November music preview: Bruce Springsteen, Smashing Pumpkins, and Phoenix all make their return

The Boss, among others, is back in November. Bruce Springsteen’s album of soul and R&B covers leads the list of big names returning to the scene with new music. Alt-rock icons Smashing Pumpkins and indie-pop tastemakers Phoenix also roll up with fresh tracks. In addition, November brings new releases from the siren Weyes Blood, rap’s newest it girl, GloRilla, and new tracks from a former One Direction member who’s not named Harry Styles.

Phoenix, Alpha Zulu (November 4)

This year has truly marked the return of indie darlings that peaked in 2013, and French pop band Phoenix is getting in on the action. Their new offerings are as glossy as ever, filled to the brim with devilishly infectious melodies. On the single “Tonight,” the group recruited Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig for a song which works as an ode to the early 2010s indie pop Phoenix was crucial in developing. They’re a band who’s deeply aware of their impact on pop culture over the last 15 years, without getting caught up in the trappings of nostalgia. [Gabrielle Sanchez]

Mount Kimbie, MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning (November 4)

Call this one Mount Kimbie’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Like OutKast’s seminal 2003 double album, UK electronic duo Mount Kimbie’s forthcoming MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning is effectively two solo albums stitched together. Dom Maker’s Die Cuts dives into the poppier, more accessible side of the duo’s sound, spotlighting samples and collaborations with vocalists and rappers like Keiyaa, Kučka, Wiki, Slowthai, Danny Brown, and their old “post-dubstep” compatriot James Blake. Kai Campos’ City Planning, on the other hand, is a collection of architectural instrumental electronic music inspired by mid-20th century kinetic sculpture and structured as a tour of a utopian future metropolis. United, the two halves become more than the sum of their parts, a celebration of the tension and interplay between Mount Kimbie’s primary creative impulses. [Peter Helman]

Spoon, Lucifer on the Moon (November 4)

After being invited to remix the singles from Spoon’s recent Lucifer On The Sofa, ON-U Sound founder and UK dub producer Adrian Sherwood ended up reworking the entire album. More than a simple remix, Lucifer On The Moon is a companion piece that features extensive additional instrumentation from players like Sugar Hill Records’ bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Keith LeBlanc, lifting the original record’s gritty rock ‘n’ roll textures into the stratosphere and rehousing them in spacey, psychedelic new threads. “It wasn’t just a thing where you pick apart this and you stay on the grid and you add a delay,” Spoon’s Britt Daniel explains. “He added so much more instrumentation and it became a different version of the songs ... A ‘Part II.’” [Peter Helman]

Christine and the Queens Presents Redcar, Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue) (November 11)

After a slight delay (Redcar les adorable étoiles (prologue) was initially due September 23, but postponed because of a dance injury) Christine and the Queens Presents Redcar’s third full-length album is almost here. Chris has always been a thespian. His music has always reflected that dramatic sensibility, and the tastes we’ve gotten of Redcar certainly promise to keep that trend alive. But while past releases have hewed closer to an R&B sound, the forthcoming album hints at something darker and more electronic, but no less moody. [Drew Gillis]

Gold Panda, The Work (November 11)

Gold Panda has done the work. “The work is something that’s used in my therapy a lot, and I hear it a lot in self-care and books about mental health—the work on yourself basically,” says Derwin Dicker, who goes by the moniker Gold Panda. The Work is the UK electronic producer’s first album in six years and his first since turning 40, getting sober, and becoming a father. It sounds like classic Gold Panda, but it is recognizably the work of a man who’s happier and more relaxed than ever, comfortable with his music and his place in life. The gorgeously chopped-up samples and beats hit like liquid sunshine, a musical explosion of endorphins and serotonin. [Peter Helman]

Hyd, Clearing (November 11)

Hyd is the musical alias of one Hayden Dunham, the interdisciplinary artist who previously served as the face of A. G. Cook and SOPHIE’s pioneering hyper-pop project QT. Her new solo work picks up where QT left off, and her upcoming PC Music-released debut album Clearing, the follow-up to last year’s self-titled EP, features contributions from Cook and the late SOPHIE alongside other kindred spirits like Danny L Harle, EASYFUN, Caroline Polachek, and Sigur Rós vocalist Jónsi. Early tracks like “So Clear” and “Breaking Ground” are hyper-modern electro-pop tracks of the highest order, deftly blending synthetic sound and all-too-human emotion. [Peter Helman]

Phantogram, Eyelid Movies (November 11)

It’s been 12 years since New York psych-pop duo Phantogram made their debut with Eyelid Movies, featuring indie sleaze hits such as “Mouthful Of Diamonds” and “When I’m Small.” Now, they’re set to reissue the record featuring unreleased tracks, demos, and instrumentals. In celebration of its release, the duo shared their first recorded song, a gem called “Suzie.” [Gabrielle Sanchez]

Bruce Springsteen, Only the Strong Survive (November 11)

Named for the 1968 Gamble and Huff-penned Jimmy Butler song, Only The Strong Survive finds Bruce Springsteen reimagining the music of Stax and Motown legends like the Supremes, Booker T. Jones, the Four Tops, and the Temptations. “I wanted to make an album where I just sang,” Springsteen explains in a statement. “And what better music to work with than the great American songbook of the sixties and seventies” Featuring two duets with Sam & Dave’s own Sam Moore, the soul and R&B covers album is the Boss’s loving ode to the music he grew up on. “My goal is for the modern audience to experience its beauty and joy, just as I have since I first heard it,” he says. “I hope you love listening to it as much as I loved making it.”[Peter Helman]

Colin Stetson, Chimæra (November 11)

