The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It CD/2xLP (Interscope)

“When Manchester quartet The 1975 broke out in 2013 with their debut album The 1975 (and its glammy single ‘Sex’), they were heralded as rock revivalists with a stylish mix of ’80s new-wave melodies and hip-swiveling grooves. But on their anticipated follow-up I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It, The 1975 go in a ’90s-style pop direction thanks to an expanded pool of influences, from D’Angelo and early Christina Aguilera to Janet Jackson producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis” – Entertainment Weekly. (Limited copies also pressed on clear vinyl.)

Horace Andy – In The Light [Reissue/1977] CD/LP (VP)

Horace Andy – In The Light In Dub [Reissue/1977] CD/LP (VP)

Reissue of the 1977 dub classic In The Light, paired with a long-awaited repress (in the iconic original sleeve) of its crucial dub companion.

Death Index – Death Index CD/LP (Deathwish)

Death Index is a new project of Carson Cox (Merchandise, Neon Blud, Church Whip) and Marco Rapisarda (La Piovra, Sgurd, Archaic). Their debut album has “more in common with the primordial days of art punk than anything out there today.” Roaring out of the gate with a feedback driven gallop, the album brings to mind the swagger of The Birthday Party and others. Simple synth lines and manic guitars swirl heavily throughout. Conjuring the experimental spirit of legends Suicide, while Carson’s infectious vocal croon serves as a melodious anchor through a multitude of unpredictable twists and turns.

Lily And Madeline – Keep It Together CD/LP+MP3 (New West)

Keep It Together, the third album in just over three years by Indianapolis-based sisters Lily & Madeleine. This spellbinding ten-song statement is the dynamic product of two distinct musical personalities, bound by kinship, melding seamlessly into one ephemeral and dreamy collection. Keep It Together is a bit of a departure from their last two records. They arranged all the songs with their friends Kate Siefker (drums, percussion, synth, bass) and Shannon Hayden (cello, guitar, mandolin, synth). Working with a closer knit team of just four ladies helped tighten their sound and unify each track into a complete collection. It’s their voices you’ll fall in love with, as well as their exterior beauty. Both have smoky, haunting voices which colors each song with emotion and depth.

LNZNDRF– LNZNDRF CD/LP+MP3 (4AD)

LNZNDRF (pronounced Lanzendorf) is a collaborative project between the Devendorf brothers (Bryan and Scott) from The National and brass player Ben Lanz (Beirut, The National and Sufjan Stevens). First coming in to being when they filled an immediate need for a support band for The National after the scheduled opener was waylaid, LNZNDRF has grown into a fully realized, kraut-psych-prog band.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – This Unruly Mess I’ve Made CD (Macklemore)

This Unruly Mess I’ve Made includes the Platinum selling single “Downtown” (featuring Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, and Eric Nally), as well as previously unavailable “Growing Up” (featuring Ed Sheeran). The long awaited follow-up to the acclaimed debut LP The Heist, This Unruly Mess I’ve Made was largely recorded over the course of a year in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. “What I couldn’t find in a hotel room, on the road or in Seattle, I found in the middle of nowhere” says Macklemore, whose real name is Ben Haggerty. The eclectic, raw, and emotional album is an honest look into the soul of two artists who “needed time to be human again.” It also marks the official release of the stirring “Kevin”, previously performed on the American Music Awards, and featuring Grammy nominated soul crooner Leon Bridges.

Steve Mason – Meet The Humans CD/LP+MP3 (Domino)

Meet The Humans is an apt title for the third record by the former front man of The Beta Band, Steve Mason. Like his previous two efforts, this album finds him swinging musically across dance, pop, folk, dub, and deep house influences and remaining as lyrically adept and open as anything he’s done going back to The Three EPs. Whilst no ‘happy clappy’ collection, lyrically unafraid to pin its beliefs to its sleeve, Meet The Humansis the sound of a songwriter in full stride, not just in artistic terms, but of the whole 360, full life variety.

