Pitchfork Guide to New Albums, Fall 2019: Angel Olsen, Kim Gordon, FKA twigs, and More
Four times a year, we round up a list of albums that the Pitchfork staff is looking forward to in the upcoming season. These 30 releases, by everyone from Angel Olsen to Octo Octa to FKA twigs, are either officially scheduled to come out between this Friday, September 6 and the end of October, or are likely to arrive at some point over the course of the next three months. (Please note that release dates may change.) Here are 30 albums—listed in chronological order—worth waiting for this fall. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy or stream something through our Amazon Music, Apple Music, Rough Trade, or Vinyl Me, Please links, however, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission.)
The Highwomen: The Highwomen [September 6, Low Country Sound/Elektra]
The Highwomen are a new country group featuring songwriters Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby. As if that wasn’t enough star power, their self-titled debut features appearances from Miranda Lambert, Jason Isbell, Sheryl Crow, Tanya Tucker, Lori McKenna, and several others. “Anyone can be a Highwoman,” Carlile said in a press release. “It’s about banding together, abandoning as much ego as humanly possible, holding one another up, and amplifying other women every chance we get. Shoulder to shoulder. One push, one love.” –Sam Sodomsky
Lower Dens: The Competition [September 6, Ribbon]
The Competition is Lower Dens’ first full-length since 2015’s Escape From Evil. The Baltimore band announced the record by sharing the single “Young Republicans,” which arrived with a retro music video. Of the album, Lower Dens’ vocalist Jana Hunter said, “I was wild and in a lot of pain as a kid; home life was very bleak, and pop songs were a guaranteed escape to a mental space where beauty, wonder, and love were possible. I wanted to write songs that might have the potential to do that.” –Michelle Kim
Octo Octa: Resonant Body [September 6, T4T LUV NRG]
DJ/producer Octo Octa is releasing her third album Resonant Body on T4T LUV NRG, the label she co-founded with fellow producer Eris Drew. The New Hampshire artist recorded the collection of house, breaks, and techno tracks in her home state at the end of 2018 to “channel the resonance of the forest, the beauty of the river and the energy from the rituals she conducts within it.” –Noah Yoo
Sandro Perri: Soft Landing [September 6, Constellation]
One year after releasing In Another Life—a four-song album with tracks that stretched out for more than 20 minutes and featured guest vocals from Dan Bejar—Toronto’s Sandro Perri is back with a new album. It opens with a 16-minute track called “Time (You Got Me)” and features music Perri has been working on for the last 10 years. –Evan Minsker
Alex Cameron: Miami Memory [September 13, Secretly Canadian]
Alex Cameron’s follow-up to 2017’s Forced Witness is a love letter to his girlfriend, actress Jemima Kirke. “When you listen to these songs, and you're waiting for the twist, or the joke, or any kind of discomfort, I can assure you none of those things were there when I wrote them,” Cameron said in a statement. “Miami Memory is the story of a couple balancing sex with contemporary family values... a symbol to hoist on the totem of love.” –Madison Bloom
Charli XCX: Charli [September 13, Atlantic]
Charli XCX’s long-awaited studio album Charli is technically the follow-up to her 2014’s Sucker. In the interim, though, she’s shared several projects: 2016’s Vroom Vroom EP and 2017’s two mixtapes Number 1 Angel and Pop 2. The new album features collaborations with Troye Sivan, cupcakKe, Brooke Candy, Christine and the Queens, HAIM, Lizzo, Sky Ferreira, and more. Read Pitchfork’s track reviews of “Blame It on Your Love,” “1999,” “Cross You Out,” and “Gone” (named Best New Track), and check out the new Charli cover story. –Michelle Kim
Elza Soares: Planeta Fome [September 13, Deck]
Decades into her legendary career, 82-year-old Brazilian samba singer Elza Soares is releasing her 34th studio album Planeta Fome. The new album features other notable artists from Soares’ native country, such as veteran rapper BNegão and rising artist Rafael Mike. So far, she’s released the single “Libertação” featuring vocalist Virgínia Rodrigues. –Noah Yoo
Jenny Hval: The Practice of Love [September 13, Sacred Bones]
Of her new album The Practice of Love, Jenny Hval wrote in a statement that she’s spent the past few years exploring “the practice of otherness, this fragile performance, and how it can express love, intimacy, empathy and desire.” The record, which features contributions from Vivian Wang, Félicia Atkinson, and Laura Jean Englert, follows Hval’s 2018 EP The Long Sleep and 2016 album Blood Bitch. Read Pitchfork’s Best New Track review of “Ashes to Ashes.” –Michelle Kim
Sampa the Great: The Return [September 13, Ninja Tune]
