The Smile — Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner — released their second LP of 2024, Cutouts, on Friday.

ShinKatan x Weirdcore/Courtesy of XL Recordings

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ShinKatan x Weirdcore/Courtesy of XL Recordings

The Smile — Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner — released their second LP of 2024, Cutouts, on Friday.

ShinKatan x Weirdcore/Courtesy of XL Recordings

NPR Music’s Lars Gotrich and Sheldon Pearce round up the most exciting albums out this Friday, and reflect on the history of instrumental music as protest.

Featured albums

• The Smile, Cutouts
• Blood Incantation, Absolute Elsewhere
• Half Waif, See You At The Maypole
• Darius Jones, Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye)
• Yasmin Williams, Acadia
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor, NO​ ​TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28​,​340 DEAD

Other notable albums out Oct. 4

Rock/Alternative/Indie
• A Place To Bury Strangers, Synthesizer
• Ada Lea, notes EP
• Alison Moyet, Key
• Balance and Composure, with you in spirit
• Cumgirl8, the 8th cumming
• Chubby and The Gang, And Then There Was…
• Drug Church, PRUDE
• Fred Thomas, Window in the Rhythm
• Geordie Greep, The New Sound
• Human Impact, Gone Dark
• Jake Bugg, A Modern Day Distraction
• James Bay, Changes All The Time
• Joni Mitchell, Archives, Vol. 4: The Asylum Years 1976-1980
• Karl D’Silva, Love Is A Flame In The Dark
• La Sonora Mazurén, Magnetismo Anímal
• MEMORIALS, Waterslides
• Orla Gartland, Everybody Needs a Hero
• Pete Townshend, Live: In Concert 1985-2001
• Public Service Broadcasting, The Last Flight
• Sex Swing, Golden Triangle
• Sixpence None the Richer, Rosemary Hill EP
• Temples, Other Structures EP
• Trash Boat, Heaven Can Wait
• The Hard Quartet (Stephen Malkmus, Emmett Kelly, Matt Sweeney and Jim White), s/t
• Wild Pink, Dulling the Horns
• V/A, American Football (Covers)

Jazz
• Adrian Younge, Jazz is Dead 021
• Anna Butterss, Mighty Vertebrate
• Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn, Quiet in a World Full of Noise
• Michael Mayo, Fly
• Weird of Mouth (Mette Rasmussen, Craig Taborn, Ches Smith), s/t
• Ben Wendel, Understory: Live at the Village Vanguard
• Tord Gustavsen Trio, Seeing

Hip-Hop
• 310babii, 310degrees
• Jabee, The Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak
• Joey Cool, Roller Coaster
• M1llionz, Ghetto Life
• Rome Streetz & Daringer, Hatton Garden Holdup
• Tee Grizzley, Post Traumatic
• Toosii, JADED

Country/Americana/Folk
• Conner Smith, Storyteller EP
• Hayes and The Heathens, s/t
• Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Live From The Ryman Vol. 2
• Jett Holden, The Phoenix
• Joan Shelley, Mood Ring EP
• Little Big Town, The Christmas Record
• Mindy Smith, Quiet Town
• Nate Smith, California Gold
• Noeline Hofmann, Purple Gas EP
• The Wild Feathers, Sirens
• Tucker Wetmore, Waves On A Sunset

Pop
• Andy Grammer, Monster
• Coldplay, Moon Music
• FINNEAS, For Cryin’ Out Loud!
• Genevieve Stokes, With a Lightning Strike
• Maya Hawke, Clipped Wings EP
• V/A, Joker: Folie à Deux OST

R&B/Soul
• Leon Bridges, Leon
• Thee Sacred Souls, Got a Story to Tell

Classical
• San Francisco Symphony, Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas
• Danil Trifonov, My American Story: North
• Maurizio Pollini, Chopin: Preludes, Op. 28

Electronic/Out There
• Alessandro Cortini, NATI INFINITI
• Amnesia Scanner & Freeka Tet, HOAX
• Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Expanded Edition)
• Caribou, Honey
• Frost Children x Haru Nemuri, Soul Kiss EP
• James William Blades, Pare De Sufrir OST
• John Davis, Landlines
• Jonah Yano, Jonah Yano & The Heavy Loop
• Maelstrom, The FM Tapes
• Midland, Fragments of Us
• Peni Candra Rini, Wani
• Pharmakon, Maggot Mass
• The Bug, Machines I-V
• Weval, Night Versions EP
• V/A, ELECTRO THROWDOWN: Sci-Fi Inter-Planetary Electro Attack on Planet Earth 1982-89