7 New Albums Out Today: Sierra Hull, Club d’Elf, WU LYF & Others

Sierra Hull shared her bluegrass concerto The Movements. The acclaimed mandolinist was commissioned to compose what would become The Movements by the FreshGrass Institute ahead of the 2023 FreshGrass Festival. Hull and her band — Avery Merritt, Erik Coveney, Mark Raudabaugh and Shaun Richardson — performed the The Movements live at the 2023 FreshGrass event. The ensemble then entered the studio to cut the three movements. However, with their busy tour schedule and finishing up Sierra Hull’s Grammy-nominated A Tip Toe High Wire album, The Movements remained on the shelf although the band continued to perform the tracks live.

“Movement 3 has been a staple in our live shows over the last few years, occasionally sneaking in Movement 1 or Movement 2 when we were craving a challenge,” Hull said. “Folks have been asking for a while now when we would finally release a recording of them, so we are pumped to finally share it with everyone! It’s truly a capture of the earliest days of this group of musicians learning to make music together.”

Club d’Elf released their studio album, Loon & Thrush, via Royal Potato Family. The Boston-based music collective recorded Loon & Thrush live in the studio with minimal overdubs. The LP marks Club d’Elf’s first since Brahim Fribgane died in 2024. The Moroccan oud player and percussionist was a member of the group dating back to 1999. “Going into the recording of this album was a very heavy time for the band, as we had just lost Brahim, who was a core member,” bandleader Mike Rivard said. “This would be the first album we had done without him, and the thought of never being able to play with him again was a reality that was very hard to grasp.”

Club d’Elf fit two Grateful Dead covers on the follow-up to 2022’s You Never Know. The band put their own spin on “New Speedway Boogie” featuring Rivard on sintar and “Bird Song.” Rivard shared the following about Club d’Elf covering the Dead:

“The Dead were such a huge influence on me as a teenager in the late ‘70s, and I traveled all over the Midwest where I grew up to see them play. Their trippy, improvisational side was what really drew me in, as well as the culture that surrounded the band, and the sense of tribal community. Even though our sound is very different, the Dead’s music has always been part of my DNA.

“It seemed time to acknowledge and honor that connection, and I started messing around with ‘Bird Song,’ playing it over a North African chaabi groove that Brahim Fribgane had taught us to play. Brahim was our direct connection to the Moroccan traditions that inspired us, but he passed away before he could record the album with us. Even though he isn’t physically present on the track, I felt his spirit guiding us in the studio. Duke Levine — of Bonnie Raitt’s band — plays the melody on electric sitar, giving it this beautifully distinctive sound. The jam in the middle has a Dead-goes-to-Morocco vibe, and with Bob Weir’s recent passing, we’re dedicating it to him, to Jerry and Phil, and to Brahim.”

A Wave That Will Never Break is the much-anticipated second WU LYF album. The seven-track record comes long after their 2011 debut album, Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, and subsequent disbandment the following year. The reunited band from Manchester, England, worked with producer Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 on the album, which will not be available on prominent streaming platforms. In a statement, the group shared:

“The vision for the L Y F has been with us since the start. Way back in 2010 when we first sold the white on white bandana with the Heavy pop / Concrete Gold 12” — We foresaw a community of like-minds that would gather around the flame of our music, and through whose direct support we could operate with freedom, autonomy & the truth; to play our own (infinite) game — alas we were young, foolish, and didn’t have the means or the infrastructure for the impulse to reach its full potential.

“Now 15 years later here we are — the initial version of the L Y F membership platform has been an experimental proof of concept — we have learnt a lot from it over the past year and behind the scenes we have been building Version 2.0.”

El Ten Eleven shared Nowhere Faster, through Joyful Noise. Nowhere Faster, their 16th release and 11th full-length album, is the follow-up to El Ten Eleven’s 2023 LP, Valley Of Fire. The duo, Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty, produced the new record with additional production from Sonny DiPerri.

Soul-funk-jazz trio Parlor Greens return with their second studio album, Emeralds, arriving today through Colemine Records. Emeralds follows Parlor Greens’ — organist Adam Scone, drummer Tim Carman and guitarist Jimmy James — 2024 debut album In Green We Dream.

Holly Humberstone released her sophomore studio album, Cruel World, today via Interscope Records. The British singer-songwriter’s follow-up to 2023’s Paint My Bedroom Black features material she wrote through daily studio sessions with collaborator Rob Milton.

“I want to provide a safe, otherworldly space where people can get lost,” Humberstone told Apple Music. “My own world where all of this music and all of these stories can exist. Music for me is such an escape from the realities of life, which these days are scary, harsh, and brutal.”

A Gregg Allman Band live archival recording, Great As Ever: Live In Philadelphia ’86, was unearthed via Gregg Allman’s posthumous label, Sawrite Records. Captured on a frigid January night in Philadelphia at the intimate Chestnut Cabaret, Live In Philadelphia ’86 is the latest offering in a series of releases from Allman’s personal archives. 1986 saw the Gregg Allman Band — Dan Toler (guitar), Frankie Toler (drums), Bruce Waibel (bass), Tim Heding (keyboards) and Chaz Trippy (percussion) — in peak form following four years of hard touring.

“When I walk on a stage, I know the crowd has to come to have a good time and forget about their problems for a few hours,” Allman said. “Our music makes them happy – they can stomp their feet, clap their hands, dance around and smile. I love to see that, because it makes me feel like I have a purpose – that’s why I play music.”