August 2024 Release Radar
There are some exciting albums coming!
Albums On Deck
I’ve made some headway into the deficit in July, but there are still eight albums pending currently, including two from the end of June:
Camila Cabello - C,XOXO
Megan Thee Stallion - Megan
Windwaker - Hyperviolence
Eminem - The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)
Highly Suspect - As Above, So Below
Ice Spice - Y2K!
Zach Bryan - The Great American Bar Scene
Childish Gambino - Bando Stone and The New World
Naturally, that just means it’s GO TIME. Expect to see reviews coming fast and furious over the next few weeks, as things are about to start heating up through the end of the year.
The albums from Camila Cabello and Megan Thee Stallion are June’s holdovers, and they’ll likely be written — and possibly posted — before the week is out. I loved Camila’s last album, but Megan is new to me.
Windwaker is an Aussie Metalcore band whose name ties back to The Legend of Zelda. Their last album was aggressive and a bit on the raw side, as I recall. We’ll see how the new one goes.
Eminem needs no introduction. We all knew he had an album coming this year, but the release came suddenly and without warning.
Childish Gambino’s release was, likewise, on a fairly late announcement — after I had written and scheduled the July radar. He announced on like July 2nd, it looks like, and the album released on July 19th.
Effectively, those two replaced the Denzel Curry release, which turned out to be a mixtape, rather than an LP. I enjoy Curry’s work, but I have to draw lines somewhere. I’m already running about a month behind, as-is.
On the other side of that coin, a friend on Facebook warned me away from Ice Spice’s inclusion after I released the July radar. However, I do not have any other reason to remove her, aside from his opinion, so she stays.
Finally, I’ve added Zach Bryan’s latest album, which released early in July, after fellow music Substacker Kody Gibson, who normally curates playlists and conversation on The Music Swap, posted a rave review of the album. Typically, when I’m filtering for possible country albums, I ignore names of artists who I’m not familiar with but have heard their name come up. I feel that’s a good way to avoid most of the radio-played, mainstream (wannabe) Country. But Bryan is listed as Alt-Country, which is typically safe, so I’m gonna give him a go.
August Release Radar
As August rounds out the last of the really hot months, the release schedule is only just starting to simmer. I’ve got eleven albums flagged for the month, which mirrors June’s load:
8/2
Tones & I
Killer Mike and The Mighty Midnight Revival
8/9
Hammerfall
Ravyn Lenae
8/16
The Script
Charly Bliss
8/23
Mothica
Simone Simons
Sabrina Carpenter
8/30
Leprous
Awolnation
We’ll start the month with Tones & I, who is releasing her sophomore album. This will be the first real test of her potential longevity following her breakout success with “Dance Monkey”, which, I’ll remind you, was an EP track that predates her debut album.
Releasing the same day is yet another surprise album — this time it’s Killer Mike dropping the bomb, along with his gospel backup, The Mighty Midnight Revival. Reportedly, Mike said that he decided he wanted to do a bit more with the sound that he created for last year’s hit album, Michael, which won him a Grammy. This new album will serve as an epilogue to Michael, and it really ought to be one of the top rap releases of the year. I’m just glad that I caught it — seriously, this was breaking news on Tuesday 7/30; this radar will be posting Thursday 8/1.
Also — where’s RTJ5, Mike!? I really hope that this doesn’t push that album’s release back another year. Run The Jewels is a group that leans into politically-aggressive lyrics, and they’ve been releasing on election years to lean into that, but we still don’t have a release date.
Moving on, the second Friday of the month will give us music from Hammerfall — a Power Metal group from Sweden — and Ravyn Lenae — an R&B and Soul vocalist from Chicago. The former is a band I’ve followed on-and-off for years; the latter is new-to-me.
Pop Rock group The Script has another album coming out mid-month, but I’m much more interested in the other release that day, to be frank. Charly Bliss is described as “Grunge-Pop”, along with Power Pop and Pop Punk. I’m interested to hear what that sounds like.
August 23rd is a strong release day for female artists, starting off with Mothica, who is described as Pop Punk and Alt Rock, but visually has very witchy vibes (and the album is called Kissing Death), so I’m very curious on this one.
Sabrina Carpenter has blown up this year, and I’m very happy for her. I don’t know how much of that is the strength of “Espresso” versus the job her media team has done. Either way, her new album has quickly become one of the year’s most anticipated pop releases. I’m really hopeful that she’s finally found her groove; I love her voice, I adored her as a young actress, and I really want to see her succeed. Even if (or especially, perhaps) her music has leapt far into the “Shadowlands”, as Disney might call them.
Then, I cannot possibly overstate how stoked I am for Simone Simons’ new solo album, especially since I’ve learned that Arjen Lucassen and Lori Linstruth are supporting the release as producers. I had one song foisted upon me already, and it is steeped in Ayreon-esque synths. Simons is best known as the vocalist for Epica, and this is her first solo effort.
The final Friday of the month will feature Leprous, one of the biggest Prog Rock acts of the last several years. Their last outing made my Top 5 in 2021, and vocalist Einar Solberg’s debut solo album rated a Green just last year.
Accompanying them is Awolnation, the Alt/Electronic Rock band whose biggest hit, “Sail” (from their debut album), is now about 13 years old. That isn’t to say that they aren’t good — 2020’s Angel Miners & The Lightning Riders was really solid. This album could easily be a Top 40 contender.
Beyond August
The full radar is always available, and lists offerings which are still months away. Here are five things to expect in the coming months:
If you look at the full radar, there are currently only nine entries for September. I expect the release announcements to start coming hard and fast to fill out the fall schedule, and September will explode by the time I check it all over again, so I am being incredibly selective thus far.
Despite my selectivity, I have added two Country albums to the list for September — George Strait and Miranda Lambert are hard to ignore.
Another Most Wanted album has pinned down a release date, giving us two currently on the schedule: Oceans of Slumber on Sep 13, and Vola on Nov 1.
September 20th is currently filled with Metal and Metal-adjacent releases from Nightwish, Charlotte Wessels, and Seether.
There are other releases expected by the end of the year with no dates yet, including albums from Brad Paisley and Run the Jewels. Both have said that albums are coming, but haven’t given dates. Initially, Paisley’s album was slated to release in “early” 2024; Killer Mike said in a mid-2023 interview that RTJ5 was nearly done.