This Week on Dig Me Out
Ed Buller Mixed It. Hollywood Records Released It. Then Tinfed Vanished.
J Dziak and Tim Minneci · September 22, 2026
A Sacramento band fusing alt-rock muscle with electronic shadows, a Britpop producer behind the board, and a Disney-backed major label releasing the whole thing in 2000. Tinfed‘s Tried + True was Board of Directors member Chris Martz’s pick, the community voted it a Worthy Album, and the hosts landed somewhere a little more selective. Come hear the argument.
From Chicago Folk-Pop to Canadian Industrial Metal: The September 90s Ballot Is Wild
Poi Dog Pondering, Bulletboys’ Freakshow, the Lost Highway soundtrack, and Monster Voodoo Machine walk into a poll. One of them becomes a full episode.
Know a lost or forgotten album that deserves the spotlight? Suggest it for a future episode.
Coming Up Next
12 Rods – Split Personalities (Tuesday, September 29)
Minneapolis art-rockers who sounded like nobody else on V2 in 1998: falsetto hooks, synth squiggles, and prog ambition crammed into pop songs. The community voted for this one.
Then on October 6, the community’s 70s pick: Starz Violation (1977).
Give Split Personalities a spin before Tuesday and come ready with your take.
New Releases
Beck – Ride Lonesome
Think back to 2002, Sea Change on the stereo, the guy who gave you “Loser” suddenly singing “Lost Cause” like he’d been awake for three days. That record rewired what people thought Beck was. Ride Lonesome is his first album in seven years, and it reunites the Sea Change and Morning Phase band with Nigel Godrich and Beck’s father David Campbell on orchestrations, closing what critics now call a heartache trilogy written in the wake of his divorce.
What works: Alexis Petridis at The Guardian calls it a stunning end to the trilogy, where “everything here … is melodically exquisite.”
What doesn’t: Christopher Anthony at The Fire Note gives it 3.5/5: “The only snag is how polished some of the arrangements become.” If you wanted the Odelay Beck, this is not that Beck.
Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts – Second Song
Picture 1972, Harvest on the turntable, “Heart of Gold” drifting out of every open car window that summer. Neil Young has been chasing and running from that sound ever since. On Second Song, the 80-year-old goes back even further: two of its seven tracks, “I’ll Love You Forever” and “Casting Me Away From You,” date to his teenage Squires days in the mid-60s, recut with Micah Nelson, Spooner Oldham, and the rest of the Chrome Hearts.
What works: MOJO calls it a late-career classic and “comfortably his best since the molten sprawl of 2012’s Psychedelic Pill.”
What doesn’t: Alexis Petridis at The Guardian finds it shaky in stretches: “Day After Day’s seven minutes feel like seven months.” Patience with late-period Neil is still required.
Anthrax – Cursum Perficio
Among the Living is in your Walkman, Scott Ian’s shorts are on MTV, and “Indians” is the mosh call at every basement show in your zip code. The Big Four’s New York wildcards have now gone a full decade since 2016’s For All Kings, and they came back with a Latin title meaning “my journey ends here” plus “The Long Goodbye,” a song about Ian’s father’s battle with Alzheimer’s.
What works: Essi Berelian at Louder: “The variety is hugely impressive, the delivery a hundred per cent on-point.”
What doesn’t: Jeremy Wolfers at Sputnikmusic rates it 3.0 and flags “stubborn repetitiveness and bloated song lengths,” though he calls “It’s For the Kids” the clear standout.
Want to hand-pick an album and join us on the show to dig into it? That’s what the Board of Directors is for. Join at dmounion.com.
Soft Cell – Danceteria
That “Tainted Love” synth blip, the two-note “bink bink,” Marc Almond’s voice curling around every syllable like cigarette smoke in a Soho club. Danceteria is Soft Cell’s sixth and final album, named for the Manhattan club where Almond and Dave Ball spent their early-80s nights. Ball finished work on it just before he died in October 2025, and Nona Hendryx of Labelle guests on the closing cover of Was (Not Was)’s “Out Come the Freaks.”
What works: John Murphy at musicOMH gives it 4/5 and calls it “a lovely swansong to the late Dave Ball.”
What doesn’t: The Scotsman goes two stars, calling it “overlong and underwhelming” and the title track “a poor man’s Pet Shop Boys.” Come for the goodbye, not a second Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.
