New Releases & Staff Picks – 10/15/21
Staff Picks
Lindsay – Hayden Thorpe, Joy Formidable, and Pokey Lafarge
Dario – Hayden Thorpe
Zach – Xenia Rubinos, Yves Tumor, and Fuckin Whatever
Kimber – Echo and the Bunnymen Reissues
Pokey LaFarge – In The Blossom Of Their Shade CD/LP (New West)
Pokey LaFarge’s seventh studio solo album, In The Blossom Of Their Shade, showcases the positivity of coming out of the darkness and into the light. When the 2020 global pandemic hit, LaFarge’s rigorous work ethic powered him through the potentially challenging creative period. As days became a couple months, songs blossomed from embryonic ideas into full-formed ones and he was ready to move on, which typified his mindset as a working artist. With this record LaFarge captures the thematic notion of being the perfect summer afternoon soundtrack…the type of music you want to listen to while having a cocktail with your significant other. It makes sense musically as well – LaFarge intentionally crafted songs that created space and have melodies that can glide throughout a composition that’s a far cry from the swing and blues-infused songs of his earlier work. [A limited-edition indie store exclusive vinyl pressing is available.]
Xenia Rubinos – Una Rosa CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
Music maker Xenia Rubinos uses her powerful voice to create beats and melodies from scratch. Her sound grows from a wide palette of influences ranging from Caribbean rhythms and beat music to minimalism and indie rock all delivered with a soulful punk aura. Una Rosa, Xenia’s first full-length album in five years, was visually structured before all the music was done – it’s a cinematic obra – an imagined nighttime-space where you’re transported through the lives of various characters, all of whom are sonically painted in each track. Sonically, the album is somewhat of a departure from her earlier work- rather than striving for pitch-perfect vocals and tight live instrumentation, she cut most of the vocals in a single take, only tinkering with them after the fact. It’s also the most electronic music she’s ever made – full of layered beats, a driving clave rhythm, bolero, flavors of ‘90s R&B, romance, tragedy, aggressivity, and emotional and theatrical vocals.
Lucinda Williams – Lu’s Jukebox Vol. 3: Bob’s Back Pages: A Night Of Bob Dylan Songs CD/2xLP (Highway 20)
While the first two installments found Williams tackling Tom Petty and southern soul, Lu’s Jukebox Vol. 3 features eleven nuanced numbers from the great Bob Dylan catalog including “It Takes A Lot To Laugh”, “Not Dark Yet”, “Blind Willie McTell”, “Idiot Wind”, “Make You Feel My Love” and more.
Lucinda Williams – Lu’s Jukebox Vol. 4: Funny How Time Slips Away: A Night Of 60’s Country Classics CD/LP (Highway 20)
Lu’s Jukebox Vol. 4 includes a selection of 60’s country classics like “Apartment #9,” “Together Again,” “Make The World Go Away,” “Long Black Limousine,” “Fist City,” “Gentle On My Mind” and “Funny How Time Slips Away” among others.
Yves Tumor – The Asymptotical World EP 12”+MP3 (Warp)
The Asymptotical World EP is Yves Tumor’s successor to 2020’s lauded Heaven To A Tortured Mind, featuring some of Sean Bowie’s most anthemic rock moments to date. A bold outfit of variegated styles across EP highlights, from the progressive climaxes of “Crushed Velvet” to the breakneck pace of “Secrecy Is Incredibly Important To The Both of Them” and the new standard of contemporary stadium music heard on “Jackie”.
Echo and the Bunnymen – Porcupine LP (Rhino)
Echo and the Bunnymen – Crocodiles LP (Rhino)
Echo and the Bunnymen – Heaven Up Here LP (Rhino)
Echo and the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain LP (Rhino)
Brick and mortar indie exclusive reissues. Black vinyl.
Trashcan Sinatras – I’ve Seen Everything LP (Last Night From Glasgow)
Reissue of legendary Scottish band’s second album from 1993. “A cross between The Beatles’ Rubber Soul and XTC’s Skylarking.” Available on limited edition red vinyl.
Hayden Thorpe – Moondust For My Diamond CD/LP (Domino)
In contrast to 2019’s Diviner, a record that very much favoured the inner world, Moondust For My Diamond sees Hayden Thorpe moving into a more natural visual and sonic palette, gazing outward on the world. Produced by Richard Formby and Nathan Jenkins (Bullion), Thorpe has made an album that is galvanising, reassuring, elegant, seductive: it oozes Big Cosmic Energy. Recommended for fans of Perfume Genius.
The Beatles – Let It Be [Reissue/1970] CD/LP(Capitol)
The Let It Be album has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell. All the new Let It Be releases feature the new stereo mix of the album as guided by the original reproduced for disc version by Phil Spector and sourced directly from the original session and rooftop performance eight-track tapes. Comes with a free poster.
The dB’s – I Thought You Wanted To Know: 1978-1981 CD (Propeller Sound)
23 tracks of remastered early singles, demos, and live recordings. Most of these tracks predate the release of Stands For deciBels by two to three years and were the basis of the signing of the band to Albion Records (UK) in 1980. Some songs are being released to the public for the first time in this package. [Vinyl edition due October 22.]