Mount Moriah – How To Dance CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)

The North Carolina-based band Mount Moriah seem insistent to grow. If their self-titled debut showed them standing with sea legs, determined to dream their way free from the dark crevices and corners of alt-country’s stiff template; and if Miracle Temple, their second album, called that darkness by its Southern name and met it with fire; then their latest collection of songs, How To Dance, is a devotion to the cosmic light itself: moving towards it, moving into it, becoming it. Mount Moriah’s third full-length sees them stretching further to explore their collective interest in the intangible fringes of fate and synchronicity. With How To Dance, the band presents new themes of symbolism, mysticism, alchemy, universality, sacred geometry. There is color, confidence, self-direction, joy. There is also darkness, but only to show you how it found its light. In I’m Not There, a film supposition of Bob Dylan’s life, the version of Dylan played by Cate Blanchett—the pre-motorcycle crash,Blonde On Blonde Dylan—says that “a poem is like a naked person,” and then, blending into the same line, “but a song is something that walks by itself.” Mount Moriah have created a continuous dialogue with humanity, with the metaphysical, with the ecology right in front of us. Here, in How To Dance, everything walks by itself.

Sarah Neufeld – The Ridge CD/LP (Paper Bag)

Sarah Neufeuld is a violinist and composer based in Montreal, Canada. Best known as a member of Arcade Fire, she is also a founding member of contemporary instrumental ensemble Bell Orchestre, and most recently as half of a new duo with saxophonist Colin Stetson. The Ridge employs more emphasis on vocalization than Neufeld’s previous works; the interplay between Neufeld’s voice and violin has become strongly integrated and narrative. Arcade Fire’s Jeremy Gara plays drums on the album, adding greater layers to the compositions, creating an intense, dynamic atmosphere, and a captivating listening from start to finish.

Emma Pollock – In Search Of Harperfield CD/LP (Chemikal Underground)

“As one quarter of The Delgados, Scotland’s most perennially underrated band, Pollock has pedigree in emotionally stirring, widescreen indie-rock, and her last (2010) album The Law Of Large Numbers is an enduring, ceaselessly enjoyable work. In Search Of Harperfield is happily, a worthy follow-up.– Drowned In Sound

Quilt – Plaza CD/LP (Mexican Summer)

“For the past five years, Boston quartet Quilt have quietly bubbled under the surface, while laid-back, like-minded peers like Real Estate, Woods and Kurt Vile have floated to the top of the heap. But any discerning listener would wage that 2016 will be their year. Quilt’s third album Plaza is a masterwork of mood-setting psychedelic rock, jilted enough to rope in lovers of the strange, but just straightforward enough—with eminently hummable melodies and crisp arrangements—to capture the attention of more conservative fans who might shy away from anything ‘acid-soaked.’” — Relix

Emitt Rhodes – Rainbow Ends CD (Omnivore)

Emitt Rhodes began his career in his teens, as drummer for the SoCal band The Palace Guard. He eventually took the reigns as leader of The Merry Go Round, who scored pop hits with “Live” and “You’re A Very Lovely Woman” in the late 1960s. At the release of his critically acclaimed eponymous debut in 1971, he gained a reputation as a “one-man Beatles,” since he wrote, recorded and produced the album in his home studio. But then, the way many music stories unfurl, after battling bad contracts and industry demands, Rhodes saw his last release, Farewell To Paradise, in 1973. He never recorded or released another full-length LP. Until now. With a band that includes Emitt Rhodes, album producer Chris Price, Roger Joseph Manning Jr, Jason Falkner, Taylor Locke, Fernando Perdomo and Joe Seiders, Rainbow Ends features guest appearances from Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs, Jon Brion, Nels Cline & Pat Sansone from Wilco, Bleu, Probyn Gregory & Nelson Bragg from the Brian Wilson Band, and more.

Rich Robinson – Paper [Reissue/2004] CD/2xLP (Eagle Rock Entertainment)

Rich Robinson – Llama Blues [Reissue/2011] CDEP/12” (Eagle Rock Entertainment)

In 2002, Rich Robinson (founding member of the Black Crowes) went into the studio with the help of some friends and make a solo record. That’s where Paper began. He had Joe Magistro, Eddie Harsch, Donnie Heron, and Antoine Silverman conducting the strings. They went into Globe Studios in New York’s meat packing district and knocked it out.Originally released in December 2011, Llama Bluesis a companion EP to Through A Crooked Sun. Intended as a companion to the full-length album, Llama Blues features blues-based tracks similar in sound to the full LP’s final track, “Fire Around.” Available on CD and on blue vinyl. (New album due “sometime in May, 2016.”)