Colin Stetson, the experimental saxophone auteur and extended technique wizard who’s collaborated with artists like Bon Iver and the Chemical Brothers and crafted haunting scores for films like Hereditary, has made his drone album. Composed solely of two 23-minute pieces (and two nine-minute “reductions” of those pieces), Chimæra I feels less like an album and more like a cavernous physical landscape of sound, replete with crags and crevices and wide open vistas to explore and get lost in. As always, Colin Stetson continues to push the limits of his instrument’s sound—and his own body’s physiology—with his music. [Peter Helman]

GloRilla, Anyway, Life’s Great… (November 11)

Known for offbeat stylings and unique vocals, Memphis rapper GloRilla makes her official EP debut next month with Anyway, Life’s Great… After cementing herself as one of the most formidable new faces in hip hop with two strong mixtapes and viral singles with Cardi B and Latto, GloRilla won Best New Artist at the 2022 BET Awards. Her biggest viral hit, “F.N.F.,” is all sneering independence and bag-getting, Gen-Z’s very own No Scrubs. Downright commanding over a clean, classic beat, GloRilla’s sneering independence brings to mind a Tina Snow-era Megan Thee Stallion. Artists hooky enough for TikTok who can still spit like they’re in a street battle are few and far between these days—GloRilla can swing with the best of them. And when she gleefully spits about “hanging out the window with my ratchet-ass friends,” you can all but hear the crew driving by, hair whipping in the wind and unfit paramours discarded in the dust. [Hattie Lindert]

Louis Tomlinson, Faith In The Future (November 11)

Does the Don’t Worry Darling press tour that just won’t end have you wondering, “What are the other One Direction boys up to” Well, Louis Tomlinson’s answer is out on November 11. Ripe for a reinvention, the pop charmer recruits some heavy-hitting indie talent for his second album, Faith In The Future, in producer Mike Crossey. Crossey has worked with The Arctic Monkeys, The 1975, and Wolf Alice throughout his career, and brings what edge he can to the album’s first single “Bigger Than Me.” The treacly coming-of-age track sounds like a Lifehouse-Shawn Mendes love child, and Tomlinson just doesn’t have the right kind of pipes to maneuver the anthemic instrumental. It’s not not apparent why Tomlinson’s had one of the quieter solo careers of his former bandmates—but he’s also never had a publicized altercation with his fiancée’s mom. In these troubled times of standom, sometimes it’s prudent to take what you can get. [Hattie Lindert]

Smashing Pumpkins, ATUM Act 1 (November 15)

Smashing Pumpkins doesn’t exactly have a new album in store for November– it’s actually a 33-song rock opera. Billed as the sequel to 1995’s Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness and 2000s Machina/Machine Of God, ATUM (pronounced “autumn”) will be released over the course of three acts. Act 1 arrives November 15, followed by Act 2 on January 21. Along with Act 3, the entire opera will be released as a box set (with bonus tracks) on April 21. Act 1’s rumbling first track “Beguiled” hints at an equally gritty and glitzy instrumental atmosphere, with a healthy dose of religious imagery. Addressing “young pagans” who must “return the faith,” the Billy Corgan-led outfit moves away from the synth pop influence of their 2020 album Cyr and towards something that stands to be more fully formed. Whatever this rock opera may cover (and in whatever form,) it can’t be any more perplexing than 2018’s Shiny And Oh Ss Bright Vol. 1. [Hattie Lindert]

Röyksopp, Profound Mysteries III (November 18)

Down the synth-infused, bass-heavy rabbit hole goes Röyksopp with 2022’s third of allegedly three Profound Mysteries collections. Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland have made a name for themselves with their twists on the European rave genre, creating dance floor euphoria with an intriguingly hard edge. “We want to get your senses going,” the Norwegian electronic maestros have said of this three-part experiment, which includes vocals from Susanne Sundfør, Astrid S, and Alison Goldfrapp, and homages to musicians like Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode. You could plug in and moodily boogie to the elaborate beats sure to come in Profound Mysteries III, but experiencing this music wouldn’t feel complete without its visual components: as with its two predecessors, dazzling animation from Jonathan Zawada in a collection of experimental short films will accompany the album. [Jack Smart]

Weyes Blood, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow (November 18)

Natalie Mering, who performs under the name Weyes Blood, has always been known for her classic songwriting style injected with contemporary emotion; a sort of Judy Collins sound with a Lana Del Rey sensibility. And yes, that’s a compliment. Lead single “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody” recalls the sweet vocal harmonies of The Carpenters and pairs them with lyrics exploring post()-pandemic social alienation and the ever-present anxiety of social collapse. The effect is one that reminds us that maybe our current issues aren’t so new after all—maybe we’ve always been screwed. [Drew Gillis]

Stormzy, This Is What I Mean (November 25)

Two years out from his critically acclaimed album Heavy Is The Heart, London rapper Stormzy returns with his third project, This Is What I Mean. In late September, ahead of the album release, he dropped the track “Mel Made Me Do It,” a seven-minute slammer touting Black excellence—in Stormzy, in his mentors, and in his idols. Part victory lap, part mid-career manifesto, Stormzy’s deft verse on “Mel Made Me Do It” doesn’t waste a syllable, and his thick, smooth register rings as clearly as ever. But latest single “Hide and Seek” also indicates Stormzy’s interest in a graduation from grime. Leaning into airy Afrobeats production, the rapper contemplates a turbulent relationship with uncharacteristically understated delivery reminiscent of 2016’s woozy “Birthday Girl.” “Hide And Seek” leans into a soulful, romantic side of Stormzy that feels both fresh and seasonally fitting—cuffing season is complicated, after all. [Hattie Lindert]