This Week’s New Releases & Staff Picks – 4/12/2019
STAFF PICKS
Kimber – Budos Band, Damien Jurado
Lindsay – Budos Band
Dario – Bibio, Damien Jurado
Paula – Bibio
JUST ANNOUNCED PRE-ORDERS
Eluvium – Pianoworks (pre-order)
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – Fishing For Fishies (pre-order)
The National – I Am Easy To Find (pre-order)
Earth – Full Upon Her Burning Lips (pre-order)
THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
Bibio – Ribbons CD/LP+MP3 (Warp)
Following his ambient atmospheric project, Phantom Brickworks, Stephen Wilkinson returns to the path of structured songwriting last explored on 2016’s A Mineral Love. Bibio’s Ribbons yields folkloric charm with an organic palette, incorporating a mostly acoustic-led approach exploring ‘60s and ‘70s psychedelia, soul, ambient, electronic and field recordings. A self-taught musician, singer and producer, Wilkinson plays nearly all the instrumental parts on the album and unveils new instruments to his palette, bringing in mandolins, fiddle and other stringed instruments. But, while the sonics of the album are based around acoustic and other traditional instruments, the title is extracted from the most electronic-leaning track on the album: “Pretty Ribbons And Lovely Flowers”. On the track, haunting, processed female vocals illuminate a route through dark ambiance and a repeating earthy distorted chord sequence.
Budos Band – V CD/LP+MP3 (Daptone)
As menacing and unhinged as ever, the pride of Staten Island is back with their fifth full-length offering, V. Raw and absent of the modern technological trappings, the Budos Band picks up where they left off with 2014’s Burnt Offering, and finds the group expanding on the brooding, fuzz-fueled riffs, whilst harkening back to the Ethiopian inspired rhythms and percussive proclivity that put them on the map in the first place. “Old Engine Oil”, a rocker at heart, kicks things into gear and delivers a high-octane burst of Budos mayhem. “The Enchanter” serves up a classic dose of upbeat Afro-soul, drenched in a venomous assault of wall-melting proportions that leads you to the “Spider Web”, a rumbling ode to the Cowbell Colossus whose punctuated horn stabs take you on an untamed ride to the dark side of the spoon. “Peak Of Eternal Night”, whose odd time signature and haunting horns transport the listener to the peak of a menacing otherworldly landscape, a style further explored on “Ghost Talk”, a guitar driven groover that gives way to an organ-washed space ritual beneath sun-summoning trumpet blasts.
Anderson .Paak – Ventura CD (12 Tone)
While he was working on Oxnard, the ever-ambitious Anderson .Paak was recording Ventura at the same time. As he explains it, both albums showcase the duality that has inspired the Grammy-award winning artist throughout his career. “Growing up in Oxnard gave me the grit and the church to find this voice of mine. One town over I went further and found my depth. [I] held one [album] back because that would have been too many songs to perform live.” Now with a more soulful sound representative of the beautiful, scenic Ventura, Anderson .Paak gives us “King James”, “Make It Better”, and more – with features including Smokey Robinson, André 3000, Nate Dogg among others.
Band Of Skulls – Love Is All You Love CD/LP (Silva Screen)
In what seem like an unusual move for a traditional rock band, Band Of Skulls hired producer Richard X for their latest album Love Is All You Love. He has encouraged the band to experiment and add some electronic elements to their sound. It is still a rock album, but with an extra pop punch. “Just seconds into opening track ‘Carnivorous’ you realize this is not entirely the BoS you are familiar with. A throbbing bass line, Arabesque guitar hook and unashamedly electronic sheen…this is your invitation from the Band Of Skulls to join them for a new musical enterprise. ‘Sound Of You’ is a downright sexy torch song for the 21st century. Putting Richardson’s soulful pleading vocal front and center over a pumping bass line and Marsden’s R&B guitar licks on acid. This is an album highlight to be sure. As is ‘We’re Alive’ a thundering Glam rocking piece of cotton candy that might well have put a smile on Marc Bolan’s face, its chorus virtually commanding you (‘Come On… Come On’) to sing along. This is pop music as it should be, as it could be if more artists were willing to test their limits. Music that is catchy enough to sing along to yet complex enough to make you want to listen to it again and again.” – Concert Guide
The Chemical Brothers – No Geography CD/2xLP (Astralwerks)
No Geography is The Chemical Brothers’ long-awaited follow-up to 2015’s UK chart-topping and Grammy-nominated Born In The Echoes. To realize the album, the duo built tracks using vocal samples; voices were wound tightly into music that Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons found themselves following wherever it led them. Snatches of dialogue from the late ‘60s experimental Dial-A-Poem project were chosen that reflected the mood in the studio. No Geography is introduced by “Free Yourself” (dubbed “a euphoric, multi-faceted odyssey of blistering synths and deep grooves” by Rolling Stone), “MAH” (described as “a short & bloody ride into our modern media psychosis” by The Guardian) and “Got To Keep On”, a striking groovy and disco-inspired track which proves once again what The Chemical Brothers are capable of when it comes to the diversity of their production skills.
