Best New Releases, March 28: Deafheaven, Destroyer, and more
It’s a big day for new music as the spring release season gets underway. This week’s batch of Best New Releases includes our Album of the Week, the roaring return of a black metal favorite, a techno reunion and more. Queue up our picks for the week’s best new releases.
Note: When you buy something through our affiliate links, Treble receives a commission. All albums we cover are chosen by our editors and contributors.
Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power
Following their journey into shoegaze with the dreamy Infinite Granite in 2021, Deafheaven return with an even more eclectic set of songs, but one that revives much of their metal intensity. In our review of Lonely People With Power, Elliot Burr said, “Like much of Deafheaven’s appeal, when the chord textures blend, the leads ring, the bass darts fluidly about and Dan Tracy’s consistent snare-driven momentum locks, loads and springs, it’s almost cosmic.” – Jeff Terich
Listen/Buy: Spotify | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie
After three decades of making spectacular art-rock records in a wide variety of different approaches and aesthetics, Dan Bejar and company return with the fourteenth Destroyer album, which embraces a maximalist sound full of rich arrangements. It’s currently our Album of the Week. As Gareth O’Malley said in our review of the album, “There’s a seven-piece band on here and damn, does it sound like it.” – Jeff Terich
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Rough Trade (vinyl)
Spellling – Portrait of My Heart
The latest set of songs from Spellling, her first set of new music since 2021’s The Turning Wheel, is some of the most, catchy indie pop to come out of the Bay Area this century. Distinguished by Chrystia Cabral’s unusual, alluring falsetto, the refrain on the album’s first track—“I don’t belong here”—is an immediate outpouring of honesty that diffuses any concern the remainder of the record contains nary a moment of pretension. And that’s indeed how the remaining 10 tracks play out. There are hints of Blonde Redhead and other minimalist greats, but there’s no predicting whether Cabral’s going to toss in some distorted guitar or lush orchestration next. It’s well worth accompanying her on the adventure. – Kurt Orzeck
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Backxwash – Only Dust Remains
Backxwash’s career makes me teary-eyed; I remember pushing to cover her at a metal site I wrote for a number of years ago and seeing her career blossom since has been touching in a way I can’t describe. How does she pay us all back? A surprisingly bright set of songs about death and the way those who come back from suicide attempts and the black pits of life can be haunted by this thing that almost took them. This would be a compelling record if it was instrumental; marry Backxwash’s charismatic vocals and jagged edged emotional lyricism and you have another sick experimental hip-hop record on your hands. – Langdon Hickman
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Perfume Genius – Glory
What would we do without Perfume Genius? While Mike Hadreas initially caught on via MySpace, he sounds just as soulful and fresh as on his 2010 debut record, Learning. With the world changing faster than ever, at least according to our collective perception, Perfume Genius dependably releases a quality LP every two or three years on the similarly reliable Matador Records. With participation from two essential previous collaborators—producer Blake Mills and keyboardist and co-writer Alan Wyffels—Perfume Genius’ seventh studio record is bulletproof from start to finish. -Kurt Orzeck
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Sandwell District – End Beginnings
Dark techno collective Sandwell District—comprising Peter Sutton (Female) and Karl O’Connor (Regis)—made their name on a short-lived label and a 2010 album, Feed-Forward, that emphasized the more haunted, industrial-tinged aspect of techno, with David Sumner (Function) and Juan Mendez (Silent Servant) joining the collective in the mid-’00s before it eventually splintered. After the death of Mendez last year, however, Sutton and O’Connor reconnected and revived the Sandwell District name and project with their first new recording in 15 years, driven by beats and soundscapes that blur the line between seductive and sinister, and with a tribute to their late collaborator as well on final track “The Silent Servant.” We’ll have more on this one soon. – Jeff Terich
Listen: Spotify
Sam Akpro – Evenfall
Nary a dull moment is to be found on the first foray into full-length-dom by London’s Sam Akpro, whose attempt to make sense of an overstimulated world is entrancing, rich and mysterious from start to finish. He exhibits uncanny confidence throughout the eclectic offering, not merely in his hushed vocal delivery but likewise his unmistakable knack for arrangement. To call these 10 songs “lush” short-changes Akpro’s exceptional instincts in orchestrate his five-piece backing band. It’s some of the most exceptional songwriting so far this year—maybe the best by an artist making their maiden record. – Kurt Orzeck
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Zola Marcelle – Home
Home, the debut album by Zola Marcelle, weaves a unique tapestry of expression, identity, and history with the powerful magic that is music, spoken or sung in any language. Produced by Lewis Moody, known for Nubiyan Twist and other artists, Home fuses contemporary jazz with soulful Afroism, presenting a playful rendering of modern 21st-century music from a young and very wise Bantu woman. – John-Paul Shiver
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
