Today’s notable album releases were largely dominated by veterans. PJ Harvey released her latest reissue and demos collection, Doves dropped their first album in a decade, The Flaming Lips shared their 16th studio album and Pedro The Lion’s David Bazan unleashed another album with his side project Lo Tom. Scroll down to get the lowdown on these albums and other essential releases that came out this week.
1. Brothertiger: Paradise Lost
Electronic/chillwave artist Brothertiger, aka John Jagos, has shared his new album Paradise Lost via Satanic Panic Recordings. Paradise Lost is his first original album since 2015’s Out of Touch. It includes three singles: “Shelter Cove,” “Livin’” and the title track. While “Livin’” veered into spirited electro-psychedelia, “Shelter Cove” echoes with icy electronica, slowly melting with ambient touches and a sense of limitless freedom. —Lizzie Manno
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2. Conway the Machine: From King to a GOD
Buffalo rapper Conway the Machine released his latest solo LP From King to a GOD, the follow-up to 2019’s Look What I Became. The album features Freddie Gibbs, Beat Butcha, Method Man, Benny the Butcher, Westside Gunn, DeJ Loaf, the Alchemist and more. This new album follows his two other 2020 projects: his EP with the Alchemist, LULU, and a nine-track release with Big Ghost Ltd., No One Mourns the Wicked. —Lizzie Manno
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3. Delta Spirit: What Is There
After a six-year music hiatus, Delta Spirit’s new album What is There has arrived via New West Records. The LP contains four singles: “How Bout It,” “It Ain’t Easy,” “Home Again” and “The Pressure.” Paste premiered the Michael Parks Randa-directed music video for “The Pressure,” which you can watch below. —Paris Rosenthal
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4. Doves: The Universal Want
A couple of years ago, English rockers Doves announced they were reforming. Now, they’ve released their first album in over a decade, The Universal Want. It’s their sixth studio album, and they’ve released three singles from it: “Carousels,” “Prisoners” and “Cathedrals Of The Mind.” —Lizzie Manno
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5. The Flaming Lips: American Head
Since emerging from their guest-studded “fwends” era with 2017’s Oczy Mlody, The Flaming Lips have been on an unusually prolific tip, even by their elevated standards. Neither a global pandemic nor Wayne Coyne’s recent entry into first-time fatherhood seem capable of slowing them down: American Head is the psych-rock group’s third album in four years (fourth if you count the Deap Lips collaboration)—and these are proper studio albums, mind you, not EPs encased in giant gummy fetuses. What distinguishes American Head from other recent output is how suspiciously normal its central conceit happens to be. It’s not a concept album about evil-natured robots, or a magical severed head. It’s a celebration of the band’s American roots, rich with lyrical references to Coyne’s Oklahoma City upbringing with his troublemaking brothers. —Zach Schonfeld
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6. Fox Academy: rabbit
Portland band Fox Academy (aka Michael Todd Berland and Christian Novelli) have shared their latest album rabbit. It’s a collection of lo-fi indie-pop tracks, some more minimal and straightforward, while others are country-tinged or led by eccentric synths. There’s a cozy charm and sincerity all the way through (“Kentucky Derby playing on the TV / I was in your store did you see me? / I’m sorry that I felt sick on Halloween / Never ending heartfelt apology”). —Lizzie Manno
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7. Haiku Hands: Haiku Hands
Australian dance-pop outfit Haiku Hands have shared their self-titled debut album via Mad Decent. It features collaborations with SOFI TUKKER, Mad Zach, Machine Drum, Mirac, Elgusto of Hermitude and Lewis CanCut. These songs are filled with spirited vocal chants and rousing percussive synths, with a bold pitch-shifted vocal surfacing every now and again—they’re perfect for the club or a bustling street corner. Utilizing both absurd humor and a genuine embrace of fearless independence, it’s the perfect pump-up LP. —Lizzie Manno
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8. Lo Tom: LP2
When singer/songwriter David Bazan started doing living room tours back in 2008, he quickly proved that radical downsizing was a viable way forward for musical performance. Along with the wider proliferation of house shows, it seems like small was well on its way to becoming the new big. What strange timing, then, that the sophomore effort by Lo Tom finds Bazan sounding right at home within arrangements that recapture the grandeur of Big Rock. If there’s anyone suited to maintain a sense of discreet poise while the music around him practically explodes in bombast, it’s Bazan, whose earnest soul-searching is retrofitted with a shiny new scaffolding courtesy of one-time Pedro The Lion/Headphones bandmate TW Walsh, along with guitarist Jason Martin and drummer Trey Many. —Saby Reyes-Kulkarni
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9. Mickey Guyton: Bridges
Nashville’s Mickey Guyton is the unapologetic voice country music needs right now. Unfortunately, women in country music still don’t receive radio airplay equal to that of their male counterparts, and for a Black artist like Guyton, the odds are even more stacked against her. That hasn’t stopped Guyton, who has released some of the best country songs of the year in her singles “Black Like Me” and “Heaven Down Here,” both written in response to 2020 and ongoing current events and featured on her Bridges EP. In the former, Guyton sings freely about the racism she encountered in childhood—and, sadly, still faces today: “Now, I’m all grown up and nothin’ has changed,” she sings. “Yeah, it’s still the same.” She calls for equality, but, ultimately, she’s displaying hope and pride: “Oh, and some day we’ll all be free,” she sings. “And I’m proud to be, oh, black like me.” It’s 2020, and a country song like this shouldn’t feel out of ordinary, but the fact of the matter is this song is radical. Country fans, listen to Mickey. We can learn so much from her. —Ellen Johnson
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10. PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Love – Demos
Earlier this year, PJ Harvey announced an extensive reissue series, which will see her entire back catalog released on vinyl over the course of a year. Each of her studio full-lengths will also have an accompanying demos album, available both digitally and on vinyl. The details for her first three album reissues have already been confirmed. Several of these studio albums have been out of print for decades, and this marks the first time her album demos have been released in a standalone format. —Lizzie Manno
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