October music preview: From Taylor Swift to The 1975, here are 20 albums you need to know about

It’s been a long five years since Canadian band Alvvays’ last release, the stunning Antisocialites. Now, the five-piece outfit is back with more inspired offerings, blending their standard indie pop sound with heavy shoegaze elements. On September 22, Alvvays shared two new singles ahead of Blue Rev’s release: “Very Online Guy,” which takes aim at incessant reply guys, and “Belinda Says,” an ode to the Go-Gos’ Belinda Carlisle and her solo hit “Heaven Is A Place On Earth.” It’s so nice to have them back. [Gabrielle Sanchez]

Broken Bells is the duo of the Shins frontman James Mercer and producer Brian Burton, better known as Danger Mouse. Mercer and Burton are both students of classic pop history, and on their first full-length collaboration in eight years, they pay tribute to over half a decade of 20th-century music. Spanning ’60s psychedelia, ’70s disco, ’80s synth-pop, and ’90s trip-hop, and all of it tinged with a slight dream-world surreality, Into The Blue is an atmospheric, immaculately arranged and produced collection of songs that present pop music’s past as its present—and quite possibly its future. [Peter Helman]

When he’s not making emotive electronic pop as Caribou, Dan Snaith also records more club-oriented instrumental dance music under the name Daphni. The upcoming Cherry is the first full-length Daphni album since 2017’s Joli Mai, but Snaith clearly hasn’t lost a beat in the interim, merging airy, shimmering synth melodies with the unmistakable thump of classic house and techno on tracks like “Arrow” and “Clavicle.” “There isn’t anything obvious that unifies it or makes it hang together,” Snaith says of the album. “I think it was good that it was made without worrying about any of that. I just made it.” The only thing that connects these freewheeling compositions is Snaith’s unparalleled technical mastery—and an infectious sense of dance floor euphoria. [Peter Helman]

If you still yearn for the days when Tame Impala was a genuine psych-rock band, odds are you’ll love Dungen. The forthcoming En Är För Mycket Och Tusen Aldrig, which translates to One Is Too Much And A Thousand Is Never Enough, is the Swedish band’s first proper studio LP in seven years and their first since frontman Gustav Ejstes embraced sobriety. If anything, Ejstes’ new lifestyle has only pushed his music further out into the psychedelic stratosphere. “It has actually become even more trippy to experience music if you don’t take away the edges of life. It gets very real,” he says. Recorded beginning in 2017 in Gothenburg with producer Mattias Glavå, En Är För Mycket Och Tusen Aldrig expands Dungen’s sonic palette to include drum and bass beat programming inspired by ’90s U.K. hardcore jungle mixes. [Peter Helman]

In 2017, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard somehow managed to fulfill their insane promise to release five studio albums in the span of one year. This year, the absolute madmen are doing it again. The prolific Australian psych-rock goon squad has already released two albums in 2022, March’s vinyl-only Made In Timeland and April’s Omnium Gatherum, and they have three more arriving in October. There’s Laminated Denim, an anagrammatic companion piece to Made In Timeland; Changes, a cycle of songs built around the same chord progression; and Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava, which was born out of a seven-day experiment in which the band would choose a BPM and a scale and start jamming in the studio. The last of those will be the first to come out, and although it might sound self-indulgent, the lead single “Ice V” proves that even this band’s 10-minute studio jams are funky, catchy, and well worth your time. [Peter Helman]

By the time of his death in 1990, pioneering minimalist composer Julius Eastman was penniless and alone. Building Something Beautiful For Me, the new album from London-based electronic producer (and fellow queer Black creative) Loraine James, is an effort to restore Eastman’s legacy to its rightful place in the 20th-century canon by reinterpreting, reimagining, and responding to his key works. Armed with a zip drive of Eastman originals, transcribed MIDI stems, and the 2015 biography Gay Guerilla, James has built a beautiful homage to a late legend that also serves as a staggeringly original work of art in its own right. [Peter Helman]

