Staff Picks
Lindsay – PJ Harvey, Little Dragon, Anohni & The Johnsons
Dario – Anohni & The Johnsons
Kimber – Local Natives
Caleb – Tony Allen / Adrian Younge
Zach – Little Dragon, Nick Drake tribute, Anohni & the Johnsons

PJ Harvey – I Inside The Old Year Dying CD/LP (Partisan)
PJ Harvey’s tenth studio album I Inside The Old Year Dying marks her first release in seven years, following her 2016 UK No. 1 The Hope Six Demolition Project. On this album, which was recorded with long-time creative collaborators John Parish and Flood, PJ Harvey builds a sonic universe somehow located in a space between life’s opposites, and between recent history and the ancient past. Scattered with biblical imagery and references to Shakespeare, all these distinctions ultimately dissolve into something profoundly uplifting and redemptive.

Local Natives – Time Will Wait For No One CD/LP (Loma Vista)
Living in L.A.: There are a lot of people looking for that one trick that will help the new them emerge fully realized, successful and happy. It’s a worthwhile, but doomed, pursuit and the best we can hope for is to be present in a moment. Local Natives’ fifth studio album, Time Will Wait For No One, comes at a moment of personal metamorphosis. Former selves melting away, some becoming fathers, some enduring periods of isolation, loss, and identity crisis. Time Will Wait For No One is a mantra of reassurance in response to relentless changes. It was recorded across famed Los Angeles recording studios with producer John Congelton. [An indie store exclusive yellow color vinyl pressing is available.]

Anohni & The Johnsons – My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross CD/LP+MP3 (Secretly Canadian)
Anohni’s sixth studio album shape-shifts through its subject matter: the loss of loved ones, inequality, alienation, privilege, denial, ecocide and the tidal power of Earth, isolation, Future Feminism, and the intention that we might yet transform our ways of thinking, our religious ideas, our societal structures, and our relationships with the rest of nature. [A limited-edition white color vinyl pressing is available.]

Lifeguard – Crowd Can Talk / Dressed In Trenches CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
A composite of two EPs by Lifeguard. Crowd Can Talk was originally released in the summer of 2022 by Chicago label Born Yesterday, while Dressed In Trenches features five brand new and unreleased songs. Crowd Can Talk / Dressed in Trenches is also available on vinyl for the first time (A and B-sides of a 12″). Crowd Can Talk and Dressed In Trenches are closely related. They were recorded in separate sessions, but at the same studio (Electrical Audio) and with the same engineer (Mike Lust) and within the space of 12 months. Each finds the band refining its voice – honing songs that are succinct, hooky, and propulsive. There’s a newly disciplined attention to detail. Lifeguard write together through collaboration and improvisation, but they’ve learned to streamline their sound, to make each hook, beat, and gesture purposeful.

Little Dragon – Slugs Of Love CD/LP+MP3 (Ninja Tune)
Little Dragon, the much-loved Grammy-nominated Swedish band, return with Slugs Of Love. Recorded in the musical oasis of their Gothenburg Studio – the same studio they have worked in for almost 20 years – on Slugs Of Love they bring their distinctive blend of soulful pop, electronics and R&B – all underpinned by lead singer Yukimi Nagano’s instantly recognizable vocals – to the fore across 11 tracks that encapsulate the full range of their diverse individual musical influences. [Two vinyl colorways are available: indie store exclusive orange w/ black & blue and limited-edition blue.]

Grouplove – I Want It All Right Now CD/LP (Glassnote)
Los Angeles’ Grouplove blends a quirky, ’90s-style indie rock sensibility with a spirited, arena-ready roar. It’s a sound they debuted on 2011’s Never Trust A Happy Song, which spawned the number one Billboard Alternative Songs Chart hit “Tongue Tied”. They have continued to straddle mainstream and indie success, playing festivals around the globe and remaining Top 20 Billboard Alternative chart regulars with albums like 2013’s Spreading Rumours and 2020’s Healer. In March 2021, Grouplove returned with their surprise fifth album, This Is This. New album I Want It All Right Now was produced by Grammy-winning producer John Congleton

Various Artists – The Endless Coloured Ways: The Songs Of Nick Drake 2xCD/2xLP/2xLP+7” (Chrysalis)
The Endless Coloured Ways is a collection of songs by legendary singer/ songwriter, Nick Drake, performed and recorded by over 30 incredible artists from a range of different backgrounds, genres, age groups and audiences. From Fontaines D.C. to Guy Garvey, Aurora to Feist, and Self-Esteem to David Gray, each artist has offered their own incredible take on a timeless classic. [A limited-edition gray color vinyl pressing with bonus 7” is available.]

