Echo & The Bunnymen – The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon CD/2xLP+MP3 (BMG)
The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon sees Echo and the Bunnymen, still lead by the indomitable Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant, revisit their peerless back catalog to reinterpret 13 of their most beloved songs with strings and things. Recorded at The Dog House Studios with co-producer Andy Wright, The Bunnymen hand-picked the selection of tracks for the album from their majestic, four-decade spanning archive. McCulloch said of the new versions: “I’m not doing this for anyone else. I’m doing it as it’s important to me to make the songs better. I have to do it.” The first track, “Seven Seas”, was originally a Top 20 hit in 1984, the third single from their fourth studio album Ocean Rain. A couple of brand new tracks – “The Somnambulist” and “How Far?” – also accompany the rearranged classics. [Limited indie-exclusive luminous vinyl pressing also available.]

Fucked Up – Dose Your Dreams CD/2xLP+MP3 (Merge)
“I was sent an unfinished version of Dose Your Dreams so that I might contribute string parts. I couldn’t stop listening to the rough mixes I received. A friend asked me how the record was. I replied, ‘My God, Fucked Up have made their Screamadelica.’ And psych-rock-groove it is. The drums mixed wide, propensity for drones, for delay pedal, for repetition, groove. The politics and aesthetics of hardcore married to an “open format” approach to genre. Elements of doo-wop, krautrock, groove, digital hardcore. ‘None of Your Business Man’ opens the album in familiar enough territory, a sax-assisted exit from an office space. But things get psychedelic very quickly. By the time the title track arrives, Mike Haliechuk is whispering, wah pedals are in full effect, and we’re wearing oversized t-shirts and pinwheeling. ‘Accelerate’, the lyrical centerpiece of the album, storms in like Boredoms on a bullet train and dissolves into a digital nightmare.” – Owen Pallett [Limited edition translucent yellow colored vinyl pressing available.]

Ron Gallo – Stardust Birthday Party CD/LP (New West)
“Stardust Birthday Party is about human evolution. Specifically, one human’s evolution: mine, Ron Gallo. That’s the name my parents gave me. Hi. At one point, I was a very lost mid-twenties person living in Philadelphia, in a relationship with someone struggling with mental health issues and a crippling heroin addiction. I was asleep. I didn’t know how to handle my life. I was also writing songs for Heavy Meta – my frustrated with humanity album. I laugh about it all now, but at the time it all felt like an absolute nightmare. It was the perfect doorway to look inside the place I’d been avoiding forever: myself. Stardust Birthday Party is about what is happening underneath all of this life stuff. My path inward. The details of my path are pointless because everyone’s path is different. It is about me sitting with myself for the first time and confronting the big question WHAT AM I, REALLY? It’s about the love and compassion for all things that enters when you find out you are nothing and everything.” – Ron Gallo

Gregory Alan Isakov – Evening Machines CD/LP (Dualtone)
Recorded at a converted barn studio located on Isakov’s three-acre farm in Boulder County, CO, Evening Machines was self-produced and mixed by Tucker Martine (Neko Case, The Decemberists) and Andrew Berlin (Descendents, Rise Against). Since his debut in 2003, Isakov has self-released three full-length studio albums on his independent label, Suitcase Town Music, with over 370,000 in sales, and has toured extensively building a devoted worldwide audience. He has toured with artists including Iron & Wine, Ani DiFranco, Blind Pilot, Passenger, Josh Ritter, Brandi Carlile, and Nathaniel Rateliff, and since his debut with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in November 2013 has performed with symphonies across the country including the Seattle Symphony, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Madeline Kenney – Perfect Shapes CD/LP+MP3 (Carpark)
In January of 2018, five months after the release of her debut album Night Night At The First Landing, Madeline Kenney traveled from Oakland, CA to the woods outside of Durham, NC to record her sophomore album with a new collaborator, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner. Perfect Shapes marks Wasner’s first foray into producing another artist’s work and is permeated by the pair’s collaborative spirit. From the delightfully warped percussion on opening track “Overhead” to the burbling synths on the R&B-tinted “The Flavor Of The Fruit Tree” and the left-field trumpet solo in “Your Art”, their rich and inventive ideas echo Yo La Tengo’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mentality, as well as the surging soundscapes of Tame Impala and Wye Oak at their most impressionistic.

