Release Radar: The Best New Albums Coming In July

**Tasman Keith - A Colour Undone (July 8)**

From even the early stages of his career, Macksville-born, Bowraville-raised artist Tasman Keith has been an indispensable and unstoppable pioneer of hip hop’s new vanguard. While tracks like Prey (with Stevie Jean) and CONFIDENT highlighted the Australian artist's innate ability to craft powerful, braggadocios mainstage rap filled with rapid-fire melees of flair and skill, newer singles (both released, and as yet unreleased) have taken a more widescreen view, with Keith reapproaching his songwriting and artistry to favour vulnerability and honesty over lyrical complexity.

2022’s lead single LOVE TOO SOON sits as perhaps the prime example, helping cement Keith as a musical chameleon; capable of not only seamlessly bouncing between genres, but also helping redefine the standard ideals of what rap and hip hop can be in Australia. Primarily written and recorded over six days at Alex The Astronaut’s studio in Marrickville alongside collaborators Kwame and Nikos Haropoulos-Smallman, A Colour Undone is a personal journey through sensitive topics of family, identity and race, delivered in a way that will likely be unrivalled for years to come.

**Party Dozen - The Real Work (July 8)**

It’s been several years since Sydney experimental noise duo Party Dozen broke onto the scene and quickly become one of the most unassailable live acts in the country; like an open flame, Party Dozen’s live sets (which have seamlessly transitioned from stage to record on previous releases The Living Man and Pray For Party Dozen) are powerful, sporadic and captivating, making it nearly impossible to look away.

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Since the release of 2017’s debut LP The Living Man, there’s been a slow shift away from straight-up, raucous chaos punk, channelling the likes of Lightning Bolt, into jazz-meets-sludge-and-doom territory, with influences as widespread as Weedeater, Sleep, Grinderman and even Odetta shining through.

Three singles into the release already (one, somehow managing to feature the prolific non-collaborator Nick Cave) and The Real Work - which was recorded and produced by drummer Jono Boulet in the duo’s Sydney studio space - is already shaping up to be an amazing concept album about loving and laughing at the idea of ‘work’.

**Viagra Boys - Cave World (July 8)**

A few weeks back, Stockholm post-punk outfit Viagra Boys released one of the most gritty, swagger-filled tracks of 2022, accompanied by one of the best music videos of the year. On July 8 they’re going to be unveiling their brand new record Cave World, which is said to be inspired by an online conspiracy theory video about evolution, with lead vocalist Sebastian Murphy recently stating, “I just wrote down, ‘Who is the true ape? People look down at apes as primitive life forms, but we're just this horrible, lazy society killing each other and starting wars, while they’re able to love and feel. Does that make them the true ape or us?” Check out the band’s single and video Punk Rock Loser to get a taste of what’s to come in early July and a look at Murphy’s killer cowboy dance moves.

**Lizzo - Special (July 15)**

Back in August, Lizzo sat down with Zan Lowe, offering the first real in-depth insight into what was on the horizon - thematically - for the US pop icon, three years after the release of her globally acclaimed record Cuz I Love You. The long-form conversation (which you can watch here) ebbs and flows through topics of self-love, anger, delivering hard truths, dealing with emotional events and manifesting confidence.

With statements like, “It’s about damn time I feel better, it’s about damn time we get out this pandemic. It’s about damn time we get the first Black female Supreme Court Justice. There’s so many things. It’s about damn time we popped the champagne. It’s about damn time the tequila got here,” it's likely we’ll see a deeper and more fierce album than before.

Additionally, while Lizzo has confirmed that Marvel star Chris Evans won’t be appearing on the album (despite internet rumours aplenty), she’s yet to confirm or deny whether Harry Styles will make a guest appearance on the new LP. Despite the recent blowback surrounding her latest single Grrrls, it’s hard to see a scenario in which Lizzo’s new release won’t cut through.

**Beabadoobee - Beatopia (July 15)**

After breaking out with her 2017 bedroom-pop hit Coffee, Filipino-British singer-songwriter Beatrice Lau - who performs under the stage name Beadadoobee (a moniker taken from her first account several years ago) - has become a modern slacker-rock icon, praised for her fresh, modern spin on fuzzy, '90s glitter-grunge and unapologetic candidness.

On previous releases, Lau has bounced between topics of mental health and anxiety and (in her words) ‘vomited her feelings’ about sleep paralysis, and not wanting to be alive. On her last record, Fake it Flowers, Lau explained that she was tangled in the past, using it to excuse her behaviour, while on her forthcoming LP, Beatopia, there’s a distinct feeling of hope; with tracks about growth and self-acceptance intertwined with questions of self-doubt, all hidden beneath loveable, catchy, nostalgia pop.

