As expected, September had an avalanche of new releases, several of which I’d been waiting on for quite some time. A lot of long-standing bands with new records, a lot of excellent reissues, and some new discoveries that got significant play here in the office. Enjoy!

Suede, Antidepressants, released 5 September. It’s great to see this band still going strong after all these years. Singer Brett Anderson’s voice may have dropped significantly and lost that squeaky wail, but he can still belt it out.

Saint Etienne, International, released 5 September. This long-standing UK band has finally chosen to take the REM route and split amicably, and this is their last release. There’s no melancholy or wistfulness here, just another light and wonderful album of pop gems.

Ivy, Traces of You, released 5 September. These were unreleased tracks from their run between 1995 and 2012, and left behind after Adam Schlesinger sadly passed away from COVID in 2020. His fellow bandmates Andy Chase and Dominique Durand chose to reconvene and finish them off in his honor. It’s a lovely record that picks up right where they left off.

The Chameleons, Arctic Moon, released 12 September. After several years away, the band reformed in 2021 and toured for a few years before recording their first new album in twenty-four years. They’re still a fantastic post-punk band worth checking out.

David Bowie, I Can’t Give Everything Away (2002-2016) box set, released 12 September. The sixth and final box set that captures nearly every recorded release from the icon, this one stretches from his contemplative Reality up to his final release Blackstar, and also contains b-sides, rarities, duets, and several live cuts. This is the era when I finally started listening to Bowie a lot closer than I had in the past and really began to appreciate his endless creativity.

Nation of Language, Dance Called Memory, released 19 September. This trio continues to defy description with their quirky mixture of brittle post-punk, meandering synthpop and moody lyrics. KEXP played this one quite a bit.

Motion City Soundtrack, The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World, released 19 September. Their first new album in ten years, they’d been touring for the last few years (we saw them twice in Berkeley, once before the COVID lockdown and once after its end), they still remain those oddball emo rockers going through self-therapy with high-level nerdy lyrics and bouncy melodies. Well worth the wait.

Grandbrothers, Elsewhere, released 26 September. As expected, this keeps on getting played here in the office during my writing sessions. I’ve always loved their quirky mix of jazz and electronics — every sound, including the percussion, is played on (or in) one grand piano and processed through a mixer. It’s a wonderful album and one of my favorites of the year.

Automatic, Is It Now?, released 26 September. I did not expect to latch onto this album as quickly and completely as I did, but I just love their old-school post-punk sound, and the title track has been an earworm all autumn. One of my favorite albums of the year.

Crushed, no scope, released 26 September. I didn’t quite resonate with their previous album even though it had a few memorable tracks on it, but this one they knocked out of the park, and it’s become another big favorite of mine.

Unbelievable Truth, Rich Inner Life, released 26 September. A and I heard the above track when driving home one day and we both thought they sounded like mid-era Radiohead… only to find out the lead singer is Thom Yorke’s brother! The rest of the album is just as great, just twitchy enough to grant the comparison but unique enough to stand on its own.

Hooverphonic, The Magnificent Tree Live with Strings, released 26 September. Twenty-five years after its initial release, one of my favorite bands releases a live revisit of the fan favorite.

Air, The Virgin Suicides Redux, released 26 September. Meanwhile, the French duo reissues their soundtrack to the Sofia Coppola film filled with desperately haunting instrumentals that caught my attention back in the waning days of my stay at HMV and remains one of my favorite albums of the year 2000.

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More to come…