Don’t Miss New Albums From Goose, Willie Nelson, William Tyler, Stereophonics & More

Goose released their fourth studio album, Everything Must Go, via No Coincidence Records. Goose’s album first in three years, Everything Must Go was produced by D. James Goodwin. The 14-track album is Goose’s first album recorded with drummer Cotter Ellis after he took over for original drummer Ben Atkind. Everything Must Go was completed before the recent departure of percussionist Jeff Arevalo.

“These songs all come from different times and places in a way that captures a part of the journey of the band,” guitarist Rick Mitarotonda said of the material featured on Everything Must Go. “It moves through time for us, but not in a tidy, linear way. Like the band, it’s okay for things to feel more like a landscape sometimes and less like a singular cohesive statement. It mixes different moods and ideas and characters. The through line is that each piece is part of that journey and that everyone is welcome to the party.”

Willie Nelson continues his legendary legacy with today’s release of, Oh What A Beautiful World, a collection focusing on songs by Nelson’s fellow Texas singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell. Oh What A Beautiful World is Willie Nelson’s 77th solo studio album and 154th album overall. The record arrived days ahead of Nelson’s 92nd birthday. Nelson first recorded a song by Crowell over 40 years ago. “Till I Gain Control Again” appeared on the 1983 Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings album, Take It to the Limit. Crowell has a history with Nelson too, as he caught Willie shows during the latter’s time in Houston in the mid-1960s.

Longtime Nelson collaborator Buddy Cannon produced Oh What A Beautiful World, which sees Nelson backed by a band of “Nashville gunslingers,” and features Willie’s vocals along with his storied guitar Trigger.

Guitarist William Tyler put out his first solo album in six years, Time Indefinite,through Psychic Hotline. Taking its title and inspiration from the 1993 Ross McElwee-directed documentary film of the same name, Time Indefinite was recorded by Tyler with his longtime collaborator Jake Davis. The project began after the COVID pandemic prompted Tyler to move back to Nashville, leaving most of his possessions – including his record collection – behind in Los Angeles. He discovered a vintage tape machine while cleaning out his late grandfather’s office in Jackson, Mississippi and began using it to create loops.

Some of those loops became part of Tyler’s collaboration with Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden, 2023’s Darkness, Darkness/No Services, while others – along with ideas recorded to his phone – were crafted by Tyler and Davis into pieces on Time Indefinite. Rather than clean the recordings up, the pair “embrace[d] the hiss and wobble” the technology provided.

Stereophonics issued their 13th album, Make ‘Em Laugh, Make ‘Em Cry, Make ‘Em Wait, through EMI. The Welsh rockers wrote and recorded the follow-up to their 2022 album, Oochya!, during sessions held in London. Frontman Kelly Jones created the Make ‘Em Laugh, Make ‘Em Cry, Make ‘Em Wait cover art, taking inspiration from the Louise Bourgeois painting entitled “Art Is Guaranty Of Sanity,” which he encountered at a New York art gallery.

“She believed art was a form of mental healing and a way to process difficult emotions,” Kelly said describing Bourgeois’ work. “The spelling caught me first, then the simplicity of the words etched onto a pink tile. So I tried scratching my title, inspired by my own art school teacher 30 years ago. And I loved it. I loved the simplicity of the pink. The pink album was born.”

Femi Kuti came out with a new studio album, Journey Through Life, through Partisan Records. The album marks the first the Afrobeat musician produced entirely on his own. The son of late Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti also wrote and arranged the 10 songs making up the Journey Through Life tracklist. Recording sessions were held at Legacy Plus, the newly built Kuti-family recording studio in Nigeria. Femi Kuti spoke about Journey Through Life, stating:

“Journey Through Life is basically a summary of my life from my childhood to adulthood. All through my life family has been a solid foundation, from my parents, grandparents, to my siblings, cousins and now my children, my nieces and nephews, soon my grandchildren, and true to my song at the end of the day for me family is all that matters. I believe many events happen in our lives that draw us away from each other like an undercurrent, but the essence is to manage such events and let love prevail.

