Staff Picks
Kimber – Lilys
Lindsay – Soul Jazz Comp, Bailter Space
Dario – Soul Jazz Comp
Eric – Weezer

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH  – New Fragility (Clap Your Hands) CD/LP
Available on colored vinyl. What are we to make of the world? In many ways, the title New Fragility perfectly sums up our collective state of unease and anxiety, but it’s particularly apt for singer songwriter Alec Ounsworth AKA Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the trauma he’s spent the best part of three years processing. “It’s pretty personal, ” says Ounsworth. “It’s about what I think we’re all experiencing at the moment, certainly here in the United States anyway – trying to move forward amidst an almost cruel uncertainty.” Taken from the David Foster Wallace short story ‘Forever Overheard’, from the collection Brief Interviews With Hideous Men – “You have grown into a new fragility, ” says the story’s adolescent narrator – the title track documents what happens directly after a long relationship comes to an end, and what’s discovered soon after. “There comes a period of making up for lost time in a changed world, ” says Ounsworth, “and now is a time of predictable stupidity.”

WEEZER – OK Human (Atlantc) CD/LP
OK Human is the fourteenth studio album from the alt-rock band led by Rivers Cuomo. Features the single “All My Favorite Songs”. Inspired by Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Sings Newman (1970) and The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966), the album was recorded entirely with analogue equipment and features a 38-piece orchestra.

V/A – Soul Jazz Presents CUBA: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash In Havana (Soul Jazz) CD/LP
Cuba: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol. 1 is a new album compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that explores the many new styles that emerged in Cuba in the 1970s as Jazz, Funk, Brazilian Tropicalia and even Disco mixed together with Latin and Salsa on the island as Cuban artists experimented with new musical forms created in the unique socialist state. The music on this album features legendary Cuban groups such as Irakere, Los Van Van and Pablo Milanés as well as a host of lesser known artists such as the radical Grupo De Experimentación, Juan Pablo Torres and Algo Nuevo, Grupo Monumental and Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, groups whose names remain largely unknown and much of whose music has never been heard outside of Cuba. This album is released in conjunction with Egrem, the Cuban state record company. 

BAILTER SPACE – Wammo (Matador) LP Colored Vinyl. 
Bailter Space’s Wammo is back in print for the first time since the album’s release 25 years ago. The LP is pressed onto limited transparent orange vinyl and features newly remastered audio from the original session reels. The release rounds out Matador Revisionist History 2020, the label’s ongoing catalog campaign that includes recent reissues from Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Guided by Voices and more.

GOAT GIRL – On All Fours LP
Previously released on CD. Now available on LP. This new record sees the band veer away from the confrontational lyricism of their debut album & indicates Goat Girl’s maturing perspectives in discussing the world’s injustices and social prejudices, using the music to explore global, humanitarian, environmental and mindful wellbeing. Throughout On All Fours, Goat Girl’s frequent use of sci-fi synthesizers, off-beat chord progressions, analogue drum machines, diverse vocal styles and distinct, gritty guitars fuse a musical language that expresses both former characteristics and newer developments of the band’s sound and vision.

PRETTY RECKLESS – Death By Rock and Roll  (Fearless) CD/LP
2021 release. The Pretty Reckless’ album Death By Rock And Roll is their most ambitious release yet. It was written and completed through the heartbreaking losses of Chris Cornell, who was one of frontwoman Taylor Momsen’s musical muses, and of longtime collaborator Kato Khandwala. The titular single became their fifth #1 at Active Rock Radio, a first for a female-fronted group. Features “25”, “And So It Went” with Tom Morello, and “Only Love Can Save Me Now” with Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil.

SIA – Songs From And Inspired By The Motion Picture (Atlantic) CD
This fourteen-track album is comprised of new pop songs from and inspired by her film, Music, including hit singles “Together” and timely call to action track “Courage To Change” that were released in 2020. Music was announced on November 19th with the release of “Hey Boy”. Her directorial debut film Music is an original cinematic experience written and directed by Sia (Featuring Maddie Ziegler, Kate Hudson & Leslie Odom Jr.) – film to be released February 12. Sia co-wrote the screenplay and directed the movie, making Music her feature film directorial debut.

