Lana Del Rey, The Flaming Lips, and 21 other albums we can’t wait to hear in September
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Summer may be coming to a close and the schools bells may be ringing once more—virtually, we hope—but the season of music is perpetual and unchanging (okay, admittedly there’s a slight shift around the Yuletide so that Mariah can once more storm the charts). As we roll into September, there are again a bevy of great records on the horizon: New releases from beloved weirdos like The Flaming Lips, indie icons like Sufjan Stevens, and even our favorite giraffe feeder, 2 Chainz. So as we watch the sky once more begin getting darker earlier (and not metaphorically, for a change), let us console ourselves with the ever-bright landscape of pop music and its effervescent champions. Of course, if you’d rather brood and listen to something dark, we’ve got you covered there, too.
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91 Comments
Fuck. Fucking. Slideshows.
You know what’d make these slideshows even better, is to be able to play every video simultaneously. Because that’s what happens if you don’t pause before moving on to the next one.
My takeaway from this comment (having not read the article) is that the new Flaming Lips album is a return to style of Zaireeka and the Parking Lot Experiments.
Finally, the Sylvan Esso video I worked on pops up on avclub. Would have been cooler if it had been in an A-Sides column…
Whoa, that’s awesome—such a great video; congrats!! First time I heard the song was when i watched the video, and it’s been seared in my brain ever since. The visuals! The dancing! The llama!! Maybe we’ll get to feature it again when the album comes out, but, regardless, you should be proud!
I still say Semisonic drummer Jacob Schliter’s book So You Wanna be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer’s Life is the best insider’s look at the music industry around the time of “hey, this ‘alternative music’ is a thing! let’s sign everybody—oh shit, napster!”. Very engaging read.
Everyone should read this book.
I wish I could give you more stars. I worked for a major label during the era he writes about and it’s painfully spot-on and really well-written to boot (Slichter’s the Harvard-educated son of a physicist and it shows in his writing).
Indeed, an excellent book. I love how he’s always trying to steal the clothes on the video shoots lol. So glad they are back together. Great Divide is one of my all time favorite albums.
now that sounds like a good book. not that i had any illusions that the music industry was anything more than various overlapping business scams with aggressive marketing but these people are like the renaissance masters of exploitation.
When these articles aren’t a slideshow anymore, I’ll start reading them again.
Until then, this is the only click you get.
if you resize your browser window it stops being a slideshow. It’s still annoying and is costing them clicks and comments so hopefully they’ll friggin stop soon, but at least that takes care of it short term.
It’s an easy fix for now, but these morons behind G/O Media won’t use as much sense as you are. When you take over a media company that’s making bank WITH talented writers, and shut down a whole site & chase off talented writers on two others, you don’t care about affecting the current model, you just want to overhaul to a shittier model.
there’s a strip mall I know where the landlord has chased out most of the tenants…then COVID happened…so now half the strip mall is empty, the other third is in bankruptcy and might close, and everybody in town knows not to rent from this guy, I expect Trump to appoint him to something soon
Not if the mayors of Portland or NYC get to him first! Those two have really proven they know how to manage.
There’s a furious comment about the slideshows on pretty much every AVC article with one and honestly I don’t know how to bring myself to care even a little bit. What’s the issue? I’m really not sure I understand it.
I love Bob Mould, but I really wish he’d let someone else produce his records.
Right? It’s like one long string of same-ness. At least it gives him a reason to keep touring…
YES! The songwriting is always top-notch and they sound fantastic live, but each record sounds like the last.
I may as well make the Lana del Rey comment: her songs encourage teenage girls to get into abusive relationships. I mean, aside from that she has admitted that her stage name was picked by a roomful of male lawyers and managers, and some of her songs that are lauded are truly atrocious (“California” off Rockwell is one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard of that name, and there are a lot of bad songs about California), how gross does somebody have to be before they get cancelled? I guess some people want their daughters beaten by meth head boyfriends.
As manufactured as LDR is, I still don’t understand the argument that she’s glorifying abusive relationships.
uh listen to her songs and read her comments in the article linked above
Yeah, hate her because she made a horrible cover of an already bad song, or hate her because she’s one of the least authentic singers possible.
