BRANDI CARLILE – RETURNING TO MYSELF (SAD GAY VERSION)
If you were the sort of teenager that coped with their pain by loudly playing the saddest songs you could find, this Brandi Carlile album is for you. On Returning to Myself (Sad Gay Version), Carlile takes all ten songs from her 2025 album and rebuilds them with that dramatically heartbroken feeling in mind. The arrangements are more intimate and vulnerable, including a reworked “Human” with electronic composer Jon Hopkins and a cover of Billy Joel‘s “And So It Goes.” It’s basically Carlile taking an already personal album, dimming the lights, sitting on the edge of the bed and allowing herself to wallow.
Stream • Interscope/Lost Highway • Connect: @brandicarlile
TOM MORELLO – EVERYONE GETS EVERYTHING THEY WANT
After decades with Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, the Nightwatchman and assorted collaborations, it’s a little surprising that EVERYONE GETS EVERYTHING THEY WANT is being billed as Tom Morello‘s first proper solo rock album. This is not an elder statesman, slowing down solo Morello, it’s loud, political, and built around all those wonderfully bizarre sounds Morello continues to coax out of a guitar.
There’s a family element, too. His teenage son Roman Morello shares writing credits on five songs, while Serj Tankian, Kneecap and Beartooth turn up across the record. Tracks like “Date Night,” “Adjourn It” and “They Can’t Kill Us All” make the mission pretty clear: Morello still believes rock music should occasionally make people uncomfortable.
Stream • Mom+Pop • Connect: @tommorello
SOFT CELL – DANCETERIA
Danceteria was already intended as a love letter to the decadent New York that helped shape Soft Cell, but after Dave Ball‘s death in October 2025, it became something much more poignant. Ball finished the album just two days before he died, leaving it as the sixth and final Soft Cell studio record and the closing chapter of his nearly five-decade partnership with Marc Almond. There’s synth-pop, disco, dark humor and just enough grime underneath all that glamour.
U2 – “SILENCIO”
U2 is rocking out full throttle with “Silencio.” It’s just another taste of their Carnaval De Luz, coming out November 12th, which the band said will explore, “themes of spirituality, friendship, freedom, and endurance in the face of dark, encroaching forces.” And, it comes with the news of featuring the final recording from Dolly Parton on their song, “Torn.”
