# Melissa Auf der Maur returns with first album in 16 years

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/melissa-auf-der-maur-unveils-first-new-music-in-16-years/
- Published: 2026-07-20T16:17:24+00:00
- Updated: 2026-07-20T22:32:12+00:00
- Original publisher: Pitchfork
- Original article: https://pitchfork.com/story/melissa-auf-der-maur-unveils-first-new-music-in-16-years/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Melissa Auf der Maur released her first album in 16 years
- Bass Womb Room mixes 90s demos with new interludes, out 4 September
- Companion photo exhibition and photobook launched in early September

## Summary

Melissa Auf der Maur, the former Hole bassist, has released her first new music in 16 years with the album Bass Womb Room: My '90s 4-Track Demos x Field Recordings. The record pairs previously unheard demos she recorded at home in the 1990s with eight newly composed interludes made for an accompanying photography exhibition, giving fans a rare window into private material she made while under pressure from major-label expectations during her time with Hole and as a touring member of Smashing Pumpkins.

The album, released digitally and on cassette on 4 September via Envision, comprises 15 tracks, including the new composition "Skip a Beat", with its interludes built partly from old field recordings captured on a handycam placed on her amplifier. The related Bass Womb Room photo exhibition opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto on 2 September, and a 240-page photobook of the same name followed on 8 September via DelMonico Books/D.A.P. and the AGO. The release also follows Auf der Maur's March memoir, Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A '90s Rock Memoir, and marks her first solo album since 2010's Out of Our Minds.

## Coverage

- [Pitchfork: Melissa Auf der Maur returns with first album in 16 years](https://pitchfork.com/story/melissa-auf-der-maur-unveils-first-new-music-in-16-years/)
- [Rolling Stone: Melissa Auf der Maur Digs Into Her Archive for First New Music in Over 15 Years](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/melissa-auf-der-maur-new-music-bass-womb-room-1235595950/)
- [Stereogum: Melissa Auf Der Maur Announces First New Music In 15 Years, Hole Tease Something For Friday](https://stereogum.com/2505780/melissa-auf-der-maur-announces-first-new-music-in-15-years-hole-tease-something-for-friday/news/)
- [Consequence: Melissa Auf der Maur Announces Album BASS WOMB ROOM, Featuring First New Music in Over 15 Years](https://consequence.net/2026/07/melissa-auf-der-maur-new-album-bass-womb-room/)

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.