What's New: Sunflower Bean, My Morning Jacket, Faded Paper Figures, The Darcys, Free Range

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Sunflower Bean: Nothing Romantic

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This indie trio, formed in Brooklyn in the mid-teens, took a break after 2022's Headful of Sugar - "walking away with no promise of coming back, moving to different states, floating in the abyss," as the band puts it. "Yet there was also a language that pulled us back together, the dream that there was more we needed to say together." They reunited and put out an EP last year, and now follow with their fourth album, Mortal Primetime. AllMusic says the LP showcases "the group's hard-won maturity and broad musical influences, balancing guitar-heavy rock with AM pop and introspective singer/songwriter ballads."

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My Morning Jacket: Half A Lifetime

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We pull another solid track from Jim James & co.'s 10th album (annoyingly titled is). New Noise Magazine says has "upbeat and funky energy" as its lyric "dives into the longer journeys of life and all the little moments that suddenly add up."

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Faded Paper Figures: Forget All The Days We Died

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This trio is working on its seventh album of synthpop - Triangles - while balancing their "day jobs" as a physician (Heather Alden), an English professor (R. John Williams) and a composer for film and TV (Kael Alden). We've been including their music in our mix for nearly a decade, and we're happy to present this early taste of the LP due in the fall.

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The Darcys: Dreaming

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Now based in LA, this duo from Toronto released Rendering Feelings last fall, so we're late picking up this track, but it was just issued as a single. Jason Couse and Wes Marskell say this song is "about the irreversible damage we’re inflicting on the planet and how our individual efforts to create change often fall on the deaf ears of those in power. ... If anything, we probably should have called the song Nightmares."

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Free Range: Concept

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The sophomore album from this Chicago indie-Americana band, Lost & Found, is a set of songs about that time of life when you’re transitioning out of adolescence and into adulthood, grappling with self-discovery and self-acceptance, and feeling alone but seeking connection. So lead singer Sofia Jensen tells Paste Magazine. This track is one of the higher-energy, rocking numbers on the LP. 

New Music: Arcade Fire, Garbage, Valerie June, Aurora, Current Swell

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Arcade Fire: Year of the Snake

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The lead single from the just-announced LP Pink Elephant is "all about how times are weird and bad, but feeling uncomfortable can be positive," writes Stereogum. "It’s the season of change / and if you you feel strange / It’s probably good," says the chorus. Win Butler and his spouse/bandmate Régine Chassagne produced the album with Daniel Lanois at the couple’s studio in New Orleans. (Photo by Danny Clinch)

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Garbage: There's No Future In Optimism

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Ahead of a new album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, comes this single inspired by being in Los Angeles in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing. The lyrics, say band leader Shirley Manson, "are an action against that title. Because if we allow our fatalism or our negativity to really take over, we will crumble." (Photo by Joseph Cultice)

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Valerie June: All I Really Wanna Do

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The singer-songwriter from Tennessee, "who began her career as a blues singer, has moved pretty far away from that with her fourth album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles," writes Glide Magazine. "Call it Americana, but there are heavy tinges of pop and indie, with lighter hints of gospel and neo-soul. Here, she explores the many aspects of love but celebrates the joy of being alive." This number features "an array of keys from piano to glockenspiel to organ behind June’s layered vocals.".

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Aurora: The Flood

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The Norwegian art-pop singer follows her fifth studio album, last year's What Happened To The Heart?, with this new single. "This is a song about the invisible enemy. What brings you anger, what brings you worry and sadness. What makes you crawl into yourself instead of meeting the world fully."

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Current Swell: If You Want My Time

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This Victoria, BC-based indie-rock band returns six years after it's most recent LP, Buffalo, with this new single. Canadian Beats calls it "a heartfelt and infectious track that captures the balance between love’s deep affections and everyday frustrations. Wrapped in catchy melodies and nostalgic warmth ... Blending elements of rock, roots-rock, and indie-rock."

Brad Paisley/Dawes collab, Tunde Adebimpe, The Ramona Flowers, Krooked Tongue, Deep Sea Diver

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Brad Paisley & Dawes: Raining Inside

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The press notes about this track say country star Paisley co-wrote this song with Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes and Lee Thomas Miller in 2024. "It was initially recorded with just Brad’s vocals but turned into a collaboration after the magic of the Grammy performance with Taylor and his brother Griffin Dawes on Randy Newman’s 'I Love L.A.'"

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Tunde Adebimpe: God Knows

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Of the latest single from his new album Three Black Boltz, the TV On The Radio frontman had this to say in a press release: "Breaking up is hard to down dooby doo down do." So yeah it's a breakup song, which includes the lyric "God knows you’re the worst thing I ever loved."

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The Ramona Flowers: Human

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The Bristol-based band says this new single "is a song about learning from mistakes, letting go of guilt, and realising that every moment is a chance to begin again and grow into a better version of yourself. At the end of the day we’re all Humans, everyone on this planet makes mistakes, it’s just how you learn from those mistakes and move forward which makes the difference." (Photo by Guy Aroch)

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Krooked Tongue: Marigold

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Can we have two Bristol groups in the New Music Bin at the same time? Why not, and we're previewing this trio's new single. Vocalist/lyricist Oli Rainsford says this single "Is a love letter to the 'what might've been'. ... Most of the time when we interact with strangers, it never gets a second thought. Maybe a subtle glance, or a smile here and there ... But then there's those moments where you have instant chemistry with someone, and for a minute it's electric ... And then you never see that person again. Who knows where a split decision could've taken you."

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Deep Sea Diver: Emergency

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We dive (ahem) back into Billboard Heart, the Seattle band's fourth LP, and surface another strong track. Pitchfork says this track's "frenetic energy is kept aloft by indefatigable drumming and whining synths," as frontwoman Jessica Dobson "seems to sing the verses through gritted teeth."