Take some time out, put on the headphones, drop the needle on the record, or queue up the latest releases on your phone.
Here’s four recently released albums that we’ve been playing at OUTinPerth HQ including new discs from Alex the Astronaut, Brandi Carlile, Meshell Ndegeocello and folk duo Mila & Mira.
The Weird One
Alex The Astronaut
★ ★ ★ ★
Alex The Astronaut has gone full country on their new six-track EP, The Weird One.
It opens with Business Man, the lead single that was released a few months ago. A comical song about the way people who focus on business rather than creativity see themselves and the world around them, it also signals the musician’s recent move to independence.
I Just Wanna Dance continues the storytelling with a tropical backdrop of plucked strings and a singalong chorus. Its message that it is time to stop thinking and start living is one many of us could embrace.
The third track, Nashville, sees Alex sharing dreams of heading to Nashville and meeting Dolly Parton. Whether that dream comes true remains to be seen. Subtle humour in music is something we do not see as often as we once did, and Alex The Astronaut delivers it effortlessly.
Music Shop follows an aspiring musician working in a music store and slowly discovering classic songs such as Smoke on the Water, Free Bird and Wonderwall. The distinctive notes of the Deep Purple classic are woven into the tune.
We head back into ukulele-driven summer sounds with Jellyfish, a reflective song about growth and evolution.
The final track is Quantum Mechanical Cats, a song about being intelligent while still not understanding how the world works, or why we do the things we do.
Embrace the light-heartedness of it all, Alex the Astronaut fills a space where Arlo Guthrie, Steve Poltz, Ween and others have previously tread.
Returning to Myself
(Sad Gay Version)
Brandi Carilile
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Brandi Carlile’s 2025 album Returning to Me was the ninth release of her impressive career and followed her collaborative album with Elton John. It was widely acclaimed, and now comes a new iteration of the record, dubbed the Sad Gay Version.
The collection adds quiet acoustic takes on many of the album’s tracks, alongside an emotional and tender cover of Billy Joel’s And So It Goes. Joel wrote the song in 1983 following a short-lived relationship with model Elle Macpherson, although he did not record it until 1989.
On this new collection, Carlile reinvents her songs. While they were never loud, rocking numbers to begin with, it turns out they can be taken to an even more understated level, increasing their emotional impact. There’s no new version of the title track, which was already beautifully restrained. Jon Hopkins contributes to a reimagined version of Human, adding a blend of piano and electronics, while the remaining songs are stripped back to their essentials.
If you loved this album when it was first released, this new interpretation provides an opportunity to experience the songs from a fresh perspective.
Synonym
Meshell Ndegeocello
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Meshell Ndegeocello continues to deliver outstanding albums, and with the 15th release of her impressive career she presents a collection of collaborative covers that transform a range of well-known songs into something magical.
We got our first taste of the album a few months ago when the opening track was released. Cynthia Erivo duets on I Knew You Were Waiting for Me, originally performed by George Michael and Aretha Franklin. Filled with saxophone, it is presented in a much more relaxed style than the original.
Cat Power arrives for one of the album’s many highlights. The Human League’s signature hit Don’t You Want Me is transformed into a reggae-soul masterpiece.
Nick Hakim and Robert Glasper take on Yarbrough & People’s Don’t Stop the Music. It features a stunning combination of acoustic guitars, tinkling piano, and groovy bass. A similarly glistening sheen is added to the duet with Chaka Khan. Islands in the Stream is the first of two Gibb-penned songs on the record.
Bob Dylan also gets a look in, with folk-rock singer Madison Cunningham delivering a breathy version of It Ain’t Me Babe.
One of the most impressive aspects of this collection is the diversity of material selected and how effectively it is transformed to sound cohesive. Within a few tracks, we’ve travelled from country through Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, to classic folk with Dylan, and then on to Ja Rule. Khruangbin’s Laura Lee appears on Always on Time, folded seamlessly into Ndegeocello’s jazz-funk universe.
Things become folkier with Lizz Wright and Emily King joining Ndegeocello for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s Be Real Black for Me. It provides a welcome breather, with gentle guitars supported by rising strings.
We dive back into the funk-infused atmosphere with Lianne La Havas delivering the classic Don’t Look Any Further, originally recorded by Dennis Edwards and Siedah Garrett. A second Flack and Hathaway selection follows with the legendary The Closer I Get to You, sung here by Destin Conrad and Moses Sumney, whose voices combine beautifully.
Brandi Carlile joins Ndegeocello for a gospel-filled rendition of George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s Golden Ring, before ANOHNI plays Cher to Ndegeocello’s Sonny on a jazz-infused take on I Got You Babe.
Things become more intense when Evann McIntosh duets on a rock-infused version of the Brian Eno song Here He Comes, retitled here as Here We Come (He He Comes). While many of the songs on this album are more laid-back than their originals, this one takes the opposite approach.
Up-and-coming artist Ink, who has written hits for Beyoncé and many others, appears on the second Bee Gees-penned selection, Barbra Streisand’s yacht-rock gem Guilty. WILLOW joins for Hunger Strike, a song written by Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell for his Temple of the Dog project in the early 1990s. It is incredibly moving and beautiful.
The album closes with Chris Thile and Bill Callahan contributing to a rendition of Dylan’s With God on Our Side. This is an album that rewards repeated listening. Exquisite.
If you fall in love with this album and you’re not familiar with Meshell Ndegeocello’s work dive into her previous releases, and check out her previous 2018 covers album Ventriloquism.
Soften the Blow
Mila & Mira
★ ★ ★
This is the second EP from duo Mira Besselink and Milagre Noé and it features four songs with meaningful lyrics set to catchy indie-pop.
The EP opens with provocatively titled Sad & Horny a song about hook ups and self esteem, taking chances and following your desires. The dup combine the standard singer-songwriter fare with a big production sound that glistens. On Congratulations, which has a folk and country vibe mixed with a crunchy bass, the duo deliver another engaging tune.
Layers is a rocking number, where the two singers similar voices work well together, and the final track Soften to Blow takes a change of pace and sound diving into country territory. Mila & Mira might be artists to watch to see where they go next. While their accents might make you think they hail from the USA or Canada, the duo are actually from the Netherlands.
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