We’re rounding the last corner of 2022, and the churning pistons of the music releasing apparatus are slowing to a near-complete holiday season stop. Before you know it, Paste will be looking back on the music that made this year what it was. But in the present moment, we’re looking ahead to the most exciting releases of November, many of which are very nearly upon us. We’ll have to wait until mid-month for the latest album from Weyes Blood, and the final one from BROCKHAMPTON, but Phoenix’s Alpha Zulu—not to mention half of the records on this list—arrive tomorrow, Nov. 4. Join us in getting psyched about all of the above below, with Paste’s most exciting albums of November.
November 4
Boldy James: Mr. Ten08
WAVGODMUSIC INC. / FXCKRXP
The Detroit emcee behind one of 2021’s best albums now returns with Mr. Ten08, his third album of 2022. Boldy James’ recent run has comprised acclaimed full-length collaborations with Nicolas Craven (September’s Fair Exchange No Robbery), Real Bad Man (May’s Killing Nothing) and The Alchemist (2021’s Bo Jackson and Super Tecmo Bo), and we expect his and his collaborators’ remarkable consistency to continue on Mr. Ten08, produced by Toronto’s Futurewave in its entirety, and featuring 2100 Bagz on “Dormin’s.” As heard on its two singles so far, “Flag on the Play” and “Could Be Worse,” Boldy James’ nonchalant, oaken-voiced flows are well-served by Futurewave’s subtly jazzy, extremely dreamy beats. —Scott Russell
First Aid Kit: Palomino
Columbia Records
The brightness of Swedish indie-folk duo First Aid Kit is back for their forthcoming album Palomino, even when they’re singing their way through disappointment. It is the way their songs always feel balanced, in harmonies and instrumentals, that makes one return to their releases again and again. They have a feeling of steady assurance, no matter the volatility of the lyrics. Songs like “Turning Onto You” will lodge themselves in some sweet, sunlit spot in your brain, while “Out of My Head” somersaults over itself to keep the pace going. Their latest single, “A Feeling That Never Came,” finds the duo at their strongest, as they manage to imbue each strum of the guitar with hope. It makes sense that the record feels like a homecoming, as the band comments, “This is the first record we’ve recorded in Sweden since we made our debut album The Big Black & The Blue 12 years ago! We worked with Swedish producer Daniel Bengtson at his lovely studio Studio Rymden in Stockholm. It was such a fun experience. We really let the recording take time, we didn’t want to rush it.” And indeed, an intuitive pace links the project, as the duo move naturally. They embrace the ground covered in their music with grace. —Rosa Sofia Kaminski
Gold Dust: The Late Great Gold Dust
Centripetal Force
Western Massachusetts singer/songwriter Stephen Pierce (Ampere, Kindling, Montcalm, The Last Forty Seconds) is back already with the follow-up to his self-titled 2021 debut as Gold Dust. On The Late Great Gold Dust, Pierce brings his hazy, hooky psych-folk-rock sound into sharper focus, regulating its dreaminess more precisely without sapping its hypnotic effects. A shoegaze sheen meets throwback folk vocals on “Larks Swarm a Hawk,” with a J. Mascis guitar solo to top it off. “Proof of Life” pairs Real Estate-esque melody with roving, distorted Americana, rendered via the dulcimer. And “Mountain Laurel” sways to and fro atop clattering percussion, with Pierce’s slide guitar—and an explosive solo of his own—uplifting his bittersweet songwriting: “If I can’t see the moon through the evergreens / I’ll hold tight, just trust it’s there / And if there’s not a sun to light our summer sky / Well I guess we’ll know the dark.” —Scott Russell
Okay Kaya: SAP
Jagjaguwar
