In addition to Halloween excitement, October is also flush with exciting new music. This month promises a host of highly anticipated albums in all genres — including the return of beloved acts straddling the worlds of rock, pop, punk and dance music.
October sees reenergized funk-rock lifers Red Hot Chili Peppers back with their second release of 2022, Return of the Dream Canteen, while indie-pop darling Carly Rae Jepsen returns with her introspective and soul-searching fifth album, The Loneliest Time. The rest of the month sees the return of British rock torchbearers (The 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language and Arctic Monkeys‘ The Car), a gleaming debut from one of dance music’s brightest stars (TSHA’s Capricorn Sun), boundary-pushing hip-hop (Mykki Blanco’s Stay Close to Music), thunderous hard rock (Lamb of God‘s Omens), and much more.
Below, check out a guide to the must-hear albums dropping in October 2022, from big names you know to newcomers you’ll want to add to your playlist.
Lamb of God – Omens
Release date: October 7
Fans of corrosive, no-hostages-taken heavy metal will find much to enjoy in the veteran Virginia band’s ninth studio album, which was recorded live in studio. From the visceral fury of opening track “Nevermore” — its lacerating groove moving at the speed of light, anchoring Randy Blythe’s deep growl — Omens never lets up.
The lyrics combine a never ending reservoir of rage about the sad state of the world with moments of evocative poetry, like the despondent nihilism of “Vanishing.” After being unable to tour behind its previous effort — 2020’s critically acclaimed self-titled album – the quintet returns to U.S. stages with a vengeance, headlining a massive tour backed by a variety of like-minded opening acts. For Lamb of God, the post-pandemic era marches to the beat of metal. — Ernesto Lechner
Related: Why Lamb Of God Frontman Randy Blythe Is Rejecting The New Abnormal
Sun Ra Arkestra – Living Sky
Release date: October 7
Last year, the Sun Ra Arkestra’s Swirling — the Marshall Allen-led collective’s first new studio album since 1999’s Song for the Sun — earned universal acclaim and a 2022 GRAMMY nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. They’ve returned with Living Sky, featuring 19 musicians performing the late spiritual jazz master Sun Ra’s compositions.
The album is being released on executive producer Ahmet Ulug’s Omni Sound imprint (Swirling appeared on UK label Strut). Lead single “Somebody Else’s Idea” is the first instrumental recording of a song that originally featured vocalist June Tyson.
“‘Somebody Else’s Idea’ is an affirmation that the world I live in is a world that I can change,” says baritone saxophonist Knoel Scott. “The first part of change is not accepting the status, the so-called status quo, in rejecting the status quo, I free myself to the possibilities which range amongst the infinite. It is our desire. There are those who listen to our music also embrace the possibilities which range beyond the limits of the impossible.” — Mosi Reeves
Related: Sun Ra Arkestra’s Knoel Scott On New Album Swirling, Sun Ra’s Legacy & Music As A Healing Force
TSHA – Capricorn Sun
Release date: October 7
London-based DJ and producer TSHA came of age listening to acid house, rave and UK garage, and those formative years still shine through in her productions. After a promising run of EPs and singles, TSHA’s new album, Capricorn Sun, finds her in full bloom.
Capricorn Sun features a wide spectrum of heartfelt house and bass music, including collaborations with vocalist Clementine Douglas, GRAMMY Award-winning Malian singer Oumou Sangaré and composer/producer Mafro, who is also TSHA’s fiancé.
TSHA credits seeing Bonobo live in 2017 as the biggest inspiration on her warm, widescreen sound. In a full circle moment, both artists have now released albums on Ninja Tune in 2022. — Jack Tregoning
Related: 5 Emerging Artists Pushing Electronic Music Forward: Moore Kismet, TSHA, Doechii & Others
Lil Baby – It’s Only Me
Release date: October 14
With his upcoming third solo studio album for Quality Control Music, It’s Only Me, Atlanta rapper Lil Baby looks to build on the acclaim of his chart-topping 2020 release, My Turn. That four-times platinum album helped him secure a “Best Rapper Alive” honor from Complex and yielded a No. 3 hit in the Black Lives Matter anthem, “The Bigger Picture.” At the 2021 GRAMMY Awards — where “The Bigger Picture” was nominated for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song” — Lil Baby delivered one of the ceremony’s most memorable performances by performing alongside activist Tamika Mallory and rapper/activist Killer Mike from Run the Jewels.