“Most importantly too, is to forgive oneself for mistakes we make in life, as we strive to make corrections to improve our wellbeing and characters and always find peace and harmony with our minds, body and soul.”

Singer-songwriter Uwade released her debut album, Florilegium, via Ehiose Records/Thirty Tigers. The Nigerian-born, North Carolina-raised artist studied classics at Columbia and Oxford. Uwade’s first album was set in motion during sessions with Sam Cohen in Upstate New York in 2022. Two years later, Uwade spent a week at her friend Jon Seale’s recording studio in New York City further working on the album. Final sessions were held with Alli Rogers in Uwade’s home state of North Carolina at Sylvan’s Esso’s recording studio Betty’s in Chapel Hill.

The nine-track Florilegium takes its title from the Latin word which translates in English to “flower-gathering.”

“I offer these songs as flowers of gratitude to those who have seen me through my life,” Uwade stated. “I share them with the world as a reminder to cherish opportunities for renewal.”

Broncho are back with their first album in six years, Natural Pleasure. The band — vocalist/guitarist Ryan Lindsey, bassist Penny Pitchlynn, drummer Nathan Price and guitarist Ben King — captured most of the album in their native Oklahoma at Blackwatch Studios in Norman before completing Natural Pleasure at the renowned Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas. The follow-up to Broncho’s 2018 album, Bad Behavior, was produced by Chad Copelin who contributed guitar and synths. Guitarist Brian Chambers appears on the track, “Cool.”

Southern Avenue’s new studio album, Family, was released today marking the Memphis-based ensemble’s debut on Alligator Records. Southern Avenue was founded by guitarist Ori Naftaly and features lead vocalist (and Ori’s wife) Tierinii Jackson along with her siblings drummer/vocalist Tikyra “TK” Jackson and violinist/vocalist Ava Jackson. The band recorded the 14-track Family in Memphis at the famed Royal Studios.

According to Naftaly, “Family is the story of how we found each other, held on through the highs and lows, and built something stronger than we ever imagined. It’s about the moments that test you, the people who lift you, and the belief that even through the hardest times, something beautiful is waiting on the other side.”

Rock trio Sunflower Bean shared a new album, Mortal Primetime, which comes after a challenging period when the band nearly disbanded. The three original members — bassist Julia Cumming, guitarist Nick Kivlen and drummer Olive Faber — faced geographical separation, personal challenges, and identity transformations since their previous album, 2022’s Headful Of Sugar.

“Coming close to losing something you fought for, for over a decade, is a really good way to get close to your heart as an artist,” Cumming said. “Every long-term relationship, experiences challenges – you either stop or you go deeper. What is a band but a relationship with a body of work? … The further you move through life, the more you realize how precious every moment is. This album is about choosing the present as our prime, but also being in touch with the transient and fleeting nature of this existence.”

“In the past, we’ve been told to tone down who we are, and this album is our refusal to be anything but ourselves,” Faber stated. “It’s the purest expression of who we are.”

“It’s such a rare and special thing for a band to have played together this long,” said Kivlen. “So we wanted to lean into the skills we’ve built and take an old-school approach to the recording—which is maybe the most subversive thing we could do at a time when it’s so easy to copy and paste.”

Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas issued their long-awaited new collaborative album, Totality through Drag City. The follow-up to their 2015 debut collaborative LP, Automaginary, was recorded in a single session with Greg Norman at Electrical Audio in Chicago. Presenting a four-song tracklist, Totality was recorded by Natural Information Society’s Joshua Abrams on double bass and guimbri, Liza Alvarado on harmonium and Mikel Patrick Avery on drums/percussion – who all contributed to Autoimaginary — as well as Jason Stein on bass clarinet. They were joined by Bitchin Bajas’ core trio of Rob Frye on flute/synths, Cooper Crain on organ/synthesizers and Daniel Quinlivan adding various electronic elements.

