Coldplay, “Moon Music.” Coldplay recently announced that its 12th album would be its last and that the quartet would be retiring afterward. Music Moon, the band’s just-released 10th album, sets the slow march in motion. The record opens with a clash of complex orchestral beauty and somber melancholy and…

Leon Bridges, “Leon.” Leon Bridges’ 2021 album, Gold-Diggers Sound, expanded on the soulful feeling of his first two records with some new electronic elements, making for an exciting and fresh body of work. With his new self-titled, Leon, though, he’s returned to the more traditional sounds of his first…

Orla Gartland, “Everybody Needs a Hero.” Irish singer-songwriter Orla Gartland is back with another album of enigmatic pop on the vulerable Everybody Needs a Hero. Everybody Needs a Hero Orla Gartland New Friends, Oct. 4 8/10 Get the album on Amazon Music. Gartland continues her style of substance over flash,…

The Smile (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner), “Cutouts.” Cutouts is the second full-length album from The Smile in 2024. The supergroup composed of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, along with Sons of Kemet’s Tom Skinner, has achieved a level of productivity they were unable to match…

FINNEAS, “For Cryin’ Out Loud!” You’d have to be living under a rock to be completely unaware of the success of Billie Eilish and her producer-collaborator brother, FINNEAS. Both have a plethora of awards—including Oscars and Grammys—so to say talent is genetic is an understatement. With his second album,…

James Bay, Changes All The Time.” What happens when you have the backing of The Lumineers and Noah Kahan, and you have vocal range and a guitar? The short answer is that music happens. To be more specific, James Bay’s fourth album also happens. Changes All The Time James…

Caribou, “Honey.” With 10 albums and three monikers, Dan Snaith has accomplished a lot, and he continues to show how much music he still has up his sleeve. Honey, his eighth album with electro-pop project Caribou, meets at the crossroads with dance project Daphni. Honey, It’s chock-full of vocal…

“Bad Monkey” original series soundtrack, celebrating the music of Tom Petty. The gift and curse of a genius like William Shakespeare’s is that the bard’s work is always being reimagined. So you get “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” set amid a roller derby, a robotic Lady Macbeth or Hamlet delivering…

Billy Strings, “Highway Prayers.” Virtuosic bluegrass musician Billy Strings keeps up his hot streak on Highway Prayers, the singer-songwriter’s fourth album. The Michigan native is known for his Hendrix-like acumen on both banjo and guitar, but on the record, he delivers as an adept songwriter as well. Highway Prayers…

Katy Perry, “143.”   For Katy Perry, 143 isn’t just her first album in four years—it’s a return to making music after several years as a judge on “American Idol.” Her challenge was to capture the anthemic, larger-than-life magic of her earliest work. Perry has conquered the pop world…