NEW ALBUMS
RYAN ADAMS – BIG COLORS
After going on sabbatical in early 2019, prolific singer/songwriter Ryan Adams released Wednesdays in December 2020. He has returned with Big Colors, which is his eighteenth solo album.
“Big Colors is the soundtrack to a movie from 1984 that exists only in my soul. It’s a cliché inside a watercolor painting of neon blue smoke rising up off summer streets in the night” – RA 2021
Stream • Pax Americana • 2021
AFI – BODIES
AFI‘s eleventh album, Bodies, is the emo-punk band’s first new release since 2018’s The Missing Man EP, and first new album since AFI in 2017.
Stream • Rise Records • 2021
COLD CAVE – FATE IN SEVEN LESSONS
Fate in Seven Lessons is Cold Cave’s third album and first since 2011. Cold Cave will definitely appeal to fans of the dark wave genre inspired by New Order, Joy Division, Depeche Mode and Gary Numan.
Stream • Heartworm • 2021
DANNY ELFMAN – BIG MESS
Danny Elfman, the Oscar-nominated, Grammy-winning film composer and Oingo Boingo leader, has just released his second solo album (not including film score albums) since 1984’s So-Lo.
Stream • ANTI-/Epitaph • 2021
GARBAGE – NO GODS NO MASTERS
No Gods No Monsters is Garbage‘s seventh studio album, and third since reuniting in 2010.
Speaking to SPIN, Shirley Manson described the new album as “a critique of the rise of capitalist short-sightedness, racism, sexism and misogyny across the world.”
Stream • Stunvolume/Infectious Music • 2021
NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS – BACK THE WAY WE CAME: VOL 1 (2011-2021)
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have released three LPs and at least eight EPs since the dissolution of Oasis. Noel Gallagher has assembled and curated his solo band’s greatest hits album, Back the Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021) and is available in 2CD or 3CD deluxe editions as well as 2LP standard edition and 4LP deluxe editions.
“‘Flying On The Ground’ is literally the best thing I’ve released since the last thing I released. If Burt Bacharach wrote for Motown this is what it would sound like…only not as good…obviously.” – Noel Gallagher
Stream • Sour Mash • 2021
GREEN JELLŸ – GARBAGE BAND KIDS
Green Jellÿ (reminder: it’s pronounced “Green Jell-O”) has returned with their first new album since 2009. Garbage Band Kids features guest appearances from “Weird Al” Yankovic, members of Kittie, Fishbone, Suicidal Tendencies, Trailer Park Boys and more.
Stream • Cleopatra Records • 2021
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD – BUTTERFLY 3000
Butterfly 3000 is King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard‘s 18th studio album, second album of 2021 and third album in the last seven months.
Stream • Flightless • 2021
MAMMOTH WVH – MAMMOTH WVH
The long-waited debut album from the offspring of rock royalty, Wolfgang Van Halen‘s self-titled solo album as Mammoth WVH has arrived. The spirit of his father, guitar hero Eddie Van Halen, is all over this thing. “Mammoth” was the original name of Van Halen, “The Distance” is very much written as a tribute to Eddie, and Wolfgang soloed with his father’s famous Frankenstat guitar on the songs “Mammoth” and “Feel”.
Stream • EX1 Records • 2021
MR. BUNGLE – THE NIGHT THEY CAME HOME
Mr. Bungle‘s The Night They Came Home is a live recording of their Halloween 2020 livestream show. The setlist includes every song from last year’s The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo and includes a Slayer/Seals & Crofts medley (“Hell Awaits/Summer Breeze”) and a cover of Van Halen‘s “Loss of Control”.
Stream • Ipecac Recordings • 2021
PORTUGAL. THE MAN – OREGON CITY SESSIONS
Originally released to streaming services in mid-April, Portugal. The Man‘s Oregon City Sessions is now available on compact disc and vinyl.
Stream • Approachng AIRBalloons • 2021
THE SHINS – OH, INVERTED WORLD 20TH ANNIVERSARY REISSUE
The Shins (the band capable of changing your life according to Garden State) have reissued their debut album Oh, Inverted World for its 20th birthday.
The band’s leader, James Mercer, was never satisfied with the final product of the original album, so it has been remastered more to his liking under his watchful eye.
Stream • Sub Pop • 2021
SLEATER-KINNEY – PATH OF WELLNESS
Sleater-Kinney have returned with their 10th studio album, and third since reuniting in 2014. The self-produced Path of Wellness is their first album since the departure in 2019 of long time drummer, Janet Weiss.
Stream • Mom + Pop • 2021
JIM WARD – DAGGERS
After four albums with Sparta, two with Sleepercar and three with At the Drive-In, Jim Ward has released, Daggers, his first album of new material under his own name, not including EPs and compilations.
Stream • Dine Alone • 2021
SINGLES/EPs
RICHARD MARX / MATTHEW K. HEAFY – RIGHT HERE WAITING
Trivium‘s Matt Heafy reached out to Richard Marx after seeing a social media photo of Marx’s son wearing a Trivium shirt. The two agreed to a collaboration resulting in a heavy remake of Marx’s 80’s classic “Right Here Waiting”.
Stream • Roadrunner Records • 2021
PHOSPHORESCENT – THE BBC SESSIONS EP
Phosphorescent‘s The BBC Sessions features stripped-down, bare performances from 2011 and 2013 recorded at the BBC.
Describing these five songs contained within, singer Matthew Houck stated via social media:
Oftentimes, squeezing live radio sessions into tours is a blur of hangover mornings, borrowed instruments, rushed setups, haphazard song selections and um, “loose” performances… While that’s not untrue for these sessions, listening back years later I agree there’s somethin special goin on and I’m grateful to the BBC for capturing them
Stream • Dead Oceans • 2021