Don’t Miss New Albums From Panda Bear, DARKSIDE, Lettuce & More

Panda Bear (Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox) released his new album entitled Sinister Grift via Domino. Lennox’s first solo LP in five years, the 10-track Sinister Grift was recorded at Lennox’s Estudio Campo facility in Lisbon, Portugal and co-produced with his Animal Collective bandmate Josh “Deakin” Dibb. Noah Lennox played nearly all of the instruments himself on an LP that includes contributions from Cindy Lee, Spirit of the Beehive’s Rivka Ravede, Deakin and the rest of their Animal Collective bandmates.

“Working on this record felt like a sacred and warm return,” Deakin said. “Noah and I first started putting music down to multitrack cassette in 1991. 32 years later and working in the same fashion, two friends alone in a room searching for sounds and feelings that move us, I am very proud of what we created togetherSinister Grift feels like the songwriter I’ve known for over 30 years but also feels like some sort of new chapter for Noah. Couldn’t be more proud of the result.”

Darkside issued a new album entitled Nothing through Matador Records. Nothing is the third DARKSIDE album following 2013’s Psychic and 2021’s Spiral. The album is the first since co-founders, electronic musician Nicolas Jaar and multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington, added drummer Tlacael Esparza as a full-time member. Jaar, Harrington and Esparza recorded the album while on tour in the south of France, as well as in Paris and Los Angeles. The group developed a concept of the “Nothing Jam” during pre-tour rehearsals that carried over into the material that made the album.

Lettuce released a new live album and accompanying concert film, Lettuce with the Colorado Symphony. Coming ahead of the funk outfit’s third collaboration with the Colorado Symphony on Sunday, the newly available live record documents the band’s team-up with the orchestra on November 10, 2018, at Boettcher Concert Hall at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The 2018 concert marked Lettuce’s first team-up with the Colorado Symphony. The second came at Colorado’s iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in 2022. Drummer Adam Deitch worked with Colorado Symphony Chief Artistic Director Tony Pierce to create the orchestral arrangements heard on Lettuce with the Colorado Symphony.

“We are all diehard ’90s hip hop heads so we chose songs of ours that were closer to what we envisioned would work as our vision of orchestral, instrumental hip-hop,” Deitch explained. “We are so excited for our fabulous fans to hear this grandiose piece of art that we are so proud of.”

Seattle-based Deep Sea Diver’s fourth album, Billboard Heart, was released today, marking its first for fellow Seattle-based label Sub Pop Records. Deep Sea Diver primary songwriter and guitarist Jessica Dobson wrote and recorded Billboard Heart with her partner, drummer Peter Mansen. The couple was joined by Elliot Jackson on synthesizers, with additional parts provided by multi-instrumentalist Caroline Rose, pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz and Dobson’s former The Shins’ bandmate, multi-instrumentalist Yuuki Matthews. The follow-up to 2020’s Impossible Weight was co-produced by Dobson and Andy D. Park, with additional production from Adam Schatz. Guitarist/singer-songwriter Maddison Cunningham is featured on the track, “Let Me Go.”

Recorded in 2020 during what became legendary keyboardist Chick Corea’s final tour, Trilogy 3, sees the acclaimed musician backed by the equally talented rhythm section of bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade. The follow-up to 2013’s Trilogy and 2018’s Trilogy 2, the newly available live album present’s the trio’s arrangements of jazz standards by Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, a take on Domenico Scarlatti’s “Sonata In D Minor,” and Corea’s original compositions. Produced and recorded by Bernie Kirsh, Trilogy 3 physical editions come with liner notes written by McBride and Blade.

BANKS issued her fifth album, Off With Her Head, today through ADA Worldwide. The 12-track LP follows the California-based singer-songwriter’s 2022 album Serpentina. Off With Her Head includes the single, “I Hate Your Ex-Girlfriend” featuring Doechii. The song “Move” features Yseult and the track “Make It Up” features Sampha.

“In many ways, [Off With Her Head is] a big sister album to Goddess,” Banks said referencing her 2014 debut album. “After a decade apart, I’ve reunited with the core musicians and producers who helped shape my debut. At the same time, it’s something entirely different — I’ve grown so much as an artist and a person, and the journey is documented in all these sounds.”

The Devil Makes Three released their long-awaited new studio album, Spirits, today through New West Records. The follow-up to the group’s 2018 album, Chains Are Broken, was recorded by founding members, guitarist Pete Bernhard and banjoist/guitarist Cooper McBean, with longtime collaborator MorganEve Swain taking over bass playing duties from Lucia Turino. Producer Ted Hutt helmed recording sessions at Dreamland Studios in Woodstock, New York. The new 13-song collection sees the trio returning to their “stripped-down roots.”

“That’s what we set out to do,” Bernhard said. “We wanted to use these musical forms to talk about current issues. We didn’t want to just sing about trains and mining and drinking. For myself, it didn’t seem relevant. Folk music should be about what’s happening now, just as it was when Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan did it. Our music is not just a re-enactment of something old and dusty.”

Resident oddball art rockers The Residents shared their latest album, Doctor Dark, through Cherry Red. The prolific veteran avant-garde group, whose membership remains anonymous, have released over 45 albums since their debut, Meet the Residents, came out in 1974. According to the official description of Doctor Dark, the album tells “the story of Maggot and Mark – two young heavy metal fans – and the mysterious Doctor Anastasia Dark, a disgraced visionary who offers those who need it THE GIFT.”

“This is probably The Residents most ambitious project in a while,” said Cryptic Corporation president/The Residents spokesperson Homer Flynn. “It’s based on two news stories. The character of Doctor Dark is based on Doctor Kevorkian. He is a character The Residents always found fascinating. There are primarily 3 characters: Doctor Dark, and then two teenagers.”

Mdou Moctar issued, Tears of Injustice, through Matador Records. The companion album is an acoustic reworking of the Tuareg band’s 2024 LP, Funeral for Justice. During Mdou Moctar’s 2023 North American Tour, a military junta in Niger — the African country where members Ahmoudou Madassane, Souleymane Ibrahim and Mdou Moctar live — deposed President Mohamed Bazoum. The borders were closed, temporarily barring Moctar, Madassane and Ibrahim from returning to their families. While Mdou Moctar already had plans to cut a Funeral for Justice companion, the project “took on new urgency and gravity.” After concluding the 2023 tour, the band headed into Brooklyn’s Bunker Studio, working with engineer Seth Manchester.

“We wanted to make a separate version of Funeral for people to hear,” U.S.-based bassist and producer Mikey Coltun explained. “We’re always playing around with arrangements at shows. We wanted to prove that we could do it on a record, too. And there’s a whole other side of the band that comes out when we play a stripped-down set. It becomes something new.”