As always, autumn returns coincide with the bottleneck of album releases. This fall, Fontaines D.C., Angèle, Dominique A, Cameron Winter, Philippe Katerine, and The Avalanches will dominate the music headlines. Meanwhile, the long-anticipated Lana Del Rey continues to elude us…
Beck Ride Lonesome (Capitol Records/Universal). Release on September 18.
The release of the compilation Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime was thus only a Valentine’s Day decoy; Beck returns at last with a new studio album, the awaited successor to Hyperspace since 2019. As (almost) always, mixed by Nigel Godrich since Mutations in 1998, Ride Lonesome instantly echoes, as with the eponymous opening track, the atmospheric textures and melancholic mood of Sea Change (2002), Modern Guilt (2008) or Morning Phase (2014). For the video clip of the single In The Night, Beck recruited actor Denis Lavant, who appears in a single take, pouring out his sorrow in his Parisian apartment. FV
Gilla Band Pugnello (Rough Trade Records/Wagram). Release on September 25.
Four years have elapsed since Most Normal (2022), but Gilla Band hasn’t lost their corrosive wit or their feverish noise. Evidence comes with Giraffe and Placeholder, two singles that announce the direction of Pugnello, a new record due out September 25 via Rough Trade Records. With intoxicatingly extended passages, industrial stabs and explosive noise, this album demonstrates the Irish band’s knack for translating our most intimate existential anxieties into music. LL
Florent Marchet Mobil Home (Nodiva/Wagram). Release on September 25.
Already his seventh album for the fifty-something from the Berry region, who has been living in Tunisia for a few years. Crafted between Tunis, Paris and Brussels, Mobil Home is a record that feels both nomadic and intimate, while staying grounded in the real. From the opening Sortir les violons to the closing Orcival — a moving homage to the late Jean-Louis Murat — Florent Marchet presents fourteen new songs that affirm his literary lyricism and melodic gift, tackling contemporary themes (adolescence, social exclusion, downgrading, masculinity, the threat of collapse, mid-life). FV
Space Afrika Quiet Storm (Dais Records). Release on September 25.
After the vast Honest Labour (2021), whose vinyl became unplayable after repeated spins due to the diamond of the phonograph needle, and A Grisaille Wedding (2023), co-signed with Rainy Miller and featuring a gallery of guests, Space Afrika is back. The Manchester-based comrades-in-arms, formidable atmosphere creators and visionary musicians, will release a aptly titled Quiet Storm later this month, enriched with arrangements (piano, strings) that transfigure the music of this precious duo. FM
Fat Dog Cancel Me (I’m Tired) (Domino/Sony Music). Release on October 2.
This is bound to be the autumn’s breakout moment. In early October, Fat Dog returns with a second album, Cancel Me (I’m Tired), two years after the record that established him as the new electropunk sensation of Britain: Woof. A little worn from touring, but buoyed by growing success, Fat Dog intends to sow mischief again this year with incendiary and joyful live shows. Indeed, this second album is built to attract (and expand) a public hungry for fun. LL
Dominique A Spirales (Cinq7/Wagram). Release on October 9.
Four years after Le Monde réel, which saw him realize his Hollis-inspired fantasy, Dominique A has decided to pull out the guitars for his new album Spirales, already the fifteenth in his exemplary discography. “Musically, the taste for playing electric guitar has returned to me, along with a song that is less atmospheric, more earthy and embodied,” he confesses. Unveiled with the electric single Un jour j’ai disparu, along with two other excerpts resonating with current events (Bromure, La Terre à personne), this new work marks the return of the singer in uppercase with Le Garage Hermétique, the studio in the Nantes suburb where Dominique A mixed La Fossette (1992) nearly thirty-five years ago. A way to close a new loop. FV
Cameron Winter Live at Carnegie Hall (Partisan Records/PIAS). Release on October 9.
We had hoped for a Live at Le Cabaret Sauvage (read our account of his show at the Paris venue last December); we will instead get a Live at Carnegie Hall, of course. Cameron Winter, frontman of the new rock heroes Geese, gave himself a solo detour with a prodigious album, Heavy Metal (2024), and a piano-only tour during which he established himself as the most important singer-songwriter of the 21st century. The concert was even filmed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The resulting film, produced by Benny Safdie, will be shown on October 1 at the New York Film Festival. FM
Angèle Instinct (GGL Records/Sony Music). Release on October 16.
