own lives cemented over 36 minutes.”

Fred again.. (British electronic musician Fred Gibson) released his fourth album, Ten Days, today on Atlantic Records. Several guests join Fred across the album’s 10 tracks, with appearances by Emmylou Harris, Anderson .Paak, Four Tet, Skrillex, The Japanese House, Sampha, Chika, Obongjayar, Soak, Jozzy, Duskus, Joy Anonymous, and others. Regarding the follow-up to his Grammy-winning 2022 album, Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9, 2022), Gibson stated:

“My new record is called ten days. It’s ten songs about ten days. There’s been a lot of biggg mad crazy moments in the last year but basically all of these are about really very small quiet intimate moments. Some of them are like the most intensely joyful things I have felt, and some of them are the other side of things. And some days I don’t want to speak about loads cos I’m not the only person it was an important day for if that makes sense.”

Shovels & Rope issued a new album, Something Is Working Up Above My Head, via Dualtone. The 10-song release is the sixth album by the Charleston, South Carolina-based wife/husband duo of Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent. The couple recorded the album with their live performances in mind. Hearst and Trent only used instruments that they would use onstage in their two-piece configuration. Detailing the process, Shovels & Rope stated:

“Less means more. That’s kind of always how it’s been with us. This time the rules were simple: we can only use what we work with live and whatever we put down on tape must be accomplishable on a stage in a live setting. That’s always seemed to be when we’re at our best. Or most twitchy. Many times, we’ve made records that we loved and then, after figuring out how we’d perform it live, we end up falling in love with the live arrangement because being a two-piece band, it took some real risk and struggle which led to innovation, which gave it a whole new life. (Consider the tortured grape.) So, with this one we just started there and worked backwards. The result encapsulates, more than anything we’ve done before, the sound of our live performance. Resulting in what one might consider by definition, a definitive album.

“The summer and fall leading up to recording we spent writing songs, hanging out with family in Colorado, and playing shows opening for The Wood Brothers and Gregory Alan Isakov, both of whom have large audiences. So, each night we were playing in front of a lot of people, many of whom had never heard of us. We decided to take those opportunities to rattle our comfort zone cage and try out a bunch of brand new, just written songs and basically learn how to play them in front a few thousand people. The songs would grow and change show to show, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Maybe we go down in flames? Maybe something beautiful happens while it’s burning? We happily embraced the chaos. That’s kind of always how it’s been with us.”

Hole Erth is Chaz Bear’s eighth album under his recording moniker Toro-y-Moi. Available today through Dead Oceans, Hole Erth was recorded by Bear over the course of several months in late 2023 and early 2024. Outside contributions across the album’s 13 tracks came from Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie/The Postal Service, Don Toliver, Kevin Abstract, Duckwrth, Elijah Kessler, Lev, Glaive, Kenny Mason and Porches. Bear titled Hole Erth after Stewart Brand’s underground print magazine Whole Earth Catalog, explaining:

“Things have gone in a more gorp-y direction. Humans are tapping into this more tribal, earthier aesthetic. The Whole Earth catalog is this encyclopedic, self-sustaining guide. With the album title alone, that’s something I wanted to spark as a conversation. We can be off the grid, and also be on the internet, and try out all of these different lifestyles at the same time.

“To me, my folk records and psych rock records are the side quests. What I fell in love with with the Toro project were the electronic productions – the samples. There’s always more to be done in the electronic world.”

British rockers The Heavy Heavy have released their debut full-length album, One of a Kind, through ATO Records. Georgie Fuller and William Turner wrote the 12 songs making up the follow up to their acclaimed 2022 debut EP, Life and Life Only. Turner produced, engineered, and mixed One of a Kind, which was recorded at his studio in Brighton. Turner also provided most instrumentation (guitar, bass, piano, organ, Mellotron) with members of their live band contributing as well.

“With the EP we were making songs as a way to soundtrack our own lives, but now it’s a different beast—it’s no longer theoretical, which gives everything more weight,” Turner said.

