Lala Lala – The Lamb CD/LP/Cassette (Hardly Art)
“While grieving the death of a friend, recovering from a home invasion, and starting to become sober, the Chicago singer-songwriter Lillie West was also writing her sophomore album, The Lamb, with her rock band Lala Lala. Its lead single, ‘Destroyer’ plunges into West’s emotional chaos, dealing with the misleading perception that gut feelings will always lead one to an ideal resolution. “Destroyer” begins with a grumbling lo-fi guitar, its brooding emphasized with jabs from a toy piano that echo in the background. West’s voice begins low and weighed down; the lyrics evoke paranoia and confusion as they offer images of violence and black holes. From first verse, West wants to prohibit herself from making more mistakes. ‘If I’m using my hands/Can you cut them off?’ she sings. During the chorus, West’s throaty voice climbs higher and higher, keeping pace with a dizzying guitar melody like a frenzied cuckoo clock. ‘You are the reason my heart broke behind my back,’ she shouts, before a sense of calm descends and guitar reverb fades out the song. In that way, Lala Lala’s music is like watching an open wound being stitched up—jarring and healing.” — Pitchfork

Mudhoney – Digital Garbage CD/LP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
Since the late ‘80s, Mudhoney – the Seattle-based foursome whose muck-crusted version of rock, shot through with caustic wit and battened down by a ferocious low end – has been a high-pH tonic against the ludicrous and the insipid. Thirty years later, the world is experiencing a particularly high-water moment for both those ideals. But just in time, vocalist Mark Arm, guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters are back with Digital Garbage, a barbed-wire-trimmed collection of sonic brickbats. Arm’s raw yawp and his bandmates’ long-honed chemistry make the album an ideal release valve for the 2018 pressure cooker. Mudhoney’s core sound – steadily pounding drums, swamp-thing bass, squalling guitar wobble, Arm’s hazardous-chemical voice – remains. The anti-religiosity shimmy “21st Century Pharisees” builds its case with Maddison’s woozy synths, which Arm says “add a really nice touch to the proceedings.” Digital Garbage closes with “Oh Yeah”, a brief celebration of skateboarding, surfing, biking, and the joy provided by these escape valves.

Rick and Morty – The Rick and Morty Soundtrack CD/2xLP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
Rick and Morty is the critically acclaimed, half-hour animated hit comedy series on Adult Swim that follows a sociopathic genius scientist who drags his timid grandson on insanely dangerous adventures across the universe. The Rick and Morty Soundtrack is the first official collection of music from the show. The album includes songs by Mazzy Star, Chaos Chaos, Blonde Redhead, and Belly, all of which have been featured in the show, as well as two new tunes from Chad VanGaalen and Clipping. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available. Deluxe vinyl box set and cassette editions due November 23.]

Linda Thompson – My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m On The Stage CD (Omnivore)
Linda Thompson celebrates the music of the English music hall. Special guests include: Teddy Thompson, Colin Firth, Martha Wainwright, Jools Holland, Justin Vivian Bond, John Foreman, Cara Dillon, and more. Linda Thompson’s career begins in the much beloved late ‘60s, early ‘70s British folk-rock scene. At first, she was mostly a session singer and a part of a short-lived duo with Paul McNeill with whom she released two singles in 1968 and 1969. McNeill happened to be friends with Sandy Denny, and soon so was Linda. She became one of the “supergroup” of musician friends related to Fairport Convention for the 1972 The Bunch. “If there were justice in this world, there would be at least three albums full of Linda Thompson/Sandy Denny duets (under the Crazy Ladies moniker, perhaps?). But no! There are only a few examples of these two incredible singers harmonizing together. On this dusty 35-year-old audience tape you can hear a few of them — Sandy’s ‘Crazy Lady Blues’ and the Everly’s ‘When Will I Be Loved’. Both are great. The recording (including Richard Thompson on countrified lead guitar) is not hi-fi by any stretch, but every note Sandy sings and every note Richard plays cuts through the decades like a just-sharpened knife.” – Aquarium Drunkard

Alt-J – Reduxer CD/LP (Atlantic)
Reduxer is a set of eleven evocative reinterpretations of songs from Alt-J’s third album, Relaxer (2017), re-imagined by a variety of hip hop artists and producers including Little Simz, Twin Shadow, Pusha T, Tuka, Jimi Charles Moody, Danny Brown, Alchemist, Trooko, Paigey Cakey, Hex, ADP, GoldLink, Terrance Martin, PJ Sin Suela, Trooko, Lomepal, Kontra K and Rejjie Snow.

