This Week’s New Releases & Staff Picks – 7/5/2019
STAFF PICKS
Kimber – Joan As Police Woman
Lindsay – Joan As Police Woman
Dario – Six Organs of Admittance reissue
Paula – Soft Cavalry, Delia Derbyshire
JUST ANNOUNCED PRE-ORDERS
Brittany Howard – Jaime (pre-order)
Sleater-Kinney – The Center Won’t Hold (pre-order)
Various Artists – Tiny Changes: Celebration Of Frightened Rabbit’s “The Midnight Organ Fight” (pre-order)
THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
Jesca Hoop – Stonechild CD/LP+MP3 (Memphis Industries)
A culmination of life and musical experience, uncompromising in its vision, Stonechild, the new studio album from Jesca Hoop is a self-described compassion project. The 11-track collection is Hoop refined and defined; beautiful, subtle and stark.
Sigur Rós – Ágætis Byrjun – A Good Beginning [Reissue/1999] 4xCD/2xLP+MP3 (Krunk)
Limited 20th Anniversary Edition. The band expand their breakthrough album with demo and archive versions of all songs on the album, plus never-before heard newly unearthed material from the time, rare B-sides and the full 95-minute concert played in Reykjavík on the day the record was released in 1999.
The Soft Cavalry – The Soft Cavalry CD/LP (Bella Union)
For Steve Clarke, The Soft Cavalry’s self-titled debut album is equally a labor of love, and the first record he’s masterminded from start to finish, with invaluable contributions from his wife, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, on co-vocals and spiritual/practical guidance, and Steve’s brother Michael, who produced the record. The band’s music is a particularly British brand of intense cinematic drama. Melodic and timeless, the album lands in the atmospheric dimensions between Pink Floyd, Talk Talk and Mansun.
Anderson .Paak – Ventura LP (12 Tone)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. 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.
Joan As Policewoman – Live At The BBC LP (PIAS America)
Culled from Joan as Police Woman’s first ever career retrospective, Joanthology, which spans the first 15 years of Joan’s remarkable musical output and includes new, rare and unreleased material alongside more than thirty of her most loved songs, Live At The BBC is a 12-track collection of songs recorded in session for BBC 6Music.
The Mekons – The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen [Reissue/1979] LP (Superior Viaduct)
After two singles for Fast Product, Leeds art-punk collective The Mekons signed with Virgin Records in 1979. The band would have to borrow gear from their mates Gang Of Four to record their major label debut. In classic Mekons style, the album’s back cover featured a photo of Gang Of Four instead of themselves. As Simon Reynolds writes, “The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen got a mixed reception at the time. Listening to it now, though, the first LP sounds more of a piece with the band’s early punk singles.
Six Organs Of Admittance – For Octavio Paz [Reissue/2003] LP (Hermit Hut)
Octavio Paz is considered by many to be a high point in the early Six Organs of Admittance catalog. Almost wholly instrumental, it is the only Six Organs record that sounds fully dedicated to touching the edges of an acoustic finger-style world that was still quite underground back in the first few years of the new century. The songs here utilize a variety of approaches to the acoustic guitar, both steel string and nylon, solo and overdubbed, but always in the service of atmosphere.