STAFF PICKS

kimber – local natives
lindsay – nick cave, okkervil river
dario – wilco, okkervil river
jeff – st paul and the broken bones

THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
Allah-Las Calico Review CD/LP (Mexican Summer)
On Calico Review, Allah-Las weave their dreamy version of west coast psychedelia with advanced songwriting and exquisite production detail. “Calico Review is as enjoyable and feel-good as one expects an Allah-Las album to be, and once again underlines their pertinence as a band of their time, in opposition to a mere re-visitation of the psych-folk golden era. The instrumental experimentation is spot-on, not imposing itself too much on the melodies nor serving as a vehicle for virtuosity; they sound solid and everlasting, yet serene enough to know how to take their music to the next level.” – The 405


BastilleWild World CD/2xLP (Virgin)
Wild World is the second studio album by the English indie rock band. In an interview with NME, following the release of the lead single, “Good Grief,” Dan Smith hinted about the album’s sound: “I think we’ve really pushed our sound. The whole album weaves through these different moods and scenes, going from massive to tiny and intimate and then back to bombastic again. Because the first album was initially a bedroom project and I couldn’t play guitar at the time, there were no guitars on it. But then from touring we found that Will [Farquarson], who plays bass in the band, is also a really good guitarist. So we’ve tried to incorporate guitars into this album without falling into that clichéd indie sound. We’ve never really given a fuck about existing within a genre. If we wanna have a ridiculous, over-the-top blaring horn sample on one song and then go into minimal electronica on the next, that’s completely fine.” [CD is available in Regular and Deluxe editions. Deluxe adds five bonus tracks.]


Nick Cave & The Bad SeedsSkeleton Tree CD/LP (Bad Seed Ltd.)
Skeleton Tree is many things: foremost it is the sixteenth studio album from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and a companion to Andrew Dominik’s feature film One More Time With Feeling. Filmed in both black-and-white and color and in 2D and 3D, Dominik’s film was initially intended to be a performance-based film of the recording of Skeleton Tree. But, following the death of Cave’s 15-year-old son Arthur in November 2015, a statement said: “The film evolved into something much more significant as Dominik delved into the tragic backdrop of the writing and recording of the album.” “Most of us don’t want to change, really. I mean, why should we?” wonders Cave in the black-and-white trailer. “But what happens when an event occurs that is so catastrophic that you just change? You change from the known person to an unknown person. So that when you look at yourself in the mirror, you recognize the person that you were, but the person inside the skin is a different person.”


CLIPPINGSplendor & Misery CD/LP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
“It would be hard to find an album in 2016 more ambitious than Clippng’sSplendor & Misery. It’s a high concept project, but think of it less like the recent work of Kendrick Lamar and more like a sci-fi horror film (think Moon or Event Horizon) with heavy racial implications. The record tells the story of ‘the sole survivor of a slave uprising on an interstellar cargo ship, and the onboard computer that falls in love with him.’ MC Daveed Diggs is as skilled as any rapper in the game, and he’s become a hot commodity thanks to his award-winning turn in Hamilton. He’s the star here, using the sparse instrumentals from Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson. He reels off some impressive bars, including a speedy flow on “The Breach” that echoes Andre 3000’s recent turn on Frank Ocean’s Blond in its precision.Though they often draw comparisons to Death Grips, Clippng’s music is more restrained and at times can feel more workman like. ‘All Black’ stands out for its eeriness, but its title also encompasses much of the record’s mindset, Splendor & Misery is unceasingly grim, to the point that it can make for a challenging listen even while admiring the skill that went into it.” – The Line Of Best Fit


Faith No MoreAlbum Of The Year [Reissue/1994] 2xCD/2xLP (Rhino)
Faith No More – King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime [Reissue/1997] 2xCD/2xLP (Rhino)
Expanded reissues now available on CD and vinyl. Album Of The Year‘s eight bonus tracks include live versions of the album track ‘Collision’ and the Burt Bacharach and Hal David classic, “This Guy’s In Love With You,” plus rare mixes of “Last Cup Of Sorrow,” “Pristina” and more. Among King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime’s eight bonus tracks are the B-sides “Spanish Eyes” and “Absolute Zero,” as well as the band’s cover of the Bee Gee’s “I Started A Joke,” which was originally released as a B-side in 1995.


