New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: October 25, 2024

Its New Music Friday again! This week’s new releases are an embarrassment of riches. You probably know about the new albums by Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Pixies and Soccer Mommy. But there is more…much more. Here are the albums we don’t want you to miss.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda picks these five new releases for your consideration:

  1. Lee MartinLee MartinDreamer Dawn (AAA) The first of two Kiwi albums comes from Ōtautahi-based singer-songwriter Lee Martin. It’s Lee’s third studio album and its a winner. Lee reveals, “Dreamers Dawn is a reflection of the dreams, hopes, and journeys that define us all. It’s about embracing new beginnings and finding beauty in the unexpected.” 

2.Tess Liautaud Tess LiautaudBlue Mind (Self) Now based in Christchurch, Tess comes to us by way of Paris and New York. This is Tess’ second album and she’s recruited Adam Hattaway and Elmore Jones of The Haunters to help out. Check out the 13th Floor MusicTalk Interview with Tess to learn more about Tess and her music.

3. Laura MarlingLaura MarlingPatterns In Repeat (Chrysalis/Partisan) A truly beautiful album, this is the 8th long player for the English singer/songwriter who is now also a parent. Says Laura, “Being as I am, 34 years old, now 15 years and 8 albums into a life in song, I am unable to escape the fact that each record has served as a time-stamped chapter of my life (though some have appeared more a premonition). Now, here we are, following a youth spent desperately trying to understand what it is to be a woman, I am at the brow of the hill, with an entirely new and enormous perspective surrounding me.” Click here to read the 13th Floor album review.

4.Amyl and the Sniffers Amyl and the SniffersCartoon Darkness (Self) Brace yourself! Its the first album in three years from these outrageous Aussie rockers. Singer Amy Taylor explains, Cartoon Darkness is about climate crisis, war, AI, tiptoeing on the eggshells of politics, and people feeling like they’re helping by having a voice online when we’re all just feeding the data beast of Big Tech, our modern-day god. It’s about the fact that our generation is spoon-fed information. We look like adults, but we’re children forever cocooned in a shell. We’re all passively gulping up distractions that don’t even cause pleasure, sensation or joy, they just cause numbness.”

5. Iain MatthewsHow Much Is Enough (Sunset Blvd) A founding member of Fairport Convention, Iain Matthews has been making music for well over 50 years. This may or may not be the pioneering folk rockers’ last solo album. “I just felt that I needed to make one more solo album as a farewell gift,” he offered from his longtime home in the Netherlands. “But how does a songwriter retire? I honestly don’t know how to stop being a songwriter and don’t know if I ever will.Click here for the 13th Floor Album Review and watch this space for a 13th Floor MusicTalk interview with Iain Matthews.