This Week’s New Releases & Staff Picks – 4/26/2019
STAFF PICKS
Kimber – Local Natives, Lamb
Lindsay – Reigning Sound
Dario – Aldous Harding
Paula – Reptaliens, Kevin Morby
JUST ANNOUNCED PRE-ORDERS
Flying Lotus – Flamagra (pre-order)
Ride – This Is Not A Safe Place (pre-order)
THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – Fishing For Fishies CD/LP (ATO)
Sit back and strap yourself in as seven-headed Aussie rock beast King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard return with their new album Fishing For Fishies. Here is a world where the organic meets the automated; where the rustic meets the robotic. Where the past and future collide in the beautiful present. The fourteenth album since their 2012 debut – and their first following the release of five vastly different albums in 2017 – Fishing For Fishies is a blues-infused blast of sonic boogie that struts and shimmies through several moods and terrains. From the soft shuffle outback country of the opening title track through the sunny easy listening of “The Bird Song” (think the lysergically-soaked Laurel Canyon circa 1973) and on through the party funk of “Plastic Boogie” (which somehow summons the spirit of Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions) the road-trucking, Doors-like highway rock of “The Cruel Millennial” and “Real’s Not Real” – what The Carpenters might have sounded like had they existed entirely on vegemite and weed – it’s a dizzying, dazzling display.
Local Natives – Violet Street CD/LP (Loma Vista)
Produced by Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Kacey Musgraves), Local Natives’ fourth studio album and follow-up to 2016’s Sunlit Youth finds the Silver Lake, Los Angeles outfit asking the existential question, “With all of the chaos in the world, where do you find your shelter?” That theme is encapsulated in the expansive single “When Am I Gonna Lose You” which Taylor Rice (vocals, guitar) explains, “I found myself in an incredible relationship that was great on so many levels, but I always felt like it was going to go away, fall apart, and crumble. This song is me diving into murky emotions of anxiety and doubt in the middle of love and joy.” Violet Street’s modern production, lush guitars and iridescent harmonies add up to form one paranoiac pop record that’s as blissful as it is evocative of the L.A. local it was recorded.
Mountain Goats – In League With Dragons CD/2xLP+MP3/2xLP+7”+MP3 (Merge)
The Mountain Goats’ In League With Dragons surges with wild tales of revenge and redemption, heroes at a crossroads, and great figures in decline. The band present twelve new songs penned by John Darnielle that luxuriate in a wide swath of sounds, from shades of the ‘80s Athens scene to swaths of outlaw country and a few motorik meditations. “Every Mountain Goats album is, on some level, a conceptual writing exercise; it seems to be how frontman John Darnielle’s brain works. But one of the remarkable things about In League With Dragons, the band’s 18th and newest album, is how far Darnielle ventures afield from the album’s whole stated idea. On a purely musical level, In League With Dragons is easily the most richly orchestrated Mountain Goats album. The band recorded the LP with Owen Pallett, and it’s fully of majestic slickness, with strings and saxophones pushing the sound ever closer to prog.” – Stereogum
Reigning Sound – Abdication For…Your Love [Reissue/2011] CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
Produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and Reigning Sound frontman Greg Cartwright, Abdication…For Your Love was originally available solely as a promotional giveaway. This 2019 CD and colored vinyl LP reissue marks the first wide release of the record. In a 2011 review of the album, the A.V. Club wrote, “Reigning Sound’s allegiance is to producing great songs that move feet and rip out hearts, not to any particular scene or fashionable pose.” Paste also described it as a collection of “nicely recorded songs that sometimes rock, sometimes don’t, but are always well put together.” After the release of Abdication…, Reigning Sound put out the much-loved Shattered LP in 2014.
Josh Ritter – Fever Breaks CD/LP (Pytheas Recordings)
Fever Breaks, the tenth studio album from acclaimed singer/songwriter Josh Ritter, was produced by Grammy Award-winning musician Jason Isbell and features contributions from Isbell (guitar and vocals) and his band the 400 Unit. Album single “Old Black Magic” received widespread critical praise. NPR proclaimed, “The combination of Ritter and The 400 Unit is magical. There is a sense of drama that give the lyrics an extra dose of power that hasn’t been heard in previous recordings. Considering the turbulent times this music was created during, the music is elevated, giving Ritter an even stronger voice while taking his career and music to a whole new level.” Of the album, Ritter shared with Rolling Stone, “The songs are very reflective of the times in which they were written. As we started coming together and playing, the songs that felt like they were gonna work really jumped out as obvious. From there on, after we recorded in August [2018] we had this really nice time to stop and listen and let the songs marinate a little bit. In that time, the world has just become even crazier. There’s a lot of the record that feels reflective of the moment it was in.”
