Don’t Miss New Albums From Willie Nelson, Warren Haynes, The Cure, Freddie Gibbs & More

Legendary outlaw country icon Willie Nelson has released his 152nd album, Last Leaf On The Tree, today through Sony Legacy. Produced and curated by Willie’s son Micah Nelson, the 14-track collection goes heavy on covers from a diverse array of artists and also includes a reworked take on one of his oldest songs and a new tune penned with Micah. The album features Willie Nelson’s takes on The Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??,” Neil Young’s “Are You Ready For The Country?,” Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart,” Robbie Robertson’s “Broken Arrow” and Beck’s “Lost Cause.”

Willie Nelson was joined on Last Leaf On The Tree by his longtime Family Band harmonica player Mickey Raphael. The follow-up to The Border also includes appearances from The Doors’ John Densmore and Daniel Lanois.

Warren Haynes’ new solo album, Million Voices Whisper, arrived today via Fantasy Records. The Gov’t Mule frontman recorded his fourth solo album and first in almost a decade at Power Station New England. Haynes was backed on Million Voices Whisper by members of his current Warren Haynes Band ensemble — keyboardist John Medeski of Medeski Martin & Wood, renowned NOLA drummer Terence Higgins and Gov’t Mule bassist Kevin Scott. Haynes’ former The Allman Brothers Band mate, guitarist Derek Trucks, contributed to three tracks on the album that were co-produced with Haynes. Additionally, Lukas Nelson and Jamey Johnson are featured on a track and touring backup vocalist Saundra Williams lent her voice to multiple tracks.

“It felt great to go into the studio to capture this material with this new band who are all fantastic players,” said Haynes. “This album is quite different than my previous solo records. There’s a lot of soul music influence but very song oriented with subtle nods to a few of my heroes. And what a treat to get back into the studio with my brother Derek. Big shoutout to him as well as Lukas and Jamey for being a part of it. I’m really proud of this new album.”

The Cure return today with their first studio album in 16 years, Songs Of A Lost World. Last year, frontman Robert Smith brought The Cure out on the road for their first extended North American Tour since 2016. In a bit of foreshadowing, the trek was titled Shows Of A Lost World Tour. Songs Of A Lost World follows The Cure’s 2008 album, 4:13 Dream. A post on the band’s website detailed Songs Of A Lost World:

We are excited to announce the 1st November release of the new cure album

‘Songs Of A Lost World’

Our 14th studio album is available to pre-order now in multiple formats, including a Miles Showell Abbey Road half-speed master vinyl edition, exclusive marble and white bio vinyl versions, as well as cassette – real ‘lost world’ stuff!

A deluxe CD package is also available with an extra instrumental CD and Blu-ray featuring hi-res stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes of the album.

You Only Die 1nce is Freddie Gibbs’ new album, which was confirmed by the rapper only two days ago. The 13-track new album follows Gibbs’ 2022 LP, $oul $old $eparately. Gibbs worked with a number of producers, collaborating with the likes of Pops, K Notes, Lambo, DJ Harrison, 454, YG! Beats, Walbrook Santana, Thurston “Thurst Mgurst” McCrea, Mischa Chilak, Moo Latte and BNYX. The album was previewed by the lead single, “On The Set.”

Guitarist Haley Heynderickx released her highly-anticipated sophomore album, Seed Of A See, today on the Mama Bird Recording Co. label. The 10-track effort follows the Portland, Oregon-based songwriter’s acclaimed 2018 debut album, I Need To Start A Garden. Heynderickx recorded Seed Of A Seed with producer Andrew Stonestreet and engineer Karl Kling at Cooper Mountain Sound in Beaverton, Oregon and at Kling’s home studio. Initial sessions were held with a “core jazz boy band” consisting of drummer Daniel Rossi, trombonist Denzel Mendoza and bassist Matthew Holmes. Additional tracking was then added by electric guitarist William Seiji Marsh and cellist Caleigh Drane. Mining similar territory as I Need To Start A Garden, Heynderickx “is still building herself” with her sophomore LP.

“The irony is I’ll still be asking these questions; I’m not on the other side of it.”

Phil Elverum released a new Mount Eerie album, Night Palace, through his P.W. Elverum & Sun label, which is the first Mount Eerie album in five years. Elverum issued the Mount Eerie album Now Only in 2018 and the collaborative album with Julie Doiron, Lost Wisdom pt. 2, in 2019. Those two albums, along with the 2017 Mount Eerie album A Crow Looked At Me, were released in the aftermath of, and directly dealt with, Elverum’s life experiences that included fathering a daughter with his partner Geneviève Castrée who died of pancreatic cancer a year later. In 2020, Elverum revived his Microphones moniker (which was replaced by Mount Eerie) and issued the concept album, Microphones in 2020. The 26-track Night Palace is said to be “a return to the beloved deep analog fuzz world of the Microphones’ the Glow pt. 2 (2001) and the many thickly embroidered Mount Eerie universes that have followed.” Elverum’s lengthy note accompanying the album ends with the following paragraphs:

“In these songs, the autobiographical continually burbles up and carries along, like a raft, the intentions of something more spacious. Yes, I am a person with a life full of circumstances. Yes, I wrote these things. So what? Don’t look at me.

“These songs point at a moment of release, of peace found in a non-intellectual lightning strike after long waves of turmoil and surrender. I tried to give them all they needed to go out beyond my little story independently. I have traveled through decades of fluctuations, swinging between the concrete and the mystical, between attachment and annihilation, between certainty and dust, now washed up on a shore in what I’m pretty sure is an authentic state of peace. The desperate reaches toward belief and the recoils of aversion have calmed. A raven loudly flaps through the branches above me and I say hello like it’s no big thing.

“Here. On this ground, in this flashing moment, I made songs. Night Palace opens and orients: ‘a spirit world found / out past where belief blows away. That’s where we are.’”