The Exbats – Now Where Were We LP (Goner)
On Now Where Were We, Bisbee’s own, The Exbats hit the ground running like a dystopian garage rock version of the Shangri-Las, or like a message to the future from the pre- Velvet Underground doo-wop wannabe Lou Reed. The album rings bright, like a beacon in the wilderness: eminently, effortlessly catchy, and loaded with buoyant choruses that rank alongside the best chart-toppers launched by the Brill Building or Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound. LP now, CD soon.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – B-Sides & Rarities: Part II 2xCD/2xLP (Mute)
B-Sides & Rarities Part II is the follow up to 2005’s B-Sides & Rarities. Part II was compiled by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and contains 27 rare and unreleased tracks from 2006-2020, including the first recordings of “Skeleton Tree”, “Girl In Amber” and “Bright Horses”. The song “Vortex” was written and recorded in 2006 by Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos. As the band were never able to define the song as either Grinderman or Bad Seeds, it remained unreleased. “I always liked the original B-Sides & Rarities more than any of our other albums,” Cave shares. “It’s the only one I’d listen to willingly. It seems more relaxed, even a bit nonsensical in places, but with some beautiful songs throughout. There is something, too, about the smallness of certain songs that is closer to their original spirit. B-Sides & Rarities Part II continues this strange and beautiful collection of lost songs from The Bad Seeds.” [A Deluxe vinyl edition collecting both volumes is also available this week.]

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – B-Sides & Rarities: Part I [Reissue/2005] 3xCD (Mute)
This reissue of B-Sides & Rarities: Part I features 56 tracks including rarities, out-takes, covers & B-sides from 1988-2005 across three volumes, compiled by Mick Harvey.

John Coltrane – A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle CD/2xLP (Verve)
After nearly six decades, a private recording of a rare, nightclub performance by John Coltrane of his magnum opus, A Love Supreme, is available for the first time. Recorded in late 1965 on the culminating evening of a historic week-long run at The Penthouse in Seattle, A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle is a musical revelation of historic importance, capturing Coltrane as he began to expand his classic quartet – adding Pharoah Sanders on second saxophone and Donald Garrett on second bass – and catapulting him into the intense, spiritually focused final phase of his career. The significance of A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle is heightened by the fact that Coltrane seldom performed his four-part suite after originally recording it in the studio in 1964. Composed and created as a public declaration of his personal spiritual beliefs and universalist sentiment, it became a best-seller and received a Grammy nod the next year. This fascinating and rare live performance of the full suite is marked by a looser and more improvisational approach and an overriding sense of communal participation – much like a Sunday church service. The lineup featured John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders on saxophones, McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Garrison and Donald (Rafael) Garrett on basses. Carlos Ward, then a young saxophonist just getting started on the scene, sat in as well.

Spiritualized – Let It Come Down [Reissue/2001] CD/2xLP (Fat Possum)
Let It Come Down saw Jason Pierce rebuilding Spiritualized after the core line-up dissolved following the intensive touring process of Ladies And Gentlemen… Dion’s Phil Spector-produced Born To Be With You was an influence. The initial recordings were made at John Coxon’s studio before some 115 different musicians were brought into Air and Abbey Road Studios to work on these 11 songs. Spiritualized had always made wide-screen music but this time the movie theater was the size of the Coliseum. [A limited-edition color vinyl pressing is also available.]

Superchunk ‎– Here’s To Shutting Up [Reissue/2001] CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
From Mac McCaughan of Superchunk: “To write the songs for Here’s To Shutting Up, we gathered in Jim’s garage (he lived way out in the woods) a couple times a week for what seemed like months. We started from actual scratch with no demos or concepts, just playing instrumental music with our usual gear plus a Casio. We recorded the album in the Cabbagetown neighborhood of Atlanta at Zero Return, the studio built by Brian and Rob (aka Birdstuff and Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard) of Man or Astro-man? Brian Paulson came with us to produce it. Here’s To Shutting Up was meant to be released on September 18, 2001. On September 11, the world changed. Our release date moved a couple weeks, but our tour dates remained, and we flew to Japan in October. It was a WILD time to be traveling the world. Receptions ranged from thank you for giving us something else to think about to why are you here? We flew home from Japan and left for the UK the day the US started bombing Afghanistan. This was the climate, and the climate was not great for playing rock music.”