Santigold – 99¢ CD/LP/Cassette (Atlantic)

Santigold’s third album, 99¢,features a collaboration with iLoveMakonnen as well as production from Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij, Hit-Boy, TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, Zeds Dead, Patrik Berger, Justin Raisen, Sam Dew, John Hill, and Doc McKinney. “It’s impossible to not move to this album. There’s a wide array of rhythms, grooves, and sensibilities pulling from dancehall, soca, hip-hop, trap and electro, but it is never overwhelming or underwhelming because it is balanced so well. The album is like pre-packaged diet meals in that respect, because there is just enough to fill you up and keep your senses engaged, but the artistry is in the portion control because it could easily be too much to handle. Santigold’s vocals vary as well, employing rap cadences, holding notes a bit longer for effect, leaning toward a Caribbean accent in spots, and scaling back for harmonies with other artists. The seemingly standard four-year hiatus she takes between albums is justified when it comes out sounding like this.” – Stereogum

School Of Seven Bells – SVIIB CD/LP+MP3 (Vagrant)

“‘Ablaze,’ from School Of Seven Bells’ fourth and likely final LP, is composed of the same elements SVIIB have threaded together for years: heroic riffs, a colossus of a percussion track and Alejandra Deheza’s weightless sighs. The emotional clarity, however, is new; the song is an ode to redemptive love, delivered with full earnestness and complete surrender. ‘You saw the stars in me,’ Deheza sings, and her often-glassy voice and SVIIB’s usually-huge mixes turn into something more plaintive, almost a cappella: ‘You told me how you saw the stars/You told me that till I believed.’ It’s among the most life-affirming five minutes of pop music in recent memory. It is quite possibly perfect” – Pitchfork. (Limited purple vinyl pressing also available.)

Sin Ropas–Mirror Bride CD/LP (Jealous Butcher)

On his new release, Sin Ropas’ (aka Tim Hurley) fuzz and blur is tightened into something beautifully sparse and rangy thanks to mixing by Brian Deck (Red Red Meat, Modest Mouse). These are bright, searing, imperfect songs that, as the title suggests, may seep into those places that you’ve been trying to forget or to hide. There’s a catharsis in its splattered slow party of music, in its untethered rhythms and evaporating melodies, music that suggests that there’s more than what we’ve seen or will see, how things seem more meaningful when reflected than in reality. Mirror Bride is the kind of record that reveals itself slowly and evokes the kind of experience you didn’t even know you were missing.

Tsunami Bomb –  Trust No One CD/LP (Kung Fu)

Trust No One is a 14-song collection of rare, out of print, and unreleased tracks from the early years of Tsunami Bomb including songs, from the previously out-of-print limited edition B-Movie Queens 7”, the On The High Seas 7”, and The Invasion From Within EP, as well as some hard to find and previously unreleased tracks from their pre-Kung Fu era.

Various Artists – God Don’t Never Change: The Songs Of Blind Willie Johnson CD/LP+MP3 (Alligator)

A star studded group of artists celebrate the timeless appeal of legendary gospel bluesman Blind Willie Johnson on this collection of covers. Includes performances by Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Cowboy Junkies, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Sinead O’Connor, Luther Dickinson featuring The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, Maria McKee, and Rickie Lee Jones.

Waco Brothers – Going Down In History CD/LP (Bloodshot)

With a devil-may-care attitude towards polish and finesse, Going Down In History captures the thrill ride rush of the Waco Brothers’ live shows. Through the improvisational and fluid approach they adopted at Chicago’s Kingsize Sound Labs with longtime collaborator Mike Hagler at the knobs, the songs took on a muscularity and cohesiveness of an album unlike any previous Waco’s recordings. Their pioneering Cash-meets-Clash jet engine mash up is still there, to be sure, but the Waco’s have turned their well-scuffed boot heels towards their roots as never before.

Wakey Wakey – Overreactivist CD/LP (The End)

“Spend half an hour in the company of Michael Grubbs, the creative force behind indie band Wakey Wakey and you’ll come out with a renewed enthusiasm for old school music making. Overreactivist is Wakey Wakey’s third album and a radical departure from the previous pop album, Salvation, in more ways than one. In contrast to the first album which was full of youthful expression and captured the spirit of making music with no money and no expectation of success, Salvation was a collaborative experience with a team of writers, producers and musicians and the end result turned out to be even further from Grubbs’ first intention of making a pop album. Whilst acknowledging it was an amazing team experience, Grubbs says this experience and way of making music made him feel ‘disconnected from myself as a musician’ and as a result he returned to the ‘old days’ and decided the next step would be to write and record an indie rock EP. Happily, they managed to find enough studio time to record enough material for not just an EP but a whole album.” – Huffington Post

Julien Baker – Sprained Ankle LP+MP3 (6131)

Released last October on CD – now available on vinyl. For years, Baker and a group of close friends have performed as the band Forrister (formerly The Star Killers), but when college took her four hours away, her need to continue creating found an outlet through solo work. The intent was never to make these songs her main focus, yet the process proved to be startlingly cathartic. As each song came into shape, it became more apparent that Baker had genuinely deep, surprisingly dark stories to tell from her thus far short life (she turns 20 this Fall). Tales of her experiences are staggering, and when set to her haunting guitar playing, the results are gut wrenching and heartfelt, relatable yet very personal. There’s something wonderfully hypnotizing about Baker gently confessing her soul with such tremendous honesty. (Limited colored vinyl pressing.)