Marcus King Band – The Carolina Confessions CD/LP (Fantasy/Concord)
At 22 years of age, Marcus King has been a bandleader for a decade and tipped as “music’s next great guitarist” by the Washington Post. But the band’s daring, ambitious new album, Carolina Confessions, marks an artistic leap of another order. Produced and mixed by Grammy Award-winner Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell) and recorded at Nashville’s iconic RCA Studio A, it finds the band’s trademark musicianship buoyed by a new narrative depth, as Marcus delves into heavy themes: absolution, guilt, leaving home, yearning, love and other affairs of the soul. Carolina Confessions features ten brand-new songs, all written by Marcus except for “How Long”, which was co-written with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and veteran songwriter Pat McLaughlin. Whether it’s the searing rock exorcism of “Confessions” or the propulsive road-bound soul of “Where I’m Headed”, Marcus exhibits an almost Southern gothic sensibility in his songs, owning up to failed relationships, portraying his complex connection with his hometown, arraying a sprawling musical firmament in the process.

Adrianne Lenker – abysskiss CD/LP+MP3 (Saddle Creek)
Adrianne Lenker has been writing songs since she was ten years old. Her “back story” has been well documented in various interviews and profiles for Big Thief over the last three years. Despite, or more likely because of the constant touring and studio work, the last few years have been some of the most prolific for Lenker as a writer. Songs pop out at soundcheck. They pop out on late night drives between cities. They pop out in green rooms, hotel stairwells, gardens, and kitchens around the world. In the hands of Lenker songwriting is not an old dead craft. It is alive. It is vital. With little regard for standard album cycle practice or the idea of resting at all, Lenker set out to make a document. Songs can be slippery and following a 2+ years on the road with Big Thief, Lenker felt a growing need to document this particular time in her life in an intimate, immediate way. The result is her new album, abysskiss. [Limited glow-in-the-dark vinyl pressing also available.]

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band – Poor Until Payday CD/LP (New West)
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band has built its reputation the long, slow, hard way. After 12 years of playing as many as 300 shows each year, Rev. Peyton, the world’s foremost country blues finger-style picker, along with the biggest little band in the country, has pieced together a new country blues record that was made the right way — two feet on the ground and both hands getting dirty.

Nathan Bowles – Plainly Mistaken CD/LP (Paradise of Bachelors)
On his playfully subversive fourth solo album, Nathan Bowles (Steve Gunn, Pelt, Black Twig Pickers) extends his acclaimed banjo and percussion practice into the full-band realm for the first time, showcasing both delicate solo meditations and smoldering, swinging ensemble explorations.

Swearin’ – Fall Into The Sun CD/LP+MP3 (MERGE)
Fall Into The Sun is what co-songwriter Allison Crutchfield calls “the adult Swearin’ album.” This can be heard on songs like “Big Change”, where she says goodbye to Philly and the scene that she came up in, or in “Dogpile” where co-songwriter Kyle Gilbride offers the line any aging punk can relate to: “By pure dumb luck I’ve gotten where I’m going.” Where Swearin’ used to pummel through their songs, on Fall Into The Sun, they bask in what this newfound openness offers. It’s most notable on the ambling “Stabilize”, which sees the band throw their weight around in the song’s back half, offering up what’s easily the heaviest riff in their catalog. “I think both me and Allison have gone through huge transitions in our lives. There was a lot on our minds, and it was a super fertile time to put a bunch of songs together,” said Gilbride. It’s true of the material found on Fall Into The Sun, but it’s noticeable in the album’s production as well. Much like the band’s previous albums, Gilbride anchored the recording and producing of the record, but this time around, the band worked to make the process feel more collaborative than ever before. [Limited edition ‘coke bottle’ colored vinyl pressing available.]