**Jack White - Entering Heaven Alive (July 22)**

To say 2022 has already been a big year for beloved Detroit artist Jack White would be an understatement; in addition to the release of his latest full-length Fear Of The Dawn’ back in April, he also got engaged (and married at the same time) to his long-time partner Olivia Jean on stage at a show in Detroit, has been on and off the road constantly, and - as seen in a recent video interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music - has been seemingly supplying most of North America with vinyl through his very own, Third Man Records. With the arrival of brand new release Entering Heaven Alive, White seems to have almost guaranteed that the back half of 2022 won’t be any lighter on.

**Alex The Astronaut - How To Grow A Sunflower Underwater (July 22)**

Primed for release on July 22, How To Grow A Sunflower Underwater comes almost two years after the release of Alex The Astronaut's debut The Theory Of Absolutely Nothing, and sees an insurmountable level of growth for the Sydney artist, while retaining the same coming of age, suburban indie-rock warmth that cemented Alexandra Lynn as one of the country’s most loveable solo acts.

Set to focus on the lighter, banal and mundane elements of life, from haircuts, shopping and the beach, Lynn’s sophomore release is creatively contrasted by heavier, darker themes and life-changing moments, ranging from her own personal experiences with ASD to PTSD. Featuring brand new singles Haircut, Airport, Octopus and Growing Up, How To Grow A Sunflower Underwater is prepped to continue celebrating the simple, messy joy of life.

**Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - When The Lights Go (July 22)**

It’s been over a decade since Orlando Tobias Edward Higginbottom - AKA Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (or TEED) - dropped his debut album Trouble, and a lot has changed for the British electronic/future-house artist. For one, TEED is releasing his new LP on his own label Nice Age and wearing all the costs of the release after hinting at a ‘bad record deal’ with Universal on his previous album. There’s also a Grammy nomination under his belt, a new outlook on life and an evolved sound.

Fans of TEED’s previous work, encapsulated by his sporadic combination of pop, glitchy electronica and, at times, borderline French House, may be taken aback by the new record. To date, three singles have been released, and while they retain trace elements of TEED's signature sound, there’s a sense of growth and maturity on When The Lights Go; lead single Blood In The Snow, which opens the 17-track LP, is a sparse, sombre and contemplative track about “melting glaciers and wanting a daughter, where to put love in this tailspin.” Follow-up single Crosswalk is a combination of new wave nostalgia and pop perfection (that flies dangerously close to chillwave), while his hazy new single The Sleeper - which was recorded several years ago - was originally designed as a love song, later transforming into a “cry for help for someone feeling undeserving of love”. When The Lights Go is indicative of maturity and growth not seen in TEED’s previous releases and offers an insight into the future sound of his music.

**Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE (July 29)**

New Beyoncé music can feel a lot like a 100m sprint; it’s all hush, hush until the starting gun, and then it’s pandemonium in the blink of an eye. After six years without releasing a full-length album, and only a few minor, cryptic hints sprinkled in the early days of June, the Queen of pop followed her tradition of surprise-announces when streaming platform Tidal tweeted in the early morning hours of June 16 that "Renaissance is coming". Less than a month out from the release and very little is known about the record, aside from the fact that RENAISSANCE is 16 tracks in length, it was largely made during the pandemic, it’s likely to be the first in a series of releases and the first single Break My Soul sounds like this:

**King Princess - Hold On Baby (July 29)**

It’s been three years since Brooklyn-raised vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter King Princess unveiled her debut album Cheap Queen, and fans of the indie bedroom-pop artist were beginning to get anxious about when the next full length was on the way. In early June, fans' prayers were answered with an official release date for her sophomore LP Hold On Baby, produced alongside collaborators, including Mark Ronson, Ethan Gruska (Phoebe Bridgers), Aaron & Bryce Dessner (The National), Tobias Jesso Jr and more.

In a recent statement about the album, King Princess explained that, “I’ve only ever written about heartbreak. It felt easier to talk about myself through other people. To write about situations that caused me pain, and to use them to justify my own anxieties and depression. It finally reached a point where I had to turn the barrel on myself. I’m silly, I’m anxious, I’m sad, I’m sexy. I didn’t want to be scared to talk about those things anymore."

**Maggie Rogers - Surrender (July 29)**

Artists lucky enough to feature at Coachella are already under an impossible amount of pressure, performing what is likely to be the biggest show of their entire lives to a sea of fans and media. Back in April, it appears that Maggie Rogers wanted to amp the stress up to a new level, using the performance at Coachella as not only a launching pad for her forthcoming record Surrender, but as a project for her master’s degree at Harvard Divinity School. Submitted alongside a thesis, which shares the same title as her album and discusses cultural consciousness, it’s clear that Rogers’ education has played an important role in the new record, which is said to be about “stories of anger and peace and self-salvation” exhibiting “transcendence through sex and freedom through letting go".