David Bowie – David Bowie aka Space Oddity [Reissue/1969] LP (Rhino/Parlophone)

David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World [Reissue/1970] LP (Rhino/Parlophone)

David Bowie – Aladdin Sane [Reissue/1971] LP (Rhino/Parlophone)

David Bowie – The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars [Reissue/1972] LP (Rhino/Parlophone)

David Bowie – Aladdin Sane [Reissue/1973] LP (Rhino/Parlophone)

David Bowie – Pinups [Reissue/1973] LP (Rhino/Parlophone)

David Bowie – Bowie At The Beeb: The Best Of The BBC Radio Sessions ’68-’72 [2000] 4xLP (Rhino/Parlophone)

A quintessential selection of classic, early-period Bowieback in print on HQ-180gm vinyl. (This is the first timeBowie At The Beeb has been available on the format.)

Johnny Cash – Sings Hank Williams [Reissue/1960] LP (Sundazed)

Johnny Cash – Now Here’s Johnny [Reissue/1961] LP (Sundazed)

From the minute he walked into Sun Studios, Johnny Cash began a legendary career that would see him become one of the biggest and most influential musicians of our time. Though only on Sun for three years from 1955-1958, Johnny made some of his most legendary recordings there. When he moved on to Columbia Records, Johnny left behind a large cache of material which Sun happily compiled and released on LPs throughout the ‘60s, mixing Cash’s singles-sides with previously unissued recordings. A couple of those records are back in print on vinyl.

Morrissey – Bona Drag [Reissue/1990] 2xLP (Rhino/Parlophone)

Limited HQ-180gm audiophile vinyl LP pressing.Bona Drag is a compilation album by Morrissey originally released October 1990. The album features an array of Morrissey’s most popular songs from his early solo career, most of which had not been released on any previous album.

Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto – The Revenant [OST] 2xLP (Milan)

Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. “In Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new film The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio plays frontiersman Hugh Glass as he, his son, and his hunting team raid Native American land in 1832. After DiCaprio is unexpectedly mauled by a bear, the crew buries him, murders his son, and abandons their bodies, continuing the journey unaware that DiCaprio escaped the grave to seek revenge. Calling The Revenant ‘intense’ doesn’t begin to do it justice; among other things, it’s a meditation on the unholy perseverance of the human soul. Yet its soundtrack—co-created by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, German electronic musician Alva Noto, and multi-instrumentalist Bryce Dessner of The National—wisely opts to complement that savagery rather than illustrate it.” – Pitchfork

Sonic Youth – Goo [Reissue/1990] LP (Geffen)

Sonic Youth – Dirty [Reissue/1992] 2xLP (Geffen)

Sonic Youth – Washing Machine [Reissue/1995] 2xLP (Geffen)

Sonic Youth – Diamond Sea [Reissue/1995] 12” (Geffen)

The latest batch of Sonic Youth vinyl reissues, now available.

Various Artists – Jade Tree: Twenty Five Years LP (Jade Tree)

“25 years of Jade Tree. When Tim Owen asked me to become his partner in the label in 1990, neither he nor I thought that Jade Tree might last this long. As young adults we had dreams that Jade Tree would develop into a label that would not only mimic our mentors, but also eventually impart our own unique brand into the sphere of independent music. With the premise that Jade Tree do nothing more than represent the fickle tastes of Tim and I without focusing on any particular genre, geography or belief system, we forged ahead. Looking back, Tim and I believe Jade Tree has made the impact that we had hoped to make twenty-five years ago. This record is a small document of the label and the artists who have helped Jade Tree achieve that dream over the years.”Includes tracks by: The Promise Ring, Pedro The Lion, Strike Anywhere, Denali, Kid Dynamite, Joan Of Arc, From Ashes Rise, F**ked Up, Swiz, Lifetime, Cap’n Jazz, Paint It Black, and Jets To Brazil.