Caamp – Lavender Days [Reissue/2022] LP (Mom + Pop Music)
Caamp – By & By LP (Mom + Pop Music)
Caamp formed when childhood friends Taylor Meier and Evan Westfall bonded over a shared love for Ohio and music. By & By includes key tracks “Penny Heads Up”, “No Sleep”, “By and By” and “Peach Fuzz”. (Their 2022 album Lavender Days is also available this week on color vinyl.]

Bettie Serveert – Palomine [Reissue/1993] LP+7”+MP3 (Matador)
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Bettie Serveert’s debut, Matador Records has released a limited transparent orange LP+7″ of Palomine. Heralded in its original four-star review by Rolling Stone as “untamed and free as pop gets,” the ’90s classic will see its first pressing by Matador since the album’s original release in 1993. The LP package is accompanied digitally by the release of four previously unavailable era-appropriate tracks on streaming (three of which can be found on the accompanying “Brain-Tag” 7″) and newly remastered versions of the “Kid’s All Right”, “Palomine”, and “Tomboy” music videos on YouTube. Palomine is featured as the first installment of Matador’s Revisionist History catalog series in 2023.

Body Count – Manslaughter [Reissue/2014] LP (Sumerian)
Vinyl reissue of Body Count’s fifth studio album, Manslaughter. Fronted by Ice-T, the legendary rapper, producer and actor delivers the band’s signature blend of rap-fueled metal with rage-driven lyrics that can’t be ignored.

Tony Allen / Adrian Younge – JID018 LP (Jazz Is Dead)
With each subsequent release, Jazz Is Dead continues to exalt the legacies of iconic musicians who have shaped the fabric of Jazz across generations, genres, and continents. For their latest installment, the label connected with the late great Tony Allen, best known for his foundational work as the drummer for Fela Kuti’s Africa 70, and later Egypt 80. Over the course of Allen’s recording career, he defined the Afrobeat sound, meshing funk, and jazz influences with Nigerian highlife to create a cross-cultural dialogue that has gone global. [An indie store exclusive brown color vinyl pressing is available.]

Bill Evans – Waltz For Debby [Reissue/1962] LP (Craft Recordings)
Waltz For Debby, the fourth and final album by one of the most influential groups in jazz history, the Bill Evans Trio, was originally released in 1962 as a companion to Sunday At The Village Vanguard.

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard –PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation LP (KGLW)
24th studio album by the olympically prolific Australian rockers King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.

The Stranglers – 4xCD Collection (Mercury Studios)
The Stranglers are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 19 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated in the UK punk scene. This 4xCD package features reissues of four of their late ’90s albums: About Time, Written In Red, Friday The Thirteenth Live At The Royal Albert Hall, and Coup de Grace. The set features the CDs in mini jackets, housed in a slipcase.

Taylor Swift – Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) 2xCD/3xLP (Republic)
The (Taylor’s Version) of Taylor Swift’s 2010 album Speak Now is now available. The album includes 22 songs, six of which are previously unreleased songs from her vault. [A limited-edition purple marble color vinyl pressing is available.]

COMING NEXT WEEK!
COLTER WALL – Little Songs CD/LP
CLAUD – Supermodels CD/LP
LUKAS NELSON + PROMISE OF THE REAL – Sticks and Stones CD/LP
BLAKE MILLS – Jelly Road CD/LP
NIGHT BEATS – Rajan CD/LP
MARC RIBOT / CERAMIC DOG – Connection CD/LP
WIZ KHALIFA – Multiverse LP
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE – Narrow Stairs LP reissue
DEFTONES – Self Titled LP (ruby red reissue)
R.E.M. – Around The Sun LP reissue
R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now LP reissue
CHARLI XCX – Pop 2 LP reissue