It’s been a while since I’ve done a proper round-up of new(ish) music I dig, so what better time to do it than the start of a blistering hot fall?

Keep reading for six new(ish) releases that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this month.

Ratboys – The Window

Chicago indie rock outfit Ratboys has been on and off my radar for the past couple of years, but I’d never heard anything from them that really grabbed me. This album completely flipped my perception of this band. Produced by Chris Walla, this album shows Ratboys departing from their modest country-tinged roots in favor of bombastic alterna pop and classic rock grandeur. These big swings pay off tremendously, boasting melodic hook after melodic hook, sizzling guitars, and devastatingly personal writing from lead singer Julia Steiner. When people talk about level-up breakthrough records, this is precisely what they are referring to. This is also the perfect album for fall, evoking the sense of sharp wind gusts and the sound of dry leaves crunching under the soles of your well-worn boots.

Snõõper – Super Snõõper

This debut full-length effort from the Nashville-based punk outfit is nothing short of ripper after ripper. It’s a relentless sonic assault and the experience is amplified x 100 at their raucous live shows. I saw this band a week ago and I’m still covered in bruises. In addition to violently chittering guitars and the playful nursery rhyme delivery from lead vocalist Blair Trammel, this band flaunts a seamless blend of mediums including puppetry, assemblages, and video art.

PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying

We all have anticipated milestones that alter the course of our lives. For me, that’s every ten years or so when PJ Harvey decides to release new material. Recorded in collaboration with John Parish and Flood, this collection of primitive folk songs and field recordings tests listeners’ limits of comfort and familiarity with Harvey’s signature output.

Also, it’s PJ Harvey. She could have released eleven scratch demos doing nothing but coughing and farting over a drum machine and it would still qualify for my album of the year.

Tetchy – Married

My good friend Sam Sumpter – a fellow music writer and radio DJ – described the voice of Maggie Denning from Brooklyn punk outfit Tetchy as “equal parts babe and banshee.” This is a perfect summation of a band that thrives on contradiction. Mirroring elegant soft croons with unfettered screams and equally abrasive instrumentation, Tetchy’s latest single “Married,” is a promising amplification of their loud-quiet-loud grunge-punk mastery, including a video that pokes fun at heteronormativity with champagne baths, wrecked wedding cakes, and toy Barbie cars engulfed in flames.

Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve heard any new material from Philadelphia punk outfit Mannequin Pussy. So when I heard they were working with Grammy-award winning producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, The Mountain Goats) on this new single, I was very intrigued. The band had previously collaborated with producer-engineer Will Yip (The Menzingers, Quicksand) on their 2019 breakthrough album Patience and their 2021 EP Perfect. And while Patience remains one of my favorite records of the last five years, I can’t help but notice one inescapable flaw, which is also my biggest gripe with Will Yip’s work – he buries the vocals too much. Marisa “Missy” Dabice’s bold, biting, and powerful prose is too good to be buried in white noise. Her voice deserves to be loudly front and center.

The best way I can describe “I Got Heaven” is what I imagine Olivia Rodrigo would sound like if she stopped playing it safe and actually went full-blown punk. Also, the lyric “what if Jesus himself ate my fuckin’ snatch” is too good. Missy deserves an induction into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame just for that lyric alone.

Sorry Darling – Sorry Darling

Brooklyn-based power pop quartet Sorry Darling has come out the gates swinging with an effortlessly catchy sweet and sour debut single that the band refers to as their mission statement and theme song, and it’s easy to see why. Revved-up guitars, driving drums, and the smooth co-lead vocals of Liz Wagner Biro and Steve Bailey have all the ingredients for the theme song to a sitcom, along with a music video that cycles through nods to classics like The Brady Bunch, Full House, The Addams Family, and Clarissa Explains it all among others.