Okay Kaya, aka Kaya Wilkins, soothes you in her own way on her forthcoming record SAP, with each single serving as a healing of sorts. “Inside of a Plum” uses lush, full harmonies to guide you through the artist’s experience of ketamine therapy—it demystifies the somewhat stigmatized practice, reaching out with empathy and patience towards the listener. The spareness of the arrangement makes you focus on the warm vocals and lyrics, pulling you into the story by virtue of what’s left to the imagination. Meanwhile, “Jolene From Her Own Perspective” gives a cheeky, homoerotic response to Dolly Parton’s well-loved classic “Jolene.” The lyrics focus on repairing the bonds between Dolly and Jolene, sung with patience and care, with special attention given to when blame is placed unfairly on women in situations such as these. “Spinal Tap,” meanwhile, serves as a feverish dream, in which the singer seems to search for something that will truly cleanse her. She searches for what is wrong at the root, with bubbly, cushioning production underneath serving to give the song movement. With lyrics like, “Even my subconscious is self-conscious,” this album is a deeply personal one, a symbol of trust from Okay Kaya to you. —Rosa Sofia Kaminski
Phoenix: Alpha Zulu
Loyaute/Glassnote Records
Phoenix is a very French band. The Louvre is a very French museum. As bewildering as it may sound, it seemed inevitable for the indie-pop quartet to connect themselves to such a cultural behemoth this French. After all, their most popular song references the construction of the Eiffel Tower at Paris’ first Exposition Universelle. Viewed through this lens, the group’s seventh record, Alpha Zulu, presents itself as a culmination. They may have already headlined Coachella in 2013. They may have an excellent, career-spanning oral history penned by the venerable music critic Laura Snapes. Phoenix making an album inside the Louvre, though, feels like a pro forma apogee. Guitarists/brothers Laurent “Branco” Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai and bassist/keyboardist Deck d’Arcy sheltered themselves in an empty, nocturnal Louvre during lockdown to make Alpha Zulu. Isolated in the beatific Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the three friends found themselves surrounded by gaudy sculptures and world-famous paintings. Especially once vocalist Thomas Mars joined them in early 2021, writing kicked into full gear. It marks their first new music since the death of their frequent producer and de facto fifth member Philippe Zdar, and it’s the first album they’ve produced entirely themselves. —Grant Sharples
Tenci: A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing
Keeled Scales
Tenci, the Chicago-based band with frontperson Jess Shoman at the helm, are back for their sophomore album A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing, and it’s Shoman’s volatile voice that first yanks you into their music. Both gentle and raw, their voice finds steadiness in its instability, and seems to come from the gut each and every time. It’s the first thing that sets their music apart from other acts, but not the only thing. The way their songs build feels like every band member is doing their part to help everyone else along, pushing as a full unit toward the climaxes of their pieces. On songs like “Sour Cherries,” they bring you the balance of anger and ecstasy created in love, with Shoman’s trills ending up in feral screams. In this vulnerability, they lay out not only pain, but also the beauty behind it. —Rosa Sofia Kaminski
More notable November 4 releases: A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie: Me Vs Myself, Alicia Keys: Santa Baby, Andy Bell: The Grounding Process EP, Big Joanie: Back Home, Caleb Landry Jones: Gadzooks Vol. 2, Carla dal Forno: Come Around, Dean Fertita: Tropical Gothclub, Ezra Collective: Where I’m Meant To Be, Jason Collett: Head Full Of Wonder, Julien Chang: The Sale, La Femme: Teatro Lucido, Metro Boomin: Heroes & Villains, Mount Kimbie: MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning, Old Fire: Voids, R.A.P. Ferreira: 5 To The Eye With Stars, Seth Avett: Seth Avett Sings Greg Brown, Special Interest: Endure, Spoon: Lucifer on the Moon, Tom Skinner: Voices of Bishara, Turnover: Myself in the Way, Yonatan Gat: American Quartet
November 11
Christine and the Queens Presents Redcar: Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue)
Because Music