Jim James – Uniform Clarity CD/LP (ATO)
New acoustic companion piece to James’ recent album Uniform Distortion. “The idea for Uniform Clarity came from Uniform Distortion,” says James, “an album of intentional chaos/dirt: literal and figurative distortion of lyrics and sound meant to echo and hopefully shed some light on the twisted times and distortion of the truth in which we now live. Uniform Clarity is meant to illuminate the other side – raw and real, but very clear, much like in the early days of recording where all you could hear was the truth because there were no ways to manipulate recordings in the studio. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Atmosphere – Mi Vida Local CD/2xLP+MP3 (Rhymesayers)
It’s a different world than it was two years ago, when Atmosphere released their last record, Fishing Blues. Their seventh album, Mi Vida Local, reflects the ways in which the world – and their place in it – has changed. The idyllic domesticity of the past few records has morphed into anxiety over keeping loved ones safe during turbulent times. The easygoing collaboration between Ant and Slug has started to feel more like the life-or-death intimacy of two men trapped together on a lifeboat.

Molly Burch – First Flower CD/LP (Captured Tracks)
Molly Burch burst onto the music scene in 2017 with her debut Please Be Mine – a ten-track ode to unrequited romance written after studying Jazz Vocal Performance in Asheville, NC – and earned immediate praise from critics for her smoky, effortless vocals and bleeding-heart lyrics. A walk-through Burch’s most intimate thoughts – broken friendships, sibling relationships and overwhelming anxiety, First Flower is a bright, beautiful album peppered with moments of triumph with Burch’s voice as strong and dexterous as ever.

Coheed And Cambria – The Unheavenly Creatures Tigers Eye CD/3xLP+MP3 (Roadrunner)
Coheed and Cambria’s newest epic begins a brand-new story arc within the backdrop of The Amory Wars universe, which has been depicted in previous novels and comics. The band explains the concept: “…[W]e begin by seeing two captured criminals (Creature and Colossus) being walked through a ship on their way towards judgment for their crimes. It’s clear any friendship that once existed has not survived, as we see colorful flashbacks of their crimes committed against society, and perhaps, one another.” [Colored triple-vinyl set features a side-F etching.]

Hugh Cornwell – Monster 2xCD/2xLP (Sony)
Former Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell returns to the fray with a new album, each track dedicated to Cornwell’s heroes and villains from history, politics and the arts. It’s a diverse gallery, ranging from Lou Reed (“Mr. Leather”) to Mose Allison (“Mosin'”), to ’70s stuntman Evel Knievel (“Pure Evel”), 1940s Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr (“The Most Beautiful Girl In Hollywood”) to Sgt Bilko star Phil Silvers (“Bilko”), Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (“Duce Coochie Man”) and Zimbabwe ex-president Robert Mugabe (“Robert”). Accompanying the album is Restoration, a companion disc of acoustic rerecorded Stranglers classics.

Electric Six – Bride Of The Devil CD (Metropolis)
Electric Six return with their fourteenth record and it’s poppy and feel-good, as well as heavy, both sonically and lyrically.

Kristin Hersh – Possible Dust Clouds CD/LP (Fire)
Hersh’s tenth studio album is a highly personalized sociopathic gem delivered as a futuristic rewriting of how music works, a melodious breeze with a tail wind of venomous din. Enveloping the juxtaposition of the concept of ‘dark sunshine’, a brooding solo record created with friends to expand her off-kilter sonic vision; a squally, squeaky mix of discordant beauty. Feedback and phasing gyrate from simply strummed normality, imagine Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine cranking up a Dylan couplet.

High On Fire – Electric Messiah CD/2xLP (E1)
“I had a dream about Lemmy,” says High On Fire’s Matt Pike, explaining the inspiration behind the title of the band’s eighth album Electric Messiah. If there’s one aspect of the band that warrants comparison to Lemmy’s mighty Motörhead, it’s longevity. 2018 sees them celebrating 20 years of thunderous heavy metal, with brothers-in-arms Pike, bassist Jeff Matz, and drummer Des Kensel having been firmly intact for the last dozen years. Along the way the band has forged a distinct identity of towering riffs, a propulsive rhythm section, shredding solos, and lyrics of Hessian poetry. “This is by far the best record I’ve ever made with the High on Fire stamp,” Pike adds.