The Frights – Live At The Observatory CD (Epitaph)
Live At The Observatory is a document of The Frights’ sold-out kick off show of their Hypochondriac headline tour in Santa Ana on September 8, 2018. The live album features 14 songs spanning the band’s complete catalog. After opening with the anthemic frenzy of “Kids” (from their 2016 sophomore effort You Are Going To Hate This), the band delivers full-tilt fan favorites like “Cold” and “Crust Bucket”, then turns tender on acoustic-guitar-driven tracks like “Hold Me Down” and the painfully vulnerable “Alone”, both from their 2018 album, Hypochondriac. Throughout, the love and solidarity from the crowd is palpable, their shared confession giving way to something way more fun and more powerful than ordinary catharsis.
Glen Hansard – This Wild Willing CD/2xLP (ANTI-)
This Wild Willing is Glen Hansard’s fourth solo album, a collection of songs which finds the Irish musician marrying the sonic inventiveness of the best of his work in The Frames with the discipline he has found as a songwriter in his solo career. It was written and created in Paris, France with more than 24 musicians collaborating on the album. From his partners in The Frames (Joe Doyle) and Swell Season (Marketa Irglova & Joe Doyle), to his touring family of players, to three Iranian brothers he met in Paris (the Kroshravesh brothers), Glen brought together a group of global talents who each left an indelible mark on this recording. Lead track “I’ll Be You, Be Me” sees Hansard weighing the risks of vulnerability, his restrained vocal masking the fury of the underlying instrumental’s building storm.
Norah Jones – Begin Again CD/LP (Blue Note)
Begin Again compiles seven original tracks, the majority of which Jones already has released. Like Esperanza Spalding, Jones’ artistic restlessness seems intertwined with eschewing the traditional ways that albums have been made, packaged and promoted. Her collaborators on this set include Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, keyboardist Thomas Bartlett and drummer Brian Blade. ‘My Heart Is Full’ pairs Bartlett’s piano, keyboards and synthesizer with Jones’ layered vocals for a memorable studio creation that’s spare, yet haunting. ‘Begin Again’ is a rocker with these pointed lyrics: ‘Can a nation built on blood find its way out of the mud?/ Will the people at the top lose their way enough to stop?/ Can we begin again?’ Jones—playing piano, celeste and acoustic guitar—pursues an Americana vibe with co-writer Tweedy on ‘A Song With No Name’. Another tune written with Tweedy, ‘Wintertime’, will appeal to fans of Jones’ 2004 album, Feels Like Home. On ‘Just A Little Bit’, Jones’ yearning vocal and insistent piano riffs are augmented by poignant trumpet work from Dave Guy. Overall, the charming Begin Again isn’t a grand statement; it’s a document of an artist seeing where the winding path takes her.
