The Devil Makes Three – Chains Are Broken CD/LP (New West)
The power of words isn’t lost on longstanding Americana triumvirate The Devil Makes Three – Pete Bernhard, Lucia Turino, and Cooper McBean. For as much as they remain rooted in troubadour traditions of wandering folk, Delta blues, whiskey-soaked ragtime, and reckless rock ‘n’ roll, the band nods to the revolutionary unrest of author James Baldwin, the no-holds barred disillusionment of Ernest Hemingway, and Southern Gothic malaise of Flannery O’Connor. In that respect, their sixth full-length and first of original material since 2013, Chains Are Broken, resembles a dusty leather-bound book of short stories from some bygone era. As the band began writing ideas for the LP, they veered off the proverbial path creatively. Instead of their typical revolving cast of collaborators, The Devil Makes Three stuck to its signature power trio, with one addition. This time, they invited touring drummer Stefan Amidon to power the bulk of the percussion. Another first, they retreated to Sonic Ranch Studios in El Paso, TX a stone’s throw from the Mexican border to record with producer Ted Hutt (Dropkick Murphys). [Limited blue and cream colored vinyl LP pressing.]

DeVotchKa – This Night Falls Forever CD/2xLP (Concord)
For more than a decade, Denver, CO four-piece multi-instrumental/vocal ensemble DeVotchKa has melded its influences from Eastern European wedding bands to Norteno ballads into an authentic and totally original blend of popular music. The band’s haunting, romantic sound evokes timeless images and has proved particularly attractive to filmmakers, who have used DeVotchKa songs to score countless films and commercials, most famously Little Miss Sunshine, for which they received a Grammy nod. This Night Falls Forever is DeVotchKa’s most ambitious album to date with more detailed arrangements and an overall bigger sound. From the record’s first notes it’s clear that This Night Falls Forever is a heartrending look backwards and forwards at once – the sound of searching within.

Neil & Liam Finn – Lightsleeper CD/2xLP (PIAS America)
Recorded mainly in Neil Finn’s Auckland studio, Lightsleeper bursts with melody and the trademark euphoric flips that are the Finn family trademarks. When Neil’s iconic pop sensibility meets Liam’s lo-fi atmospherics, it produces a feeling of intimacy and awe that makes it easy to wonder why the dynamic father and son duo haven’t written together sooner. The simple Finn family ethos of making music with friends and family continues right through to the personnel recruited for the album. Lightsleeper features the touring band, Sharon Finn (Neil’s wife, and Liam’s mother) plays bass on two of the songs, Elroy Finn (Liam’s brother) plays drums on seven, good friend Connan Mockasin returns for four and the legendary Mick Fleetwood turns up to play on “Anger Plays A Part”, “Any Other Way” and “We Know What It Means”.

Interpol – Marauder CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
Interpol follow-up 2014’s El Pintor with their sixth studio album, Marauder. For the first time since 2007’s Our Love To Admire, the band has opened themselves up to the input of a producer. For two-week spells between December of 2017 to April of 2018, they traveled to upstate New York to work with Dave Fridmann – famed for recording with Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips, MGMT, Spoon, Mogwai, and countless more. In the run up to writing and recording, Sam Fogarino found himself immersed in soul drummers such as Al Jackson Jr. (Otis Redding’s drummer) and ‘80s funk producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. “How can I make sh*t swing?” was the question Sam repeatedly asked himself, and the answer is in the striding gallop of opener “If You Really Love Nothing”, the embellished skip ‘n’ bounce of “Stay In Touch” and the R&B swagger of closer “It Probably Matters”. Interpol have always been world-beaters at creating a feeling, but Marauder is where the feel is just as crucial. [Limited deluxe colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood – With Animals CD/LP (PIAS America)
Over the last decade, Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood have worked in tangent on 2013’s Black Pudding as well as on Lanegan’s solo records (Garwood contributed to 2012’s Blues Funeral and 2017’s Gargoyle after which he toured as part of Lanegan’s band). Analogue and dust flecked, With Animals sounds like Lanegan and Garwood have been holed up in a ‘60s recording studio while the apocalypse rages outside. Tracks sit on loops that sound like they’re straight out of There’s A Riot Goin’ On while sparse melodies nod in the direction of British electronic producers like Burial or Boards Of Canada. Which is not to say it sounds like any of those things – this is a weird world all of their own design. A ghost’s whistle weaves itself around a pulsing single note on “Lonesome Infidel”; “Feast To Famine’s” hard luck story floats above a guitar part so strung out and washed with distortion it’s become barely recognizable. It’s soul music for anyone who’s long since left the crossroads.

Murder By Death – The Other Shore CD/LP (Bloodshot)
The Other Shore is the eighth studio album from Louisville, KY-based indie Americana trailblazers Murder By Death. It’s an epic space-western about a ravaged earth, it’s fleeing populace, and a relationship in jeopardy. Here, the group explores untapped genres, dynamic and emotional touches, intersecting and introspective storylines, and remote edges of the galaxy. As trailblazers of the early 2000s indie-Americana style, Murder By Death finds a way of taking tried & true rock-and-roll and knocking it slightly off axis, into tottering revolutions of something eerie, emotional, immediate, lush, and uniquely theirs.