Orquesta Akokán – 16 Rayos CD/LP (Daptone)
Recorded in Havana’s famed Egrem Studios, Orquesta Akokán displays a cohesion forged by an intense performing and touring cycle. The musical conversation that began in the Areito studios three years earlier blossomed into an easy, intimate dialogue between good friends – allowing full, fearless musical expression and risk-taking outside of their comfort zones. Building upon Perez Prado’s dissonant, near avant-garde vision of the mambo, and highlighting the subtext of Cuban rhythms and styles, the band continues to explore, develop and expand the island’s rich rhythmic palette and repertoire – pushing the conventions of what is considered ‘mambo’ – and drawing deeply from folkloric and religious traditions seldom heard in popular music. 16 Rayos is here to shine its musical rays on us, warm our hearts, and irresistibly move our bodies.

Parquet Courts – Sympathy For Life CD/LP (Rough Trade)
On Sympathy For Life, Parquet Courts’ thought-provoking rock is dancing to a new tune. The album finds the Brooklyn band at both their most instinctive and electronic, spinning their bewitching, psychedelic storytelling into fresh territory, yet maintaining their unique identity. Built largely from improvised jams, inspired by New York clubs, Primal Scream and Pink Floyd and produced in league with Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Hot Chip, David Byrne) and John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding, Dry Cleaning), Sympathy For Life was always destined to be dancey. Unlike its globally adored predecessor, 2018’s Wide Awake!, the focus fell on grooves rather than rhythm. “Wide Awake! was a record you could put on at a party,” says co-frontman Austin Brown. “Sympathy For Life is influenced by the party itself.” [A limited-edition deluxe vinyl pressing is also available.]

Wye Oak – Civilian + Cut All the Wires: 2009 – 2011 LP+MP3 (Merge)
Limited color vinyl pressing. Ten years after its release, Wye Oak’s Civilian remains a raw, sinewy punch of a record-bleak and intense and lonely and self-assured all at once. The album unravels with the sort of self-questioning and uncertainty that come with youth, and its specific confidence in unflinchingly probing all those emotions, feeling them to their deepest extent even when it’s tearing you apart at the seams. When Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner released Civilian, it marked both the ascension and death of Wye Oak, or at least a version of it. Now, a decade later, Civilian + Cut All The Wires: 2009-2011 delves back into that pivotal record and adds a lost album of unreleased tracks and demos to Civilian’s universe.

Lana Del Rey – Blue Banisters CD (Interscope)
CD now, LP 11/12. Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey’s eighth studio album Blue Banisters follows the success of fellow 2021 effort Chemtrails Over The Country Club which became her seventh consecutive top-ten album in the US. The 15-track effort includes the previously released songs “Wildflower Wildfire”, “Blue Banisters”, and “Text Book” plus new single “Arcadia”. “I guess you could say this album is about what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like now,” Del Rey shared. “If you’re interested go back and listen to the first three songs I put out earlier. They chronicle the beginning. [‘Arcadia’] hits somewhere in the middle and by the time the record drops you will hear where we’re at today.”

Duran Duran – Future Past CD/LP (BMG)
Pop legends Duran Duran return with their fifteenth studio album Future Past boasting esteemed producers Erol Alkan, Giorgio Moroder and Mark Ronson behind the boards, plus special guests Graham Coxon of Blur on guitar, Bowie’s former pianist Mike Garson, and guest vocals from Lykke Li.  “When we first went into the studio in late 2018, I was trying to persuade the guys that all we needed to do was write two or three tracks for an EP,” Simon Le Bon reveals. “Four days later, with the nucleus of 25 plus strong songs in the can, that all deserved development, I realized we’d be in it for the long haul, but that was before COVID. So here we are in 2021 with our 15th studio album, Future Past straining at the leash. Music by Duran Duran with Graham Coxon, Lykke Li, Mike Garson, Erol Alkan, Mark Ronson, Giorgio Moroder (for God’s sake!). I’m not saying its epic, but well … yes I am.”