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. 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
Catfish and The Bottlemen – The Balance CD/LP (Capitol)
Catfish and The Bottlemen make an emphatic return with their third album, The Balance. In the breaks between electrifying outdoor and festival shows in 2018, Van McCann (vocals, guitars), Johnny Bond (guitars), Robert “Bob” Hall (drums), and Benji Blakeway (bass) retreated with Irish producer Jacknife Lee (U2, The Killers) to carefully craft The Balance over a 12-month period. Recorded in seclusion at two locations – Grouse Lodge in Moate, Republic of Ireland, and The Chapel in the countryside of East Lincolnshire – the band lived and breathed the album while residing together in rural isolation. “We loved living in the same place,” says McCann. “We were staying there the whole time, so we were waking up around each other and working until we needed to go to bed. Jacknife was always up. He was the first up and the last awake. It’s good when you’re completely engulfed in recording in a place like that, living together, because every day and all day it was about the songs. We had fun too; they were the funniest album sessions we’ve done.” Set to soundtrack their journey onto yet bigger stages, the eleven-track album features the new single “Longshot” as well as the live fan-favorite “Fluctuate”.
The Cranberries – In The End CD/LP (BMG)
30 years after forming in Limerick (initially as The Cranberry Saw Us) The Cranberries release their eighth and final album In The End. With Stephen Street once again taking producer duties, the 11-track record brings a remarkable career to a fitting and powerful closure. While it is tinged with sadness following Dolores O’Riordan’s unexpected death on January 15th, 2018, In The End is not a valediction; it is a celebration, one that stands as a powerful testimony to the life and creative work of Dolores and her brothers in music. Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler. The genesis of In The End began in May 2017 while the band were on tour. By winter of 2017 Noel and Dolores had written and demoed the eleven songs which would eventually appear on the album. In coming to terms with O’Riordan’s death, Noel, Mike and Fergal listened to the songs and, with the support of Dolores’ family, wanted to honor their close friend and collaborator by completing the record – a fitting tribute to their bandmate and friend.
Craig Finn – I Need A New War CD/LP (Partisan)
“The world-weary characters of Craig Finn’s latest solo release, I Need A New War, have every right to call it a day. They crash on couches after accidents that don’t get talked about. They drive, battling traffic on congested streets, seeking escape on the open road. They live in less-than-ideal apartments; letting bills pile up, the power gets disconnected. The city breaks them after years spent trying. In absence of regular Hold Steady shows, frontman Craig Finn’s toured steadily in support of his solo material, dating back to 2012 debut, Clear Heart Full Eyes. And though it may be tempting to consider his solo output simply an in-between, Finn’s evolution in recent years proves otherwise. Following 2015’s Faith In The Future and 2017’s We All Want The Same Things, I Need A New War completes what Finn’s called a trilogy. Ambitiously detailed and thematically cohesive, it’s a satisfying conclusion to the saga he started a few years ago.” — NPR
Rodrigo y Gabriela – Mettavolution CD/LP (ATO)
Five years since their last album, Mexican acoustic rock guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela embark on the next chapter of their remarkable story, with the release of the most ambitious music of their 20-year career together. Entitled Mettavolution, the new album brings together Rod and Gab’s passionate interest in Buddhism, the history of human evolution and the liberation of the potential we have as a species; all expressed through the medium of two acoustic guitars. A white-hot side one that acknowledges the duo’s thrash-metal roots back in Mexico City gives way to an incredible new arrangement of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”, inspiringly re-imagined for two acoustic guitars, which takes up the whole of the second half of the album. Long-time Floyd fans (the title track of 2009’s 11:11 album was dedicated to the band) Rodrigo y Gabriela lovingly pay homage to the Meddle-era prog-classic, while at the same time weaving their own golden threads into its timeless textures, to create something exciting, contemporary and unforgettable.