LILYS – A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns (Frontier) LP
Lilys’ classic 1994 10″, A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns, has more songs and expanded audio fidelity, creating a longer, more exciting full-frequency listening experience than previously available. A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns is, in places, haunting with an atmospherically delicate sense of melody and musical production for those that love slightly wistful, slightly melancholic songs. A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns is completely unlike any other Lilys album: instantly catchy and concise. These recordings, made in Philadelphia between 1993-4, present what Kurt Heasley, Lilys’ frontman, founder, and sole constant member, terms as “a maximum listen, that properly represents the transitional phase” between the 1992 Slumberland Lilys debut In the Presence of Nothing and 1995’s Eccsame the Photon Band (both reissued by Frontier Records in 2015). The opening guitar riff and drums of “Ginger” became widely recognized in the mid-nineties through use in the notorious CK1 Commercial, as part of Calvin Klein’s Unisex fragrance ad campaign, once playing constantly on late night TV in the USA. “Ginger” has even been touted as the first Indie rock song ever used in corporate advertising. “Any Place I’ve Lived” is heard during the closing credits of the 2006 film, Keeping Up With the Steins.

MILK CARTON KIDS – Live From Lincoln Theatre (Anti) LP
Double vinyl LP pressing. The Milk Carton Kids is releasing the live album Live From Lincoln Theatre, for the first time on vinyl. Comprised of singers and acoustic guitar players Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale, The Milk Carton Kids both filmed and recorded their set at this Columbus, Ohio theatre in October 2013 during their tour in support of the Grammy-nominated album The Ash & Clay. Released as a film in 2014, the newly remastered audio will now be available on vinyl. “Live From Lincoln Theatre is the truest representation of what Joey and I have been up to for the last decade,” Pattengale explains. “The set list is like a greatest hits album of Milk Carton Kids songs. I’ve never played guitar in the studio quite the way that it comes together on stage. Our voices also communicate something extra for the occasion. And, of course, Joey doesn’t ramble about our master recordings, but there’s no stopping him once the lights are dim and the mics are hot.” Founded in 2011, The Milk Carton Kids swiftly emerged as a major force in the American folk tradition, blending ethereal harmonies and intricate musicianship with a uniquely powerful brand of contemporary songcraft.

CAROLE KING- Tapestry 50th Anniversary Edition (Sony Legacy) LP 
Limited 50th Anniversary vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. Includes digital download. Tapestry is the second studio album by singer-songwriter Carole King, released in 1971 on Ode Records and produced by Lou Adler. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 25 million copies sold worldwide. In the United States, it has been certified Diamond by the RIAA with more than 10 million copies sold. It received four Grammy Awards in 1972, including Album of the Year. The lead singles from the album-“It’s Too Late” and “I Feel the Earth Move”-spent five weeks at number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts.

COMMON – A Beautiful Revolution Pt 1 (Loma Vista) LP
Previously released on CD, now available on colored LP. 

COMING NEXT WEEK..!
MOGWAI – As The Love Continues CD/LP
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Brighter Days Ahead CD/LP
ERIC HILTON (THIEVERY CORPORATION) – Impossible Silence CD/LP
EDIE BRICKELL & THE NEW BOHEMIANS – Hunter and The Dog Star CD/LP
GATECREEPER – An Unexpected Reality CD/LP
GRANDADDY – Sophtware Slump …. On A Wooden Piano CD/LP
HOLD STEADY – Open Door Policy CD/LP
TASH SULTANA – Terra Firma CD/LP
TY SEGALL / CORY HANSON – She’s A Beam 10″
NEIL YOUNG – Time LP
XIXA – Genesis LP