Europe – Come This Madness
You can hear it right now: the keyboard fanfare of “The Final Countdown,” 1986, the song that soundtracked every high school pep rally for a decade. The Swedes have spent twenty years quietly making heavier, bluesier records nobody expected. Come This Madness is their first since 2017’s Walk the Earth, produced by Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Rammstein, Opeth), and it leans into the darker, harder side of the band.
What works: David Randall at Get Ready to ROCK!: “Europe are back and firing on all five cylinders.”
What doesn’t: Klaus Saalfeld at Hellfire Magazin gives it 6.5/10, writing that the record fails to inspire “restlose Begeisterung” (total enthusiasm). If you only want the synth-horn Europe, it isn’t here.
Godflesh – Decay
1989, Birmingham. Streetcleaner drops and a drum machine suddenly sounds heavier than any drummer alive, a blueprint half of 90s industrial metal would borrow. Decay is the duo’s tenth album and, by their own plan, their second to last, built from the Purge sessions with Justin Broadrick delivering fewer than 150 words over 42 minutes.
What works: Blake Michelle at Boolin Tunes rates it 8/10 and says opener “Master and Slave” “might be the best song Godflesh have ever made.”
What doesn’t: The same Boolin Tunes review bristles at closer “Consume Me”: “this droning, uninteresting loop refuses to go away.” If you never got on the Godflesh train, the drone-heavy stretches won’t be your ticket.
Also Out This Week
Tom Morello – Everyone Gets Everything They Want: The Rage guitarist steps up as rock frontman with Serj Tankian, Kneecap, and Beartooth along for the ride. Riff Magazine gives it 8/10 but admits “it can feel all over the place.”
Roger Taylor – Violence Insane in a Beautiful World: Queen’s drummer and the “Radio Ga Ga” writer turns in his seventh solo record, an eco-political album SPIN frames as “both a warning and an expression of wonder.”
onelinedrawing – RAINBOWMACHINE: Far’s Jonah Matranga makes a full-band rock record with producer Jay Maas. New Noise gives it 4.5/5 and calls it “undoubtedly masterful.”
Stryper – Throne of Thorns: The yellow-and-black attack’s 18th studio album, which Heavy Music HQ says “stands proudly among their best.”
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Ghosts of American Psychonauts: Will Oldham’s live set from LA’s Pico Union Project, with three saxophones reshaping The Purple Bird songs. KLOF Mag calls it a compelling addition to his catalog.
The Wolfgang Press – Asylum Variations: The 4AD post-punk originals’ second reunion album, recorded straight to ADAT tape. Tinnitist named it an Album of the Week.
Paul Laine – The Long Road Back: The Danger Danger singer’s first solo record in over 30 years. The Rock Pit goes 9.5/10: “right now it’s the one the rest have to beat.”
Gary Barden – Empowered Emotions: The early Michael Schenker Group voice, with Schenker and Don Airey guesting. Fireworks calls it “a cohesive, melodic, and powerful statement.”
Lacrimas Profundere – Lay Me Down O Silent Fear: German gothic metal veterans pushing further into metalcore. Blabbermouth lands at 6/10.
Fresh in the Hopper
These are recent listener suggestions sitting in the queue, waiting for their moment.
Groovezilla, Groovezilla (1994), submitted by Chip. A Kentucky band Chip caught every chance he got at Stache’s in Columbus from ‘92 to ‘95, somewhere between Bad Brains and the Royal Crescent Mob. It isn’t on streaming, which is exactly why it belongs here.
Damien, Every Dog Has Its Day (1987), submitted by Jeff. Jeff calls them possibly the most underrated band ever out of Ohio: heavier than mainstream 80s metal, more melodic than thrash, sitting right in the US power metal pocket.
The Kings, The Kings Are Here (1980), submitted by Mike Androff. You know “This Beat Goes On / Switchin’ to Glide.” Mike says the other eight songs on this under-31-minute record are worth digging out too, starting with a guitarist named Mister Zero.
Lock Up, Something Bitchin’ This Way Comes (1989), submitted by Gavin Reid. Late-80s funky hair metal with a pre-Rage Tom Morello on guitar, which makes it a very tidy companion to Morello’s new record this week.
Got a lost or forgotten album that deserves the spotlight? Drop it in the Hopper.
What are you listening to this week? And if this roundup saved you some digging, consider subscribing to support the mission.
Join the Board of Directors at dmounion.com.