FudgeLady Parts CD/LP (Lex)
Fudge is a collaboration between emcee Michael Christmas and producer Prefuse 73. ‘Lady Parts‘ is their debut album.


Anthony GreenPixie Queen CD/LP+MP3 (Memory Music)
Fourth solo album from the Circa Survive and Saosin vocalist. [Limited red color vinyl edition also available.]


GrouploveBig Mess CD/LP+MP3 (Atlantic)
Recorded in Los Angeles and Seattle with producers Captain Cuts (Grouplove’s own Ryan Rabin) and Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Band Of Horses, The Shins), Big Mess features the signature anthemic choruses and infectious hooks that first brought the Los Angeles quintet to prominence “The opening tracks of Big Mess are legitimately phenomenal. ‘Welcome To Your Life’ sounds like it should be the next big Katy Perry song, only with more heart as vocalists Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi dedicate the track to their child. It’s incredibly sappy, but the track is just so joyous that they get away with it. ‘Do You Love Someone’ is equally catchy, displaying the group’s mastery over the dynamics between the verses and chorus. The shift into the main chorus hook is accompanied by an explosive burst of guitars, and the effect is intoxicating. ‘Standing In The Sun’ isn’t quite as strong, but works as a solid imitation of rock bands like Powderfinger. ‘Good Morning’ is another standout, with catchy ‘ooh’ backing vocals. Hooper also provides vocals again on this track, and proves that the band are at their best when the vocal duties are shared” – Renowned For Sound. [Limited color vinyl edition also available.]


The Head And The HeartSigns Of Light CD/LP (WB)
“The Head And The Heart, a sextet hailing from the lush scenery and music of Seattle, releases its third record, Signs of Light, after a six-year tumultuous whirlwind of constant touring and musical soul searching. When the group made its 2010 debut with the critically acclaimed self-titled album, the world was introduced to an indie-folk, chant-rocking band of wayward hipsters that brought pulse back to an Americana scene that was growing weary of galloping new-grass and Irish-undertoned sloshy sing-alongs. They brought West Coast vibes with heartland hopes and dreams laden with rambling pianos and Billie Holiday garnishes. Signs Of Light reveals an ever-widening landscape that allows for their inspirations, new and old, to be revealed and perfectly crafted into an emotional trek that connects cranial synapses with the mysterious passions of the heart. It’s the perfect soundtrack to accompany the season of a new school year and everything that comes with early autumn.” – Columbia Country Magazine


Daniel Lanois Goodbye To Language CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
Daniel Lanois is one of the most influential record producers of the modern era: the man who brought Bob Dylan back; longtime collaborator with Brian Eno, soundsculpting a series of mammoth releases for U2; and producer of breakthrough late-career albums by Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris. But before all that, Daniel Lanois was an experimental musician, recording his unique guitar voicings for groundbreaking albums with guys like Brian Eno and Jon Hassell, along the way helping to invent a genre called ambient music. Goodbye To Language is the perfect joining of the dots, through the world-changing experiments of his early days with Eno, to his flights through the most rarefied atmospheres of the mainstream of music. Constructed entirely from the sounds of the pedal steel guitar, Daniel on the pedal steel and his mate Rocco Deluca on the lap steel with compositional rigor that recalls the 20th century dreamscapes of Ravel and Debussy, with a sense of sonic futurism and yet also with the naturalness that can only come from someone rooted in centuries of grassroots music.