Starflyer 59 – Young In My Head CD (Tooth & Nail)
Starflyer 59’s resplendently nocturnal fifteenth studio LP, Young In My Head maintains a steady path forward for the band. Recorded at Jason Martin’s home studio and mixed by longtime friend, Grammy-nominated JR McNeely, the 10 tracks are as true as ever to the classic Starflyer 59 form: lush production under simple yet personal lyrics, accompanied by catchy, weepy guitar leads, melodic bass lines from Steve Dali, and delicate keys, courtesy of TW Walsh. On Young In My Head, Martin is again opening his musical journal about age and entropy, survival and salvation, building a compelling collection of perfervid, persistent working (art) class rock.
Atlin Gun – Gece CD (ATO)
Sophomore album from the Turkish psych folk band. Atlin Gun hails from Amsterdam but comes from various backgrounds (Turkish, Indonesian, Dutch) and create music that opens doors between traditional Turkish folk songs and psych.
Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres – Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres CD/LP+MP3 (Strap Originals)
Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres‘ eponymously titled debut album was recorded live to capture the essence and spirit of the Puta Madres at a family home overlooking a fishing village in Normandy, over four days in the summer of 2018 and mixed in Urchin Studios, London. Engineered by Dan Cox and produced by Jai Stanley, it’s a devastatingly intimate portrait of love, loss, happiness, tragedy, addiction and the power of the human soul to transcend its darker levels.
Foxygen – Seeing Other People CD/LP (Jagjaguwar)
Seeing Other People is curiously positioned as Foxygen’s most recent last-ever album. With every album the band dies; with every album the band is reborn. But unlike the last-ever Foxygen albums before it, this one seems to have a self-effacing bittersweetness that signifies some sort of passing; some sort of white flag. But it sounds in no way like a band giving up.
Guided By Voices – Warp And Woof CD/LP (GBV Inc.)
Following Guided By Voice’s sprawling double-album Zeppelin Over China, Robert Pollard has written and recorded another full-length in record-breaking time. Warp And Woof exuberantly barrels through 24 songs in just 37 minutes with a brevity similar to mid- ‘90s GBV albums Alien Lanes and Vampire On Titus.
Aldous Harding – Designer CD/LP+MP3 (4AD)
An artist of rare caliber, Aldous Harding does more than sing; she conjures a singular intensity. Her body and face a weapon of theatre, Harding dances with steeled fervor, baring her teeth like a Bunraku puppet’s gnashing grin. Her debut release with 4AD, 2017’s Party (produced with the award-winning John Parish (PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse) introduced a new pulse to the stark and unpopulated dramatic realm where the likes of Kate Bush and Scott Walker reside.
Helms Alee – Noctiluca CD/LP (Sargent House)
Helms Alee’s fifth album Noctiluca continues their tradition of blending girthy sludge riffs, deceptively clever compositions, lush instrumentation, and transcendental melodies into a potent standalone sound.
Lamb – The Secret Of Letting Go CD/LP (Cooking Vinyl)
Written and recorded in the space of a year between their home-studio in England’s South Downs and in India and Ibiza, Lamb’s seventh full-length album The Secret Of Letting Go is all about the space between sounds. From album opener “Phosphorus”’s minimalist harmonics to the dying choral embers of “One Hand Clapping” through the snaking sub-bass drops that drive the title track and “Moonshine” and into the whirl and spin of “Deep Delirium” and the simple piano loops that help “Imperial Measures” float above you, there’s space everywhere.
M83 – Knife + Heart [OST] CD/LP (Mute)
On his third outing composing music for film, Anthony Gonzalez breaks from his own soundtracking habits with a welcome sense of playfulness.
Kevin Morby – Oh My God CD/2xLP (Dead Oceans)
Throughout his four solo albums and myriad records of various collaboration, Kevin Morby has recognized in his work the ubiquity of an apparent religious theme. Though not identifying as religious in the slightest, Morby-the globetrotting son of Kansas City who has made music while living on both coasts before recently returning to his Midwestern stomping grounds-recognizes in himself a somewhat spiritual being with a secular attitude towards the soulful. And so, in an effort to tackle that notion head-on and once-and-for-all, he sat down in his form of church-on planes and in beds-and wrote what would become his first true concept-album: the lavish, resplendent, career-best double LP Oh My God.
