From Ari Lennox to Santigold to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, here are 23 albums we can't wait to hear in September 2022

Los Angeles noise-rock duo No Age have been kicking around for 17 years now—ages, you could say. Randy Randall and Dean Spunt recorded and produced their new album, People Helping People, entirely by themselves, starting in their studio before the pandemic and finishing it in Randall’s garage. From spaced-out ambient instrumentals like “Andy Helping Andy” to fuzzily melodic jams like “Tripped Out Before Scott,” People Helping People is a veteran band continuing to follow their muse wherever it leads, playing to their strengths and doing exactly what they do best. [Peter Helman]

Whitney, the breezy and extremely chill Chicago indie-rock band centered around the duo of former Smith Westerns members Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek, are reinventing themselves. Their new album Spark, recorded with producers Brad Cook and John Congleton, is their take on classic pop music, moving past their humble folky beginnings to embrace a newfound immediacy and a glossy modern sheen. If early tracks “Real Love,” “Blue,” and “Twirl,” full of warm falsetto melodies and shimmering keyboards, offered a tantalizing taste of Whitney’s new direction, then the rest of Spark is sure to sate your appetite. [Peter Helman]

In this new set from Light in the Attic’s Lou Reed Archive series, 10 of the 17 tracks are indeed May 1965 cassette demos, though there are earlier home recordings from 1963-1964 and even a rehearsal going back to 1958. Some of these songs, including all-time classics like “Heroin,” “Pale Blue Eyes,” and “I’m Waiting for the Man” were recorded later by The Velvet Underground. There’s even a version of “Men of Good Fortune,” which ended up on Reed’s third solo LP, 1973’s Berlin. There are also folk standards like “Michael Row The Boat Ashore” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right” as well alongside archival photos, lyrics, and liner notes from critic Greil Marcus, musician Don Fleming, and archivist Jason Stern. [Matthew Berlyant]

WILLOW dove headfirst into pop-punk on last year’s Travis Barker-assisted lately I feel EVERYTHING, and with <Copingmechanism> she’s delving deeper into rock music. There are “Radiohead vibes in there, some Deftones vibes in there, a smidge of Queen with the major harmonies,” WILLOW told Billboard in a recent interview. “I wanted to go for the heart of rock music, which to me is a deep outcry—maybe about pain, maybe about joy.” Co-produced with Yungblud/Yves Tumor collaborator Chris Greatti, the album is an urgent musical response to WILLOW’s first real romantic heartbreak—and further evidence that the young artist is impossible to pigeonhole. [Peter Helman]

Whether he’s leading Sons Of Kemet and Shabaka And The Ancestors or performing as part of The Comet Is Coming, saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings is at the center of London’s forward-thinking, genre-bending jazz scene. The Comet Is Coming, the psychedelic jazz-rock band that also features keyboardist Dan Leavers (aka Danalogue) and drummer Max Hallett (aka Betamax), recorded their new album Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam during a four-day session at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios. Lead single “CODE” is a futuristic transmission that’ll expand your mind and get your body moving, whisking your ears away on an interstellar odyssey and taking your feet along for the ride. [Peter Helman]

Chicago-based drummer, composer, and bandleader Makaya McCraven is one of the most exciting voices in contemporary jazz music, and his upcoming album In These Times promises to be his magnum opus. Although he’s released plenty of music in the meantime, McCraven has been working on In These Times since 2015, recording it in five different studios and four live performance spaces with collaborators including Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, Joel Ross, and Marquis Hill. An 11-song, 41-minute suite of original polytemporal compositions, In These Times is a powerful statement that showcases McCraven’s talent as a producer and a composer. [Peter Helman]

Coming to us from Chicago-via-Bogotá is the psych-rock band Divino Niño, who are set to release their fourth studio album, Last Spa On Earth. While much of 2019’s Foam featured surrealist effects over primarily English lyrics, Divino Niño are leaning into their roots for Last Spa On Earth, which will be primarily a Spanish record. The album’s singles include “XO,” “Nos Soltamos,” “Tu Tonto,” and “Drive,” all of which flex a more mature sound rooted in pitch perfect bedroom pop. [Gabrielle Sanchez]

