Mac McCaughan "The Sound of Your Self (Rough Trade Publishing)"
Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan has announced The Sound of Yourself, his second solo album under his own name. It arrives September 24 via Merge. On the album are contributions from Torres, Mountain Goats’ Matt Douglas, and A Giant Dog’s Sabrina Ellis. “I am aware of the irony of an album called The Sound of Yourself with this many guests on it,” McCaughan wrote in a note accompanying the announcement.
Little Hag "Leash (Bar/None)"
Asbury Park, N.J.-based self-described “bitch rockers” Little Hag have shared their debut album Leash, out everywhere via Bar/None Records. Some may recognize frontwoman Avery Mandeville from her own self-released EPs, but just as quarantine was shutting everything down Mandeville signed with Bar None Records and reinvented herself as Little Hag. Joined by Matt Fernicola on lead guitar, Owen Flanagan on drums, Chris Dubrow on bass, and Noah Rauchwerk on keys, Little Hag put out a compilation of old tracks, What Happened to Avery Jane? in 2020 and followed with their excellent Breakfast EP earlier this year.
A Certain Ratio "Loco Remezclada (Mute Records)"
A Certain Ratio continue an incredible run of releases and touring, one that has marked a dynamic new phase in their career, with details of LOCO REMEZCLADA: a collection of entirely new mixes and reworkings of tracks from across their recent catalogue. Out on 5 November 2021 on double clear vinyl, triple sparkle vinyl, CD and digitally, the new album takes in 2020’s acclaimed ACR LOCO album alongside ‘Down and Dirty’ featuring Denise Johnson, taken from EPA, the first in a trip of EPs released this year
Jose Gonzalez "Local Valley (Mute)"
“Local Valley” is unmistakably a Gonzales album, but there are a number of changes in this one: It’s his first solo album to use computerized rhythms rather than the subtle percussion of his past efforts, and it’s the first to include lyrics in all three of the languages he speaks (English, Spanish and Swedish). But it’s also arguably his most energetic solo album, with many of the hushed Nick Drake-isms of his past work giving way to a sound that is less a fundamental change — it’s still mostly him and his guitar — than a livelier take on his format. There are more multi-tracked vocals, more guitars and many of the songs are more direct. And although a couple of the African-influenced songs get a little candle-and-incense-boutique, the penultimate track, a cover of Iranian-Swedish artist Laleh’s “En Stund Pa Jorden” (“A Moment on Earth”) is so beautiful it’s practically a hymn.
