Don’t Miss New Albums Out Today From Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Fruition, Sabrina Carpenter, Sofi Tukker & More

Longtime musical partners Gillian Welch and David Rawlings issued a new album, Woodland, today through Acony Records. Woodland is the first full length album of original material from Welch since her 2011 album, The Harrow & The Harvest. The 10-track Woodland is also the first full-length album of original material from Rawlings since 2017’s Poor David’s Almanack. The duo released a covers album, All The Good Times, in 2020. Named after their long-running recording facility in Nashville, Woodland was produced by Rawlings. Welch and Rawlings shared a statement regarding the upcoming release:

“Woodland is at the heart of everything we do, and has been for the last 20 some years. The past four years were spent almost entirely within its walls, bringing it back to life after the 2020 tornado and making this record. The music is … a swirl of contradictions, emptiness, fullness, joy, grief, destruction, permanence. Now.”

Fruition return with their first studio album in four years, How To Make Mistakes, which was independently released by the Portland, Oregon-based Americana outfit. How To Make Mistakes follows Fruition’s 2020 studio effort, Broken At The Break of Day, a companion piece to 2019’s Wild as the Night. Fruition guitarist Jay Cobb Anderson detailed the band’s new album.

“If you’re doing it right, you’re bound to make mistakes,” he said. “Existence is a messy affair. Grace isn’t a swan, it’s a pigeon. The most beautiful intricate beadwork is often purposely flawed, to let the soul out. Perfection isn’t natural. The dearest memories are bent and dented. Priceless relics come chipped and cracked, and bruised fruit always tastes a little bit sweeter.”

Short n’ Sweet is the sixth album from Sabrina Carpenter. Arriving today on Island Records, the album follows the pop singer’s 2022 album, Emails I Can’t Send. The 12-track Short n’ Sweet was recorded at Flow Studios in Chailland, France. Carpenter worked with a cast of producers that included Julian Bunetta, Leroy Clampitt, John Ryan, Ian Kirkpatrick and the seemingly ubiquitous Jack Antonoff. Equally seemingly ubiquitous were the Short n’ Sweet chart-topping singles, “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” Discussing the new album with Zane Lowe, Carpenter stated:

“I called it Short n’ Sweet for multiple reasons. It was not because I’m vertically challenged. It was really like I thought about some of these relationships and how some of them were the shortest I’ve ever had and they affected me the most.

“I think about the way that I respond to situations, and sometimes it is very nice and sometimes it’s not very nice. And again, the thing about albums, projects, writing songs: it’s all moments. So harder for other people to understand that when they’re listening to something that’s going to take them through maybe a lot of years, hopefully, a lot of years, is that I’m not the same person that I was when I wrote that.”

SOFI TUKKER, the duo of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern, released the pair’s new album, Bread, which is an acronym for “Be Really Energetic and Dance.” The lead single, “Throw Some Ass,” embodies the album’s message and is also a testament to the healing power of rhythm. Sophie Hawley-Weld was suffering from chronic back pain. Relief eluded Sophie until her Brazilian choreographer told her to “joga bunda,” or, “throw some ass.”

“The more I studied chronic pain the more I learned,” Sophie explained. “When the brain is anticipating pain, it creates more pain. Eventually my neural pathway of pain got so strong that, even when there was no structural reason for it, I became chronically in pain. The inverse was true too. When I told my body that it’s safe and free, I was able to re-write the neural pathway. I was so mentally happy and free in the moments of throwing ass that my brain re-wired itself.”

Tucker added some insight into the song’s genesis and composition.

“‘Throw Some Ass’ has a ton of Brazilian funk sounds and elements,” he said. “The song started where I was working on some Brazilian funk-inspired drumbeats. This was right after we had spent some time in Brazil at Carnaval last year. At 6:00 AM, we went into this nightclub under the parade. Someone was playing a baile funk set, and I was blown away. The song really gives the vibe of that club, Carnaval, and Brazil.”

illuminati hotties, the project of Grammy-winning producer/engineer/musician Sarah Tudzin, put out a new album, Power, via nack Shack Tracks/Hopeless Records. While Power marks the first illuminati hotties album since 2020’s Let Me Do One More, Tudzin has stayed busy as an in-demand producer and engineer. The last four years have seen her work on albums from boygenius, Weyes Blood, Speedy Ortiz, Cloud Nothings and more. But press materials for Power noted that “a new illuminati hotties album was always on the horizon and Tudzin is returning with her strongest and perhaps deepest set of songs with Power.” Cavetown (Robbie Skinner appears on the Power single “Didn’t.”

A new archival series focusing on recording by late jazz legend Wayne Shorter premieres today with the release of Celebration, Volume 1, through Blue Note Records. The live release sees the renowned saxophonist joined by his quartet also consisting of pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. Recorded at the 2014 Stockholm Jazz Festival in Sweden, the set presents staples of Shorter’s repertoire, “Zero Gravity,” “Smilin’ Through,” “Orbits,” “Lotus,” and “She Moves Through The Fair.” Writing in the album’s liner notes, Shorter’s widow Carolina Shorter recalled:

“In the fall of 2022, [sound engineer] Rob Griffin started sending a lot of unreleased music for Wayne to sort through. He started listening around the clock. I’d be doing something around the house, talking on the phone, doing work and he’d yell ‘Carolina! You’ve got to come and hear this shit! Check out what these guys are doing!’ Wayne made detailed notes – some of them are reprinted on this album jacket.”

“When he heard the Stockholm concert, he said ‘this is the album!. Then he started listening to more things and, over time, realized that it was going to have to be more than one record. He originally wanted to call the collection Unidentified Flying Objects – thinking of the notes everyone played as being UFOs!

“In January 2023, when he was hospitalized for the last time, he continued picking tracks and laying out the albums. His ‘Never Give Up’ spirit, which underlines his entire mission, was stronger than ever and he was excited to release more music. It was only in the last 10 days of his life that he realized he was not going to be around to see it to fruition. He started feeling the urgency of celebrating life and decided to change the name of the collection to Celebration. I said ‘Yes Wayne! Let’s celebrate!!! That’s what it should be called. A celebration!’”

Country singer-songwriter Lainey Wilson co-wrote the 14 songs making up her fifth studio album, Whirlwind, released today through BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville. Wilson once again worked with producer Jay Joyce, who produced previous Wilson records, including her most recent Grammy-award winning album, 2022’s Bell Bottom Country. Unlike prior output recorded with session players, Whirlwind sees Wilson backed by members of her touring band. Fellow country singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert appears on the song “Good Horses,” which was co-written by Wilson, Lambert and Luke Dick. Wilson described Whirlwind, explaining:

“This album has been a long time coming, and I can’t wait for the world to have this body of work in their hands soon. This new chapter of music is the most cathartic and personal piece of art I’ve ever made. I hope this record brings some peace to your whirlwind and wraps its arms around you like it did for me.”

Irish rockers Fontaines D.C. released their fourth album, Romance, marking their first full length issued by XL Recordings. The band’s prior three albums were produced by Dan Carey and released by Partisan Records. The 11-song Romance was produced by James Ford and was recorded shortly after the Dublin-based band returned from a tour supporting Arctic Monkeys.

“You start making music, you get a name for yourself as a certain brand in music or type of music that you’re making, and you get clubbed in with other bands,” Fontaines D.C.’s Conor Deegan III told Zane Lowe. “We realized there was so much more we wanted to express, but also things we were afraid of expressing, not just musically, but the way we dressed as well. When we had that conversation and realized that we were all on that same page, we said, ‘You know what? Let’s do it. Let’s not be afraid of this and push ourselves.’”