Angèle returns after five years of studio silence since Nonante-cinq (2021). The single What You Want, produced with the duo Justice and unveiled earlier this year, already hinted at a total transformation of the pop star made in Brussels. The following singles, Dis-le and Une seule vie, only confirmed our hunch. Indeed, the album is titled Instinct and marks a new turning point in the musician’s career. FM
The Avalanches No Bad Memories (Modular Recordings/Polydor/Universal). Release on October 16.
After taking sixteen years to deliver a follow-up to their dazzling debut Since I Left You (2000), the Australian collective finally picked up speed in the mid-2010s. Following the improbable Wildflower (2016) and We Will Always Love You (2020), The Avalanches return with a fourth album that remains as generous as ever—31 tracks!—and featuring a wealth of guests, from Jamie xx to Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) to Carly Simon, Panda Bear to Jessy Lanza, John Glacier to Haruomi Hosono. The autumn pop melting pot. FV
Beabadoobee Pylon (Dirty Hit/Interscope Records/Universal). Release on October 16.
With Beabadoobee, pop swiftly tilts toward grunge, and grunge toward songcraft… One thing is certain: the raspy, even abrasive guitars stay by her side, even between acoustic interludes or delicate whispers. Two years after This Is How Tomorrow Moves (an album released shortly after Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, for which she opened in the US), the Filipino-British artist returns with a fourth studio album—a rock gem with sharp 90s coloring. LL
Fontaines D.C. Dopamine Chamber (XL Recordings/Wagram). Release on October 16.
A memorable show at Route de la Rock this summer, a slot at France Inter’s Bal Chavaux, and the announcement of a sold-out Accor Arena on November 13: Fontaines D.C. is officially the era’s biggest rock band. If another proof was needed, here is Dopamine Chamber, the Dublin quintet’s fifth album, which hides a few surprises and should stamp its era with a bold mark. FM
Flora Hibberd Mammoth (22Twenty/Redeye). Release on October 16.
A deep voice, unexpected melodies, well-judged arrangements… Flora Hibberd continues to lull us. With this new album scheduled for October 16, Mammoth, the London-born, Paris-based artist continues the trajectory set by Swirl, an album that earned widespread acclaim upon its release last year. Flora Hibberd delivers another round of folk ballads and intimate songs to listen to while watching the autumn leaves fall. LL
Philippe Katerine Planète bleue (Maison Magique/Cinq7/Wagram). Release in autumn.
Planète bleue will be the autumn’s surprise album, not long expected from Philippe Katerine, just two years after Zouzou (2024), his eleventh LP celebrating his dog. The record results from a spontaneous collaboration with Nk.f (PNL, Damso, Sébastien Tellier), whose instrumentals inspired the singer from Vendée to craft toplines and lyrics drawn from personal experiences and small wounds, resonating more collectively. “I would give you a kidney if you need one / I would give you the moon, even if I have none,” sings Philippe Katerine on the first single unveiled. FV
DIIV Zirp! (Fantasy Records/Concord/Universal). Release on October 30.
As Turnstile dares to weave pop and electro into its hardcore, DIIV is set to blow the dam open. For the production of this fifth album, the New York band recruited A.G. Cook, one of the pioneers of hyperpop and Charli XCX’s right-hand, a collaboration that steers DIIV’s shoegaze toward newer, more electronic horizons. A clear testament to the American group’s leading role in today’s rock scene. LL
Piss You Made Me/Skin On Linen (Sub Pop/Modulor). Release on October 30.
They are Sub Pop’s new recruits, reshaping the boundaries of hardcore punk. Aside from bands like Spitboy or Dahlia Seed, this movement didn’t tackle feminist issues at its inception – that’s where Piss shifts the paradigm. With the immense force of the lyrics and the singer’s performance, Taylor Zantingh, the Canadians manage to condemn gender-based and sexual violence, with chilling metaphors and screams. After touring Canadian caves as well as the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, Piss is poised to share their debut album, You Made Me/Skin On Linen. An imminent blast. LL
Bonus: Lana Del Rey
Will it come out? Will it not? The successor to Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (2023) has been announced, delayed, renamed and renamed again multiple times. The latest word from Lana Del Rey is that two albums might be in the works and could surface by year’s end… FM
