Don’t Miss New Albums Out Today From Twenty One Pilots, Andrew Bird, La Luz & More

Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by Twenty One Pilots, Andrew Bird, La Luz, Lionlimb, Bill MacKay, DIIV, and Sexyy Red. Read on for more insight into the records we have ready to spin.

Twenty One Pilots – Clancy

Twenty One Pilots issued their new album, Clancy, today via Fueled By Ramen and Elektra Records. The album is the final installment in the long-running conceptual series of releases from the duo consisting of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun. Clancy takes its title from a character in the fictional city of Dema introduced in the band’s fifth album, 2018’s Trench. The return to the concept series was hinted at on “Redecorate,” the final track on Twenty One Pilot’s most recent album, 2021’s Scaled and Icy.

---

Andrew Bird Trio – Sunday Morning Put-On

Andrew Bird released the first album by the Andrew Bird Trio, Sunday Morning Put-On, via Loma Vista Recordings. The record sees the acclaimed violinist revisiting the jazz standards that influenced him with the assistance of drummer Ted Poor and bassist Alan Hampton. With help from Jeff Parker on guitar and piano from Larry Goldings, Andrew Bird Trio captured Sunday Morning Put-On live at the historic Valentine Studios in Los Angeles. The 10-track album consists of songs written by Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, and more. Bird detailed the time in his life when he was under the “spell” of the music found on Sunday Morning Put-On.

“When I was in my 20s, I lived in an old apartment-hotel in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. It was cheap and inhabited mostly by retired Jesuit priests and nuns from nearby Loyola University. The gym had old Schwinn 10-speed bicycles up on cinder blocks for low-rent pelotons, an old swimming pool where they played opera, and the steam room was a clubhouse for the local Russian mob. Most Saturday nights I’d stay up listening to a radio show called ‘Blues Before Sunrise’ on WBEZ from 12-4am. The DJ, Steve Cushing, played old rare 78rpm records of blues, jazz and gospel. Then I’d sleep for a few hours and wake to Dick Buckley’s show, also on WBEZ, featuring what he called ‘Golden Era’ jazz from the 30s and 40s. My love for a certain era of jazz up through the mid-20th Century has been constant through many transmutations in my own work, the bulk of which is not jazz at all. Once I had some distance between myself and this time when I was under its spell, I wanted to immerse myself in it again.”

---

La Luz – News Of The Universe

Dream pop group La Luz released their new album, News Of The Universe. The follow-up to their 2021 self-titled LP is the first La Luz album issued by Sub Pop Records. News Of The Universe is also the last La Luz album recorded with former members, bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl, who appear alongside founding lead singer/guitarist Shana Cleveland and, for the first time on a La Luz album, current drummer Audrey Johnson. The 12-song new album was recorded at Tiny Telephone in Oakland with producer Maryam Qudus, who is now a member of the band. Described as “La Luz’s most brutal record to date but also their most blissful,” News Of The Universe was informed by original founding guitarist/lead singer Shana Cleveland’s experience being diagnosed and treated for breast cancer two years after the birth of her child.

“Seeing the cycle of life, seeing things grow out of decay, the decay of other living things — was super comforting to me,” Cleveland said. “I had to get to a place where I felt more comfortable with the idea of death.”

---

Lionlimb – Limbo

Lionlimb, the project of New York-based singer-songwriter and producer Stewart Bronaugh, issued the new album Limbo, today via Bayonet Records. Frequent and longtime collaborators, drummer Joshua Jaeger and vocalist Angel Olsen, appear on the record. Additional vocals were provided by Justine Bronaugh, Ewa Synowiec, Zoey Huynh, Bri Abram and Taylor Belle. According to press materials accompanying the album:

On Limbo, Bronaugh evokes a surreal sense of escape, but also underscores his grappling of the past. Inspired by a palette of ‘70s Italian film soundtracks, ‘60s girl group music, and funk and soul ballads, Bronaugh has crafted unfurling soundscapes that feel mysterious and otherworldly, yet timeless and nostalgic at the same time. Bronaugh brings these influences together to invent an immersive sound all his own — with help from close collaborator Joshua Jaeger, whose live drums bring a rawness to Limbo’s meticulously layered production.

---

Bill MacKay – Locust Land

Chicago-based guitarist Bill MacKay returns with Locust Land, a new album available now through Drag City. The nine-song album serves as the follow-up to MacKay’s 2019 album Fortune Fire. The new release contains contributions from the likes of bassist Sam Wagster, drummer Mikel Patrick Avery and Eleventh Dream Day guitarist/vocalist Janet Beveridge Bean. Locust Land sees MacKay adding keyboard to his repertoire.

---

DIIV – Frog In Boiling Water

Frog In Boiling Water is the new DIIV album, out now on Fantasy Records. The 10-song LP is the Brooklyn-based band’s fourth full-length and follow-up to 2019’s Deceiver. DIIV — Andrew Bailey, Colin Caulfield, Ben Newman, and Zachary Cole Smith — recorded the new album with producer Chris Coady. The new record reflects the tumultuous time the band members worked through together, coming out stronger on the other side. The album’s title and themes contained within come from “The Boiling Frog” in Daniel Quinn’s The Story of B. The band stated:

“If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death.

“We understand the metaphor to be one about a slow, sick, and overwhelmingly banal collapse of society under end-stage capitalism, the brutal realities we’ve maybe come to accept as normal. That’s the boiling water and we are the frogs. The album is more or less a collection of snapshots from various angles of our modern condition which we think highlights what this collapse looks like and, more particularly, what it feels like.”

---

Sexyy Red – In Sexyy We Trust

Trending hip hop star Sexyy Red‘s latest release, In Sexyy We Trust, arrived today through Open Shift/gamma. The 14-track effort was executive produced by frequent collaborator Tay Keith and follows Sexyy Red’s 2023 mixtape, Hood Hottest Princess. Features include appearances by Drake, Mike WiLL Made-It, Lil Baby and VonOff1700.

---