Since that breakout year, Lil Baby has released a platinum collaboration with Lil Durk, 2021’s The Voice of the Heroes, and recorded a track for the upcoming 2022 World Cup in Qatar, “The World Is Yours to Take.” He also landed a No. 2 hit with Nicki Minaj this year, “Do We Have a Problem?”
When Lil Baby announced It’s Only Me on Instagram, he wrote, “I Kno Its Been Along Time Coming But I’m Coming Harder And Harder…#worththewait.” — M.R.
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M.I.A. – MATA
Release date: October 14
MATA may be Sri Lankan-British rapper M.I.A.’s first album in six years, but she hasn’t been entirely silent. In 2020, the three-time GRAMMY nominee collaborated with Travis Scott and Young Thug on the Billboard chart-topping single, “Franchise.” She’s also dropped a handful of loosies in the run-up to MATA like “Beep” and “Popular.”
She revealed earlier this year that she’s now a born-again Christian — an evolution that may seem at odds with her revolutionary, iconoclastic image. “I had a vision and I saw the vision of Jesus Christ,” she told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe last May. “It’s very creatively a crazy thing because it turned my world upside down.”
On her previous two albums, Matangi and AIM, M.I.A.’s music grew increasingly spiritual and reflective. However, she’s still an iconoclast who blends electronic music tones, agit-rap, and Indian music melodies in vividly creative fashion. “Popular,” which marks her reunion with former collaborator Diplo, is a critique of artificial intelligence. Other contributors to MATA include Skrillex and Rick Rubin; there’s also a verse from the late Juice WRLD. — M.R.
Related: 5 Women Essential To Rap: Cardi B, Lil’ Kim, MC Lyte, Sylvia Robinson & Tierra Whack
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Return of the Dream Canteen
Release date: October 14
Back in April, Red Hot Chili Peppers released Unlimited Love, their first album since 2016’s The Getaway. Produced by legendary impresario Rick Rubin, Unlimited Love also heralded the return of guitarist John Frusciante after a 16 year absence. The album’s throwback sound, combined with Frusciante’s unmistakeable guitar tones, thrilled fans and earned the band their first U.S. No. 1 album since Stadium Arcadium in 2006.
Only a few months later, Red Hot Chili Peppers revealed they had another album’s worth of material from the Unlimited Love sessions. Out Oct. 14, Return of the Dream Canteen features 17 new Chili Peppers songs, including the funk-heavy “Tippa My Tongue” (accompanied bya joyfully psychedelic music video) and the more contemplative “Eddie.”
The band showcased the new material on their sold-out stadium tour across the U.S., including a homecoming show at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium that featured a career-spanning setlist and support from Beck and Thundercat. — J.T.
Read More: For The Record: Inside Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Masterpiece Stadium Arcadium At 15
The 1975 – Being Funny in a Foreign Language
Release date: October 14
Following 2020’s sprawling Notes On On A Conditional Form, pop shapeshifters The 1975 return this month with Being Funny in a Foreign Language. This time around, the group has focused its attention on just 11 tracks, working with pop super-producer Jack Antonoff to help crystallize their sound.
Excitingly for fans, The 1975 has already offered up four singles ahead of the album: “Part Of The Band,” “Happiness,” “I’m In Love With You,” and “All I Need To Hear.” Each single iterates on the signature 1975 sound, with frontman Matty Healy’s poetic lyrics and nimble vocals as the common thread. The band’s forthcoming world tour, cheekily titled The 1975 At Their Very Best, travels across the U.S. in November and December. — J.T.
