NEW RELEASES THAT NEED TO BE ON YOUR CULTURAL RADAR
1 BILLY IDOL
REBEL YELL The lip-curlin’ punk icon has a few surprises up his leather-jacketed sleeve on a forthcoming deluxe expanded edition of the Rebel Yell album to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The reissue includes a selection of previously unreleased songs and demos, the Poolside remix of hit single Eyes Without A Face and the never-before-heard Best Way Out Of Here from the original recording sessions. A barnstorming unreleased cover of Rose Royce’s Love Don’t Live Here Anymore trails the reissue and is now available on streaming platforms. The expanded reissue is available in 2LP, 2CD and digital formats from 26 April.
2 LADSCLUB
LADSCLUB Brighton-based duo Ladsclub have honed a set of original demos that were first posted online a year ago into an impressive debut album of electro bangers. Citing Pet Shop Boys as a sonic touchstone – most evident on the likes of Matinee and the clipped, cut glass vocals of Discoprancing – there’s plenty of dancefloor-friendly juice to enjoy here. Among the standouts elsewhere are stomping piano-led house anthem Init, the throbbing Lovebombed, which delves into harderhitting Underworld territory, and tongue-in-cheek Big. There’s even a slice of Peaches-style sauciness on Heavy.
3 BRUCE HORNSBY & YMUSIC (BRHYM)
DEEP SEA VENTS Hornsby’s late-career avant garde flourish continues on this collaborative project with experimental chamber ensemble yMusic. Deep Sea Vents is an album of 10 songs about water and the ways we live with, in, or against it. Also featured on the LP is jazz legend Branford Marsalis. Hornsby explains: “Over the last decade-plus, my journey has included a number of attempts at bringing modern classical content and sounds to the classic pop songwriting structure... all potentially leading to this moment and this release.” yMusic have previously worked with artists including Anohni, John Legend and Paul Simon.
4 VAMPIRE WEEKEND
ONLY GOD WAS ABOVE US The New York indie rockers have certainly put in the hours on this long-awaited follow-up to fourth studio album Father Of The Bride. With sessions spread across the globe encompassing London, Tokyo, Los Angeles and their Big Apple hometown, the bulk of the lyrics for Only God Was Above Us were written by frontman Ezra Koenig back in 2019-20. The band has spent the last five years refining and reshaping both the words and melodic structures over that time to create what they’re calling a “defining statement.” The album is out now via Columbia Records.