Kode 9 and Burial – FabricLive 100 CD (Fabric)
Burial and Kode9 are each credited with fostering esoteric, hyperlocal sounds and steering them to global recognition. As such, these tracks reach into obscure corners and across a disorienting range of tempos. This set of four vinyl LPs – produced to accompany the final FabricLive 100 compilation release, features 28 of the 37 tracks on the compilation in their unmixed format. Includes artists from Africa, China, South America, and Japan as well as the Europe and US. Drawing from gqom, juke, and footwork to trance, jungle, and grime, as well as a wealth of material that defies categorization. [Vinyl edition due November 2.]

LANY – Malibu Nights CD (Interscope)
Alt-pop trio LANY (short for Los Angeles New York) follow-up their 2017 self-titled debut. Drawing influence from the likes of U2 and Coldplay, the group’s ‘80s drums and synths anchored sound provides the perfect bed for frontman Paul Klein’s affecting lyrics. [Vinyl edition due December 7.]

John Lennon – Imagine: The Ultimate Mixes CD/2xCD/2xLP (Capitol)
John Lennon – Imagine: The Ultimate Collection 4xCD+2xBlu-ray Audio (Capitol)
Digitally remastered, remixed and expanded edition of Lennon’s classic 1971 album. Available in a variety of editions: Single-disc CD adds six tracks; Double-CD and double-vinyl LP features 12 additional tracks; Super deluxe The Ultimate Collection includes four CDs (new stereo mix, outtakes, raw studio recordings, track-by-track) and two Blu-rays (5.1 surround mixes, HD audio, Elements mixes, Elliot Minz audio documentary).

Phosphorescent – C’est La Vie CD/LP (Dead Oceans)
Matthew Houck’s first new Phosphorescent release in five years chronicles a life-altering period which saw him fall in love, start a family, leave New York for Nashville, and build a studio from the ground up. With a focus on translating these profound experiences to music as intuitively as he could, Houck pushes the boundaries of what a Phosphorescent record can sound like, balancing the earthy and the incandescent, the troubled and the serene, creating his own musical cosmos in the process. [Limited clear vinyl pressing available.]

Seasick Steve – Can U Cook? CD (BMG)
Can U Cook? finds Seasick Steve mixing up all of his much-loved ingredients to deliver a good ol’ mix of boogie, blues, rock, Americana and folk-music. “Just seems there’s all kinds of sunshine and colors on this record,” Steve notes. “Maybe it’s because we made most of it down in Key West, Florida?…It was made down south, way down south, as far south as you can go and still have your boots in America.” [Vinyl edition due October 26.]

Joe Strummer – 001 2xCD/3xLP+12” (Ignition)
Punk pioneer, singer, songwriter, recording artist, activist, musical and political inspiration for a generation and mighty diamond Joe Strummer was the most charismatic and passionate frontman to emerge from the punk explosion of the late ’70s. After Joe’s untimely death in December 2002 it was discovered that he had been an archivist of his own work, having barns full of writings and tapes stored in his back garden. Featuring 32-tracks, Joe Strummer 001 is the first compilation to span Strummer’s career outside of his recordings with The Clash collecting fan favorites from his recordings with the 101ers and The Mescaleros, his solo albums, soundtrack work plus an album of 12 unreleased songs. Available in Regular, Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions.

Tokyo Police Club – TPC CD (Dine Alone Music)
Tokyo Police Club return with their first full-length in four years. After putting aside the idea of splitting up and back-burnering their commercial expectations, TPC recaptures the energy of their early years and was built on camaraderie and esprit de corps. Favoring simple rhythms, slower tempos and drive over details, the band felt that there was only one person who could capture this liberation on tape – producer Rob Schnapf, whom the band worked with on 2010’s Champ. [Vinyl edition due November 2.]