Up there with Marion Cotillard, Amelie, and brie, Christine and the Queens presents Redcar is one of France’s most important cultural exports. After years of being heralded in Europe and developing a dedicated (if cult) fanbase in the States, Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue) may finally launch the artist (born Héloïse Letissier) into his rightful place in the pop pantheon. The following the release of his pitch-perfect EP La Vita Nuova, ,” Letissier netted high-profile collaborations with Charli XCX and 070 Shake. Redcar’s lead single, “Je Te Vois Enfain,” calls to mind the dark synths of the Eurythmics. If Christine and the Queens presents Redcar is finally entering his Annie Lennox era, we’re here for it. [Drew Gillis]

Alex G has been an indie darling for nearly a decade, but his profile ahead of his upcoming release, God Save The Animals, has never been higher. On the heels of his score and soundtrack for the Sundance favorite We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, Giannascoli has already treated his loyal following to a handful of songs expected to be on the upcoming LP, including “Cross The Sea,” “Runner,” and “Blessing.” The track “Cross The Sea” is an immediate highlight, combining processed, layered vocals with a driving electric guitar and picking strings, at once reminiscent of recent tracks from Grimes and 070 Shake and wholly original. [Drew Gillis]

With the , Los Angeles band Mamalarky are primed for the release of their sophomore record Pocket Fantasy. The newly released single “It Hurts” showcases an entirely new side to the group with its unhurried pace and implementation of delicate keys and supple guitar lines. Take this alongside the tightly wound, rapid fire “Mythical Bonds,” and we see a band which has not only learned the ins and outs of their sound and songwriting, but continues to push the envelope. [Gabrielle Sanchez]

DJ, record producer, rapper, and singer Shygirl moved to the front of the hyperpop scene with her 2020 EP Alias. In the last few years, she’s collaborated with the like of FKA and , while honing her debut album. Although Shygirl has been known for sex-laden lyrics over high-pressure house beats, the singles from Nymph have showcased a more airy, tender side of the artist. In a recent interview with VICE, she talks about switching up the lens on her work, with a focus on self-exploration over sexualization. But that doesn’t mean she can’t sing about a little “Coochie” as an avenue toward growth. [Gabrielle Sanchez]

The only thing harder than capturing lightning is recapturing it, and The Pixies’ last decade has been proof of that challenge. The Boston rockers haven’t released an album since 2019’s Beneath The Eyrie, which featured snarling vocals and gothic production. The album wasn’t exactly a revelation, but that was pre-pandemic, and before they chose to start experimenting with what Black Francis calls “big and bold and orchestrated.” The fruition of that sound is the band’s eighth studio album, Doggerel. The title, a word defined as “verse or words that are badly written or expressed,” feels as cheeky and open hearted as the most hallowed Pixies anthems. The first track from the album, “There’s A Moon On,” captures the galloping rhythms and brief but exultant instrumental breaks that mark the most memorable Pixies tracks. Here come your men! [Hattie Lindert]

After almost a decade without releasing new music, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs return with Cool It Down. The album’s first single, “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World,” marks the Karen O-led band’s first new, original music since 2013. “To all who have waited, our dear fans, thank you, our fever to tell has returned, and writing these songs came with its fair share of chills, tears, and euphoria when the pain lifts and truth is revealed,” Karen O shares in an . “Don’t have to tell you how much we’ve been going through in the last nine years since our last record, because you’ve been going through it too, and we love you and we see you, and we hope you feel the feels from the music we’ve made.” Her unique, raw-nerve vocal timbre seems perfectly suited to capture exactly what we’ve all been going through. [Hattie Lindert]

Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles has referred to the band’s new album as “our equivalent to Born In The U.S.A.,” and if that doesn’t get you excited for it, I don’t know what will. Recorded with Canadian producer Howard Bilerman at his Hotel 2 Tango studio in Montreal—because “the pursuit of Ultimate Rock knows no borders,” Stickles says—The Will To Live is his attempt to reckon with the recent death of his cousin and former Titus Andronicus keyboardist Matt “Money” Miller. Stickles excels at turning his lowest moments into gloriously life-affirming rock music, and The Will To Live is pretty much as glorious and life-affirming as rock music gets. [Peter Helman]