But this “glorifying bad relationship thing” seems a bit out of left field.
But this “glorifying bad relationship thing” seems a bit out of left field.This.I mean, I don’t care if she’s “authentic” or not, or who she is in her personal life. I think Normal Fucking Rockwell is an amazing album (well, except for “Cinnamon Girl”), but YMMV. However, if we’re going to “cancel” people for “glorifying bad relationships”, let’s start by getting rid of country music, and then rap, and then, well, I think we have to get rid of about 98% of music. I guarantee you this will have zero effect on the prevalence of toxic relationships.Now, if she’d joined NXIVM or covered for R. Kelly, that would be a different kettle of fish.
She dates cops and comes from an extremely privileged background.
Of fucking course she’s toxic toward young women.
“b-b-b-but he was one of the good cops!”
And video games cause violence. Give me a break.
Obligatory link to white lady losing her mind to Norf Norf:
Av club has spent the past what, six months? Year? Mocking and trashing del ray. So ofc her new album is a “must hear.”
C’mon, it’s not like they’re representing a singular musical taste- AV Club even lists who put the pick at the end of each pick, so clearly that individual is anticipating it.
Lana del Rey…Lana del Rey…which interchangeably generic millionaire’s daughter who’s Daddy bought her a pop career is she again?
How small of a creative box do we have to put artists in? Influencing bad relationships? Blues songs from 100 years ago are either about getting drunk, making love or murder. Popular music has been variations on a theme since then. You can hate on her for any number of things, but she has the right to express herself however she wants with her music. This is like some new emotional version of the PMRC. Let’s separate the art from the artist when the artist is NOT fucking underage children or committing other despicable acts.
“she has the right to express herself however she wants with her music.” Helloooooo strawman argument!So…women can influence little girls to reach for the stars and live their dreams and never let anything stop them…but they can’t be responsible for influencing a girl to reach for Tyler who wears zubaz, live as his woman, and let him track her cellphone. Preaching submission and anti-feminism isn’t something we should hold an artist to when it is intentional?
This argument is as old as all media, also baseless and fundamentally conservative. Novels, movies, comics, rock and roll, video games, all of them (and their creators) attacked by frightened people who want to make very complicated social issues into simple cases of “cause and effect.”You can dislike music (or any kind of art) without pretending to be battling some kind of evil force that makes people make bad choices. It’s pure Church Lady nonsense.
there are good role models and there are bad role models, it has nothing to do with videogames. Also, I don’t fault the author of Jack Reacher for depicting violence (just bad writing) but I do fault the author of MEIN KAMPF (NAILED IT, take that Godwin!) and, hell, Atlas Shrugged.
Are you seriously equating LDR with Hitler? jfc, log off man
I have been hit with about 10 strawman arguments (like that I don’t think she has the “right” to record music) so I ironically triggered Godwin’s law (you really should have googled it before commenting). The fact that you took it seriously shows how ridiculous this thread has become. There are good role models and there are bad role models, that’s not the same thing as saying that videogames and books cause violence. People emulating Chris Brown cause violence, not people “brainwashed” by Chris Brown songs, the songs are just a how-to.
I was not familiar, or maybe I forgot about, Godwin’s law until this moment but you are exhausting. Goodbye
brilliant save, psych.
The only thing I was trying to save was my time. You think you look real smart but you really just look annoying
I said something I believe, that LDR is a bad role model. I think people like yourself throw around accusations of people being bad role models left and right but when it’s somebody you like without any good reason you get defensive and decide to bother me. Then you try to pretend I’m bothering you. You decided to be a twit. I don’t have to try to look real smart, I’m real smart, thanks.
You are the twit here. Dismissing all further comments 🤡
“Good role models” and “bad role models” is another argument right out of Christian Conservative Hand Wringing Playbook. Your argument has been appropriately laughed at by liberals for decades, if not centuries, because there’s nothing to it, except terrified claims of non-existent consequences. We’ll have to agree to disagree, but suggesting that artists you don’t like should be “cancelled” is just another way of demanding that certain books be burned. Don’t be a book-burner.