Anti-Flag – American Reckoning CD/LP (Spinefarm)
New acoustic album from the Pittsburgh political punk band. Features songs off of their last two albums, American Spring (2015) and American Fall (2017), as well as covers of some of the classics that inspired them.

Jon Batiste – Hollywood Africans CD (Verve)
With Hollywood Africans, Jon Batiste dives deep into his own personal and cultural heritage, weaving an intimate and emotional tapestry out of original material and American standards that carries the listener from the early jazz of New Orleans to the present day. [Vinyl edition due October 26.]

John Butler Trio – Home CD/2xLP (Nettwerk)
Centered around John Butler’s virtuoso guitar stylings and powerful, progressive lyricism, Home draws upon a remarkable variety of musical genres, spanning folk, blues, funk, classic rock ‘n’ roll, and beyond. It’s a message of redemption, a reflection of the inner and outer worlds Butler was experiencing and observing during this chapter of his life. [Limited edition white colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Aretha Franklin – The Atlantic Singles Collection 1967-1970 2xCD/2xLP (Atlantic)
A collection of singles which Franklin released during her first three years with Atlantic Records. 34 tracks on the double-CD; 25 on the double-vinyl edition.

GØGGS – Pre Strike Sweep CD/LP (In The Red)
With their second album, GØGGS add a new level of primordial anxiety to their already catastrophic symphony. Recorded and mixed in 2017 by GØGGS guitarist and co-founder Ty Segall, the album explores the damaging effects of modern life before blowing them up one by one.

Tim Hecker – Konoyo CD/2xLP (Kranky)
Experiential composer Tim Hecker’s ninth official full-length, Konoyo (“the world over here”) was largely recorded during several trips to Japan where he collaborated with members of the gagaku ensemble Tokyo Gakuso, in a temple on the outskirts of Tokyo. Inspired by conversations with a recently deceased friend about negative space and a sense of music’s increasingly banal density, Hecker found himself drawn towards restraint and elegance, while making music both collectively and alone. As with the Icelandic choir he arranged on 2016’s Love Streams, the heights of Hecker’s talent emerge in his manipulation of source material, bending and burnishing it into fantastical new forms.

The Holydrug Couple – Hyper Super Mega CD/LP (Sacred Bones)
The duo approached the mythos of the “classic album” from their own inimitable psych-pop perspective, hoping to make a record that felt authentically like The Holydrug Couple that could fit into the same canon. By that criterion, Hyper Super Mega is a massive success.

Jlin ‎– Autobiography (Music From Wayne McGregor’s Autobiography) CD/LP (Planet Mu)
By now, how Jlin went from working in a steel factory in Gary, Indiana to being one of the most widely appreciated electronic musicians is well known. Black Origami was one of the most reviewed and lauded albums last year. Autobiography is the score for her collaboration with renowned British choreographer Wayne McGregor. This isn’t technically her third album (that’s due to arrive in 2019 or 2020), but the soundtrack stands up on its own with all the emotional peaks and troughs of a well-sequenced long player. [Limited indie-exclusive red colored vinyl pressing also available.]

The Joy Formidable – AAARTH CD/LP (Seradom)
Drawing inspiration from a worldwide climate of political and social uncertainty the Joy Formidable transplanted themselves in Utah’s vivid natural landscape immersed in a collage of colors and light, the ever fluid and expansive Southwestern sky mirroring our rapidly-changing world. The deep burnt-orange rocks and canyons became touchstones as the band formed the sonic landscapes of AAARTH. From soaring choruses to percussive pulsating guitars, The Joy Formidable paint an 11-song musical tapestry deftly balancing a sound as grounded as their ancient surroundings and as elusive and mind-bending as a gloaming desert sky.

Kids See Ghosts – Kids See Ghosts CD (G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam)
Kids See Ghosts is the eponymous debut from the hip-hop duo of the same name featuring Kanye West and Kid Cudi and the third of five 7-track 2018 albums produced by West succeeding Pusha T’s Daytona and his own ye and preceding Nas’ Nasir and Teyana Taylor’s K.T.S.E. It includes contributions from Pusha T, Yasiin Bey, Ty Dolla Sign and a posthumous vocal sample of Louis Prima. [Vinyl edition due November 2.]