Dean & Britta – Quarantine Tapes CD/LP (Double Feature)
Dean & Britta’s Quarantine Tapes album was recorded in home studio during the pandemic and released to streaming services in fall 2020, and is now presented on CD and vinyl with the added track “The Carnival Is Over”. The record contains other covers of songs by the Bee Gees, the Clash, Kraftwerk, Luna, The Cars, the Seekers.
The Joy Formidable – Into The Blue CD/LP+7” (Enci)
The Welsh trio with a predilection for delivering stadium-sized riffs with shoegazey vistas and dreamy post-punk riffage, return with a stunning new album. [A limited-edition white color vinyl pressing is also available.]
Nick Lowe – Impossible Bird [Reissue/1994] CD (Yep Roc)
Nick Lowe – Dig My Mood [Reissue/1998] CD (Yep Roc)
Digitally remastered versions of two albums from the veteran British singer/songwriter. [Vinyl editions due February 11. A pink color vinyl pressing of 1979’s Labour Of Lust is also available this week.]
Tom Morello – The Atlas Underground Fire CD (Mom + Pop Music)
Following the 2018 release of his most ambitious album yet, The Atlas Underground, legendary musician and two-time Grammy winner Tom Morello returns with his latest project – a follow-up album entitled The Atlas Underground Fire. Morello’s remarkable guitar playing is on full display on the record fusing rock, alternative and electronic music together with collaborations from a mix of music icons and cutting-edge artists. The acclaimed list of collaborators includes Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Chris Stapleton, Mike Posner, Damian Marley and others. [Vinyl edition due April 1.]
Dean Wareham – I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor Of L.A. CD/LP (Double Feature)
Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500, Luna) returns with his first new songs in seven years, a politically minded collection of indie guitar beauty. Produced by Jason Quever (Beach House, Cass McCombs), I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor Of L.A. features eight songs by Wareham, plus covers of “Duchess” by Scott Walker and “Under Skys” by obscure Massachusetts late-‘60s band Lazy Smoke.
Chicano Batman – Cycles Of Existential Rhyme [Reissue/2014] LP (ATO)
Color vinyl reissue of the Latin/funk/soul/folk band’s sophomore album.
DJ Manny – Signals In My Head LP (Planet Mu)
Limited pink color vinyl pressing. DJ Manny is both known and unknown. Despite being firmly embedded within the footwork elite and being regarded by many as a DJ’s DJ, Manny has yet to receive the kind of attention his peers have. He openly admits that his goal for the new album was to do something that nobody (in footwork) had ever done before which is an R&B love type of album but keeping it footwork, juke, house, techno, with a few breaks.
Fuckin Whatever – Fuckin Whatever LP (Born Losers)
Limited clear colored vinyl LP pressing. Featuring Anthony Green of Circa Survive, Adam Lazzara and John Nolan of Taking Back Sunday and additional percussion from Benjamin Homola of Grouplove, Fuckin Whatever is a fluid project born of longtime friendships and late nights on the road, but what it could grow to become is entirely unwritten. Using just their voices and a stomp or two in lieu of percussion … before they even realized it, Fuckin Whatever was born.
Bobby Gillespie & Jehnny Beth – Utopian Ashes LP (Third Man)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. “During the course of a 35-year career, ‘sensitive’ and ‘mature’ are not adjectives that have often been wheeled out to describe Bobby Gillespie’s lyrics. Indeed, the Primal Scream lead singer’s canon of work has generally favored MC5-lite rebel posturing over insight and depth. All of which makes this collaboration with former Savages frontwoman Jehnny Beth such a welcome surprise. The pair have written a set of songs located within the wreckage of a marriage that is falling apart, with both parties torn between looking back with remorse and nostalgia on what’s been lost and moving on and making a new start alone. Recorded with Gillespie’s Scream bandmates, as well as Beth’s regular foil Johnny Hostile, as much care has gone into the arrangements as the lyrics.” – The Guardian
Nick Lowe – Labour Of Lust [Reissue/1979] LP (Yep Roc)
Limited pink color vinyl pressing. Labour Of Lust was recorded and released at the same time as Dave Edmunds’ Repeat When Necessary and features the same Rockpile personnel. It led off with “Cruel To Be Kind”, Lowe’s only major US hit.
Amy Winehouse – Back To Black [Reissue/2006] LP (Republic)
Limited picture disc vinyl pressing of the second and final studio album by Amy Winehouse, originally released in 2006. Influenced by the pop and soul music of 1960s girl groups, Winehouse collaborated with producers Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, along with Sharon Jones’ band The Dap-Kings, to assist her on capturing the sounds from that time period while blending them with contemporary R&B and neo-soul music.
Coldplay – Music Of The Spheres CD/LP (Atlantic)
Coldplay’s ninth studio album, Music Of The Spheres, was produced by hitmaker Max Martin and features twelve tracks, five of which are represented by emojis. The British pop-rock giants follow-up to 2019’s Everyday Life is introduced by the cosmic lead single “Higher Power” and experimental 10-minute closer “Coloratura”, an exhilarating, space-bound epic that includes name checks for Galileo, Oumuamua and Betelgeuse. The band hints at further sci-fi themes with the note, “Everyone is an alien somewhere.” [A limited-edition color vinyl pressing is also available.]