Local NativesSunlit Youth CD/LP+MP3 (Loma Vista Recordings/Infectious Music)
Expanding, questioning, digging, changing every tactic: These are all elements of the creative process that’s led to the uplifting music on Local Natives’ new album Sunlit Youth. The southern California band’s debut album, 2010’s Gorilla Manor, was named for the Silver Lake house where the band gave birth to the music. The sound of that album defined Local Natives from the get-go: indie rock mixed with Afropop rhythms, lots of guitars and distinctive harmonies. Most important was the band’s process of writing and creating collectively within Gorilla Manor‘s walls, and the house served as a studio for the darker-sounding 2013 album Hummingbird, too. But for the shiny Sunlit Youth, Local Natives has broken out from behind those walls. The world became the band’s studio, with writing and recording taking place on extended excursions to Thailand and Nicaragua. That’s where the band’s members listened to a wide variety of music — D’Angelo, Vince Staples and Kendrick Lamar were all part of their diet — and asked themselves, ‘Well, what is Local Natives?’ Musically, Fountain Of Youth isn’t an entirely new sound for Local Natives; while the band’s moved away from indie-rock guitars, its impassioned vocals and expansive harmonies are intact.” – NPR


MIAAIM CD (Interscope)
Fifth (and reportedly final) album from London-born, Sri Lankan-raised rapper Maya Arulpragasam. “It’s my last record so I wanted it to be happy. There’s no complains on it. [It’s] another side to me completely. I don’t know if people know [about] that.” “MIA’s always been an artist to make a point. But if this is her last action, then it’s an uncharacteristically blunt set of knives. Maya says she’s omitted the views on politics, gender, race and substituted them with warm thoughts and love.” – Loud And Quiet


New OrderSingles [2015 Remaster/Reissue/2005] 2xCD/4xLP (Rhino)
Singles charts New Order’s finest moments, ranging from their 1981 debut “Ceremony” through to the influential classic “Blue Monday” and other career highlights including “Confusion,” “True Faith,” “Regret,” and “Crystal” plus the chart-topping football anthem “World in Motion.”


Okkervil RiverAway CD/2xLP (ATO)
Since releasing 2013’s The Silver Gymnasium, the last Okkervil River album, Will Sheff, the sharp and literate songwriter who masterminds the band, has changed the entire lineup of the group. Sheff has relocated from Austin to New York, and he seems to be investigating the question of what it even means to be in a band when you’re the only permanent member. New albumAway features contributions from Marissa Nadler, yMusic, and former Okkervil River member/current Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg. “This is a dazzlingly euphoric and utterly stubborn album. It is rock music that resents other music; it’s other music trying to escape rock music. It’s about Sheff’s grandfather’s death, along with his band’s, addressing both the way you might in life: a multitude of listless emotions, organized and crashed, bitter and embracing. Parts of Away are so beautiful I can hardly believe it: in moments, the record chooses ornateness over grandstanding, and it sounds like Get Lonely as performed by Nils Frahm. In other moments the sageness disappears and verses spill like guts, jubilant in their rock ‘n’ roll bloodiness. Sheff has been capable of all this before, but this record sounds like a freeing experience, an attempt to make a fresh start without sacrificing a single piece of history.” – Sputnik Music


Psychic TwinStrange Diary CD/LP+MP3 (Polyvinyl)
While rooted in the avant pop of The Cocteau Twins, Siousxie, and Annie Lennox, contemporary production flourishes lend Strange Diary the clarity and buoyancy of contemporary pop. The music balances languid, dark melodies and atmosphere with propulsive rhythms and soaring vocal lines. It’s beautiful and catchy. It’s like the sound of someone reaching the end of that dream, finding what they’ve been searching for through all the haze. [LP pressed on 180-gram clear, teal vinyl.]


Joshua Redman/Brad MehldauNearness CD/2xLP+MP3 (Nonesuch)
New collaboration between saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau. Nearness is a selection of duets recorded live during their recent European tour and their first duo album.


Dex RomweberCarrboro CD/LP (Bloodshot)
Dex Romweber, the man Jack White once dubbed “one of the best kept secrets of the rock and roll underground,” returns with a new solo album. Named after Romweber’s adopted hometown, Carrboro contains 13 tracks and includes covers of T Bone Burnett’s “I Don’t Know” and Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.”


