Don’t Miss New Albums From Youth Lagoon, Patterson Hood, Sunny War & More

Youth Lagoon, the project of Idaho-based producer/singer-songwriter Trevor Powers, released a new album, Rarely Do I Dream, today through Fat Possum Records. Rarely Do I Dream was recorded with co-producer and mixer/engineer Rodaidh McDonald. Powers’ last album, Heaven Is a Junkyard, arrived in 2023. That record marked his return to Youth Lagoon after “retiring” the project in 2016. Two Trevor Powers albums, Mulberry Violence and Capricorn, followed in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Powers detailed his decision to revive Youth Lagoon:

“I had ended Youth Lagoon years ago because I lost who I was. Then life jumped me in an alley and gave me a beating. That suffering changed my frequency. Now my ideas are a river. I can’t keep up.”

Patterson Hood shared his first solo album in 12 years, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams, today via ATO Records. The Drive-By Truckers co-founder tapped Chris Funk (The Decemberists) to produce the 10-track LP, which was recorded at various studios in Hood’s current hometown of Portland, Oregon. The album features guest appearances from Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, Wednesday, Lydia Loveless, Steve Berlin, David Barbe, Steve Drizos, Brad Cook, Phil Cook, Daniel Hunt, Stuart Bogie, and others. Hood’s first solo album since 2012’s Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance sees the veteran singer-songwriter “exploring his youth and young manhood.”

“You remember it one way, but when you really dip into it, when you really look back, the world was a different place,” Hood said. “Things were accepted that wouldn’t be accepted now and things you didn’t understand then make sense now. This record has all these kind of unintended themes. I don’t know if that was anything I set out to do as much as it just kind of worked out that way. You know, there are a lot a lot of happy accidents in this record.”

Sunny War (singer-songwriter/guitarist Sydney Ward) released a new album entitled Armageddon In A Summer Dress, today through New West Records. Time spent residing at a 100-year-old house that was her late father’s in Chattanooga, Tennessee provided a source of inspiration for War. Initially thought to be haunted, the house proved only to have several gas leaks that were causing War to have uneasy feelings. The 11-track Armageddon In A Summer Dress was produced by Andrija Tokic. Guest contributors include Valerie June, John Doe of X, Steve Ignorant of Crass, Tré Burt, Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs, Kyshona, John James Tourville of the Deslondes, and others. Reflecting on her blend of punk and roots music, War revealed:

“To me it’s the same kind of music. If you’re into punk for the lyrics and the message, there’s definitely a lot of old-time music that has that spirit. Folk used to be very anti-establishment. Pete Seeger, union songs, Woody Guthrie—that’s punk rock shit. It’s all about being an outsider.”

People Watching is British singer-songwriter Sam Fender’s third album, out now via Capitol Records. The follow-up to Fender’s 2021 sophomore LP, Seventeen Going Under, was co-produced by Fender and his bandmates, Dean Thompson and Joe Atkinson. Sessions were held over two years, beginning with producer Markus Dravs in London in 2023. Additional sessions were held in 2024 with The War On Drugs producing in Los Angeles. Fender wrote the title track in honor of his “late friend and mentor” Annie Orwin.

Porridge Radio released The Machine Starts To Sing, a four-song EP that serves as a companion to their 2024 album Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me. The British rockers — frontwoman and guitarist Dana Margolin, keyboardist Georgie Stott, drummer/keyboardist Sam Yardley and bassist Dan Hutchins — recorded the songs on The Machine Starts To Sing with engineer/producer Dom Monks at Bert Jansch Studios in the Somerset countryside. The track “I Got Lost” features only Margolin and Stott.

Returning with his first Baths album since 2017, Will Wiesenfeld today released Gut through Basement Basement. Work on the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s Romaplasm began before the COVID pandemic and was completed in April 2022. Six of the 11 tracks feature live drums played by Casey Dietz and Sam Kaufman-Skloff. Wiesenfeld arranged strings that were played by frequent collaborators Isaura String Quartet. Describing the new Baths album, Wiesenfeld stated:

“I think about men, and sex, quite literally all the time. To make a new album that felt like an actual honest effort meant exploring this fact further than I’ve ever been comfortable with, with no regard to personal embarrassment or relatability.

“I’m sketching my strongest and most pervasive feelings out quickly and treating their roughness as gospel, then exploring them in greater detail with the added sheen of time and perspective. I ended up not just writing about sex but also about personal shortcomings, dreamless living, harmful fantasies, and dissonant self-identities…things I also think about all the time.”

“Gut is essentially me trying to make my feelings make sense by not initially psychoanalyzing them—by instead just having feelings said and put on the table.”