Remembering Wayne Osmond, born on this day in 1951. —Ed.

I used to know this rather dim garbage head who gobbled a handful of pills he thought were opiates but weren’t, and he swore—on a stack of ludes!—they didn’t do anything but make his waist-length hair stand straight up in the air and vibrate. I’m pretty sure his story was bullshit. That said, if you’re looking for an album that will do the same thing, you could do much worse than check out The Osmonds’ Crazy Horses.

You heard me right: The Osmonds. Because despite what you may have heard about Ogden, Utah’s finest, they weren’t a do-goodie, whiter-shade-of-pale tweenie-pop imitation of the Jackson Five but substance-abusing (they sometimes took as many as three aspirin at once!) Mormon mofos who took their Tang straight yet still managed to stand up on their hind legs and bray. And the culmination of their badassness was Crazy Horses, one of the greatest hard rock albums your ears will ever hear. And that’s not just me talking: in Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums, rock crit Chuck Eddy puts Crazy Horses at No. 66—which is too low in my opinion, but then everybody underestimates the Mormon Motörhead.

The brothers began their career as a barbershop quartet, The Osmond 5 (math is not taught in the schools of the Church of Latter Day Saints) before becoming worldwide superstars thanks to little brother Donny and the bubblegum classic “One Bad Apple.” Meanwhile, though, Donny’s older siblings were chomping at the bit. They wanted to write their own songs and play their own instruments and smoke fake cigarettes and change their name to The Gentile Killers. So they staged a coup of sorts, relieving Donny of lead singer duties to toughen up their sound while honing their protopunk chops by playing along to Hollies’ records until they were the five maddest, baddest, LDS-taking apples in the whole bunch, girl.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Seventy years ago, Carl Perkins’ single, “Blue Suede Shoes,” struck down on a staid music landscape like a bolt of lightning. It shocked and electrified the world with its infectious blend of country, blues, and pop, and is often considered one of the first rockabilly songs.

The King Of Rockabilly, Carl Perkins, returns to Sun Records just in time to celebrate 70 years of “Blue Suede Shoes” with the landmark, never-before-heard album, Some Things Never Change, out October 24th, 2025. The 10-song collection was produced by Grammy-nominated songwriter, musician, recording artist, and producer Bill Lloyd. Nashville-based Lloyd is often remembered as half of the chart-topping country-rock duo Foster & Lloyd. The album’s first single, revved-up rocker, “Memphis In The Meantime,” is out today. Some Things Never Change will be available on vinyl, CD, and across all streaming platforms.

“Working with Carl Perkins remains one of the biggest highlights of my career,” says Bill Lloyd. “What makes this release especially meaningful is knowing that rockabilly continues to resonate with new generations. I hope young artists will hear this album and feel the energy, authenticity, and joy that Carl brought to every note.”

Some Things Never Change couldn’t be a truer proclamatory title. Perkins sounds full of vigor and swagger, making 1990—the year it was recorded—feel as vital as 1955, ground zero for rockabilly’s genesis. The recordings are complete with all the classic fixings: slapback echo, twanging guitars, snarled singing, and dreamy balladry.

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With Dolores O’Riordan as their distinctive vocalist, the Irish four-piece The Cranberries took alternative rock by storm in the 1990s, crafting a sound drawn from ’80s UK indie pop and adding elements of dream pop, post punk, and the nascent alt-rock scene. It was their second album, 1994’s No Need to Argue, that made the biggest splash and remains the band’s biggest seller; it’s just been given an expanded 30th anniversary edition that includes remixes of “Ode to My Family” and “Zombie,” a demo of “Zombie” and live tracks from Woodstock ’94 and MTV Unplugged. A fresh consideration of the LP is below.

If No Need to Argue was The Cranberries biggest success, their debut album from the previous year, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? laid the groundwork. That first record, like its follow-up, was produced by Stephen Street, and landed the band an alternative hit in “Dreams” and a legit mainstream breakthrough with “Linger.”

Released in October 1994, No Need to Argue managed four singles, with the first, “Zombie,” issued a month prior to the album, becoming huge internationally. The heaviest song they’d recorded up to that point, and featuring O’Riordan’s sharp, heavily accented wail, “Zombie” wasn’t a complete change of pace, as they’d gotten loud on their debut, and O’Riordan’s vocal prowess was a defining trait on their first album.

Second single and album opener “Ode to My Family” is closer to what fans would’ve expected; it’s pretty and achy and showcases O’Riordan’s singing exceptionally well. It’s followed on the LP by the more straightforward, punked-up rocker “I Can’t Be With You,” which was the third single from the album everywhere in the world except the USA, where it was single number four.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | GRAMMY® Award-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Fame® Inductees and iconic New Jersey R&B group Kool & The Gang will unveil their new Greatest Hits collection on October 17, 2025 via Island, Mercury Records, and Universal Music Enterprises (UMe). It notably stands out as the band’s first new vinyl release in decades. Greatest Hits will be pressed on limited-edition 1LP platinum ice vinyl as a special online exclusive as well as black 1LP vinyl and 1CD. Pre-order HERE through the group’s Official Store.

