April music preview: New records from Metallica, Jessie Ware, The National, Feist, and more

Thomas Bangalter is best known as one-half of Daft Punk. But don’t expect Mythologies, the French producer’s first solo album following the duo’s recent breakup, to be full of electronic dancefloor grooves. Instead, Mythologies is all modern classical inspired by baroque music and American minimalism, performed by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine under the direction of Romain Dumas and originally composed as the score for choreographer Angelin Preljocaj’s 2022 ballet of the same name. So yeah, you can still dance to it—as long as you’re comfortable with ballet. [Peter Helman]

A whole new generation of young people is about to discover the perfect soundtrack to all of life’s most poignant heartbreaks. English trio Daughter is back with their first studio album since 2016’s Not To Disappear (they also released a video game soundtrack in 2017), and if the lead single “Be On Your Way” is any indicator, it’s going to be a scorcher. While frontwoman Elena Tonra’s effervescent vocals in the track’s opening recall classic work such as “Youth” and “Smother,” the sound gradually morphs into something both murkier and grander than the band has explored before. [Emma Keates]

Tim Hecker’s new album is called No Highs, and the first track is titled “Monotony.” Although it may eschew traditional song structure and dramatic bombast, there’s plenty of subtle complexity to be found amid the wintry gray expanse of pulsing electronic sound, crackling and settling like an ice floe drifting through the Arctic. It’s the kind of ambient music that teeters perpetually between disquieting and soothing, and it’s further proof that Hecker is one of our greatest working experimental composers. [Peter Helman]

Wednesday’s 2021 breakthrough Twin Plagues saw the Asheville quartet emerge as a true force to be reckoned with. Their upcoming Dead Oceans debut Rat Saw God, which borrows its name from a Veronica Mars episode, is another snapshot of growing up in the American South set to country-tinged rock with an irrepressible tendency to flare up into tangled thickets of gloriously gnarled shoegaze noise. Frontwoman Karly Hartzman’s storytelling remains a beautifully magpie-like collection of little details drawn from memory and observation, woven together into a transcendent indie rock tapestry. [Peter Helman]

Wielding the power of Swae Lee’s unmistakable croon, Mississippi duo Rae Sremmurd’s sound was omnipresent in the 2010s, showing up everywhere from to . Despite all that Gen-Z cultural cache, Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi haven’t released an album as Rae Sremmurd since 2018’s SR3MM, which featured assists from Young Thug, The Weeknd, Travis Scott, and even . On the first single, “Tanisha (Pump That),” Swae provides the chorus but it’s Jxmmi’s flow that feels the hookiest: This album has the potential to run miles on TikTok. [Hattie Lindert]

Seven years after she first burst onto the scene, Yaeji is finally ready to give us her debut album—in case you’re confused, 2020’s full-length WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던 was billed as a mixtape, not an official album. Written in New York, Seoul, and London over a two-year period and sung in both English and Korean, Like A Hammer features fellow electronic producers K Wata and Enayet, guest vocals from Loraine James and Nourished By Time and, for the first time ever in Yaeji’s work, live instrumentation. Judging by early singles “For Granted” and “Done (Let’s Get It),” Like A Hammer will be the singer/rapper/DJ/producer’s most confident statement yet. [Peter Helman]

Harpist Dorothy Ashby is widely credited as the first artist to popularize jazz music centered on the harp. Contemporary jazz harpist Brandee Younger’s new album Brand New Life, produced by Makaya McCraven, is an effort to breathe new life into the instrument, featuring reinterpretations of Ashby’s original compositions alongside genre-transcending collaborations with hip-hop artists like Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, Mumu Fresh, and Meshell N’degeocello. [Peter Helman]

A trap music trailblazer, Chief Keef has mastered the rare trick of providing a genre’s roots and branches: although he’s far from new to the game, his 2021 album 4NEM still had the vigor and versatility of a young rapper hungry to prove himself. Next month, Keef returns with Almighty So 2, his first project since 4NEM. A follow-up to 2013’s Almighty So (which, along with Keef’s other 2010s-era work, has adopted by a modern generation of rappers), Almighty So 2 was initially slated for release last December, but faced a : Luckily, singles like “Racks Stuffed Inna Couch” have proved more than strong enough to make the wait tolerable. [Hattie Lindert]