Genre who? NNAMDÏ doesn’t know her. On the versatile Chicago multi-instrumentalist’s new album Please Have A Seat, eminently hummable pop hooks rub shoulders with twinkly emo guitars, fiery rap flows, hyperactive synths, and bursts of distortion. NNAMDÏ wrote, produced, and performed all 14 tracks on the album by himself, and while the songs careen down new and unexpected musical pathways, they are all recognizably the product of the same restlessly creative mind. “I realized I never take time to just sit and take in where I’m at,” says NNAMDÏ. “It’s just nice to not be on ‘Go, Go, Go!’ mode, and reevaluate where I wanted to go musically.” Where does he want to go musically? Everywhere, apparently. [Peter Helman]

Sorry’s 2020 record 925 was one of the most impressively assured debuts in recent memory, with co-vocalists Louis O’Bryen and Asha Lorenz painting an evocative, musically omnivorous portrait of London’s disaffected youth. And now, following last year’s Twixtustwain EP, the gang has linked up with Portishead’s Adrian Utley to co-produce their new album Anywhere But Here. “If our first version of London in 925 was innocent and fresh-faced, then this is rougher around the edges,” O’Bryen says in a statement. “It’s a much more haggard place.” Citing classic ’70s singer-songwriters like Randy Newman and Carly Simon and post-rock touchstones like Slint and Tortoise as touchstones as influences, Sorry continue to evolve their singularly shapeshifting sound while sounding like absolutely no one else. [Peter Helman]

It’s only been two years since Brian Eno’s last collaborative album and five since his last solo album, but in some ways, his upcoming album, ForeverAndEverNoMore, still feels like a huge comeback. That’s because the 10-track LP, recorded and produced by Eno himself at his studio in West London, is the legendary producer’s first album in nearly two decades to feature him singing on the majority of the tracks. Judging from early singles “There Were Bells” and “We Let It In,” ForeverAndEverNoMore will marry the sparse beauty of Eno’s ambient work with the impeccable songwriting of his pop days, making something surprisingly hopeful out of the environmental and geopolitical uncertainty of our future. [Peter Helman]

Palm’s songs tend to unfold like complex puzzles gradually clicking into place. On their new record Nicks And Grazes, the Philly math-rock quartet tinkers with prepared guitars augmented with metal rods and wires, sampled field recordings, and electronic textures. “We wanted to reconcile two potentially opposing aesthetics,” the band’s Kasra Kurt explains. “To capture the spontaneous, free energy of our live shows while integrating elements from the traditionally gridded palette of electronic music.” The result is an album of music that’s resolutely avant-garde while remaining oddly accessible, inspired equally by Japanese pop, footwork, and metal, and heartily recommended for anyone who misses the breathlessly experimental spirit of early Animal Collective. [Peter Helman]

“As I looked back, I saw my life in pieces: Some moments blacked out, some extremely vivid, some leading nowhere.” That’s how ambient artist Helen Ballentine says she approached the writing process for her arresting debut album as Skullcrusher. Quiet The Room’s first single, “Whatever Fits Together,” has that exact effect–layered guitar and plucky banjo ground her soaring, overlaid vocals. Ballentine’s music most certainly quiets a room, but only with the goal of filling it back up in her unique, Galadriel-inspired image. The next ascendant folk star is here. [Hattie Lindert]

Even Lil Baby had to grow up eventually. If the music on the rapper’s latest takes any inspiration from the album’s Mount Rushmore-meets-Thomas Cole cover art, grandeur is Baby’s latest game. He hasn’t released a new solo project since February 2020’s “My Turn,” and a post-COVID album stands to reach a previously unprecedented live audience (although first single “Detox” features a strong beat, it leaves much to be desired lyrically.) Baby’s been busy delivering features in those two years—including a monster 18-track collab album with Lil Durk— but if the horned goats on the “It’s Only Me” cover indicate where Baby sees himself, it’s not loneliness the album title references, but singularity. [Hattie Lindert]

“No one dies from love”—is that true? Is that actually what they say? Will Tove Lo really be the first? At this point, there are questions that still beg for answers, but if the singles from Lo’s upcoming Dirt Femme are any indication, those answers will be pretty satisfying. The Swedish songstress has always moved like party-girl Kesha did in her prime and has worn her sense of humor on her sleeve, whether enlisting Charli XCX and Hacks’ Paul Downs for her “Bitches (Remix)” music video or simply naming a song “Disco Tits.” Dirt Femme will almost certainly have bops for days, but with single “True Romance,” it seems like Lo may be reaching her most honest, emotional place yet. [Drew Gillis]