TTNG – Animals Acoustic CD/LP (Sargent House)
TTNG’s Animals Acoustic isn’t a simple rebuild that one would normally expect to hear when anticipating an acoustic album. Like the referenced album’s cover, there are multiple color palettes present to create an overall picture that feels less two dimensional and more of a colorful celebration of the layers of music within. Animals Acoustic features musical contributions from TTNG’s friends and contemporaries. Nate Kinsella (Birthmark, American Football, Make Believe) recorded string arrangements found throughout the new release. The Kraken Quartet are featured on some of the band’s fan favorites: “Chinchilla,” “Baboon” and “Gibbon.” Yvette Young of Covet turns “Crocodile” into a delicate piano ballad. The Mivos Quartet, Vicky Tremain and Andy Hume contribute even more depth to an album of reassembled songs.

Twenty One Pilots – Trench CD/2xLP+MP3 (Fueled By Ramen)
Trench finds Twenty One Pilots fearlessly reimagining the possibilities of their music through the same candid expression and genuine identity that helped to cement their place as one of the largest bands in the world. The album is introduced by the dub-inspired “Jumpsuit” and reggae rap cut “Nico And The Niners.” Limited edition olive colored vinyl in stock.

Blood Orange – Negro Swan 2xLP (Domino)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. 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.”

J. Cole – KOD LP (Interscope)
Released last April on CD – now available on vinyl. Fifth album from the rapper. The title has three meanings–“Kids On Drugs,” “King Overdosed,” and “Killing Our Demons.” KOD explores issues of drug abuse, depression & African-American culture, and features the tracks “ATM” and “The Cut Off”. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl.

Exploded View – Obey LP (Sacred Bones)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Striking the balance between precise and wild, between unshackled and grounded, grooving and unhinged, has always been Exploded View’s specialty. They have a special knack for making the esoteric feel accessible and crafting pop music out of seemingly raw consciousness. This unique ability to make beautiful music that feels written beyond the veil is at the heart of what makes the band so captivating and powerful, and it’s on full display all over Obey. [Limited pink colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Jade Hairpins – Mother Man b/w Gracefully 12”+MP3 (Merge)
Jade Hairpins are hiding quietly in a tall grove, softly whisking away the mask of dew and doubt, thrilling the needed speakable truths of equality and peace into four beats and cascading melody on their debut. The shapes and names of a world appear… Debut LP due 2019.

Mastodon ‎– Once More ‘Round The Sun [Reissue/2014] 2xLP (Reprise)
Double picture disc vinyl LP pressing.

Richard Reed Parry – Quiet River Of Dust 1 LP+MP3 (Epitaph)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. A meditative, widescreen musical experience with Beach Boy harmonies and a hypnotic pulse. Layered songs that move in a linear fashion, following a current rather than circular composition. Japanese folk myths, death poems and British folk music are tributaries flowing into a river of avant-garde composition and traditional song craft, written and performed by a member of the Grammy-winning rock band, Arcade Fire. [Limited white colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Pedro The Lion ‎– Achilles Heel [Reissue/2004] LP+MP3 (Epitaph)
Pedro the Lion’s 2004 release is band’s final album to date. Beautifully achieved, Achilles Heel is crafted as a scathing glance into the crosshairs of the American dream, a heartbreaking sketch of husbandhood and ultimately an exploration of faith as told through eleven perfectly textured vignettes. Lyrically, dry wit and melancholy are marbled together, creating relaxed narratives with subtle and often profound depth.

The Promise Ring – Wood/Water [Reissue/2002] 2xLP (ANTI-)
Vinyl reissue of fifth and final album to date by The Promise Ring. Long-time fans may have been surprised with Wood/Water, as its sound was a departure from the band’s previous releases. The album had a drastic change of pace with a more introspective tone and shimmering atmospheric songs. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]

Titus Andronicus – Home Alone On Halloween 12”+MP3 (Merge)
With Home Alone On Halloween, noted rock band Titus Andronicus [hereafter +@] celebrate the spookiest of the seasons by staring into the abyss and confronting the bone-chilling terror which lies at the haunted heart of our human experience. The 12” EP spans 31 minutes and features three tracks recorded concurrently with the group’s most recent full-length A Productive Cough, offering an autumnal tableau of dread and decay to complement its LP companion’s springtime visions of rebirth and new possibilities.

Tricky – Maxinquaye [Reissue/1995] LP (Island)
180gm vinyl reissue of the 1995 debut album by English rapper and producer.