Assembling a definitive sampling of smashes, the group serves up a “Kool Dozen” of signature staples and generational anthems. The album flaunts everything from funky gems such as “Jungle Boogie,” “Ladies Night,” “Celebration,” and “Get Down On It” to the soulful “Cherish” and more. Greatest Hits features a compelling and extensive historical essay penned by one of the band’s closest confidants. In July, Kool & The Gang dropped the “Kool Summer” EP, collecting 6 brand new Official Remixes of various classics from their catalog by the likes of Young Franco, DJ Crazy, Prince Hakim Bell, and more.

Kool Summer has generated millions of streams in addition to earning acclaim from the likes of The Urban Music Scene and more. Right out of the gate, WE RAVE YOU applauded how “They teamed up with top-tier producers from around the world to breathe new life into tracks like ‘Celebration,’ ‘Get Down On It,’ and ‘Fresh,’ blending nostalgia with cutting-edge production.” In the EP’s wake, Digital Journal also spoke to Co-Founder and bassist Robert “Kool” Bell for a career-spanning interview.

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Paul Weller is regarded as one of the most important pop music artists of all time in his native UK. Weller is nearly peerless among British musical artists who first came up after the ’60s. His first group, The Jam, along with the Sex Pistols and The Clash, were the most important seminal UK punk bands of the 1970s. Of them all, no other member of any of those groups has had the kind of sustained success, critical acclaim, and singular place in music as Weller.

After The Jam, Weller formed the criminally underrated Style Council. Since their breakup, he has recorded nearly 20 solo studio albums, which have only solidified his stature and following. Unlike many artists to emerge from the 1960s or 1970s, Weller never rests on his laurels, relies on his earliest works in concerts, or seems to be slowing down or losing his touch. The only other English artist who comes to mind who has some of these attributes is Richard Thompson.

After three albums on Polydor in the UK, Weller, now 67, is back on Parlophone, with the album being domestically released here in the US by Warner Bros. The album is somewhat of a follow-up to his 2004 album Studio 150. Both albums are exclusively made up of covers and sometimes focus on songs from artists from the US. Both also have a more stripped-down acoustic and rural feel. It’s American folk and singer-songwriter music played in the smoky basement of an English pub. The difference in the two is that Studio 150 had a more rootsy, even at times blues and R&B feel, while the new album is more lush.

It’s telling that Weller starts off the album with a cover of a Richie Havens song. Havens was one of the most beloved, forceful, and singular artists to emerge out of the Greenwich Village folk scene. His incendiary performing ability was on full display in his live set that opened the Woodstock festival in 1969, and he would successfully transition into the ’70s singer-songwriting genre, although he was more of a song interpreter.

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Emerging onto the scene in the late 1970s, Adrian Sherwood has worked on hundreds of records as a producer but has only released a small number of full-length records under his own name. The Collapse of Everything, which is available now on vinyl (clear and black), compact disc, and digital through On-U Sound, is his fourth LP, and it finds Sherwood in solid form as he welcomes guests high of profile and worthwhile including Keith LeBlanc (RIP), Doug Wimbish, and Brian Eno.

Adrian Sherwood’s new album opens with its title track, “The Collapse of Everything,” setting the album’s sturdy dub foundation into motion as the flourishes of flute that recur throughout the track help to establish a humid, indeed tropical vibe. It suffices to say that Doug Wimbish’s bass is huge here and across the record, as he plays on seven of the ten tracks.

“Dub Inspector” follows, commencing a snakier journey, the dub roots deeper and the horns suggesting a slow-motion trip through a psychedelic bazaar complete with winding lines of belly dancers. “The Well is Poisoned (Dub)” unfurls the thudding, echoing beats, the long, grumbling foghorn tones, swirls of dub ambiance courtesy of Brian Eno, who contributes guitar, vocal, and effects to the track, and the teetering seesaw of bowed cello from Ivan “Celloman” Hussey

Next, “Body Roll” offers an unruffled glide through a labyrinthine maze of city streets as saxophone and flute return to the mix. Its title, taken from the 1973 Japanese film by Kinji Fukasaku Battles Without Honor and Humanity, begins with a faux-Oriental feel, slyly augmenting the zigzagging atmosphere with synth squirts, machine gun discharges, and an almost John Carpenter-esque keyboard pattern in the concluding seconds.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings announces a reissue of Alison Krauss & Union Station’s GRAMMY®-winning Live album.

Captured over two nights in 2002, the multi-Platinum-selling title showcases the legendary bluegrass band’s emotive musicianship through songs like “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You,” “When You Say Nothing at All,” “The Lucky One,” and the GRAMMY®-winning “Cluck Old Hen,” plus favorites from the bestselling soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? The 3-LP, 25-track album will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP with lacquers cut by Matthew Lutthans and presented in a stunning triple gatefold package. The album returns to vinyl on November 21st and is available for pre-order now.

An International Bluegrass Hall of Fame inductee, a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, and one of the most decorated artists in GRAMMY history (with 27 wins to date), Alison Krauss has played a pivotal role in popularizing modern bluegrass around the world. The singer, fiddler, and producer has received widespread acclaim through high-profile collaborations (including those with Robert Plant), best-selling soundtracks (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Cold Mountain), and numerous best-selling releases—both as a solo artist and with her longtime band, Alison Krauss & Union Station.

