Freedom! We locals have loved seeing Ocean City alive this summer with loads and loads of visitors every week, but there’s nothing like cruising down Coastal Highway without the worry of heavy traffic. The roads are clear, the temperature is cooling and fall has begun! Even though we are nearing the end of the year, there is still plenty to look forward to… including new studio albums by some pretty awesome bands. As we take sips of our pumpkin ale in one hand and pumpkin spice latte in the other, here are seven fall album releases to get excited for!

 

By : Nine Inch Nails

Release date: September 3

Ever since frontman Trent Reznor put Nine Inch Nails on hiatus in 2009, he has been a very busy man in the music industry; forming a new band – How to Destroy Angels – with his wife, co-scoring two motion pictures – The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – and making guest appearances on two major album releases: Queens of the Stone Age’s …Like Clockwork and the soundtrack to Dave Grohl’s documentary, Sound City. Now, Nine Inch Nails is back, and fans can’t wait to hear the band’s first album since 2008. This record will interestingly be released in two versions: one “standard” edition and an “audiophile mastered version” that is meant to have the most pristine sound quality and range. 

 

By: Arctic Monkeys

Release date: September 6

While the Arctic Monkeys are known for their garage rock sound, the band has said their fifth studio album will have much more of a hip hop influence. As frontman Alex Turner described the new release, it’s, “like a Dr. Dre beat, but we’ve given it an Ike Turner bowl-cut and sent it galloping across the desert on a Stratocaster.” Paying back Turner’s guest appearance on the latest Queens of the Stone Age album (yeah, there are a lot of awesome guest parts on the record), QotSA frontman Josh Homme has provided vocals on two tracks for the Arctic Monkeys. Whether joking or not, Turner noted the album’s main influences as Outkast, Aaliyah and Black Sabbath. 

 

By: MGMT

Release date: September 17

When doing my last column about upcoming album releases, this record was slated to be released in June and we had basically no information about it. Now that the band has set an official date, we’re learning more and more about it every week. The songs are as trippy and mind-bending as ever, as the band continues to further push away from their former pop sound and become more psychedelic. When the album releases, there will be a unique enhanced version called “The Optimizer” that will give listeners a video to watch while playing it. 

 

By: Chvrches

Release date: September 23

Nope, that’s not a typo. Pronounced “churches,” Chvrches is a Scottish synthpop band and this release will be their first studio album. Influenced by acts such as Prince, Depeche Mode and Elliot Smith, the band definitely has a pop influence, but their songs are beautifully written and sound nothing like what you hear on pop stations on the radio. They were one of many bands that performed at this year’s second annual Firefly Music Festival held in Dover, Del.

 

By: Haim

Release date: September 27

Sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim (along with drummer Dash Hutton) will debut their first album to the public soon, but some people have already heard the band through guest appearances on other recent album releases (I swear I did not intend “guest appearances” to be a common theme of this column when I started writing it). The band can be heard on Kid Cudi’s new studio album, Indicud, and Danielle Haim is featured on Major Lazer’s latest album, Free the Universe. The band has a loud and folk-ish style sound that is compared to Fleetwood Mac, with an R&B twist that makes their sound unique. They also played at Firefly Music Festival this past July and put on a hell of a show. These young girls (the average age of the three sisters is 24) have quite a career ahead of them.

 

By: Pearl Jam

Release date: October 14

Wow, Pearl Jam is hitting the double digits. Their tenth studio album has been in the works for a couple of years now, and the band started debuting new songs on tour this summer. According to guitarist Mike McCready, some of the album has a “Pink Floyd vibe,” while other tracks adhere to the punk and grunge sound we all know and love. Longtime producer Brendan O’Brien has said all 12 songs will generally be longer than the tracks heard on the band’s previous album, Backspacer.

 

By: Arcade Fire

Release date: October 29

As of now, we essentially know nothing about this album, just like Jon Snow. We don’t even know if Reflektor is the official name of the album. What we do know, however, is that former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphey helped produce the record and he says that, “it’s really $@%&ing epic.” Recently, the band has been putting up graffiti in cities to promote the album and they just uploaded a 15-second track on Spotify that contains no vocals. Titled, “9 p.m. 9/9,” fans are anticipating a big announcement of some kind at that time.