Let’s face it: No Tumblr resurgence could be complete without The 1975 and Matty Healy’s intoxicating yelp. The British rock group returns with a new album on October 14. After grappling with chronic online-ness and crippling isolation on their past two albums, the album’s first three singles reflect a group ready to return to their creed: enormous, glimmering rock songs where lyrics become mantras. The brief and giddy “I’m In Love With You” is the kind of music that leads you to a Taylor Swift-style spin around in a storm in your best dress–and a cameo from frequent collaborator Phoebe Bridgers is icing on the cake. I never, ever want to be a lovelorn high-schooler again, but The 1975 makes me endlessly grateful for the music that resonated with me when I was. [Hattie Lindert]

Get ready, LGBTQ-uties, because your favorite Who is back. Australian singer-songwriter Betty Who can always be counted on for ethereal, euphoric synth-pop, the kind of sonic cotton candy that makes gay people flock to the dance floor (or go viral proposing marriage). Fresh off her hosting gig on the reality dating show The One That Got Away, Who’s fourth studio album promises more breathy vocals and ’80s-esque beats, if lead singles “Blow Out My Candle” and “She Can Dance” are any indication. Between its all-too-apt title, Big!, and the effortlessly breezy style Who exudes in her recent music videos, we can’t wait; not only can she dance, she can wear the hell out of a slouchy short-sleeved shirt. [Jack Smart]

Continuing their departure from raucous, shred-heavy rock stylings, Arctic Monkeys recently made their return with the cinematic, forlorn “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball” from their forthcoming record The Car. It’s a deeper exploration of the group’s softer side, guided by frontman Alex Turner’s now-staple swooning vocals. With the lead single, they’ve swapped out the guitar for strings, crafting a song perfect for swaying gently under a disco ball in the arms of another. [Gabrielle Sanchez]

Carly Rae Jepsen: Queen of releasing albums in October! The Loneliest Time, the Canadian pop monarch’s follow-up to her 2019 album Dedicated and its 2020 companion Side B, features collaborations with producers and songwriters like Rostam Batmanglij, Tavish Crowe, Bullion, Captain Cuts, John Hill, Kyle Shearer, and Alex Hope. From the supremely chill “Western Wind” to the fun, summery “Beach House” and the spectacular ’80s pop pastiche of the Emotion-era throwback “Talking To Yourself,” The Loneliest Time promises to be more manna from the heavens for CRJ’s legion of stans. [Peter Helman]

Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album, Midnights, remains shrouded in mystery, even though the singer-songwriter has used midnight as a motif in several songs. In her social media post, she calls it “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life,” which could indicate a mixed genre that recalls her past albums as well. Midnights promises to be another Swift lyrical extravaganza that will mess with our emotions. We can’t wait. [Saloni Gajjar]

With their fifth studio album Inner World Peace, indie pop group Frankie Cosmos channels “’70s folk and pop, ambient, and psych” to an arresting effect. The two singles shared thus far showcase a more mature, evolved sound than we’ve heard from the band. Of the newest single, lead singer Greta Kline says, “‘Aftershook’ is about processing the past and grappling with maintaining a balanced ratio of emotional awareness and hopefulness. The clown represents my fear of growing up into the kind of stunted adult that toxically influenced my youth.” [Gabrielle Sanchez]

Tegan and Sara have a lot going on these days. October will see the release of High School, the Amazon Freevee TV series based on their best-selling memoir of the same name, in addition to the arrival of Crybaby, the duo’s 10th studio album. Produced by indie-rock superproducer John Congleton, Crybaby finds the Quin twins continuing to delve into their past to render all of the joy and the heartbreak of adolescence in glorious widescreen indie-pop. And if the album and the TV show aren’t enough for you, just stay tuned for Tegan & Sara: Junior High and Crush, a duology of graphic novels about the Quins’ early days of discovering queerness and music. [Peter Helman]