The album releases slow down as we wind toward year's end, but there's still plenty of big records to dig into, as October proved.
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October → slow → records
Here are 10 great albums released this month.
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albums → release → ?
The Avalanches — No Bad Memories
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Finding inspiration in the nostalgic pull of obsolete technology and advertising, No Bad Memories is a 31-track fantasia where feel-good dance music and all-star pop collabs are spliced with overlooked samples and jingles both real and imagined.
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music → find → samples
It's a kaleidoscopic collage where anything is possible: a Carly Simon deep cut rubs shoulders with Mike Patton voicing fictional video game commercials.
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Patton → rub → commercials
Forgotten TV themes and Nokia start-up sounds are threaded into fizzy rhythms, and Jamie xx and Karen O sit alongside emerging talent like John Galcier and Portraits of Tracy.
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xx → start → Tracy
For some, the hyperactive pacing and experimental bent might be easier to admire than listen to.
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pacing → admire → some
Another dizzyingly original entry into an esteemed discography and the kind of technicolour sonic tapestry that only The Avalanches could've woven.
For fans of: Jamie xx, Barry Can't Swim, Gorillaz
- Al Newstead
Fontaines D.C. — Dopamine Chamber
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
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Avalanches → weave → xx
Ireland's Fontaines D.C. found themselves a festival-headlining, stadium-filling rock band leading up to the release of fifth album Dopamine Chamber.
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themselves → find → album
But fame hasn't brightened their perspective: these 11 tracks are gloomy as ever.
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tracks → brighten → perspective
The dourness feels extra profound thanks to its icy synths and Grian Chatten's morose takes on life and love.
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dourness → feel → life
The most striking moment is Where Is Gone?, Chatten and Rosalía joining Lee and Nancy and Nick and Kylie on the Mt Rushmore of seductive, spooky duets.
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Chatten → go → duets
While long-time fans may miss some of the excised menace, Dopamine Chamber is proof that the cream does sometimes rise.
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cream → miss → menace
For fans of: The Cure, Nick Cave, Joy Division
- Dan Condon
Troye Sivan — She's The Best
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Troye Sivan's fourth album explores the liminal spaces between the club, touring and the limelight of celebrity.
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album → explore → celebrity
Written after ending his huge tour with Charli xcx, She's The Best follows Sivan entering his 30s, a time of self-discovery and re-evaluating priorities.
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Sivan → write → priorities
While Sivan saw this collection of songs as "uglier" than his previous innocent pop hits and slick club heaters, there's no denying the maturity in its production, experimentation and lyricism.
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Sivan → see → production
We've seen Sivan grow up in front of our eyes, and now he's entering a new chapter … with a little help from Madonna and Sir Ian McKellen.
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he → see → Madonna
For fans of: Charli xcx, Lorde, Tove Lo
- Courtney Fry
Sampa The Great — Nu Zamrock
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Sampa The Great's third album was shaped by the discovery her blood uncle, George Kunda, was a founding member of pioneering Zamrock band WITCH, who fused psychedelic rock and African rhythms in 1970s post-colonial Zambia.
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who → shape → Zambia
Nu Zamrock merges the titular genre and her poetic hip-hop and soul fusion to stunning effect.
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Zamrock → merge → effect
Fuzzy guitars and syncopated grooves score Sampa's stylish, tough-talking bars as she spruiks her spiritual potency and distaste for industry condescension.
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she → score → condescension
The sound softens in the back half without sacrificing strength, including a surprise collab with the chandelier-rattling Sia and the hard-earned tenderness of Gone and I Can Love.
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I → soften → Gone
Sampa The Great, once again, lives up to her name.
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Sampa → live → name
For fans of: Lauryn Hill, Little Simz, WITCH
- Al Newstead
Queens of the Stone Age — Perfecth
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
After giving their material a gothic, unplugged makeover for Alive at the Catacombs, QOTSA continue to successfully skewer their signature sound on album nine.
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QOTSA → give → album
From the eerie Mono to Sunday's Bowie strut, Perfecth is a grab bag that finds strange "new ways to do the old things", as frontman Josh Homme recently put it.
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Homme → find → it
When most rockers of their vintage are content to rehash what works, QOTSA should be applauded for taking a risk with what is their most fascinating, stylistically diverse listen since 2013 blockbuster Like Clockwork.
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what → rehash → Clockwork
After J Award-winning debut album Zorb, Sycco brings us into her next chapter with soft synths and a compulsion to process complex feelings into breezy songs.
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Sycco → win → songs
"This album feels private, as if I'm hiding under a desk singing these songs because they feel so vulnerable," the 24-year-old said recently.
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old → feel → songs
You'll recognise the emotional uncertainty running through All That I've Been Feeling.
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I → recognise → That
On the flip side, Wait Up finds her scared of falling too deep too quickly.
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her → wait → side
Largely gentle and often unpredictable instrumentation, akin to both left-field modern R&B and the 70s soft rockers it borrows from, suits her themes of love and confusion.
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it → borrow → love
I've Loved And Lost is like a handshake between billowy-shirted yacht rockers and modern bedroom producers.
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Loved → love → rockers
For fans of: Mk.gee, Frank Ocean, The Doobie Brothers
- Dan Condon
Wishy — Nature's Pill
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Euphoric and upbeat indie pop saturates Nature's Pill, the second album from Indianapolis band Wishy.
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pop → saturate → Wishy
While it reads like a well-trodden path on paper, the unmistakable nostalgia of late '90s, radio-friendly rock vibrating out of this album is palpable.
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nostalgia → read → album
For a band that formed in 2021, they deliver a sound that harks back to a much simpler time.
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that → form → time
With shared vocals between Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites, there are glimmers of everything from LEN to The Dandy Warhols, including the candy-coating of emotionally charged lyrics that sound sweet but cut deep.
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that → share → lyrics
It makes you ask: what if fuzzy grunge and shoegaze continued its trajectory without disruption?
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grunge → make → disruption
For fans of: feeble little horse, Water From Your Eyes, They Are Gutting A Body Of Water
- Courtney Fry
HAAi — DIGITiSE
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
London-based Australian producer HAAi describes DIGITiSE as the "ravey big sister" to last year's excellent HUMANiSE.
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HAAi → gutte → HUMANiSE
Naturally, it's a harder-edged, higher BPM listen.
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it → edge → ?
every sweaty pulse and peak has been fine-tuned during DJ sets.
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pulse → tune → sets
Flexing her club curator muscles, HAAi steers you through nocturnal trance (THANK U), glitchy vocal phrasing (the title track), and subterranean beats towards moments of euphoria (Ignition).
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HAAi → flex → euphoria
Even at its heaviest and most abstract, you can feel the fingerprints and intentions of a flesh-and-blood human operating the machinery; an inventive artist showcasing masterful electronic range.
For fans of: Logic1000, Jon Hopkins, Sofia Kourtesis
- Al Newstead
Meshell Ndegeocello — Synonym
Spotify | Apple Music |YouTube
An album of reinvented classic pop songs isn't a revelatory idea.
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album → feel → songs
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia