Three weeks until spring. One more week until daylight saving time kicks in. And for New Music Friday, more tastes of what we can expect in the coming months.
Singles
1. The Head and the Heart, After the Setting Sun (Verve/Universal)
We’ll start with a little indie folk from Seattle. The group announced last summer that they’d completed their sixth album and would be releasing it shortly. We now know it’ll be called Aperture and is set for release on May 9. This will be the band’s first self-produced album since they started making records about 15 years ago. It’s also supposed to be a little more raw than anything they’ve done to date. This gives us an idea of where they’re going with this record.
2. Billy Idol, Still Dancing (BMG)
With a big tour set for this summer (and possible inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), Billy Idol felt it was an appropriate time to release a new album. And it’s been a minute. The last record of new material was Kings & Queens of the Underground, which came out in 2014. When it arrives on April 25, we’ll hear guest appearances by Avril Lavigne, Joan Jett, and Alison Mosshard of The Kills. Guitarist Steve Stevens is here, of course. The new single has serious White Wedding/Rebel Yell vibes. You’ll hear it.
3. PUP, Hallways (Frontside)
PUP just finished opening for Sum 41 on their farewell tour. Now their attention has turned to a brand new album, Who Will Look After the Dogs? By the time it comes out on May 2, the band will be on tour in Europe. I assume they’ll have someone to look after the dogs while they’re away.
4. Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory, Idiot Box (Jagjaguar)
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I’m completely taken with Sharon Van Etten’s seventh album and the first with The Attachment Theory. Every single has been soaring and glorious and the album itself is one that begs to be listened front to back in one sitting. One of my favourite records of the year so far.
5. Viagra Boys, Uno II (YEAR0001)
This is definitely a band to watch this year. Sweden’s Viagra Boys are up to their fourth album of snarling post-punk comes at you with all the attitude of the drunk guys whose pint you just spilled. The second single from viagr aboys was named after vocalist Sebastian Murphy’s Italian greyhound who suffered from dental problems for a whole year. “He goes to this place, then wakes up in some weird room, and he’s missing his teeth.” That would make anyone mad and confused.
Albums
1. Doves, Constellations for the Lonely (EMI North)
Doves, the indie band from Cheshire, have been around since 1998 and are something of an institution in the UK. Three of the five studio albums they released between 2000 and 2020 reached number one on the British charts. The group says sixth album is designed to give us a little hope in these desperate times. Okay, then: Give it a go. We could use some cheering up.
2. Mae Martin, I’m a TV (Universal)
Mae is a Toronto comedian, actor, screenwriter, and musician that you might know from the Netflix series Feel Good and their role as Grace alongside Kelly Cuoco in HBO’s The Flight Attendant. They started releasing music three years ago and her debut album is being introduced with Stowaway and Good Dream. The project is inspired by a love of Elliott Smith.
3. Sports Team, Boys Theses Days (Island)
More English music, this time a six-piece from Cambridge. Sports Team was formed in 2016 but has a thing about old-fashioned Middle England with their love of flip phones and fishing. They try to be serious, but you an tell that they’re a serious UNserious side to them. Fun fact: Lead guitarist Henry Young was once a sports writer at CNN.
4. The Vapors, Wasp in a Jar (Vapors Own Records)
Come back with me to the summer of 1980. New Wave is still a thing and a British group from Guildford had just released a banger single from their debut album that focuses on the glories of self-pleasure entitled Turning Japanese. Since then, there was one other album, a 34-year hiatus, a ton of line-up changes, a third album, and now a fourth.