BY: JOEY REAMS
On Fridays, the world is blessed with new music from a handful of artists. To help you find your next favorite album, we’ve discovered what new alternative and indie albums have been released. This week’s notable artists include Biffy Clyro and Hand Habits. Check out the list below:
Biffy Clyro – The Myth of the Happily Ever After
Biffy Clyro has released their ninth studio album, The Myth of the Happily Ever After, via 14th Floor and Warner Records. The album is noted as the “sister album” of their previous album, A Celebration of Endings, released last year. According to lead singer Simon Neil, these were “15 songs that didn’t make the album” that would make “a sprawling sister record.” The Scottish rock band announced the album after headlining Reading and Leeds Festival. They released “Unknown Male 01” on the day of the announcement.
“This album is a real journey, a collision of every thought and emotion we’ve had over the past eighteen months,” Neil said. “There was a real fortitude in ‘A Celebration’ but in this record, we’re embracing the vulnerabilities of being a band and being a human in this twisted era of our lives.
Good Morning – Barnyard
Australian indie duo Good Morning has released their fifth studio album, Barnyard, via Polyvinyl. This is their first album since their bust 2019 with The Option and Basketball Breakups. The band consists of Stefan Blair and Liam Parsons on guitar, vocals, and keyboard. Before they released this album, they shared “country” with a music video.
“I was always too embarrassed to admit that I was a scout to my school friends, the same way I was too embarrassed to admit that I got piano lessons,” Parsons reveals. “Both of those things are ridiculous. Scouts is cool and so are piano lessons.”
Guided by Voices – It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!
Guided by Voices has released their 34th studio album, It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! This is the band’s second album of this year, following the release of Earth Man Blues. The band is currently on a North America tour until April 2022. The album was written entirely by frontman Robert Pollard and produced by longtime collaborator Travis Harrison. Before the release, the band prevealy released three singles: “My (Limited) Engagement,” “High In The Rain,” and “Dance Of Gurus.” The album was comprised of the band’s extensive archives of unfinished songs and demos.
“I was blown away that I had discarded them,” Pollard told Rolling Stone. “Anyway, I combined some of them and created new arrangements. Others I just left the way they were.”
Hand Habits – Fun House
Meg Duffy, the primary member of Hand Habits, has released the band’s third studio album, Fun House, via Saddle Creek. This is the first studio album since their 2019 placeholder, but they released their Dirt EP earlier this year. The album includes guest vocals from Perfume Genius and is engineered by Kyle Thomas, AKA King Tuff. Before the official release, the band has shared the first single from the album, “Aquamarine.”
“What originally started as a minimally arranged acoustic ballad, ‘Aquamarine’ evolved into the story of certain events in life, what informs my identity, the silence in the questions left unanswered that become the shape of understanding who I am,” Duffy said in a statement. “It was my goal to cloak some of the perils of mortality (lyrically) in a musical landscape that didn’t require the listener for a large amount of patience to bring grief into the metaphorical club. We filmed this video in my aunt’s bar and club in upstate New York, linking the origin and lineage themes in the song with the visuals of changing identities and characters in a space I used to wander as a teen.”
Parquet Courts – Sympathy for Life
Parquet Courts, a New York City rock band, has released their seventh studio album, Sympathy for Life, via Rough Trade. This album, produced alongside Rodaidh McDonald and John Parish, has come from a series of impromptu jam sessions inspired by New York Clubs, Primal Scream, and Pink Floyd. Along with the announcement, the band shared their first single, titled “Walking at a Downtown Pace,” along with a music video. Finally, the band announced The Power of Eleven—a series of 11 “global happenings” with unique merch.
“Most of the songs were created by taking long improvisations and moulding them through our own editing,” said co-frontman Austin Brown. “The biggest asset we have as artists is the band. After ten years together, our greatest instrument is each other. The purest expression of Parquet Courts is when we are improvising.”