New Idea August 03, 2020

Here comes SUPERSTAR—the bigger, badder, glitter-driven record by Caroline Rose. Written as a sequel to 2018’s LONER, the forthcoming 2020 release “plays out like an epic movie about the pursuit of fame and fortune,” Rose states. “I’ve always been fascinated by this pursuit, but what’s even more fascinating is what happens when it fails.” Indeed, gone are the successful Hollywood hunks and starlets of old. SUPERSTAR chronicles a quirky anti-hero, who after receiving a wrong call from the elite hotel Chateau Marmont, decides to leave their old life behind in order to become a big Hollywood star.

Destroyer’s Dan Bejar initially conceived of Have We Met as a Y2K album. He was already active during the era but not heard overhead in a cafe or salon, which is perhaps what the idea of the Y2K sound evokes nearly two decades later. Bejar assigned frequent producer and bandmate John Collins the role of layering synth and rhythm sections over demos with the period-specific Björk, Air, and Massive Attack in mind, but he soon realized the sonic template was too removed from Destroyer’s own, and the idea of a concept was silly anyway. So he abandoned it and gave Collins the most timeless instruction of all: “Make it sound cool.”

Always Tomorrow is the culmination of the last ten years of Best Coast front person Bethany Cosentino's life, seeing her stand back from the past decade of the band's existence and taking stock in where she's been and who she has become. It's an album full of intense personal discovery amidst a whirlwind backdrop of global tours, heartbreak, newfound sobriety, dark thoughts, immense joy, giving a f, not giving too many fs, substances, boredom, public personas, and gratitude.

It’s auspicious that Sonic Boom—the solo project and nom-de-producer of Peter Kember (Spectrum, Spacemen 3)—returns in 2020 with its first new LP in three decades. Kember’s drawn to the year’s numerological potency, and this intentionality shines into every corner of All Things Being Equal. It’s a meditative, mathematical record concerned with the interconnectedness of memory, space, consumerism, consciousness—everything. Through regenerative stories told backwards and forwards, Kember explores dichotomies zen and fearsome, reverential of his analog toolkit and protective of the plants and trees that support our lives.

Although Peter Banks sadly died in 2013, this new studio album features some of his work which has never been released until now. On 10th August 2010 he and David Cross got together for an afternoon of improvisation and all guitar and violin parts are from that time. Banks had expressed his desire for this music to one day be made available, so over the last few years Cross asked some friends to become involved and help in making this album a reality…

Roger and Brian Eno explore the nature of sound in their first ever duo album, Mixing Colours. Set for international release on 20 March 2020 in digital, vinyl and CD digi-pack formats, their Deutsche Grammophon debut is a major milestone in their ongoing creative collaboration. The album’s eighteen soundscapes invite listeners to immerse themselves in the infinite space that lies below their surface.