Prince – Ultimate Rave 2xCD+DVD (Sony)
Prince – Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic [Reissue/1999] 2xLP (Sony)
Prince – Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic [Reissue/2001] 2xLP (Sony)
A three-disc bundle of Prince’s pivotal new millennium pop party dance music, Ultimate Rave brings together 1999’s Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic and its 2001 remix companion Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic (each available separately on purple colored vinyl) alongside a DVD containing the full-length performance version of Rave Un2 The Year 2000.
Pete Rock – Return Of The SP1200 CD/LP (Tru Soul)
Pete Rock is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. His name is oft included in the pantheon of the greatest, alongside DJ Premier, RZA and J Dilla. In addition, Pete has one of the world’s most extensive vinyl collections, the sort of collection whose size can only be estimated – and that estimate stands in excess of 100,000 LPs. His production forte is the melding of Jazz with early ‘90s East Coast boom bap, regularly sampling classic soul greats like James Brown & Curtis Mayfield, jazz oddities like Tom Scott & Les McCann, and innumerable others. This production prowess is best demonstrated though his work with partner in rhyme CL Smooth.
Kelly Finnigan – The Tales People Tell CD/LP (Colemine)
Finnigan’s new album The Tales People Tell reflects his dedication to expression through the rich American music traditions of soul, gospel, doo-wop, and R&B.
Metric – Fantasies [Reissue/2009] LP (Metric Music Int’l)
Short-listed for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize, Metric’s fourth studio album Fantasies was written mostly in exile in Argentina with only a piano and guitar, recorded mainly at the band’s own Giant Studio in Toronto and mixed at the legendary Electric Lady in NYC. It’s gilded surfaces and textured density – a heady amalgam of psychedelia, electro and rock – evoke a certain dreamlike quality.
Pure Bathing Culture – Night Pass LP (Infinite Companion)
Limited violet colored vinyl pressing. “Portland group Sarah Versprille + Daniel Hindman aka Pure Bathing Culture make their triumphant return and continue to elegantly carry the Fleetwood Mac torch on new single ‘Devotion’, taken from their new LP Night Pass.” – Gorilla Vs. Bear
Jonathan Richman – SA LP (Blue Arrow)
Released last October on CD – now available on vinyl. SA, the root note in Indian Ragas was what Ramakrishna, the much beloved mystic, told his spiritual students to search for underneath all things of this world. Richman co-produced the record alongside wife Nicole Montalbano and former Modern Lovers and Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison.
Tortoise – TNT LP+MP3 (Thrill Jockey)
High-quality virgin vinyl repress of Tortoise’s third studio album packaged in a tip-on gatefold jacket. TNT builds upon the spare, instrumental framework of the group’s first, self-titled album, and the extended edits, melodic adventures, and klangfarben of the subsequent full-length release, Millions Now Living Will Never Die.
NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
BIG THIEF – U.F.O.F. CD/LP
VAMPIRE WEEKEND – Father Of The Bride CD/LP/CASS
TANK AND THE BANGAS – Green Balloon CD/LP
RHIANNON GIDDENS – There Is No Other CD
BAD RELIGION – Age Of Unreason CD/LP
PROTOMARTYR – No Passion All Technique CD/LP
DREAM SYNDICATE – These Times CD/LP
EDITORS – Blanck Mass Sessions CD/LP
FILTHY FRIENDS – Emerald Valley CD/LP (Members of Sleater Kinney, REM, Minus 5)
L7 – Scatter The Rats CD
JESSE MAC CORMACK – Now CD/LP
PILE – Green and Gray CD/LP
STEREOLAB – Mars Audiac Quintet CD/LP reissue
STEREOLAB – Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements CD/LP reissue
TACOCAT – This Mess Is A Place CD/LP
FELICE BROTHERS – Undress CD/LP
JOY WILLIAMS – Front Porch CD/LP
BARRIE – Happy To Be Here CD/LP
GANG OF FOUR – Happy Now CD/LP
BOBBY OROZA – This Love CD/LP
SLY JOHNSON – Is It Because I’m Black LP reissue
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM / PAPERCLIP PEOPLE – 12″