Every Time I Die – Radical CD (Epitaph)
Every Time I Die is a loud rock institution committed to leaving every nuanced outpouring of chaotic passion and blissful malcontent all over their records and on the stage. With boiling charisma and unrelenting energy to spare, the Buffalo band manages not one but two near-impossible tasks. They’ve survived two decades as an underground entity cherished for coloring outside the lines, and contrary to most career arcs, continually improving with each successive album as they charge ahead. ETID makes a glorious hardcore-punk noise, alchemized by a swampy summoning of Southern rock’s coarse poetry. The music swirls beneath sardonic and clever wordplay, a combination cementing them as leaders, not followers. The band is recognized and revered for its anarchic explosiveness, artistic impulsiveness, and approachable camaraderie. Radical is 16 tracks of peak-ETID.

Hand Habits – Fun House CD (Saddle Creek)
Hand Habits, the project of Los Angeles-based musician Meg Duffy is back with their ambitious new album Fun House. Produced by Sasami Ashworth (SASAMI) and engineered by Kyle Thomas (King Tuff), the record was not intended as a reaction to the pandemic, but it was very much the result of taking a difficult, if much-needed, moment of pause. Emboldened by going into therapy and coaxed by Ashworth to push the songs into unexpected new shapes, the resulting music is more acutely personal and stylistically adventurous than anything you’ve heard from Hand Habits before. The push/pull of styles, paired with songs that move deftly between the present and past, give the record a wildly diverse, hall of mirrors quality that befits its name. Where previous Hand Habits records could be insular affairs, Fun House feels ebullient, lush, a fully realized conversation. [Vinyl edition due November 5.]

Helado Negro – Far In CD/2xLP+MP3 (4AD)
When Roberto Carlos Lange, the musician known as Helado Negro, began writing Far In immediately following the release of his acclaimed 2019 This Is How You Smile, he could not have predicted that we would soon need to learn how to stay at home and be the stars of our domestic dance floors with intimates and online communities. The titular pair in “Gemini And Leo” stay indoors to discover each other anew with music recalling Lange’s youth growing up in South Florida listening to ‘80s club songs, and their return sampled in ‘90s hip-hop. Visions past and future meet in a euphoria of uptempo drums, Jen Wasner’s (Flock Of Dimes) funky bass line, and Opal Hoyt’s (Zenizen) galactic swirl of warm and steely synths and bright backing vocals. What was a prophesying rehearsal for the musician, we can hope will soon be our fresh start, a choice to bring that energy home, or go out to meet it.

My Morning Jacket – My Morning Jacket CD/2xLP (ATO)
On their self-titled ninth full-length album – the first new music since 2015’s The Waterfall – My Morning Jacket reaffirm the rarefied magic that has made them so beloved, embedding each song with moments of discovery, revelation, and ecstatic catharsis. It comes after a near permanent hiatus for the band until performing four shows in summer 2019 left them with a new energy. Jim James engineered/produced the 11-track collection at 64 Sound in L.A. where the band spent weeks in intentional seclusion. “I hope this album brings people a lot of joy and relief, especially since we’ve all been cooped up for so long,” says James. “I know that feeling you get from driving around blasting music you love, or even lying in bed and crying to the music you love. The fact that we’re able to be a part of people’s lives in that way is so magical to us, and it feels really good that we’re still around to keep doing that.” [A limited-edition indie store exclusive vinyl pressing is available.]

Jackson+Sellers – Breaking Point CD (ANTI-)
Jackson+Sellers’ (the collaborative creation of singer-songwriters Jade Jackson and Aubrie Sellers) L.A.-written, Nashville-recorded album, Breaking Point is a masterclass in unexpected vocal harmonic convergence, soundtracked by raw guitars, driving drums and a singular pop-rock sound that weaves a sonic thread between ‘70s rock, ‘90s raucous roots, and modern indie pop. They exchanged lead vocals, reflecting on their own experiences of vulnerability, isolation, sensitivity and autonomy. They drew on changes in their personal relationships, intuitively capturing each other’s personal experiences, often before they had even discussed them with each other. Jackson reflected, “This is an album that pays homage to unique, independent women who created their own path, wrote their own songs, and had their own sounds.” [Vinyl edition due December 10.]

Dean Blunt – Black Metal 2 CD/LP (Rough Trade)
One of those releases that makes you feel like no other music exists for a hot minute, Dean Blunt returns with a second Black Metal album for Rough Trade, delving deeper into his unfathomable yet completely approachable and direct take on visceral x melancholic folk-pop.