Tennis released their final studio album, Face Down In The Garden, today via their Mutually Detrimental label. The Denver-based duo of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore captured the LP in their Denver home studio and, save for some outside drumming, created the album in their classic duo format. Moore shared the statement below regarding the duo’s final album:

“After finishing Face Down In The Garden, it became clear that we had said everything we wanted to say and achieved everything we wanted to achieve with our band. This will be our last studio album, at least in this configuration as Tennis. We are ready to pursue other creative projects and to make space in our lives for new things.

“Face Down In The Garden is our seventh studio album. The inspiration for new work came while we were still on the road touring Pollen. We felt a clear pull to write new music, but ran up against a series of bizarre setbacks. We blew tires and lost an engine. I developed a chronic illness. We took a doomed voyage that culminated in an attempted robbery at sea. Fragments of songs that first arrived like gifts from the universe later refused to be completed. Our days were awash in major and minor crises that dragged the album out endlessly.

“Patrick and I felt out of sync with the world, as though we had been ejected from the flow of life. My response was to bury myself in my own memories. Those years weren’t easier or better, but I could make sense of them. In Face Down In The Garden, I trace the arc of my life through a series of vignettes: a first moment of connection, a conversation at a wedding, a night offshore, a tour diary.

“Over the years our sound has evolved into three distinct categories: Brill Building, synth-pop, and rock. Face Down In The Garden occupies all of that space. Except for the help of some outside drumming, we worked and recorded alone as we have done for the last few albums. We wanted to write ourselves off the map by doing the unexpected thing, offsetting intuitive melodies with unusual arrangements, to make music that feels familiar but resists convention. Despite being rattled by a strange year, it is our most confident album. We are very excited for you to listen, preferably loud and on headphones.”

Singer-songwriter d4vd’s debut album, WITHERED, arrived today through Darkroom/Interscope Records. The album follows the 20-year-old Houston native’s 2023 EPs Petals to Thorns and The Lost Petals. Kali Uchis guests on the track “Crashing.” A description of the album provided by the label explains:

Created primarily on Bandlab, WITHERED brought d4vd back to the place his music journey began: his sister’s closet, alone with his iPhone. To finish the record, d4vd journeyed to London with a trusted crew of collaborators to create a cohesive, intimate record that’s meant to be listened to sequentially — the songs consumed like chapters — that spotlights his evolution as a deft and dynamic vocalist.

Long-running rock outfit Deerhoof released a new album, Noble And Godlike In Ruin, today through Joyful Noise Recordings. The 10-track follow-up to 2023’s Miracle-Level was recorded by Satomi Matsuzaki, Ed Rodriguez, John Dieterich and Greg Saunier. The band recruited Saul Williams for the track “Under Rats.” Describing the new album Deerhoof stated:

“Is about grotesque transformations and hybrid creatures of myth. It is big and scary. It is in an anti-bourgeois style that mixes the beautiful with the cruel.”

Just Passing Through is the first album of original music by self-described purveyors of “Desert Disco” and “Outlaw House” Flying Mojito Bros. The English DJ/producer duo recruited several artists who appear across the 11-track effort, including Scott Hirsch, Pearl Charles, Desert Oracle, Hero Fisher, Will Worden, Rob Chaney, Shawn Lee, Joe Harvey-Whyte and Joe Stoddart.

Heart Of Gold: The Songs Of Neil Young, Vol. 1 all-star covers compilation was released today featuring the songs of Neil Young. Proceeds from Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young will go to The Bridge School non-profit organization in Hillsborough, California, which was founded by Pegi Young, Jim Forderer and speech and language pathologist, Dr. Marilyn Buzolic. The tracklist features covers of Neil Young’s songs recorded by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Stephen Marley, Courtney Barnett, Chris Pierce, Brandi Carlile, Fiona Apple, Mumford & Sons, Sharon Van Etten, The Lumineers, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Anders Osborne, and The Doobie Brothers with Allison Russell.