A virtuosic singer and fiddle player, Krauss began her career as a teenager, releasing her debut album, Too Late to Cry, at just 16 years old. Two years later, she introduced Alison Krauss & Union Station with the GRAMMY-nominated Two Highways. The band quickly hit its stride with a trio of best-selling, GRAMMY-winning albums: 1992’s Every Time You Say Goodbye, plus the Gold-certified So Long So Wrong (1997) and 2001’s New Favorite—the latter two of which reached the Country Top 5.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | This October marks the 50th anniversary of Tom Waits’ 1975 album Nighthawks at the Diner. Taking its title from Edward Hopper’s painting, the record captures the singular spirit of Waits’ early live performances: intimate, theatrical evenings where inventive songwriting mingled with storytelling and sharp-witted asides.

Recorded over four sessions at Los Angeles’s Record Plant with a small invited audience, Nighthawks stands as a rare artifact of this formative period. It crystallized the persona that would bridge The Heart Of Saturday Night and his early opus, Small Change. The album also features some of his most iconic songs of the era, including “Eggs And Sausage,” “Warm Beer And Cold Women,” and the epic, rambling “Spare Parts.”

ANTI- Records is releasing the album in three limited edition variants of yellow vinyl to celebrate the Nighthawks anniversary: Tom Waits webstore exclusive in 180g ducky yellow, indie record stores will have a 180g yellow marble, and Spotify fans first exclusive in 180g yellow smoke.

Included in Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Song Writers of All Time and a 2011 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Waits is a legendary artist who explored the full canon of American and European songwriting—from folk to jazz to blues and gospel to cabaret and spoken word—all in service of his experience of the human condition from every rung of the ladder. He has a voice and eye so singular that “Waitsian” has become an adjective used by critics and dictionaries to describe his aesthetic and style.

Celebrating Billy Rush, born on this day in 1952. —Ed.

Sportscaster and Boring Guy Bob Hamilton: Welcome to the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, where we’re getting ready for the New Jersey Championship bout between Bruce Springsteen and “Southside Johnny” Lyons.

Sportscaster and color man Bob “Bazooka” Frills: Look at that crowd. You can practically smell the blood. Smart money says this one’s gonna be the biggest blowout since the Boss KO’d Jon Bon Jovi.

A microphone is lowered to a stage announcer in a cheap Vegas tuxedo: In this corner, we have Asbury Park World Champion belt holder Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen! (Wild chants of “Bruuu-zer! Bruuu-zer!”) And in this corner, we have perpetual Asbury Park runner-up and “Grandfather of the Jersey Sound,” Southside Johnny! (Smattering of polite applause, cry of “Loser!”).

Bob Hamilton: Before the bell rings for Round One, let’s talk a bit about this face-off.

Bazooka Frills: Springsteen’s a straight-up brawler. He’s got a terrific right hook and always goes for the kill. A while back, he decked Bobby “Hurricane” Dylan with a savage punch to the throat, and the poor guy hasn’t sounded the same since. Southside Johnny, on the other hand, punches like David Bowie having a hissy fit. And he’s a notorious bleeder. I see a TKO, first round.

Bob Hamilton: There’s no denying Southside Johnny’s the underdog here, but I wouldn’t write him off. His highly regarded 1976 debut, I Don’t Want to Go Home, was damn good. It proved he sure knows how to start a party. On the other hand, he’s spent his entire career in the shadow of the Boss.

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Herbal Tea is the solo project of the Bristol, UK-based singer-songwriter Helena Walker, and Hear as the Mirror Echoes is her debut album, released August 29 on vinyl, cassette, and digital through Ordinal Records in the US and Gold Day in the UK. Drawing upon dream pop, shoegaze, and indie folk, Herbal Tea blends these influences seamlessly and gives them an appealingly lo-fi, DIY spin. Cohering into a work of quiet, assured beauty, the record’s nine songs mark the emergence of a major talent.

Herbal Tea hasn’t completely come out of nowhere; Helena Walker brought the project to light on Bandcamp with the digital single “second heart” back in 2018. Additional singles followed along with the “Unwrap” EP on cassette in 2021. She’s also established Herbal Tea in live performance, including a tour with Gia Margaret and opening a sold-out show by Ex:Re.

Hear as the Mirror Echoes’ opener “Seventeen” goes heavy on the dream pop drift, but with a solid songwriting core that can bring to mind both Hope Sandoval and Memphis-era Chan Marshall, and with piano as the melodic foundation lending distinctiveness. Guitar fortifies the song from way down in the mix, but with “Grounded,” acoustic folky strum rises to the fore and combines with some gorgeous vocal sweep.

As the track progresses, the instrumentation expands to briefly include percussion, the momentum increasing only to scale back into layered dream-poppy textures and a backward masked coda. “Kitchen Floor (4 A.M.)” retains the guitar focus but is less folky, drinking instead from the eternal fount of melancholy lo-fi pop.

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