Chvrches – Love Is Dead CD/LP (Glassnote)
Love Is Dead is an album about growing up and “coming to terms with the fact that there are great things in the world and there are awful things in the world and that you can’t get one without the other,” explains frontwoman Lauren Mayberry. For the first time ever, Chvrches opened their proverbial doors to outside influence; Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart served as the band’s de facto mentor. Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia) co-produced eight of the record’s twelve tracks. The National frontman Matt Berninger sings on the sings on the single, “My Enemy”. [Limited edition clear and light blue clear colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Jeremy Enigk – Return Of The Frog Queen [Reissue/1996] CD/LP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
Jeremy Enigk performed with legendary indie rock band Sunny Day Real Estate from 1993 to 2000. In 1996, following the band’s first breakup (which lasted from 1995 to 1997), Enigk released his first solo album, Return of the Frog Queen. Representing a major shift in sound, it features backing from a 21-piece orchestra as he performs striking, dramatic, chamber-pop compositions that demonstrate the full breadth of his talents as a singer, musician, and songwriter. Includes bonus tracks from Enigk’s 1996 live session on Seattle radio station The End (available via download on the vinyl version).

Graveyard – Peace CD/LP/Cassette (Nuclear Blast)
Gothenburg, Sweden’s Graveyard has been flying the classic hard rock, blues and psychedelic rock banner since the band’s inception in 2006. [Limited edition colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Jo Passed – Their Prime CD/LP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
The nicest thing anyone has ever said to Jo Hirabayashi, frontman of Jo Passed, is that his band’s debut album sounds like “fucked-up Beatles.” Titled Their Prime, the LP does sound like fucked-up Beatles. It sounds like, somewhere across an ‘80s universe, Lennon and McCartney discovered Can and Neu!, and maybe a little Sonic Youth and XTC along the way. Opening with “Left,” it demonstrates that timeless knack for dreamy melodies – chord progressions that sound like they were created in a land far far away. Lyrically, however, it’s imbued with a philosophical longing for answers to questions that have resurfaced for the first time since the explosion of counterculture in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Lithics – Mating Surfaces CD/LP+MP3 (Kill Rock Stars)
Lithics exist in a nervous fragmented world, a propulsive futuristic hell where anything can be consumed at any time, where any sound from any era can be conjured and reproduced and yet most of what we are stuck with seems like a trite reproduction of a sentiment long lost. Lithics fight this impossible dreary reality with a bold minimalist vision, “Can I be myself?” A stern danceable sound that summons cut up snapshots of Su Tissue and Mark E Smith, an imagined landscape where Captain Beefheart hits that 99 Records “Too Many Creeps” beat.

Peach Kelli Pop – Gentle Leader CD/LP (Mint)
L.A.’s DIY sunshine punk favorites are back with their fourth full length album and first in three years. Gentle Leader‘s ten tracks are inspired by a unique range of guitar-driven power pop and feedback laden post-punk from the ’80s and ’90s.

Joshua Redman/Ron Miles/Scott Colley/Brian Blade – Still Dreaming CD/LP (Nonesuch)
Saxophonist/composer Joshua Redman is joined by drummer Brian Blade, bassist Scott Colley, and trumpeter Ron Miles for Still Dreaming – an album inspired by his father Dewey Redman’s 1976-1987 band, Old and New Dreams. Along with the senior Redman, Old and New Dreams featured an all-star lineup of Ornette Coleman collaborators – cornetist Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell – who continued pushing musical boundaries as they had with Coleman even after their former bandleader moved in a new direction. Still Dreaming features six new compositions by the new band as well as one tune by Haden and one from Coleman.

Xavier Rudd – Storm Boy CD/2xLP (Nettwerk)
“There’s a splendid simplicity and gentleness to Rudd’s ninth studio album, but also a deep connection to the world around him. ‘Walk away from all that you know,’ he tells himself in the opening track. Later Rudd acknowledges that ‘a fork in the road would someday come.’ And while this is not quite a new beginning, it’s the sound of consolidation for an artist who’s creating his own remarkable story and sound. It’s the echo of the open highway, disappearing into the heart of the great unknown. If Paul Simon had grown up on the Australian coast and become a surfing vegetarian, he would sound like Xavier Rudd.” – Stack

Klaus Schulze – Silhouettes CD/2xLP+CD (SPV)
Schulze describes the music on Silhouettes as a “reduction to the essential things” and has consciously worked only very sparingly with solos and vocal elements. He explains: “No great distractions, nothing to force your attention in a certain direction, no major effects or gimmicks, no frills or dominant rhythms. It was important to me to paint the pictures in the depth of the space, the sonic fields of tension and atmosphere.” Since the early 1970s, Klaus Schulze has repeatedly been referred to by the press as “King of Cosmic Music” or “Magician on the Big Moog“, his work frequently having been classed as a “monument of forward-looking music”.

Snow Patrol – Wildness CD/LP (Republic)
Wildness, Snow Patrol’s first album in seven years, finds the British alt-rockers reuniting with longtime producer Jackknife Lee and searching for clarity, connection, and meaning, while staying true to the melodic songwriting prowess that brought them to prominence. The extended break proved to be a source of inspiration for the band and the new record, true to its title, taps into something raw and primitive.