La Luz – La Luz CD/LP (Hardly Art)
On their self-titled fourth album, La Luz launch themselves into a new realm of emotional intimacy for a collection of songs steeped in the mysteries of the natural world and the magic of human chemistry that has found manifestation in the musical ESP between guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland, bassist Lena Simon, and keyboardist Alice Sandahl. To help shape La Luz, the band found a kindred spirit in producer Adrian Younge. Though primarily known for his work with hip-hop, soul, and jazz acts, Younge saw in La Luz a shared vision that transcended genre. “We both create music with the same attitude, and that’s what I love about them,” he says. “They are never afraid to be risky and their style is captivating. It was an honor to work with them.” The result is an album that is both the most naturalistic and psychedelic of the band’s career. All the elements of classic La Luz are still present – the lush harmonies, the impeccable musicianship, the gorgeous melodies – but it’s a richer, earthier iteration, replete with inorganic sounds that mimic the surreality of nature – the humming of invisible bugs, the atmospheric sizzle of a hot day. [A limited-edition dark orange color vinyl pressing is also available.]

Hiss Golden Messenger – O Come All Ye Faithful LP (Merge)
Conceptualized and written during the chaotic fall months of 2020, Hiss Golden Messenger’s O Come All Ye Faithful-recorded shortly after the widely hailed Quietly Blowing It-is a meditation on grace, loss, hope, and community. Explains songwriter M.C. Taylor, “Big, brash holiday music-the type that we hear in big-box stores in the middle of December-has never resonated with me, and this past year it felt absolutely dissonant. I wanted to make a seasonal record that felt more in step with the way that I, and so many others, experience this time of year: quiet, contemplative, searching, and bittersweet.”

Replacements – Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash [Reissue/1981] LP/4CD (Rhino)
The 40th anniversary of Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash is a 4CD/1LP set that offers a remarkable document of The Replacements’ formative years. Of the set’s 100 tracks, 67 have never been released before, including the first demos the band recorded in early 1980, as well as a professionally captured concert from January 1981. Along with a newly remastered version of the original album, it also uncovers many unreleased rough mixes, alternate takes, and demos from the band’s first 18 months together. The LP included in the set, titled Deliberate Noise, presents an alternate version of the original album using these previously unreleased tracks.

Paul McCartney – III 3333 Edition LP (Third Man)
Paul McCartney – “McCartney III” [3333 Edition] [Yellow/Black Splatter LP] – Paul McCartney hadn’t planned to release an album in 2020, but in the isolation of “Rockdown,” he found himself fleshing out some existing musical sketches and creating new ones. Before long a collection of spontaneous songs would become McCartney III: a stripped, self-produced album marking a new decade. Indie Exclusive 3333 Edition pressed by Third Man Pressing on 130-gm Yellow/Black Splatter LP composed from a “regrind” of McCartney & McCartney II records. Includes a 24×36 poster and sticker.

Marc Ribot – Silent Movies LP (Virtual Label)
Pi Recordings continues it’s 20th anniversary celebration with the release on limited-edition vinyl of perhaps the most popular release from the label’s illustrious catalogue: master guitarist Marc Ribot’s Silent Movies. Originally put out in 2010, Rolling Stone called it “emotive, graceful, but with a glint of mischief in his method,” while PopMatter said “Heavy on atmospherics and light on histrionics, this has got to be one of Ribot’s best recordings.” The Absolute Sound gave the album 5 Stars for both the performance and the recordings’ gorgeous sonics.

Moor Mother – Black Encyclopedia Of The Air CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
Black Encyclopedia Of The Air is here, not to save but to drown you. Heads better learn how to swim cause listen, this record is beat soup, hearty yet still minimal, a sonic mirage of prophetic soul that drop kicks your “chill beats to study to” YouTube playlist and hyper-intellectual rap podcasts into a hadron collider; it’s only black matter on the other side – 13 mesmerizing tracks about memory and imprinting and the future, all of them wafting through untouched space like the ghostly cinders of a world on fire, unbound and uncharted, vast and stretching across the universe. Moor Mother is a holographic figment of an Afrotopian dream, all at once goddess and warrior, mystic and cyborg, griot and future time traveler, etching noisy pieces of reverie into our consciousness for decades now. But check it: on Black Encyclopedia… she’s joined by a wide range of friends, collaborators and co-conspirators on a trip through the murky cosmos, navigating the black universe with stardust as currency. [A limited-edition indie store exclusive vinyl pressing is available.]