Kathleen Edwards has announced her first new album in eight years, returning to music after a six-year hiatus during which she got into the coffee business. Her new album, titled Total Freedom, is dropping in August.

If you don't recognize her name, that's okay; it's been a minute. She's an important artist who's been quietly influential: if you listen to her albums Failer from 2003 and Back to Me from 2005, you'll hear how she presaged the clean but rootsy songwriter-driven Americana rock sound that's now making a big splash through artists like Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, and Brandi Carlile.

She decided to step away from music in 2014, when it seemed like people stopped being able to appreciate her artistry on its own terms. Her 2012 album Voyageur was co-produced by Edwards with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and it seemed like everyone wanted to talk about that, and about their short-lived romantic relationship, instead of about the music.

She's struggled with depression and acknowledges that, for obvious reasons, this is a time that's full of challenges — but she says she's proud of the new music and the perseverance behind it. (Rolling Stone)

Lorde says she's working on new music

Lorde also has new music coming out, but the trick for her is that it's not finished yet — and her next album will reprise her collaboration with writer-producer Jack Antonoff, so the two are figuring out how to make music together remotely.

In an e-mail to fans, Lorde said that she and Antonoff started work in December on the follow-up to 2017's Melodrama. "And then, of course, the world shut down." So things are going to take a little longer, but Lorde says she's "truly jazzed" for fans to hear the new music. "I can tell you, this new thing, it's got its own colours now. If you know anything about my work, you'll know what that means." (Billboard)

Some things never change: Pink Floyd are beefing

Here's an existential question: who is Pink Floyd? Well, it's not a he, it's a they, but who are they? Roger Waters, who was one of the band's co-founders back in 1965 and later led the group in creating its best-known work, says that even though he left the band in 1985, that doesn't mean the band's current leader David Gilmour just gets to be Pink Floyd.

In a statement Waters posted to his YouTube channel on Monday, he said he's been trying to get Gilmour to let him use Pink Floyd's website and social media channels to share news about his solo work, and material like his quarantined performance of "Mother," a song he originally wrote for Pink Floyd's album The Wall. (Pitchfork)

Trent Reznor has some good advice IN ALL CAPS

Trent Reznor has been feeling reflective. Well, haven't we all? His latest reminisces have been inspired by the two-year anniversary of the date Nine Inch Nails made fans buy tour tickets in person rather than online. Now, everything's online, and Reznor took to Nine Inch Nails' website to share an ALL CAPS update.

He said that with their latest tour canceled, they'll be selling the merch online with proceeds going to food banks in the cities they were set to play. He says he's been working on his film score projects, taking a "DEEP DIVE INTO NEW NIN MATERIAL," and working "ON MY LIMITED PATIENCE SKILLS." Oh, and he has a bit of advice for fans: listen to the upcoming album from Nine Inch Nails' would-be tourmate Jehnny Beth, "CONTINUE TO LISTEN TO BOWIE, AND DON'T BE TOO HARD ON YOURSELF." (Stereogum)

The scent of Low Cut Connie: Coming to a webstore near you

With nobody getting within six feet of each other, it may seem a strange time to jump into the personal-fragrance game...but Low Cut Connie seem to have decided that if they're ever going to catch up to Britney Spears's 30 fragrances, they'd better start rolling 'em out now. Here's frontman Adam Weiner extolling the virtues of the band's new custom scent, Private Lives.