Album of the Week – 15/05/26

This week sees new music from Held. (feat. members of The Sleeping and Coheed & Cambria – GREY), along with Jack Johnson (SURFILMUSIC) and Spencer Krug (of Wolf Parade – Same Fangs). There’s also Teddy Thompson with Never Be The Same. We love the album cover anyway!

For our Album of the Week, we’ve gone for Kevin Morby with his latest “Little Wide Open”. We also reviewed it here.

“As Morby sings on album closer, the lovely ‘Field Guide for the Butterflies,’ “this is just me, trying to grow wings.” In that respect, he has been more than successful, producing an album that soars.” – Cathy Brown

Album of the Week – Kevin Morby – Little Wide Open

For Kevin Morby, the “little wide open” is the big sky, the small lives, it’s his origins in the Midwest, and every duty and modesty and familiarity and isolation: the land, the people, and the parts of that inside him. “There’s something unintentionally musical about the Midwest; cicadas chirping in the trees, a train passing, a tornado siren going off,” explains Morby. “If you listen, there are these almost ominous sounds taking place beneath the wide-open sky—its ugliness and its beauty and how the two are often working together simultaneously. And while the Midwest isn’t technically the badlands, it’s my badlands.”

Little Wide Open is the title of Kevin Morby’s eighth studio album, produced by Aaron Dessner. In the summer of 2024, Dessner had asked Morby to support The National at their London show in Crystal Palace Park. Shortly after, Dessner—who was on a hot streak, having produced albums for Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Gracie Abrams—reached out to Morby to say he’d love to produce his next album. They began recording at Aaron’s Long Pond Studio in Stuyvesant, NY, early in 2025 and finished in September of that year.

Albums of Note: 

— Held. (feat. members of The Sleeping and Coheed & Cambria) – GREY

— Jack Johnson – SURFILMUSIC

— Kelley Stoltz – If You Don’t Know Me, Buy Now

— Spencer Krug (of Wolf Parade) – Same Fangs

— Teddy Thompson – Never Be The Same

May 15th:

— 49 Winchester – Change of Plans

— A Box of Stars – Walnut Street

— The All-American Rejects – Sandbox

— Constellations – It Comes In Waves

— Crematory – English Hymns & Deutsche Hymnen

— Crown Lands – Apocalypse

— Daisy Grenade – So Much to Say EP

— Drake – ICEMAN

— Dua Saleh – Of Earth & Wires

— Eluvium – Virgra III

— Frank Zappa – Zappa ’66: Vol. 1 – Live at TTG Studios

— Genesis Owusu – REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE

— Held. (feat. members of The Sleeping and Coheed & Cambria) – GREY

— Jack Johnson – SURFILMUSIC

— Jeff Parker ETA IVtet – Happy Today

— Johnny Dynamite – Helpline

— Kelley Stoltz – If You Don’t Know Me, Buy Now

— Kevin Morby – Little Wide Open

— Kraftwerk – Radio-Activity (50th Anniversary Edition)

— LUCKI – DR*GS R BAD

— Mad Honey – Bridge Over Cumberland

— Maisie Peters – Florescence

— Maluma – Loco x Volver

— Maya J’an – blindfaith county

— Mirador (feat. members of Greta Van Fleet) – The Gathering At Badon Hill EP

— MUNA – Dancing on the Wall

— Mýa – Restrospect

— Nara’s Room – Tearless, thoughtless

— Nymphlord – Shedding Velvet

— Partyof2 – MERIKA’S NEXT TOP PARTY!

— Peter Frampton – Carry the Light

— Pro-Pain – Stone Cold Anger

— Rostam – American Stories

— Ryan Bingham – They Call Us The Lucky Ones

— Shaggy – Lottery

— Shakey Graves – Fondness, Etc.

— Slayer – Hell Awaits (40th Anniversary Edition)

— Smerz – Easy EP

— Spencer Krug (of Wolf Parade) – Same Fangs

— SUSS – Counting Sunsets

— Tank and the Bangas – The Last Balloon

— Teddy Thompson – Never Be The Same

— Telehealth – Green World Image

— Towa Bird – Gentleman

— Trousdale – Growing Pains Deluxe

— Urge Overkill – Exit The Dragon (Reissue)