Tedeschi Trucks Band, photo by Chapman Baehler

Every Friday, Relix surveys the wealth of new music released over the past seven days and selects dozens of standouts for the Relix Staff Picks playlist. Read on for the highlights from this week’s batch.

“I feel like this is the most unique record we’ve done,” Derek Trucks says of Future Soul, the highly anticipated new album from Tedeschi Trucks Band. “It’s my favorite collection of songs that we’ve ever put on a record. From song to song, there’s just not a weak spot. With Future Soul, we wanted to shake things up. We hope that our fans and everyone who listens to this album enjoys the ride!”

Tedeschi Trucks Band’s sixth studio album is a long time coming and well worth the wait. In the years since 2022’s I Am the Moon, their groundbreaking quadruple-album concept record, the storied outfit fronted by Trucks and Susan Tedeschi has upheld its reputation as one of the hardest touring acts in any class, let alone the much more selective field of 12-piece genre-bending Americana ensembles, refining their approach and building on the immortal work of their forebearers night after night. Through more than a decade and a half on the road and in the studio, they’ve carried the torch of The Allman Brothers Band and the broader cultures of electric blues, Southern soul, improvisational rock and more into bold new imaginings of musical tradition.

While they’ve shared this achievement one city at a time, it’s never been so completely articulated as it is on Future Soul. Through close collaboration with storied producer Mike Elizondo, Tedeschi, Trucks and their tried and true band crafted an 11-track collection that expresses the full scope of their influences – from funk to punk, folk and rock and roll – in remarkably compact packages. Far from the inexhaustible, freely-flowing extemporary spirit of their live show, none of the tracks penned by the core couple and their bandmates Mike Mattison, Gabe Dixon and Tyler Greenwell eke past the five-minute mark. Instead, the group set its instrumental prowess in precise, palpably reserved arrangements that pair perfectly with its sensitive lyricism, resulting in their most focused, inviting offering yet.

The latest batch of Relix Staff Picks also includes new music from Band of Horses, Gladie, Nubiyan Twist, White Fence, Robert Lester Folsom, Adam O’Farrill, The Orielles, Cut Worms, Tinariwen, Bill Orcutt, Ora Cogan and many more gems. Tune in here.