Don’t Miss New Albums From Tame Impala, The Barr Brothers, Luther Dickinson & Others

Tame Impala (Kevin Parker) released his eagerly anticipated fifth full-length album, Deadbeat, through Capitol Records. Parker mainly recorded the follow-up to 2020’s massively successful The Slow Rush, during sessions held in the first half of 2025 in his hometown of Fremantle, Australia and at his Wave House studio in Injidup, Western Australia. Parker initially conceived the project in various locations over the last few years.

“The album officially started in Montecito (California),” Parker told Apple Music. “My thing is I get an Airbnb somewhere on the coast — I just find places literally as close to the water as you can get. Staring at the ocean for me just helps me get lost, and there’s a tranquility that comes along with it.”

The Barr Brothers shared their fourth studio album, Let It Hiss, via Secret City Records. Siblings Brad Barr and Andrew Barr, who are two-thirds of The Slip, self-produced the 10-track follow-up to 2017’s Queens Of The Breakers. The pair recorded Let It Hiss mainly as a duo at their Montreal studio, with mix engineer Jon Low. Contributors include My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James, Patrick Watson, Elizabeth Powell (Land Of Talk) and Klô Pelgag.

“In 2022, we found ourselves at a breaking point,” revealed Brad Barr, the group’s guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter. “It was clear something had to change. The real story of this record is the story of that change and everything that came after.”

“Let it Hiss is what happened when we stopped pretending everything was fine and finally listened to what was actually going on,” added drummer, percussionist and vocalist Andrew Barr.

Luther Dickinson released a new solo album inspired by the delta blues and the Grateful Dead, Dead Blues Vol. 1, via Strolling Bones Records. The North Mississippi Allstars co-founding guitarist is accompanied by featured vocalist Datrian Johnson on the nine-song album consisting of songs written by Bo Diddley, the Mississippi Sheiks, Willie Dixon, Tommy Tucker, Slim Harpo, Blind Lemon Jefferson and others that were part of the Grateful Dead’s live repertoire. Dead Blues Vol. 1 also includes contributions by Dickinson’s NMAS bandmates – his brother, drummer Cody Dickinson, and bassist Rayfield “Ray Ray” Holloman – along with Grahame Lesh and Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady).

Dickinson was introduced to the Grateful Dead’s music by Grahame Lesh’s father, Grateful Dead co-founding bassist Phil Lesh. Both Luther and Cody Dickinson participated as members of Phil’s evolving Phil Lesh & Friends project many times after first appearing in the lineup in 2013.

“The more we performed together, the more I realized how many great old blues songs the Dead had played in their time, which led to the Dead Blues concept,” Dickinson added. “Phil changed my life. He welcomed me into his crew, taught me his repertoire, shared his improvisational approaches, and introduced me to a whole new community of musicians. This record reflects Phil’s wild musical spirit and approach to re-interpretation.”

Todd Snider put out a new album, High, Lonesome and Then Some, on Aimless Records/Thirty Tigers. The acclaimed singer-songwriter enlisted a trio of producers/musicians for the record, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Robbie Crowell and Joe Bisirri. The nine-track LP sees contributions from Tasjan on guitar, Crowell on drums and Sterling Finlay on bass. Brooke Gronemeyer and Erica Blinn provide backing vocals. The single, “While We Still Have a Chance,” was co-written with The Black Crowes‘ Chris Robinson.

“Recently, I heard someone say ‘If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention,’ so I tried it and so far so good,” Snider said. “These are songs seeking soul, soul mate, maker, making out and mercy. The muse for this record was the sound of it. We made it on purpose.”

Violinist/vocalist Sudan Archives issued her third album, The BPM, today through Stones Throw Records. The album follows her 2022 album, Natural Brown Prom Queen, and was recorded in Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. Inspired by those cities’ club sounds, The BPM introduces a new persona: Gadget Girl “a technologically advanced musician who’s exalted by her embrace of technology.”

“I was never the girl in a band in high school – I could only express myself for the first time when I got my first iPad and started making beats on it, and when I got my first electric violin,” Sudan Archives said. “I’m all gadget girled out now, but I’ve never felt so free as a human.”

Of Monsters and Men returned with their first full-length album in six years, All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade. The long-awaited follow-up to the Icelandic band’s 2019 album, Fever Dream, is a “deeply introspective and richly textured record [that] explores the paradox at the heart of the human experience, the inseparable dance of joy and sorrow, love and pain.”

Co-singer and lyricist Nanna Hilmarsdóttir took inspiration from the band’s personal lives, family, community and descendents. She described their shared history as part of the “Mouse Parade,” a collective narrative that forms the LP’s emotional landscape.

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour’s 2024 Luck And Strange Tour is the source of the new live album, The Luck And Strange Concerts. Gilmour’s first tour since 2016 came in support of his fifth solo album, Luck And Strange. The run included a sold-out, six-show engagement at Circus Maximus in Rome. Additional stops brought the tour to England’s Brighton Centre, Royal Albert Hall in London, Intuit Dome and Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Gilmour was joined by a backing band composed of bassist Guy Pratt, Greg Phillinganes and Rob Gentry on keyboards, guitarist Ben Worsley, drummer Adam Betts on drums and Louise Marshall, Hattie Webb and Charley Webb on vocals. The Luck And Strange Concerts presents 23 tracks, including Pink Floyd favorites “Comfortably Numb,” “Time,” “Wish You Were Here,” “High Hopes,” “Breathe (In The Air)” and “Sorrow.” Gilmour’s daughter Romany Gilmour sings on “Between Two Points.”