The Steve Albini-fronted band Shellac have returned with their first new album in a decade, To All Trains, a tragically bittersweet release that arrives just a week after Albini’s passing.
Spanning 10 songs, To All Trains is Shellac’s first release since 2014’s Dude Incredible, and features the trio — Albini (guitar and vocals), Bob Weston (bass), and Todd Trainer (drums) — in signature form. The album was recorded in Chicago “over a bunch of long weekends” in the late 2010s and early ‘20s. It was finished and mastered by Albini and Weston last year.
Now, after Albini’s death by a heart attack last week, the album arrives as a poignant memorial to the legendary engineer’s life and work. In a statement posted last week, Corey Rusk, Albini’s longtime friend and founder of Touch and Go Records — which released To All Trains — said, “It’s incomprehensible that Steve will not be here when it is released next week.”
To All Trains is available in retail stores today in CD and vinyl formats. Online, physical editions from Touch and Go are sold out, but pre-orders are ongoing for a second pressing, shipping “no later than” June 21st. Stream it on Apple Music below.
Shellac was originally slated to open for hardcore supergroup OFF!’s farewell show in Chicago this July, but sadly, the band’s future without Albini is uncertain.
To All Trains Artwork:
To All Trains Tracklist:
01. WSOD
02. Girl From Outside
03. Chick New Wave
04. Tattoos
05. Wednesday
06. Scrappers
07. Days Are Dogs
08. How I Wrote How I Wrote Elastic Man (cock & bull)
09. Scabby the Rat
10. I Don’t Fear Hell