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Mykki Blanco – Stay Close to Music
Release date: October 14
Mykki Blanco has remained at pop’s bleeding edge ever since debuting in 2012. Gradually, the mainstream has absorbed her innovations, and she’s now seen as a pioneer in queer-identified, hip-hop-inflected music. Her reach is clear in the track listing for Stay Close to Me, which is set for release on Transgressive and features ANOHNI, Saul Williams, FaltyDL, Michael Stipe, Diana Gordon, Jónsi and many others. The video for the romantic first single, “French Lessons,” pays tribute to Georgian filmmaker Sergei Parajanov, incorporates post-apocalyptic imagery and symbolizes a global fight for queer liberation.
“I wanted to see what it would be like to go back and be a musician from another time where you had to start every ingredient raw from scratch,” Blanco said in a press release. “That process, ideology and that way of making has not only changed me as a musician, it has creatively changed me as a person.” — M.R.
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Taylor Swift – Midnights
Release date: October 21
Within hours of its announcement — and before a second of actual music hit the internet — Swifties came out in full force with countless theories as to the contents of Taylor Swift‘s upcoming album, Midnights. Whether the album turns out to be ’90s pastiche, include a Drake feature, or be tied to National Reptile Day remains to be seen, that won’t stop the fans from taking a fine-tooth comb to social media in the search for hints.
In the meantime, we have a few general notes confirmed: 13 tracks dedicated to “the stories of 13 sleepless nights,” an album that comprises “a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.” Lana Del Rey is set to guest on “Snow on the Beach,” and Jack Antonoff is one of the producers. While revealing track titles on her TikTok series “Midnights Mayhem With Me,” Swift explained that “Lavender Haze” details the feelings of protecting her relationship with Joe Alwyn from the swirl of media attention, and that “Anti-Hero” reveals some of her deepest insecurities. We only have to wait until Oct. 21 to learn the rest of the story, but that won’t stop the speculation machine from roaring gloriously until then. — Lior Phillips
Read More: Everything We Know About Taylor Swift’s New Album Midnights
Carly Rae Jepsen – The Loneliest Time
Release date: October 21
Canadian pop darling Carly Rae Jepsen will take her anthemic hooks to the disco on her sixth album, The Loneliest Time, due Oct. 21. While the 13 tracks imbue her melodies with ’70s glitz and glam and a healthy dose of self-awareness, Jepsen’s unmatched charm and playful spirit remain at the core. That duality and magic results in a four-and-a-half minute dancefloor duet with fellow Canadian pop eccentric Rufus Wainwright complete with lush strings, a talk-sung bridge, and Giorgio Moroder synth wobbles in which every moment feels essential.
Loneliest Time combines the focused stylistics and songwriting of 2015’s superb Emotion with the confidence and willingness to experiment with 2019’s Dedicated, and filters it down to distilled pop gems. Only Jepsen has the goofy earnestness (or is it earnest goofiness?) to pull off a campy track like “Beach House,” in which three potential partners warn Jepsen that they’ll probably hurt her feelings, need to borrow $10,000, and…um…harvest her organs. The late-night Minogue-esque wondering of “Talking To Yourself” and the golden shimmer of “Western Wind” expand on the dance pop equation, Jepsen as winning and sugary sweet as ever. And as if that weren’t enough, Jepsen recorded upwards of a hundred tracks while putting The Loneliest Time together, so here’s hoping another B Side record like those for Emotion and Dedicated is around the corner. — L.P.
Read More: Life-Changing Recordings: Carly Rae Jepsen
Arctic Monkeys – The Car
Release date: October 21
After waiting over four years for new music, Arctic Monkeys fans now have reason to rejoice. This month, the UK band will release its seventh studio album, The Car, which follows 2018’s GRAMMY-nominated Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.
Having made their name with stomping rock anthems like “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” and “R U Mine?,”Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino signaled a new direction for the band into psychedelic and loungey pop. The Car is set to continue in that more refined tradition, as evidenced by the singles “Body Paint” and “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball,” which both showcase frontman Alex Turner’s richly emotive vocals over lush instrumentation.