I am a liberal, and just because you call it something different when you disapprove of R. Kelly doesn’t make it a different thing. Also, if you are saying that TV should provide more good role models, women who don’t only talk about men, POC in positions of authority, then there are also bad role models. Burning a book as the same thing as saying somebody’s a POS and you shouldn’t listen to them is only slightly less absurd than my Godwin’s law callout. Hey everybody, “aikimqe” says rape jokes are okay!
You can call yourself a “liberal” all you want, but what matters is behavior. And calling for an artist to be cancelled because you don’t personally like her songs, while claiming (without any evidence, whatsoever) some kids could be hurt by listening to her, is classic conservative behavior.Conservative moral panic aside, telling other people what music they should and shouldn’t like is simply obnoxious and likely to make others want to spend less time in your company, so you might want to reflect on why you think your personal taste and perspective is automatically superior to so many others’. Finally, your last sentence makes me think you might still be in junior high school. In which case, I’m sure you’ll mature eventually, as you’re exposed to the larger world. Best of luck!
Nick Cave recently put it quite well (https://www.theredhandfiles.com/what-is-mercy-for-you/): “cancel culture is mercy’s antithesis. Political correctness has grown to become the unhappiest religion in the world. Its once honourable attempt to reimagine our society in a more equitable way now embodies all the worst aspects that religion has to offer (and none of the beauty) — moral certainty and self-righteousness shorn even of the capacity for redemption…. Cancel culture’s refusal to engage with uncomfortable ideas has an asphyxiating effect on the creative soul of a society…. A force that finds its meaning in the cancellation of these difficult ideas hampers the creative spirit of a society and strikes at the complex and diverse nature of its culture.”
Fantastic quote from a wonderful artist. Thank you.
LOL just…no. Sorry but the argument is ridiculous. She’s an artist and a storyteller, and there is a lot more going on in her writing than you’re giving her credit for. It is not her responsibility to educate young girls on healthy relationships. Lana will always be misunderstood by many, but she will surely be remembered as an iconic musician long past this lifetime.
disagree
It’s amazing how people form full opinions on something or someone from a headline or two. You have to give art and storytelling more credit. Lana’s created a character and a story about a woman on the search for happiness as she navigates toxic relationships and her own self-worth. With each album, her journey and character evolves and she explores a lot of valuable and relatable themes in her storytelling.She is not writing music for children. Music isn’t just meant to top the charts, it’s a very valid form of art and expression. If you don’t think the music is appropriate for children, don’t let them listen to it. But Lana is an adult writing music for adults.
wow that’s about five strawman arguments in a few short paragraphs
The link to her “less-than-great recent comments” leads to some of the most boring argumentation I’ve ever seen.
Depiction doesn’t equal endorsement.
Lana del ray vs literally any hip hop album ever for glorifying toxicity, who you got?
I don’t know why, but I assumed this piece’s title reflected one of humanity’s favorite pastimes – hate -reading, hate-listening, etc., because I can’t imagine any other reason to give this uber-amateur even a minute.
I’m not sure if you’ve read the fanzies who have been nipping at me in this thread but apparently her songs are SECRETLY very brilliant filled with HIDDEN meaning, she’s a genius when nobody is listening.
I see it. I like a lot of the content at The AV Club, but I don’t think I have ever seen so many rude/angry, socially inept commenters in one place.
like…I’m not saying we used to be better back in the day, but people used to have something to say. I just had a guy start spamming me with strawman arguments, then say I was harassing him and he would start dismissing my posts. So I dismissed all his posts. People on here used to have things they championed, weird interests, they were interesting. Now we have shitty police.
Of course, all women artists have to be pristine or they must be shunned.
sweet fucking christ these strawman arguments
It’s not a strawman, you goon. You said we should cancel (oy vey) a female artist because you disapprove of the message of her work, and when I observe that this is a sexist standard, you wail that I’m being unfair. I’m not. You’re just making a shitty argument.
pretending something is sexist because it happens to pertain to a woman is a strawman argument, you’re not worth my pixels, see ya
In everyone’s defense, I rarely ever hear this same comment about The Weeknd, who sings more explicitly about glorifying drug abuse and general douchery.
