While it’s easier than ever these days to find and get music, it seems like every day it becomes more and more difficult to just get the things you actually want to hear.
With tons of albums getting released each month, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the releases you definitely want to get your hands on and you find yourself just giving up.
In the interest of promoting great music, we’ve decided to give our readers a forecast of the best and most promising releases coming out this month.
The Rubens – Hoops
Label: Ivy League
Release Date: 7th August
Pre-Order: The Rubens
The Rubens announced their triumphant return back in May with the sublime new single, ‘Hallelujah’, the first cut to be taken from the band’s eagerly anticipated sophomore effort, Hoops, which is slated to drop Friday, 7th August.
“We put more of a focus on how the songs would work in a live setting for this album,” said frontman Sam Margin at the time. “We wanted to write songs that would be fun for us to play live as well as fun for our audience to listen and move to.”
Hoops follows on from the band’s platinum-certified, self-titled debut album, which nabbed an impressive #3 spot on the ARIA Album Chart and saw the band net an APRA Award, get nominated for Best Album at the J Awards, and rack up three ARIA Award nominations.
Bad//Dreems – Dogs At Bay
Label: Ivy League
Release Date: 21st August
Pre-Order: Bad//Dreems
Adelaide garage rock favourites BAD//DREEMS dropped their single ‘Cuffed and Collared’ via Sydney-based label Ivy League Records back in March. The release served as a tease leading up to their debut LP, Dogs At Bay, which they boys are finally ready for release.
Dogs At Bay serves as a compelling document of one of the most exciting guitar acts currently active in the country. The album perfectly encapsulates BAD//DREEMS’ simple but effective credo: heart on your sleeve rock and roll. It’s just three honest chords, a driving beat, and ragged vocals.
Foals – What Went Down
Label: Warner
Release Date: 28th August
Pre-Order: Foals
They thrilled us as last-minute Splendour In The Grass replacements last year, ultimately becoming one of the highlights of the festival, now Foals, one of the most exciting bands to come out of the UK in decades, are dropping their eagerly anticipated fourth album, What Went Down.
For album number four, Foals teamed up with producer James Ford, best known for his work with Arctic Monkeys, Florence & The Machine, Jessie Ware, and Mumford & Sons, and retreated to the South of France to record in a rural 19th-century mill. The result is a primal, intense, sometimes harrowing album of extremes.
Dead Letter Circus – Aesthesis
Label: UNFD
Release Date: 14th August
Pre-Order: Dead Letter Circus
Dead Letter Circus’ highly anticipated third album is a force of nature that looks to thrust listeners into a new realm of perception. The title itself stems from the process of perceiving, an awakening or awareness of the sensations around one’s self.
There really is no better way to describe the feeling, movement, and revelation that is Dead Letter Circus. One of Australia’s hardest working outfits, the band have had two albums debut at #2 on the ARIA albums chart and their releases have sold over 100,000 copies.
Aesthesis was tracked, produced, and engineered by a dream team of Matt Bartlem, Zach Hylton (The Getaway Plan, Jarryd James), and Forrester Savell (Karnivool, The Occupants) and mixed by US studio legend Chris Lord-Alge, making it a collaboration of some of the best minds in heavy music today.
Motörhead – Bad Magic
Label: Warner
Release Date: 28th August
Pre-Order: iTunes
After 40 years of rattling teeth, shattering ear drums, and cracking bones with their legendary brand of balls-to-the-wall, high octane rock and roll, you’d think hard rock veterans Motörhead would want to take a little bit of a breather, right?
But there’s no rest for the wicked. Motörhead have announced their triumphant return with what will be their 22nd studio album and as always, it’s brimming with thunderous riffs, pounding drums, freight train rhythm, and those iconic Lemmy vocals.
The Paper Kites – twelvefour
Label: Sony
Release Date: 28th August
Pre-Order: iTunes
“The album is a concept record, based around a theory that an artist’s creative peak is between the hours of midnight and 4am,” says Paper Kites lead vocalist and songwriter Sam Bentley of the acclaimed bands eagerly anticipated new album, twelvefour.
“That idea turned into the heart of the project, so every night I’d sit down when the clock ticked over to midnight and just start writing.” Sam ended up working on the new album for two sleepless months, reversing his sleep patterns and penning thirty songs in his home studio.
“I got to the end and thought, I’m never doing that again,” Sam laughs. “It was wild to write until you are so tired that nothing sounded too over-worked – songs didn’t feel restricted by a commonly analytical brain.”
The Bohicas – The Making Of
Label: EMI
Release Date: 21st August
Pre-Order: iTunes
Having rapidly earned a stellar reputation on the back of a serious of ludicrously melodic, snarling guitar pop, The Bohicas will release their anticipated debut album, The Making Of, on Friday 21st August and it’s sure to garner more acclaim for the band.
“I wanted to make sure the writing on the album wasn’t solely hard and fast rock tunes,” the band explained. “By the time we came to rehearsing it we’d been listening to déjà vu by CSNY and we were experimenting with how far we could push our vocal harmonies.”
“I was struggling with a title and always meant to use ‘The Making of’ somehow. The making or breaking of, it’s a bit of a curve ball. Deal with it.” No doubt the album will jam-packed with the band’s signature sound of high energy rock and roll with a focus on melody and catchy hooks.
The Jungle Giants – Speakerzoid
Label: Amplifire
Release Date: August 7th
Pre-Order: The Jungle Giants
Recorded as 2014 drew to a close inside a temporary studio set up near the NSW/QLD border with friend and producer Magoo, Speakerzoid is an inventive, accomplished, and ebullient effort from a young band in full control of their creative powers.
No longer just a band of talented Brisbane teenagers, The Jungle Giants have grown into a group of experienced, formidable, and creative musicians filled with the sense of irrepressible vitality that has served them so well to date.