Pet Shop Boys – Inner Sanctum 2xCD+DVD+Blu-ray (x2 Recordings/AWAL)
Pet Shop Boys breathtaking show Inner Sanctum was filmed at London’s Royal Opera House during a sold-out run in 2018 summer. The duo’s acclaimed production, first presented at the Royal Opera House in 2016 over four sold-out shows, was reprised at the venue for a further four nights in July 2018 as part of their Super tour. Staged by long-term PSB designer Es Devlin and choreographer/director Lynne Page, the show was filmed by director David Barnard. Filmed on July 27th and 28th, 2018, the full-length film on DVD and Blu-ray is accompanied by two CDs of the complete audio of the live show plus a bonus feature of PSB live at Rock In Rio, which was recorded on September 17th, 2017 at the Brazilian festival. The Inner Sanctum production won rave reviews for a musical and visual extravaganza which brought lasers, dazzling choreography and immersive visuals and stage design to the ornate surroundings of the Royal Opera House for an electrifying show. The set-list featured contemporary PSB material from their last two albums Super and Electric mixed with many PSB’s classic hits from their back catalogue.
Eli “Paperboy” Reed – 99 Cent Dreams CD/LP (Yep Roc)
With the release of his new record, 99 Cent Dreams, Eli “Paperboy” Reed begins his second decade as an artist much in the same way he began his first: in love with soul music. Reed is ten years wiser this time around, writing with the kind of freewheeling confidence. The result is the finest of his career. Cut at the legendary Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, TN, and produced by Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price), 99 Cent Dreams is exuberant, a celebration of life delivered by an ecstatic messenger. Reed’s arrangements on the album are lean, filtering vintage R&B, soul, and gospel through the heart of a modern songwriter. His stunning voice remains front and center, but his performances have matured, a sign perhaps of the newfound perspective he’s gained with fatherhood. Fueled by love and hope, this is a collection that, despite its moments of loneliness and pain, ultimately insists on seeing the bigger picture, on recognizing each day for the gift that it is.
John Paul White – The Hurting Kind CD/LP (Single Lock)
Leading up to the sessions for his third solo album The Hurting Kind, Grammy Award-winner John Paul White was inspired by artists like Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, Chet Atkins and Bill Porter. Drawing on these timeless influences, White sought out classic writers like Whisperin’ Bill Anderson and Bobby Braddock to collaborate with. With The Hurting Kind, White draws on the lush, orchestrated music made in Nashville in the early 1960s, writing about overwhelming love, unraveling relationships and the fading memory of a loved one. “I approached this album differently on the songwriting side before I ever got into the studio,” says White. “I really wanted there to be a torch song quality to it, the classic timeless quality. To not be afraid of the big note, and not be afraid of the drama.”
Big Business – The Beast You Are CD/LP (Joyful Noise)
The new album from L.A.’s Big Business delivers ten doses of uncategorizably heavy rock music.
Chris Forsyth – All Time Present CD/2xLP (No Quarter)
Rightfully but somewhat reductively known as a guitar player par excellence, one listen to Forsyth’s latest double album, All Time Present, reveals that while his dazzling musicianship can always be taken for granted, it’s hardly the whole story. One of his greatest strengths as a composer and bandleader is his consistent ability to sustain interest even when at his most brazenly improvisational: he drifts, but he never meanders.
Damien Jurado – In The Shape Of A Storm CD/LP (Mama Bird)
Speaking about the films that influenced his fourteenth album, In The Shape Of A Storm, Damien Jurado tosses out a list of favorites – American Graffiti, Paris, Texas, The Last Picture Show – films in which settings serve as silent, omniscient characters. But inquire about the curious way he writes songs, the hazy manner by which he seems to channel them from beyond the beyond, and the cinematic reference point he reaches for is a surprising one.
Shovels & Rope – By Blood CD/LP (Dualtone Music Group)
The alt-country duo made up of husband/wife team Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent return with new album, a gritty, powerful look into their lives and the world around them, with tender songs commenting on their relationship, and human stories weaving throughout. “Shovels & Rope have always fit comfortably under the ever-expanding Americana umbrella, though here there’s more rock ‘n’ roll, and its lots of fun.” – Paste
Sun Kil Moon – I Also Want To Die In New Orleans CD (Caldo Verde)
“Though it occasionally suffers from over-ambition, the jazzy I Also Want To Die In New Orleans is another helping of admirable personal and social commentary from Mark Kozelek.” – The Needle Drop
X – Wild Gift [Reissue/1981] CD/LP (Fat Possum)
X – Under The Big Black Sun [Reissue/1982] CD/LP (Fat Possum)
X – More Fun In The New World [Reissue/1983] CD/LP (Fat Possum)
Four decades after their inception, one thing is clear: X was not only one of the most influential bands to crash out of the punk movement of the late ’70s, but the group’s music continues to be sonically groundbreaking today. Songs written during the group’s inception are as relevant and inventive today as they were in 1977. The band’s early albums, Los Angeles, produced by Ray Manzarek of the Doors, Wild Gift, and Under The Big Black Sun explored dark love and an even darker L.A. with the unflinching eye of a Raymond Chandler novel. Subsequent efforts like More Fun In The New World found the band continuing to grow musically and politically, fearlessly mixing genres without ever losing its center.