Tracyanne & Danny – Tracyanne & Danny CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
Fans of Scottish indie rock know Tracyanne Campbell from her time spent writing and singing songs for Camera Obscura, the charming group whose five LPs to date carry on the tradition of chiming Scottish pop. And anyone who loves beautifully melancholy acts like The Smiths and Lloyd Cole should already be aware of Crybaby, the masterfully crafted, eponymous 2012 album recorded by Bristol singer-songwriter Danny Coughlan. The lyrics on the tight, 10-song Tracyanne & Danny LP, the duo’s self-titled debut, draw from deep within their own experiences, from Campbell’s steel-guitar-accented “Alabama,” a reflection on the life of her late friend and bandmate Carey Lander, to Coughlan’s peppy “Cellophane Girl,” a song about his adolescent infatuation with a co-worker at a plastics factory. Inspired by a variety of artists including Serge Gainsbourg, The Style Council, Lou Reed, The Roches, and Dion, Tracyanne & Danny is vibrant, melodic, musical, and at times, even murderous.

Various Artists – Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights 2xCD/3xLP (Numero Group)
It was a musical cocktail born in a marketing meeting: Two parts easy listening, one-part jazz, a healthy dollop of conga drums, a sprinkling of bird calls, and a pinch of textless choir. Serve garnished with an alluring female on the album jacket for best results. Exotica! The soundtrack for a mythical air conditioned Eden, packaged for mid-century, tiki torch-wielding armchair safariers. Be it mosquito-bitten torch singers, landlocked surf quartets, fad-chasing jazz combos, mad genius band leaders, D-list actors, or a middle aged loner programming bird calls into a Hammond, Exotica was always more concerned with what geography might sound like over who was conducting. Captured across three albums are 48 (54 on the CD) curious examples of the short-lived genre’s reach, each summoning their own sonic visions of Shangri La, bringing their versions of the Pacific, Africa, and the Orient to the hinterlands of America.

Wand – Perfume CD/LP (Drag City)
“Forging ever forward, Wand build on the flavors of last year’s Plum to evoke 29 minutes of all-new music called Perfume. Featuring several of their most pop melodies (the already dropped ‘The Gift’ and the video-to-be ‘Pure Romance’) as well as a couple of their proggiest jamz, Perfume shows Wand expanding multi-directionally utilizing the electricity between the five members, while streamlining their flair for making records as a nuanced, provocative and pleasureful NEW listening experience.”

Wooden Shjips – V. CD/LP+MP3 (Thrill Jockey)
Wooden Shjips, long-time leaders of the contemporary psychedelic movement, expand their sound with V. On their fifth album the quartet of Ripley Johnson (Moon Duo), Omar Ahsanuddin, Dusty Jermier, and Nash Whalen augment their already rich sound with laid back, classic summer songs. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Destroyer – City Of Daughters [Reissue/1998] LP+MP3 (Merge)
Destroyer – Thief [Reissue/1999] LP+MP3
In the hallowed Destroyer discography, the early trinity of City Of Daughters, Thief and Streethawk: A Seduction holds an important place; for not only does it document Dan Bejar’s evolution from lo-fi bedroom tyro to bona fide master of the rock album, they also contain a massive percentage of superlative Destroyer “classics.” 1998’s City Of Daughters features some of the first steps out of the demo-tapey experimentation of earlier recordings, with songs like “Comments On The World As Will” refining the sound of that stripped-down earlier work, and the seminal “No Cease Fires” offering us the first taste of just what a full-band Destroyer might conjure. 2000’s Thief naturally went further down that road, and from the opening strums of “The Temple” to the arty quirk of “Queen of Languages” to the gentle, jagged comedown of the title track, it soon became clear that Bejar was a master of a singular songcraft – and one that was only just getting started.

Julie Doiron – Désormais / Heart And Crime [2001/2002] 2xLP (Jagjaguwar)
Julie Doiron’s stunning album Désormais, originally released via Jagjaguwar in 2001, marked a departure from the Canadian artist’s grunge pop releases in the 1990s. Like its title might suggest, the intimate record is sung almost entirely in French. Across Désormais‘ ten tracks, Doiron builds a disarming and warm atmosphere – through minimally-composed fingerpicking, Doiron’s soft voice steers a wounded sound. Even for the English-speaking listener, the cohesion of the LP’s subdued, immersive atmosphere looms. Désormais clearly communicates a close, unflinching look at self-doubt submerged in melancholy. Heart And Crime, released less than a year later in 2002, traverses much of the same territory. Written within the same time as Désormais, Heart And Crime is a companion to its predecessor, similarly vulnerable and scarce compositionally, save for flickers of brass or a piano line flitting in or out. Again, its weight comes from its somber simplicity, in Doiron’s wistful voice and lyricism.

Jenny Hval – The Long Sleep 12” (Sacred Bones)
The follow-up to Jenny Hval’s acclaimed 2016 album Blood Bitch is The Long Sleep, an adventurous new EP that sees the Norwegian multidisciplinary artist embracing an instinctive, even subconscious, approach to creating meaning. In contrast to Hval’s more explicitly conceptual work, The Long Sleep foregrounds the act of composition itself, letting the melodies and structures reveal the other elements of the songs.

Pedro The Lion – It’s Hard To Find A Friend [Reissue/1998] LP (Epitaph)
Pedro The Lion – The Only Reason I Feel Secure [Reissue/1998] 12” (Epitaph)
Under the moniker of Pedro The Lion, Bazan creates melodic pop in the vein of Bedhead, Hayden, and Sebadoh, with a lyrical focus on relationships – with both other people and God. In early 2006, Bazan retired the Pedro moniker to continue on with solo work under his own name. In December of 2017 Bazan announced that Pedro The Lion be reunited to make a new album and tour the world in 2018. [Limited colored vinyl pressing of The Only Reason I Feel Secure is also available.]