A new Metallica album often divides fans and can be either a source of elation or frustration depending on what you what from the band. Strong lead single “Lux Æterna” has old-school thrash fans buzzing as it invokes the quartet’s high-velocity days. “Screaming Suicide” and “If Darkness Had A Son” (one of the first recorded songs guitarist Kirk Hammett has co-written in a dozen years) also find the veteran headbangers reveling in a heavy, raw approach. Hopefully, we’ll also get more injections of the melody that enlivened their classic albums. [Bryan Reesman]

Fenne Lily is trying on something new for her third LP: Joy. “This isn’t a sad album—it’s about as uplifting as my way of doing things will allow,” the indie darling said of the upcoming release, an especially bold turn considering how shattering some of her verses have been in the past. While Big Picture was largely written in isolation in Lily’s Bristol flat, the album is more reminiscent of those tender things that we hold onto in the darkness—light, friendship (such as with collaborators Jay Som, Christian Lee Hutson, and Katy Kirby), and the promise of a new love. [Emma Keates]

Angel Olsen explores just what Forever Means in the follow-up EP to 2022’s Big Time. The first single, “Nothing’s Free,” is an entrancing look at stepping away from the past and opening yourself up to who you really are. The track features a sound not yet heard in Olsen’s discography: the rich croons of a saxophone, which tie perfectly into the soulful sound crafted on Big Time. On “Nothing’s Free,” Olsen says, “It felt really difficult to exclude it from Big Time, but it felt more soulful than the direction of that record, it was coming from a different place. For me, when I wrote it, I was coming to terms with my identity and sexuality. I was opening up in a new way.” [Gabrielle Sanchez]

To say Feist’s return has been long-awaited feels like an understatement: it’s been six years since she released her last album, 2017’s Pleasures, and most of the songs for this new project were written over the last two years. Inspired by a series of 2021 in-the-round concerts of the same name, Feist’s Multitudes arrives on the heels of her decision to drop out of Arcade Fire’s summer 2022 tour after allegations of arose against Win Butler (a choice she elucidated in a ). Her decisions to be open and communicative with the world already indicated what’s most exciting about Multitudes and the album’s reverent first three singles. After decades in the industry, Feist still feels like an open journal begging to be leafed through, giving voice to experiences that don’t always have an easy name. [Hattie Lindert]

Shygirl’s Nymph, one of the most interesting dance-pop albums of 2022, is getting a deluxe treatment next month, one that’s well worth waiting for. The new edition of the London artist’s full-length debut, titled Nymph_o, includes a variety of remixes from collaborators like Arca, Eartheater, and even one from one of her : Björk. Much like her contemporary Charli XCX, Shygirl excels at curating features that don’t just elevate, but innovate, her work. For evidence, hear the way Tinashe’s flexible lilt fits on a new edition of Nymph standout “Heaven.” [Hattie Lindert]

Although he’s been making music as Fruit Bats (with an ever-shifting lineup) for over a decade now, frontman Eric D. Johnson shows no signs of slowing down in his forthcoming LP, A River Running To Your Heart. Leaving both the stomp and holler bombast of his most well-known work and the small-room acoustic sound of his previous two records in the past, here Johnson veers into something smoother and dreamier, which feels at once entirely fresh and powerfully, almost painfully nostalgic. [Emma Keates]

Smino is also in the mixtape sequel mood next month: She Already Decided 2 is set to serve as a follow-up to the Missouri rapper’s 2020 mixtape of the same name. Recorded primarily while he isolated during quarantine, Smino attracted guests like T-Pain, Sevyn Streeter, and more for the new disc. Slightly more in the quarantine spirit, the first single from the album, “Smi Myself & I,” finds him freestyling over Beyonce’s “Me, Myself, & I.” Bars over a Dangerously In Love cut? What’s not to love? [Hattie Lindert]