St. Paul & The Broken BonesSea Of Noise CD/LP (Records, LLC)
Sea Of Noise, the second full-length album by St. Paul & The Broken Bones, marks a quantum leap in sound and style for the high-voltage Birmingham, Alabama-based band. Produced by Paul Butler and recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, the group’s sophomore effort features an expanded eight-piece lineup of the widely praised soul-based rock unit. Longtime members Paul Janeway (lead vocals), Jesse Phillips (bass, guitar), Browan Lollar (guitars), Andrew Lee (drums), Al Gamble (keyboards), and Allen Branstetter (trumpet) are joined by Jason Mingledorff (saxophone, clarinet, flute), and Chad Fisher (trombone). Sea Of Noise is a successor to the Broken Bones’ 2013 debut album Half The City, which introduced the group’s blazing mating of ‘60s soul fire – daubed with latter-day influences like Sly Stone, David Bowie, and Prince — to Janeway’s impassioned singing and writing. The new album witnesses a deepening and broadening of the unit’s musical reach and lyrical concerns.


Teenage FanclubHere CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
Six years used to be a lifetime in rock ’n’ roll. Kids driven by the urgency of youth form bonds, plug in, play gigs, find a label. Acclaim, exhaustion, over and out. Teenage Fanclub’s early years were propelled by that kind of frantic energy (thankfully without the flameout). As outliers of the sound of young Scotland’s second wave, they released five albums in their first six years together. The tenth Teenage Fanclub LP—Here—arrives six years after the release of 2010’s hugely acclaimed Shadows (described by Uncut as “the sound of a great group ageing gracefully”). Here is the work of a band entirely confident in their own craft—the consolidation of nearly three decades of peerless songwriting and almost telepathic musicianship. Here is a collection of twelve songs about the only things that truly matter: life and love. [Limited edition clear vinyl pressing also available.]


KT Tunstall Kin CD/LP (Caroline)
KT Tunstall returns with an explosive 11-track collection of guitar pop. Kin‘s new focused sound is exemplified by the track “Evil Eye;” a stripped back, primal rock ‘n’ roll track that seeded the whole record.


Jack WhiteAcoustic Recordings 1998-2016 2xCD/2xLP+MP3 (Third Man)
Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 is the definitive Jack White songwriting collection, spanning his 20+ year career. It includes White’s acoustic-based recordings with the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and his acclaimed solo projects. The music included here is all-encompassing, highlighting White’s versatility, and the songs are presented with unique character in chronological order. As noted American author and music journalist, Greil Marcus, conveys in the albums liner notes: “The lack of electric guitar opens songs up to their own contrivance, and cuts out pretentions of seriousness and grandiosity in favor of the quiet, the ridiculous, the sly.” The completely remastered collection includes album tracks, B-Sides, remixes, alternate versions, and previously unreleased studio recordings.


WilcoSchmilco CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
The 10th full-length studio release for the Chicago alt-rock band was recorded during the same sessions for 2015’s Star Wars. “Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy has always been good at evoking his duplicitous feelings to shade his characters with contrapuntal depth; think of the woman trapped in his longings for, and resentments toward, her on Summerteeth‘s ‘She’s A Jar.’ With Schmilco, however, he goes further and actually confronts his own contradictions. On ‘Normal American Kids,’ he describes how he used to ‘hate normal American kids’ because he was ‘afraid’ of them. The blurred line between hate and fear isn’t an exploitable songwriting gamut, but an acknowledgement of something he’s overcoming, something he has to place within the boundaries of a word like ‘remind.’ When he sings, ‘Something like me/You don’t wanna be,’ on ‘Cry All Day,’ the advice would be self-pitying and trite, the kind of half-baked angst often ascribed to ‘dad rock,’ if it didn’t sound like Tweedy was beginning to accept that advice himself.Schmilco is a deeply personal work. It’s also an album that so sincerely accepts maturation beyond supposed stasis, or prurient middle-age crises, that it should make us drop the term ‘dad rock’ as a pejorative and accept that it can also be used as a description of high art” – Slant. [Limited opaque pink color vinyl pressing also available.]


