STACK #264 October 2026

MUSIC PREVIEWS

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WHAT’S OUT THIS MONTH?

EDITOR’S PICK DAN SULTAN Little Miracles MUSHROOM Dan Sultan seemed a little lost there for a while. But he rediscovered his mojo on 2023’s self-titled set, telling his own story in a compelling collection of songs. But where to from there? Dan wasn’t expecting to make an album in the UK with Guy Chambers, who’s best known for his work with Robbie Williams. But life’s little miracles sometimes produce unexpected results. Guy has highlighted Dan’s intensity and authenticity. On this album, the producer has added a pop edge to a great soul man. But the hooks have

FAT DOG Cancel Me (I’m Tired) DOMINO England’s Fat Dog are

KODALINE We Were Only Young CONCORD RECORDS Ireland’s Kodaline are releasing their fifth album... and breaking up. “From busking on the streets of Dublin, to playing shows across the world, it really has been the stuff that dreams are made of,” the band says. “We want it to end on a high... and we hope the music stays with you long after we’re gone.”

RICHARD THOMPSON Hippies, Thugs and Heroes NEW WEST RECORDS

Hippies, Thugs and Heroes is the 20th studio album for beloved British artist Richard Thompson. The 77-year-old has a wonderfully well-mannered

coming to Australia for the first time in December, off the back of their riotous second album, which features the Triple J smash

Go F-ck Urself . It’s a defiant collection of electro-rock bangers. “If you wanna cancel me,” Joe Love sings, “then go ahead and do it please.”

vocal, but he also knows how to rock. Check out the first single, Cocaine Walking, Booze Talking .

JOHNNY MARR The Age of Everything BMG

HEY-SMITH X LESS THAN JAKE Unity PURE NOISE RECORDS

VARIOUS Sending Hearts to All My Dearies: A Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins Sumerian Records Australia’s Tame Impala

Johnny Marr celebrates his 63rd birthday with his fifth solo album. “This is the record that’s been the most cathartic,” The Smiths guitarist says. “The title

Unity is a split ska-punk EP, seeing Florida’s Less Than

Jake unite with Japan’s HEY-SMITH. Both bands contribute three songs each. The release coincides with Less Than Jake’s “Circus Down Under” tour.

open this tribute to America’s Smashing Pumpkins, delivering a blissful version of Hummer . “ Siamese Dream was the

not been at the expense of the artist’s honesty. Little Miracle s is a triumph.

came to me early in the process and became an inescapable idea. It’s all encompassing, but it’s not necessarily a negative statement. There’s a sense of overwhelm in the culture brought about by technology, but looking at it with a different light, there could also be a sense of possibility.”

soundtrack to my high school years,” Kevin Parker says, “and Hummer is the song that takes me back there in the most potent way.” The album features all the band’s big hits, with contributions from Yonaka, Meg Myers, Palaye Royale, and Alice Glass.

EELS Cookie Happened E Works Records Mark Everett, aka E, has been releasing music as Eels for 30 years. Cookie Happened is the band’s 16th album, with E explaining: “All of this will be forgotten. Every joy, accomplishment and hardship will one day become so irrelevant it will be as if none of it occurred. But as the great philosopher of our times, Cookie Monster, once said: ‘Me no cry because cookie is finished. Me smile because cookie happened.’”

JOSH ROUSE Museums and Women NEW WEST RECORDS Australia’s Kevin Mitchell is celebrating the 20th

MIRANDA LAMBERT Crisco MCA

WYNONNA The Hard Truth ANTI

Miranda Lambert’s tenth solo album has both kinds of music – country and disco! “I’ve always loved every corner of country music,” the American artist

The Hard Truth is the first album in ten years for Wynonna, who was one half of the country duo The Judds with her mum Naomi, who died in 2022.

anniversary of Bob Evans’ Suburban Songbook , which he made in Nashville with American producer Brad

Jones who is also at the helm of Josh Rouse’s new record, which shares a similar sweetness and optimism. Fun fact: Josh borrowed the title from one of his favourite John Updike books.

says. “The heartbreak songs, the honky-tonk songs, the songs that make you think and the songs that make you dance. Making this record reminded me that those things don’t have to be separated.”

“These songs tell the truth about where I’ve been, what I’ve lost, what I’ve overcome, and who I’ve become,” she says. “This album asked me to be brave enough to tell the truth – even when my voice shook.”

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25th Anniversary Edition Available on vinyl for the first time, the anniversary edition is pressed on 180g red vinyl.

ALEX LLOYD WATCHING ANGELS MEND (2001) that intimacy still comes through, even in the album’s rockier moments. Amazing remains the record’s commercial TOP TRACK: Downtown FAST FACT: Alex’s father taught him to play guitar using a Beatles songbook.

S ome records don’t so much date as calcify into memory. Watching Angels Mend , released in 2001 at the tail end of Australia’s post-Britpop hangover, was never trying to reinvent anything – and that’s its charm. There’s a clear debt to Crowded House and Elliott Smith here; Lloyd built these songs on acoustic scaffolding, and

beating heart. But there’s so much more here that deserves your ears. Green rides a loose, sun-warmed groove; opener Everybody’s Laughing trades jangly guitars with sharp lyrics, and Downtown , the beautifully atmospheric

lead single before Amazing stole the headlines. What’s more noticeable on relisten is how little the album has aged in 25 years. Not because the production still sounds current – it never chased

currency to begin with. Amazing ’s success has, in a way, overshadowed the album itself – it’s the single from Lloyd that everyone knows, but the

record as a whole adds up to something far greater. 25 years on, rediscovering Lloyd’s excellent songwriting is the real treat. Paul Jones

74 OCTOBER 2026

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