The Backseat Lovers - Waiting To Spill - Capitol
The Backseat Lovers' sophomore album Waiting To Spill is released this week. The release was preceded by the single, "Growing/Dying," their first new music release in over two years.

Tom Waits - Alice: 20th Anniversary Edition - Anti
"Alice" is the 14th studio album by Tom Waits, originally released in 2002. The album contains most songs written for the play Alice. The adaptation was directed by Robert Wilson, who Waits had previously worked with on the play The Black Rider, and originally set up at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg in 1992. The play has since been performed in various theatres around the world. 

Nino Rota - La Dolce Vita (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack): Remastered - Decca
Nino Rota’s soundtrack to Federico Fellini’s masterpiece ‘La Dolce Vita’ has been fully restored and remastered from the original master tapes and will be released on CAM Sugar as part of the CAM SUGAR Heritage Series – the label’s collection dedicated to the scores synonymous with the history of Italian cinema.

Neil Diamond - A Neil Diamond Christmas - UMe
A Neil Diamond Christmas is a newly remastered set specially curated by Neil Diamond from his 4 best-selling Christmas albums. These acclaimed recordings feature Neil originals and inventive arrangements of traditional songs, spotlighting his trademark sound in a holiday setting. It also features a new mix of, "O Holy Night."

Architects - The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Spirit - Epitaph
Architects have delivered their 10th studio album; an arena-ready opus entitled, 'The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Spirit', the follow up to their 2021 breakout album For Those That Wish To Exist, which hit #1 on the UK sales chart. Finding yourself with a UK Number One album and selling out arenas is enough for some to repeat a winning formula. Architects however, are forever moving forward. "It was definitely validating and felt really cool for like a day," recalls drummer, producer and songwriter Dan Searle of hitting the top spot with 'For Those That Wish To Exist'"For a lot of the bucket list things you reach in any career, there's a momentary gratification then you're like, 'What next?' You just move on. By the time the album came out, my head was already in the mindset of 'Broken Spirit'. That was where I was at." Searle notes how it was their albums 'Lost Forever/Lost Together', 'All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us', and 'Holy Hell' that really "cemented what the band was about" and "took them to a new level" as a rock powerhouse and leaders of the UK's metalcore scene - making it all the more "daunting" to reinvent themselves on the records that would follow. "I wanted to make this album with a different aesthetic. We were enjoying working with the synths and doing stuff that we hadn't done before." As a band who never stop writing, the kernels of the songs that make up 'the classic symptoms of a broken spirit' were already in progress before the ink had time to dry on the artwork of their last record. Architects were on a creative roll, and the record was born of that creative freedom. Produced by Dan Searle and guitarist Josh Middleton, with additional production from frontman Sam Carter at Decon's Middle Farm Studios and their own Brighton Electric Studios before being mixed by Zakk Cervini, the band were buoyed by finally being back in a room together after their last album was made mostly remotely due to COVID restrictions. The result was something altogether more "free, playful and spontaneous," Searle explains. Carter agrees: "This one feels more live, more exciting and more fun - it has that energy. We wanted it to be a lot more industrial and electronic. That was the main mission. They can sit side-by-side: Mr Electronic and Mr Organic."

Ugly Kid Joe - Rad Wings Of Destiny - Metalville
Rad Wings Of Destiny is the first new album from California band Ugly Kid Joe since 2015's Uglier Than They Used Ta Be. For this album, Ugly Kid Joe teamed up with producer Mark Dodson, who was already responsible for the 1992 multiplatinum debut album America's Least Wanted.

  

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city: 10th Anniversary Edition - Aftermath
To celebrate the good kid, m.A.A.d city 10-year anniversary, Kendrick Lamar brings us exclusive new offerings. Available on Indie Exclusive Milky Clear 2LP, 2LP, CD & Cassette

Babyface - Girls Night Out - Capitol 
Girls Night Out is the new compilation album from Babyface featuring some of today’s brightest & rising female R&B stars. The 12-track, Babyface-produced album is a sonic journey through love, heartbreak and all the emotions in between, featuring vocals from Babyface alongside special guests Ella Mai, Queen Naija, Ari Lennox, Kehlani, Doechii & more. Girls Night Outbridges the classic and the current with Babyface’s timeless approach to music production, exemplifying artistry at its finest.

Various Artists - Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen - Blue Note Records
Producer Larry Klein pays tribute to his friend Leonard Cohen with an album that presents stunning new renditions of the legendary singer-songwriter's compositions performed by an extraordinary line-up of vocalists. The guest artists are backed by what Klein calls "a group of the most prescient and forward-looking musicians in the jazz world." The album's 12 tracks offer a broad range of Cohen's songs drawn from his 1967 debut Songs of Leonard Cohen through his final album, You Want It Darker.

Plains - I Walked With You A Ways - Anti
Hitting play on the debut album from Plains, the duo composed of Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson, we're immediately teleported into a world of Southern sunsets, wide open spaces, and the unapologetic nature of Country music. Plains began out of Crutchfield's and Williamson's mutual love for each other's music and after trading albums (Saint Cloud and Sorceress, respectively) in early 2020. Feeling that it was time to have a separate project that could reflect a different side of her creative inspirations, Katie felt that Jess was the perfect fit for a collaboration, and they set off to create I Walked With You A Ways. Written between Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Marfa, the album was recorded in Durham, NC with collaborator and producer Brad Cook. The creative magic of only a few vocal takes, tracking with a band comprised of Spencer Tweedy and Phil Cook, gives the album a feel of fresh, on-the-spot conception.

Ocean Alley - Low Altitude Living - Unified Music Group
Australia’s beloved psychedelic surf rock outfit Ocean Alley return with their fourth album Low Altitude Living. Includes the singles Home and Touch Back Down.

  

Nothing More - Spirits - Better Noise Music
Three-time Grammy nominees and San Antonio, Texas-born quartet, Nothing More return with their highly awaited 7th album Spirits. The album features 13 songs with the band's most focused, adventurous, and intense music, uniting introspective philosophical lyrics with unapologetically massive anthems, including their in-your-face rock track "Turn It Up Like."

Brian Eno - FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE - Deutsche Grammophon 
A new studio album of songs written, recorded and produced by visionary musician and artist Brian Eno – featuring his vocals on 8 of the 10 recordings. FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE is Eno’s first studio album in six years and features appearances from longstanding collaborators Leo Abrahams, Roger Eno and Peter Chilvers, alongside Cecily Eno, Clodagh Simonds, Darla Eno and Jon Hopkins.

Isokratisses - Cry With Tears: Greek-Albanian Songs Of Many Voices - Third Man Vinyl
Isokratisses (Greek for "women who sing the "iso" or "drone") is a vocal ensemble comprised of eight women who carry the ancient tradition of polyphonic songs from Epirus: a region in northern Greece and southern Albania. Born and reared in the Greek speaking villages around Deropoli and Politsani in Albania, the women of Isokratisses have sung these songs since childhood. The group ranges in age from 19 to 56 with some sisters in the group as well as an aunt. They were nurtured by this archaic music, listening and singing it with their family and friends. The songs were passed down from generation to generation. The group started its artistic activity in 2015, after the singer Anna Katsi took the initiative to encourage the younger members to perform regularly. The communal nature of polyphonic singing is a way of revitalizing an art that has declined in recent years and to reassert the primacy of female voices in the southern Balkans. Singing these songs builds an invisible bridge that connects the present with the past, the memories of childhood travel with the immediacy of daily life. this week, Third Man Records release a full album of these solo polyphonic songs, with Grammy-winning producer Christopher King.