Arctic Monkeys have already planned out a US tour from August 2023, culminating in three nights at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California. That gives you plenty of time to luxuriate in all the new album has to offer. — J.T.
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Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn – Pigments
Release date: October 21
After earning widespread acclaim with Second Line, a kinetic homage to New Orleans’ Mardi Gras Indians, avant-pop artist Dawn Richard is shifting gears again. Her collaboration with composer Spencer Zahn, Pigments, is a collection of contemporary classical music, ECM-style jazz and chamber pop.
Released via Merge Records, nearly half of the songs are instrumental suites by Zahn and his ensemble. The rest features Richard’s impressions on life as a young woman learning to embrace herself. Zahn has played bass on Richard’s tours, and has recorded four albums as a bandleader, including this year’s Pale Horizon. Before Pigments, the two collaborated on a 2018 remix of Zahn’s “Cyanotype.”
In a press release for Pigments, Richard explained, “I felt like the tools that I and other people like me were dealt weren’t shiny. Yet we still painted these beautiful pictures. This album is what it means to be a dreamer and finally reach a place where you’ve decided to love the pigments that you have.” — M.R.
Read More: Dawn Richard On Alchemizing Grief Into Joy, Advocating For Black Creators & Her NOLA-Honoring New Album Second Line
Natalia Lafourcade – De Todas las Flores
Release date: October 28
When Mexican songstress Natalia Lafourcade began work on her first collection of original songs since 2015’s exquisite Hasta la Raíz, she would show keyboardist Emiliano Dorante images of Claude Monet paintings as a visual guidepost for what the music should sound like. While the influence of Claude Debussy can be heard on the atmospheric piano intro to “Llévamente Viento,” but the new album is also seeped in sinuous folk rhythms (the ritual-like “Muerte”), abstract jazzy textures — veteran guitarist Marc Ribot is part of Lafourcade’s band — and the sunny tropi-surf vibes of “Canta La Arena.”
Recorded live in a Texas studio without any previous rehearsals and no outside guests allowed, the album was mixed in Paris with producer Adán Jodorowsky after a much anticipated visit to Monet’s gardens, De Todas Las Flores is one of Lafourcade’s most fully realized efforts. At 38, she continues developing a novel language for Latin music, informed by life-affirming moments of self-reflection and discovery. — E.L.
Read More: Natalia Lafourcade On Un Canto Por México, Vol. II, Music As Activism & Uniting Women Through “La Llorona”
Fred again.. – Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022)
Release date: October 28
(including “Turn On The Lights again..” with Swedish House Mafia and Future), bootlegs and remixes, the set has blown up online, stacking up 6.9 million views on YouTube since July. Building on that momentum, Fred again.. is currently on a sold-out tour across the U.S.
After a three-night stint at Terminal 5 in New York, Fred again.. will drop his much-anticipated Actual Life 3 (January 1- September 9 2022) on Oct. 28. The Actual Life series began in April 2021, and each edition features the producer’s electronic soundscapes intercut with audio recordings from his life and travels.
Actual Life 3 (January 1- September 9 2022) features some of the highpoints from the Boiler Room session, such as the 070 Shake-sampling “Danielle (smile on my face)” and the bassy earworm “Kammy (like i do).” — J.T.
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Lee Fields – Sentimental Fool
Release date: October 28
At 72 years of age, Lee Fields encapsulates the very essence of soul and its healing power. Born in North Carolina, he was deeply inspired by James Brown and released his first single, “Bewildered,” in 1969. Fields has soldiered on through the decades, with live performances and a series of superb albums in the ‘90s and into the new millennium. Released on Daptone Records, Sentimental Fool finds his amazing vocalizing framed by a sympathetic ensemble.
Simmering opening cut “Forever” sounds like a classic Stax cut from the ‘60s, while “Ordinary Lives” boasts sweet sax riffs, spiraling guitar patterns and a majestic bass line. Age has done wonders to his singing. He sounds relaxed on the new tracks, but still able to emote mountains of sorrow, hope and joy all within the same song. Fields will celebrate the release of the album with an extended U.S. tour that will continue through December. — E.L.
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