Cults – Offering B Sides And Remixes LP (Sinderlyn)
A companion release to 2017’s LP Offering that includes three previously unreleased songs and a new remix of Recovery by famed producer John Fryer.
Rosie Flores – Simple Case Of The Blues LP (Last Music Company)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Flores lends her soulful voice and fiery guitar to songs by Roy Brown, Wilson Pickett, Heath Wilson, and a spate of new originals.
Nirvana – Live At The Paramount 2xLP+MP3 (Geffen)
Nirvana dive headlong into key cuts from across their discography on this 1991 concert recording. This release captures them at their peak, playing a hometown show at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre on the back of the Nevermind tour.
Odonis Odonis – Reaction LP (Felte)
Toronto trio Odonis Odonis merges pulsing electronics and foreboding textures to create a palpable sense of doom. Drawing on EBM and industrial influences, Reaction finds the band further refining the sound they carved out on 2017’s No Pop LP. Noisy synths saturate the sonic space, cut with sharp, bruising rhythms.
Over The Rhine – Love & Revelation LP+MP3 (Great Speckled Dog)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Critically acclaimed husband and wife duo Over The Rhine celebrates 30 years of making understated yet emotionally-charged music with Love & Revelation. Self-produced and releasing on their own Great Speckled Dog label, Over The Rhine’s first new music in four years finds the beloved duo in a deeply reflective place, contemplating both personal loss and the wavering of Americas collective compass.
Pet Shop Boys – Agenda 12” (X2)
New EP from the veteran British synthpop duo. The first song on the EP, “Give Stupidity A Chance”, is described by Neil Tennant as a satirical song about the poor quality of political leadership in the modern world. Discussing the EP, Neil Tennant said: “It contains three satirical songs and one rather sad song. I think it’s because of the times we’re living through. The four tracks were produced by Tim Powell and Pet Shop Boys and recorded towards the end of last year.”
Scientists – 9H2O. SiO 12” (In The Red)
The Scientists are the ultimate cult band! Mysterious, undefinable, and yet many quite distinct things to many people. Some blame them for grunge, some think they’re a power pop band, some think they’re experimental. Tav Falco describes them in Ghosts Behind The Sun thus: ‘Mercurial individuals whose science is strictly alchemical. Originating in Perth, Western Australia, in the beginnings of post-punk, they travelled to Sydney, then London, cutting a swathe through the indie scene throughout the 1980s, only to vanish. In 2018 they returned and now release a new 5-song EP, 9H2O. SiO.
Silkworm – Italian Platinum [2002] LP (Touch & Go)
With each record, Silkworm were committed to pushing harder against what they knew they could do. On Italian Platinum, you can hear their damn-everything confidence as individual musicians in the drum fills that stagger through Bourbon Beard, the Neil-Young-meets-Andy-Gill guitar solo that plays havoc with the chords of “(I Hope U) Don’t Survive”, or the polluted, swaggering baritone guitar on “Dirty Air”. Reissued on transparent red colored vinyl.
NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
CAGE THE ELEPHANT – Social Cues CD/LP
DRUGDEALER – Raw Honey CD/LP
TR/ST – Destroyer 1 CD/LP
WAND – Laughing Matter CD/LP
DANIEL NORGREN – Wooh Dang CD/LP
CAYUCAS – Real Life CD/LP
HEATHER WOODS BRODERICK – Invitation CD/LP
LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – Come Out From The Shadows CD/LP
RESONARS – No Exit LP
YAWPERS – Human Creation CD/LP
REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT – Greatest Hits 1984-1987 LP
JONATHAN RICHMAN – SA LP