Zambia-born, Sydney-based rapper Sampa the Great is releasing her debut album. The Return follows her 2017 mixtape Birds and the BEE9, which won the Australian Music Prize. The new record features a whole cast of artists, including Jonwayne, Ecca Vandal, the London jazz collective Steam Down, MsM, and others. Of the album’s single “OMG,” Sampa said in a statement: “It’s broadly about flexing your culture! Loving where you’re from and even being shocked at the realization of not knowing how dope it is to be ‘who you are.’” –Michelle Kim
(Sandy) Alex G: House of Sugar [September 13, Domino]
The enigmatic and prolific (Sandy) Alex G began writing the songs for House of Sugar in autumn 2017. He finished the new album this past spring in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with Jacob Portrait (of Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Blouse). Read Pitchfork’s Best New Track review of “Gretel.” –Quinn Moreland
Brittany Howard: Jaime [September 20, ATO]
Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard is releasing her debut solo album. It’s called Jaime, after Howard’s late sister who died of cancer while they were both teenagers. Howard clarifies in a statement, however, “The record is not about her. It’s about me. I’m pretty candid about myself and who I am and what I believe. Which is why I needed to do it on my own.” The album features the previously shared singles “History Repeats,” “He Loves Me,” and “Stay High,” which arrived with a Terry Crews-starring video. –Michelle Kim
M83: DSVII [September 20, Mute]
The latest album from Anthony Gonzalez’s electronica institution M83 is the sequel to a 2007 album titled Digital Shades Vol. 1, a largely instrumental collection of ambient tracks. Like its predecessor, DSVII was recorded exclusively with analog equipment. Gonzalez has cited ’80s fantasy films and video game soundtracks, Brian Eno, Suzanne Ciani, Mort Garson, and John Carpenter as inspirations for the new collection. –Noah Yoo
Tove Lo: Sunshine Kitty [September 20, Island]
To follow-up 2017’s Blue Lips, Swedish pop star Tove Lo is releasing a new album called Sunshine Kitty. In a Gay Times interview, she promises listeners “a little bit of a happier side” of her personality to shine through on the record, with a mix of “club bangers” and some “acoustic” songs. It features contributions from Doja Cat, Alma, Kylie Minogue, Jax Jones, and MC Zaac. –Michelle Kim
Vivian Girls: Memory [September 20, Polyvinyl]
In 2014, Vivian Girls split up, walking a way as a band whose influence endured. Five years later, the trio of Cassie Ramone, Katy Goodman, and Ali Koehler are back in full force. In addition to a tour and reissue series, Vivian Girls are putting out a full-on new album. Memory features the previously shared tracks “Sick” and “Something to Do.” –Evan Minsker
Kanye West: Jesus Is King [September 27, G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam]
Kanye West had said he would release his ye follow-up by the end of 2018. That record, called Yandhi, never arrived. Instead, we may get a new Kanye West project called Jesus Is King. His wife Kim Kardashian West shared what looks like a tracklist and a release date for the collection last month. The supposed tracklist includes “Water,” which West performed during his “Sunday Service” set at Coachella in April. –Noah Yoo
Tegan and Sara: Hey, I’m Just Like You [September 27, Sire]
To coincide with the release of their memoir High School, Tegan and Sara revisited some of their earliest unreleased compositions. Created with a team of women, Hey, I’m Just Like You features new takes on unearthed tracks the sisters discovered while researching the book. “This is the record we never could have made as teenagers,” the duo said in a press release, “full of songs we never could have written as adults.” –Sam Sodomsky
Angel Olsen: All Mirrors [October 4, Jagjaguwar]
Angel Olsen originally conceived her new album as a dual release featuring a set of solo songs and a full-band version. But when she got to work with producer John Congleton, arranger Jherek Bischoff, multi-instrumentalist Ben Babbit, and a 14-piece orchestra, she decided to put the idea on hold. “It was impossible for me to deny how powerful and surprising the songs had become,” she said in a press release for All Mirrors. “The truth is that I may have never allowed this much sonic change in the first place had I not already made an account of the same songs in their purest form.” Read Pitchfork’s review of “All Mirrors,” named Best New Track. –Sam Sodomsky
DIIV: Deceiver [October 4, Captured Tracks]
Three years after the release of Is the Is Are, DIIV return with their third album Deceiver, the first that Zachary Cole Smith and his band have ever made with an outside producer (Sonny Diperri). To date, the band has shared two singles: “Skin Game” and “Taker.” –Noah Yoo
Wilco: Ode to Joy [October 4, dBpm]
Wilco’s 11th studio album follows two solo records by Jeff Tweedy: 2018’s WARM and 2019’s WARMER. Tweedy, who co-produced Ode to Joy at the band’s Loft studio in Chicago, described the music in a press release as “really big, big folk songs, these monolithic, brutal structures that these delicate feelings are hung on.” The 11-song LP follows Wilco’s 2016 album Schmilco. Read Pitchfork’s track review of “Love Is Everywhere (Beware).” –Sam Sodomsky