Will Butler Friday Night LP+MP3 (Merge)
Released last June on CD – now available on vinyl. Friday Night is a live album of performances from the Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist’s tour supporting his debut solo albumPolicy. It was recorded mostly at Lincoln Hall in Chicago on June 4, 2015.


The CureThree Imaginary Boys [Reissue/1979] LP (Elektra)
The CureSeventeen Seconds [Reissue/1980] LP (Elektra)
The CureFaith [Reissue/1981] LP (Elektra)
The Cure Pornography [Reissue/1982] LP (Elektra)
The CureThe Top [Reissue/1984] LP (Elektra)
The CureThe Head On The Door [Reissue/1985] LP (Elektra)
The Cure’s first six albums are back in print on standard weight black vinyl.


Robert PollardNot In My Airforce [Reissue/1996] LP+MP3 (GBV Inc.)
Remastered 20th Anniversary reissue on “yellow beer” colored vinyl with bonus six-song 7”.Originally released by Matador Records on September 10, 1996, Not In My Airforceincludes several songs that have become fan favorites and staples of GBV live shows throughout the years.


Titus Andronicus S+@dium Rock: Five Nights At The Opera LP+MP3 (Merge)
+@’s position as the most thrilling live act in rock and roll has long been etched in stone, but never before has that riveting energy been captured on wax as it is here.


Scott WalkerThe Childhood Of A Leader [OST] CD (4AD)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Scott Walker’s soundtrack to Brady Corbet’s dramatic film The Childhood Of A Leader. It is Walker’s first soundtrack work since his remarkable score for Pola X in 1999. His dramatic contribution is at the heart of the film, a tense semi-fictional film, inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s short story of the same name, that follows the complicated formative years of young boy growing in France in 1918 who witnesses the signing of the Treaty Of Versailles.

 

NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
AGAINST ME – Shape Shift With Me CD/LP
BRIGHT EYES – Studio Albums 200-2016 CD/LP
CYMBALS EAT GUITARS – Pretty Years CD/LP
DAWES – We’re All Gonna Die CD/LP
EL PERRO DEL MAR – Kokoro CD/LP
DEVIL MAKES THREE – Redemption + Ruin CD/LP
DEAP VALLY – Femejism CD
JAMES BLAKE – Colour In Anything LP
ROBERT GLASPER – Art Science CD
GODFLESH – Songs Of Love + Hate CD/LP
GRUMBLING FUR – Furfour CD/LP
HANDSOME FAMILY – Useen CD/LP
KEATON HENSON – Kindly Now CD/LP
KISHI BASHI – Sonderlust CD/LP
MONOCHROME SET – Cosmonaut CD
P.S. ELIOT (waxahatchee) – 2007-2011 CD/LP
PREOCCUPATIONS (fka vietcong) – Self-Titled CD/LP
TIM WINK (white fence) – The Wink CD/LP
SHADOWY MEN ON A SHADOWY PLANET – CD reissues
SIN FANG – Spaceland CD/LP
SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS – Electric Pinecones CD/LP
TOUCHE AMORE – Stage Four CD/LP
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER (the walkmen) – I Had A Dream That You Were Mine CD/LP
WOVENHAND – Star Treatment CD/LP
WREKMEISTER HARMONIES – Light Falls CD/LP
KOOL KEITH – Features Magnetic CD
VARIOUS – Nigeria Soul Fever CD/LP
TRENTEMOLLER – Fixion CD/LP
CHRISTOPHER TIGNOR – Along A Vanishing Plane CD/LP
TAKING BACK SUNDAYTidal Wave CD/LP
DIE ANTWOORD – Mount Ninji + Da Nice Time Kid CD
TOM BTROSSEAU – North Dakota Impressions CD/LP
ALEX G – Dsu LP reissue
KILLERS – Hot Fuss LP