Nothing – Dance On The Blacktop CD/LP (Relapse)
Nothing’s third full-length recording, Dance On The Blacktop, is the next chapter in the band’s tumultuous story and like its predecessors, pulls from all corners of life with a focus on the bleak and despairing. Captured by renowned producer John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile) at Dreamland Studio in Woodstock, NY, Dance On The Blacktop is a stirring collection of songs accentuating the band’s love for all sounds ‘90s from both sides of the pond; from alternative rock and shoegaze to the realms of pop and post-punk. Across the course of 45 minutes, Nothing weave together nine tales of heightened confusion, anxiety, paranoia, depression and chronic pain juxtaposed against angelic yet apocalyptic, reverberating walls of shimmering sound. Dance On The Blacktop is a fervent, emotional tour-de-force, the sound of a band at the peak of their individuality. [Limited white colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Rubblebucket – Sun Machine CD/LP (Grand Jury)
Co-produced by Kalmia Traver and Alex Toth, Sun Machine documents the pain of ending their romantic relationship yet emerges as an unbridled and often-euphoric celebration of their lasting connection. While the breakup inspired much of the record, Sun Machine is deeply informed by several other life-changing occurrences in recent years: Kalmia’s diagnosis with ovarian cancer in 2013, Alex’s decision to get sober after a long struggle with alcoholism, and the couple’s three-year-long attempt at maintaining an open relationship. The result is a strange and beautiful paradox: a party album rooted in radical mindfulness, a breakup record imbued with each partner’s palpable love for the other. With its airy melodies and lavish textures, dream-logic sensibilities and dancey rhythms, Sun Machine radiates the bright and joyful energy encapsulated in its title and finds Kalmia and Alex tapping into their creative instincts more freely and directly than ever before. Throughout the record, they adorn their exploration of love and sexuality and grief and healing with bursts of collage-like experimentation.

White Denim – Performance CD/LP (City Slang)
White Denim’s new album, Performance, was mainly recorded over eight weeks at the band’s new downtown Austin, TX studio, Radio Milk. Two new players were key in what James Petralli describes as “a super-collaborative record:” keyboardist Michael Hunter, a “young, humble genius with endless potential” and Conrad Choucroun, a “ridiculously solid” drummer with a long stint with NRBQ on his resume. Categorically speaking, White Denim is still impossible to narrowly pin down. There’s the glam-rock strut of “Magazin” and “It Might Get Dark”, the dueling guitars on the low-slung blues prog of “Moves On”, and the sideways jazz of “Sky Beaming”. There are plenty of pleasingly unexpected musical moments on the title track and the easy-rolling closer “Good News”, along with some seriously distorted guitar. In many ways, White Denim is the flashing light in a dark and crowded tunnel of showbiz glop. [Limited clear vinyl pressing also available.]

Ólafur Arnalds – re:member CD/LP (Mercury)
“This is my breaking out-of-a-shell album,” explains Icelandic BAFTA-winning artist, composer, musician and producer Ólafur Arnalds about his newest recording re:member. “It’s me taking the raw influences that I have from all these different musical genres and not filtering them. It explores the creative process and how one can manipulate that to get out of the circle of expectations and habit.”

Blood Orange – Negro Swan CD (Domino)
Producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter and vocalist Devonte Hynes returns with his fourth album as Blood Orange, Negro Swan. “My newest album is an exploration into my own and many types of black depression, an honest look at the corners of black existence, and the ongoing anxieties of queer/people of color. A reach back into childhood and modern traumas, and the things we do to get through it all. The underlying thread through each piece on the album is the idea of Hope, and the lights we can try to turn on within ourselves with a hopefully positive outcome of helping others out of their darkness.” [Vinyl edition due October 5.]

The Frights – Hypochondriac CD/LP+MP3 (Epitaph)
The third full-length effort from San Diego, CA band is full of addictively catchy songs about fear and frustration. [Limited blue colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Justice – Woman Worldwide 2xCD/3xLP+2xCD (Caroline)
A new live studio recording of Justice’s 2016 album Woman along with stand-out tracks from their 10-year career.

Jeff Buckley ‎– Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk [Reissue/1998] 3xLP+MP3 (Sony Legacy)
Buckley was dissatisfied with material recorded in the summer of 1996 and early in 1997 and continued working on demo recordings to refine his sound. The album was to be titled My Sweetheart, The Drunk, but was never finished, as the rest of the band were traveling to meet Buckley at the time of his death on May 29th, 1997. It was posthumously released as Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk – a collection of polished studio tracks and four-track demos.

Chromeo – Head Over Heels 2xLP+MP3 (Atlantic)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Chromeo is an electro-funk duo from Montreal, Quebec. Formed in 2002 by childhood friends Dave 1 and P-Thugg, the widely-renowned Funklordz grooved their way to fame after the release of their sophomore album Fancy Footwork, which was nominated for a JUNO in 2008. A decade later, the inseparable drops their fifth record, Head Over Heels. “It’s our most collaborative and funk-centric album to date,” explains Dave 1, born David Macklovitch, the singer and guitarist of the group. “It has the most muscular, concept-driven songwriting. At the same time, we hear other voices and other musicians. In a way, it’s doubling down on the funk thing but also expanding the collaboration thing.” The album’s collaborators include an eclectic mix of modern-day pop artists as well as some admired stars from the era of 1970s funk, including: Jesse Johnson, guitarist of The Time, as well as Pino Palladino, who has offered bass duties for artists such as D’Angelo, John Mayer, Elton John, and the Who. Modern day stars who appear on the album include D.R.A.M., French Montana, and the-Dream.

Mac DeMarco – 2 Demos LP (Captured Tracks)
Mac DeMarco – Salad Days Demos LP (Captured Tracks)
Two collections of demos on colored vinyl offer a rare insight into Mac’s world and process.

Pedro The Lion – Control [Reissue/2002] LP+MP3 (Epitaph)
Vinyl reissue of Pedro The Lion’s third full-length album. Anchored by trademark rolling, indelible hooks and Dave Bazan’s vocals, which swing from sweet indictments to mournful mocking, Pedro The Lion digs deep here to examine the vast disparity between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” In early 2006, Bazan retired the Pedro the Lion moniker to continue on with solo work under his own name. [Limited yellow colored vinyl pressing also available.]