Devon Welsh: True Love [October 11, You Are Accepted]
The sophomore solo album from former Majical Cloudz frontman Devon Welsh features 10 new songs concerning the topic of love. “I’m just trying to express things that feel intimate and worthwhile, but leaving it a little bit with a question mark,” he said in a statement. Like last year’s Dream Songs, the LP will be self-released via Welsh’s own label, You Are Accepted. –Sam Sodomsky
Kim Gordon: No Home Record [October 11, Matador]
It’s hard to believe, but Sonic Youth co-founder Kim Gordon has never released a solo album until this fall. No Home Record, its name a reference to Chantal Akerman’s final film, sees Gordon collaborating with producer Justin Raisen in her birthplace of Los Angeles. “Living in L.A. the last few years it feels like home, but the transience of the place makes it feel sometimes like no home,” Gordon said of the process. Along with 2016 track “Murdered Out,” Gordon has released the new song “Sketch Artist.” –Noah Yoo
Battles: Juice B Crypts [October 18, Warp]
Battles—now the duo of Ian Williams and drummer John Stanier—have put together an eclectic cast of collaborators for Juice B Crypts, their first album since 2015’s La Di Da Di. Shabazz Palaces, Tune-Yards, Xenia Rubinos, Jon Anderson of Yes, and many others contribute to Juice B Crypts. Williams, in a statement, says the new record is about “progressions, resolutions, returning home.” The LP’s first single, “Titanium 2 Step,” features Liquid Liquid’s Sal Principato. –Noah Yoo
Vagabon: Vagabon [October 18, Nonesuch]
Lætitia Tamko, the artist better known as Vagabon, returns with the follow-up to her 2017 debut Infinite Worlds. Tamko wrote and produced Vagabon, which is led by “Flood” and “Water Me Down.” Read Pitchfork’s new feature profile “The Relentless Determination of Vagabon.” –Michelle Kim
Anna Meredith: FIBS [October 25, Black Prince Fury]
British composer Anna Meredith says fibs are “lies—but nice friendly lies, little stories and constructions and daydreams and narratives that you make for yourself or you tell yourself.” Her new album, FIBS, is her first studio record since 2016’s Varmints. –Matthew Strauss
King Princess: Cheap Queen [October 25, Zelig/Columbia]
After breaking out with her Make My Bed EP last year, King Princess—the recording moniker of Mikaela Straus—is set to release her proper debut full-length this autumn. The New York pop artist’s Cheap Queen is led by “Cheap Queen,” “Useless Phrases,” and “Prophet.” –Madison Bloom
SebastiAn: Thirst [October 25, Ed Banger/Because]
French electronic producer SebastiAn returns following a seven-year release hiatus that saw him produce for Charlotte Gainsbourg and appear on Frank Ocean’s masterful Blonde. For his sophomore album, Thirst, SebastiAn has tapped new talent, such as Gallant, who features on lead single “Run for Me,” and linked back up with past collaborators like director Gaspar Noé, who helmed the music video for the title track. –Noah Yoo
Sunn O))): Pyroclasts [October 25, Southern Lord]
The second new album from drone metal legends Sun O))) to be released this year features more meditative material from their two-week sessions with producer Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago. The companion to Life Metal—which was named Best New Music in April—finds Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley recording directly to tape, for a “completely analogue production.” –Sam Sodomsky
Caroline Polachek: Pang [TBA, Columbia]
Outside her previous work with Chairlift, Caroline Polachek has issued solo material as Ramona Lisa and CEP. But Pang marks the first record that she’s releasing under her own name. The album, slated to arrive this fall, features contributions from PC Music’s A. G. Cook, Danny L Harle, NYC experimentalist Eartheater, and others. Read the track review of “Door.” –Michelle Kim
FKA twigs: Magdalene [TBA, Young Turks]
In April, FKA twigs returned with her stunning single “Cellophane.” This fall, over five years after her debut LP1, FKA twigs will release her sophomore album Magdalene. According to a recent interview with i-D, the self-produced record has major contributions from Nicolas Jaar and a guest spot from Future. –Matthew Strauss
Grimes: Miss_Anthrop0cene [TBA, 4AD]
The highly-anticipated follow-up to Grimes’ 2015 LP Art Angels may not have a release date, but Claire Boucher has left a few clues as to what her new album will sound like. According to Grimes, Miss_Anthrop0cene is “a concept album about the anthropomorphic goddess of climate Change” and each of its songs “will be a different embodiment of human extinction as depicted through a Pop star Demonology.” Grimes teased a snippet of Miss_Anthrop0cene’s lead single back in August. The full version is slated to arrive this month. –Madison Bloom
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