Christine and the Queens (Héloïse Adélaïde Letissier) inhabits the character of Redcar on his forthcoming third full-length, Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue). The record was originally set for a late-September release, then postponed until this month after Chris/Red injured himself while dancing in rehearsals. Recorded with seven-time Grammy winner Mike Dean (Kanye West, Lana Del Rey, Jay-Z), Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue)—whose title suggests more Redcar to come—heralds a bold, theatrical new era for Christine and the Queens, in which big-room production complements Red’s passionately operatic performances. —Scott Russell
Dumb: Pray 4 Tomorrow
Mint Records
“If I had to do it low-key,” Vancouver’s Dumb consider, “then what good would living do me?” That’s on Pray 4 Tomorrow single “Excuse Me?,” titled in a nod to the band’s friends and peers in San Francisco’s Pardoner, with whom they share a textured and irreverent DIY guitar-rock sound. The quartet comprising Franco Rossino, Shelby Vredik, Pipe Morelli and Nick Short continue to do things their own way on their self-recorded third album, the follow-up to 2019’s Club Nites. Equal parts garage-punk noise and throwback pop melody, Dumb’s music wears its tattered edges like a badge of honor, and it’s high-key fun to follow along with them. —Scott Russell
More notable November 11 releases: Bill Nace: Through a Room, Bruce Springsteen: Only The Strong Survive, FaltyDL: A Nurse to My Patience, Fitz and The Tantrums: Let Yourself Free, Franz Nicolay: New River, GloRilla: Anyway’s Life’s Great… EP, Gold Panda: The Work, Hyd: Clearing, Jimmy Edgar: LIQUIDS HEAVEN, Jordana: I’m Doing Well, Thanks For Asking EP, L.S. Dunes: Past Lives, Larkin Poe: Blood Harmony, Louis Tomlinson: Faith In the Future, Nas: King’s Disease III, Smut: How the Light Felt, Soul Blind: Feel It All Around
November 17
BROCKHAMPTON: The Family
Question Everything / RCA Records
Self-proclaimed “boy band” and hip-hop collective BROCKHAMPTON split hearts when they announced their indefinite hiatus earlier this year. The band had built up a large following, with casual listeners and extreme fans alike. So to hear of one last album, bittersweetly titled The Family, as the band’s goodbye intrigues even as it reminds the listener that this is the last stop for the group. They vaguely teased it at their Coachella set, riding on the heels of the recent announcement of their parting ways. It feels like a conscious chance to say goodbye, fully knowing that this is the last piece of new music we’ll hear from them. And the band certainly know how to make use of this melodrama—The Family is advertised simply as a story about BROCKHAMPTON, and comes with no advance singles—in their place stand two emotional trailers. The band posted both on Instagram; the first one contains old pictures and videos, with the lyrics “God, please don’t make me grow up” playing over it all. “THE FINAL ALBUM” flashes across the screen before it fades to black. —Rosa Sofia Kaminski
November 18
Weyes Blood: And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow
Sub Pop
Natalie Mering’s (Weyes Blood) newest LP, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, picks up right where Titanic Rising left us in 2019. Even the album covers bear similar imagery. On the latter’s, Mering is underwater in a bedroom, suspended in an oceanic ether above a wine-red carpet. Light pours in through the bellowing, jellyfish-translucent curtains. It’s as if she’s stranded and the shipwreck has not yet sunken down to the seabed. On the cover of Hearts Aglow, Mering appears to still be below the surface, her hair drifting through the water like a slow-motion wave, her chest, quite literally, bursting with a sun-red gleam. There’s a stillness afoot, a rubble above ready to be pieced back together. And Mering is standing atop the debris. —Matt Mitchell
More notable November 18 releases: Badge Époque Ensemble & Lammping: Clouds of Joy: Chance of Reign, Billy Strings: ME/AND/DAD, Caitlin Rose: CAZIMI, Honey Dijon: Black Girl Magic, isomonstrosity: isomonstrosity, Neal Francis: Sentimental Garbage EP, Neil Young & Crazy Horse: World Record, Nickelback: Get Rollin’, Richard Dawson: The Ruby Cord, Roddy Ricch: Feed The Street III, Röyksopp: Profound Mysteries III, The Wombats: Is This What It Feels Like To Feel Like This? EP, Veps: Oslo Park
Notable November 25 releases: Andy Bell: Untitled Film Stills EP, Marcus Paquin: Our Love, Stormzy: This Is What I Mean, Walt Disco: Always Sickening EP