He does, and some of his lyrics aren’t much better than “my bitch suck dick” or “drunk and hot girls” but he also smothers it with his signature salsa: self-loathing. You can’t listen to his latest album (which is fucking fire) and not hear him knowingly debasing himself also. He sings about himself being alone, heartless, and the hardest to love and those are just the song titles. Now, I wouldn’t put on that song where he’s crooning about being a slave to the pussy with my parents in the car, but his latest album is more like a musical version of the Steve McQueen movie “Shame”
Lil Peep and Juice Wrld added self-loathing to their tales of self-debasement and getting too deep into drugs…look at them now. A whole genre of Weeknd wannabess snuffed like that. =(
That hasn’t been true for awhile now. Don’t let the pillars of Ultraviolence and the unlistenable Born To Die ring in your ears, she’s a lot less sunken in.
I hated these slideshows until they started fucking up the videos with the entries, now I love them.*Extremely singer/songwriter voice* Machine, BITCH
Here is my entire list of albums I’m excited for in the Month of September:
Deftones, Ohms [September 25]
You are correct.
seriously
AVC has been ignoring Deftones forever, no surprises.
Holy shit… this album is White Pony 2.0!! If you don’t like it, just burn all of your Deftones album because you CLEARLY weren’t ever a fan to begin with. It’s 100% a Deftones album through and through! It’s like a perfect time-capsule of everything that got them to where they are now. Bits of Around the Fur, some Saturday Night Wrist, even pieces of Koi No Yokan. This is the best album of 2020!
Hard pass on all of this yuppie shit.
Oh, and this format.
I’ve heard of 12 out of 25 of these people, goddamn.
I feel like AV club should just stop covering music.
But where else am I going to get blurbs about long-since-irrelevant musicians interspersed with blurbs about regional acts we’ve never heard of? Where else will I get forcefed the notion that anyone’s looked forward to a Flaming Lips album in the last 15 years? WHERE WILL I GET MY DEDICATED MORRISSEY REVIEW
Gee, I sure hope that Flaming Lips album is really bizarre so Wayne Coyne will have the pleasure of reading people post that the new Flaming Lips album is really bizarre.
I read that it’s not, surprisingly!
You know what? It has some moments like that, but I’d argue it’s their most enjoyably semi-lucid album since “At War with the Mystics.” I’ve been listening to a lot of it, and it’s been a while since I’ve done that. Some of it is quite good.
I’m interested to see how the new Manson album does once it releases officially, given the unexpected (albeit modest) praise he’s been getting on his last couple of releases. We Are Chaos is a strange animal to be sure, simultaneously very different and perfectly in line with the past two. Heavier than the single lets on, but still easily his softest album in a good while, if ever. These are largely songs you could see him sitting on a stool performing acoustic versions of, and I think I’m really into it. (and as always, fuck the slideshows)
In the next post in this series, I’m hoping you will include the new EP from Black Thought which drops later this month. Special guests inc Pusha T, Swiss Beats, Killer Mike, Portugal The Man, and others. Bangers across the board.
On my radar not mentioned above are the new Throwing Muses (9/4) and Uniform (9/11) albums.
Petition to stop describing post-punk as “angular”, who’s with me
Somewhere along the line, I just stopped caring about the Flaming Lips. I don’t dislike them, I just stopped.
Super excited to see Hannah Georgas here – one of the best singers to come out of Vancouver imo. I saw her open for Sam Roberts years ago and have been hoping she’d get a break ever since.
No mention of Idles (25 September), Throwing Muses (4 September), or Napalm Death (18 September)? Oh well… those are three I am looking forward to this month. 🙂
I was hoping to see Ava Max on here. Her debut album comes out Sept 18 and I can’t wait. Been wanting it since Sweet but Psycho came out at the beginning of last year. I’ve loved every single since then.
Meanwhile, SPC ECO has managed to release new material in every month of 2020, but they’ve never managed to garner a mention from the music cognoscenti at AV Club.
I was going to click through this slideshow, but that “hey sign up for our newsletter” pop up blocked my entire screen after the third slide and I couldn’t make it disappear. I reopened the page in three other tabs and this is the only one that didn’t also get completely shut down by the newsletter pop up and I just don’t care any more. What the fuck, you guys?
Wow, I had no idea Matt Berry had a music career. I hadn’t realized that was actually him singing in ‘Darkplace’. That album cover makes him look a bit like Lowell George.