A lot of people were likely exposed to this Grammy-winning duo’s music through two songs in the first Puss In Boots movie. The Spanish guitar strummers with a love for Metallica have found a way to merge their passion for energetic genres like nuevo flamenco and classic metal, and imbue that personal musical blend with a vigorous accessibility. (Check out their enjoyable acoustic re-arrangement of Metallica’s instrumental “Orion”). Their new track “Descending To Nowhere” integrates subtle electric guitar, synths, strings, and beats into the mix, and they’ve promised to feature more orchestral and electronic elements on this latest album to expand their repertoire. [Bryan Reesman]

Jessie Ware got her start singing on futuristic electronic tracks from SBTRKT, Joker, and Disclosure before moving away from the club and towards tasteful adult-contemporary balladry and blue-eyed soul. Her fantastic 2020 album What’s Your Pleasure? was a triumphant return to the dancefloor that reestablished Ware’s dormant disco-house diva bona fides, and it seems like its follow-up is following suit. That! Feels Good! is both an album title and an accurate description of the endorphin-rush euphoria of bops like “Free Yourself” and “Pearls.” [Peter Helman]

Since the National’s last record, 2019’s I Am Easy To Find, Matt Berninger released a solo album, Bryce Dessner worked on film scores and classical music, and Aaron Dessner produced two albums for Taylor Swift. The megastar is returning the favor by guesting on the National’s new album First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, appearing alongside indie world heavy hitters like Sufjan Stevens and Phoebe Bridgers. “To me the power of this record has to do with the intentionality and structure of the music meeting with a lot of accidental magic,” Aaron Dessner explains in a statement. [Peter Helman]

Glen Matlock was there at ground zero of the punk explosion in England. The original Sex Pistols bassist, who’s now playing with new wave pioneers Blondie, offers up a vibrant solo album. Here he sings, plays guitar, and brings a strong lyrical attitude to tunes like “Head On A Stick.” As he tackles our modern political morass, Matlock’s tracks emanate elegant classic rock vibes. He also turns in a respectable cover of K.D. Lang’s “Constant Craving.” [Bryan Reesman]

Neggy Gemmy, formerly known as Negative Gemini, is the project of Los Angeles-based artist Lindsey French. CBD Reiki Moonbeam, her first album since the name change, will arrive at the end of April via 100% Electronica, the label that she runs with her husband, George Clanton. “It’s challenging to make a good pop song that makes you feel something,” French says. But with tracks like the clubby, hyper-pop leaning “Black Ferrari,” she makes it look easy. [Peter Helman]

These British icons helped kick off U.K. punk in the mid-1970s and crossed their sound into goth and psychedelic rock over time. On their 12th album, Darkadelic, The Damned keep up that musical melange and play with spirit, humor, and energy on tracks like “Beware Of The Clown” and “The Invisible Man.” Between this and their recent classic roster live reunion, it’s clear these seasoned vets have more gas left in the tank. [Bryan Reesman]

As if famed author Neil Gaiman wasn’t busy enough adapting his work for television and writing new comics, he’s collaborated with Australia-based FourPlay String Quartet on an unusual project. Signs Of Life features original songs, Gaiman reciting his prose to music, and an instrumental track. The combination of the author’s spoken word over their diverse beds of strings is intriguing. The chamber pop of “Bloody Sunrise” (an original Gaiman tune) also gets a tongue-in-cheek video—Lara Goodridge portrays a melancholy vampire who laments how she scares away men even when trying to act normal. [Bryan Reesman]

Since exploding onto the scene with 2018’s raw, raunchy, and wonderfully named I Love My Mom, singer-songwriter Indigo De Souza has tried her hand at everything from garage punk to electropop to rap. All Of This Will End sees the Asheville, North Carolina, native trying on yet another skin—perhaps her most authentic thus far. “I was finally able to trust myself fully,” De Souza said of the album’s creative process, and the end result simmers with the power of this newfound confidence. Leading single “Younger And Dumber” is a searing power ballad that the artist describes as “a flood beam of my emotional and spiritual human experience”—a song that will almost certainly be belted out in smokey bars for years to come. [Emma Keates]