“Not too long ago, a woman came up to us at a show and told us she was getting a tattoo of one of our lyrics to remind herself to keep pushing on and keep chasing her dreams,” Fuller added. “Moments like that always remind us that as long as we keep making what feels good, chances are it’s going to make other people feel good too. I hope this album feels like a great big party to everyone, and I hope it inspires them to live their lives however they want.”

English post-punk outfit THE THE are back with their first studio album in 24 years, Ensoulment, available now via Cinéola/earMUSIC. The last album by the influential group led by singer-songwriter Matt Johnson, NakedSelf, arrived on February 29, 2000. While Johnson’s project turned to soundtracking films in the 2000s, Ensoulment marks THE THE’s first non-soundtrack LP in nearly a quarter century. Following initial recording at his Studio Cinéola in London, Johnson convened with long-standing THE THE members James Eller (bass), DC Collard (keyboards), Earl Harvin (drums) and Barrie Cadogan (lead guitar) at Real World Studios near Bath for additional tracking.

The record also saw contributions from Gillian Glover (backing vocals), Terry Edwards (horns), Sonya Cullingford (fiddle) and Danny Cummings (percussion). Additionally, Ensoulment features the return of previous THE THE collaborator Warne Livesey (1986’s Infected and 1989’s Mind Bomb) who co-produced the LP with Johnson.

Dummy released a new album, Free Energy, through Trouble In Mind Records. The 12-track LP serves as the follow-up to group’s 2021 debut album, Mandatory Enjoyment. The Los Angeles-based foursome consisting of Alex Ewell, Emma Maatman, Nathan O’Dell and Joe Trainor co-produced Free Energy Joo Joo Ashworth during sessions held at his L.A. facility Studio 22 and the band’s recording space. Oakland-based saxophonist and electroacoustic musician Cole Pulice played saxophone on “Opaline Bubbletear” and wind synths on “Sudden Flutes,” and Jen Powers of Powers / Rolin Duo played dulcimer on “Godspin.”

Neil Young released “one of the most extensive anthologies in [Young’s] recorded history,” Neil Young Archives Vol. III (1976-1987), today through Warner Records. The 17 CDs and 5 Blu-Ray discs included in the deluxe edition of Archives Vol. III contain 198 total music tracks — live, studio, mixes and edits — 121 of those previously unreleased. Covering Young’s career from 1976 through 1987, the third installment focuses on the era that saw the release of classic albums Comes A Time, Rust Never Sleeps, Live Rust and Trans.

The collection presents 15 unreleased songs available for the first time ever. Additionally, the Archives Vol. III deluxe edition Blu-Rays contain 11 films, four of those previously unreleased. The Blu-Rays also boast 128 tracks and a total of 14 hours of film. The deluxe edition also comes with a 176-page booklet and poster. A separate 17 CD limited edition box will also be available via retailers. Further, Young is offering a double vinyl LP only set titled Takes, a 16 track collection including one track from 16 of the 17 CDs in the Archives Vol. III box set. Takes contains three unreleased songs and 12 previously unreleased tracks.

Highly influential but short-lived rock band Faces released the archival live album, Faces At The BBC — Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973, via Rhino. The collection of recordings and film was remastered with the full participation of surviving band members Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones. Further, the once thought lost collection, much of it previously unreleased, was unearthed from the Faces’ own archives and private collections (only one three-song BBC session remains missing). Faces At The BBC boasts live renditions of favorites such as “Bad ’n’ Ruin,” “Had Me A Real Good Time,” “Miss Judy’s Farm,” “Too Bad” and “Stay With Me” along with songs from Stewart’s solo catalog including “(I Know) I’m Losing You” and “Maggie May.”

The hardback set comes with a 48-page booklet with new notes from surviving band members and archival quotes from late members Ronnie Lane and Ian McLagan along with John Peel. The booklet also includes previously unseen photos and more.