New Releases & Staff Picks – 2/7/25
STAFF PICKS
Lindsay – Sharon Van Etten and Squid
Dario – Lina Tullgren and Gnonnas Pedro & His Dadjes Band
Kimber – Wilco reissue
Jake – Squid and Kendrick Lamar
Zach – Kendrick Lamar, Squid, and Her Space Holiday reissue
Ash – Kendrick Lamar
KENDRICK LAMAR – GNX CD/LP (Interscope)
GNX is the sixth studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. Titled after the Buick Regal model, and a follow-up to Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022).
SQUID – Cowards CD/LP (Warp)
Squid’s new album Cowards is about evil. Nine stories whose protagonists reckon with cults, charisma and apathy. Real and imagined characters wading into the dark ocean between right and wrong. Cowards is Squid’s most courageous album: simultaneously growing in scope and returning to basics. The band recorded Cowards at Church Studios in Crouch End with Mercury prize winning producers Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. On additional production is longtime shifu and collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band’s first two albums. The record was mixed in Seattle by John McEntire, before being compressed by the rich analogue chain of Heba Kadry’s mastering in Brooklyn, New York. Squid have come a long way since forming in 2016 as an instrumental jazz band for a monthly night in Brighton. Their debut album Bright Green Field (2021) arrived as the world was starting to open up after the pandemic and they broke into the top 5 in the UK chart. In 2023 they released their sophomore album, the brooding O Monolith, which took the band all over the world and broke new ground that hardly seemed possible years prior.
WILCO – Ghost Is Born (20th Anniversary) CD/LP (Nonesuch)
A reprint of Wilco’s 2004 Grammy-winning album A Ghost Is Born on Black vinyl featuring the original album with a new cover made for its 20th anniversary. A Ghost is Born (2014 Remaster) is mastered by Bob Ludwig and pressed in Germany by Optimal Media. The two-CD expanded edition of Wilco’s 2004 Grammy-winning album A Ghost Is Born includes the original album plus a second disc of outtakes and alternates.
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS – Apple Cores CD/LP (Anti)
Apple Cores is the latest full-length album from New York tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, “one of the fiercest sounds in jazz today” (The Guardian) with a “penchant for unbound exploration” (Pitchfork). Informed by the rhythms and textures of hip-hop and funk while remaining rooted in jazz, Apple Cores was recorded with Chad Taylor (drums/mbira) and Josh Werner (bass/guitar) over the course of two intense, entirely improvised sessions.
CONNIE PRICE & THE KEYTONES – Uptown Rulers: The Nola Breaks Singles – Mardi Gras LP (SuperJock)
A collection of all the limited 7″(45rpm) releases by Connie Price & the Keystones on Superjock Records, a label steeped in the sounds of New Orleans Funk and Hip Hop! Collaborations include Bootie Brown (The Pharcyde), Rakaa Iriscience (Dilated Peoples), Guilty Simpson, Apani B. Fly MC, Bo Dollis Jr. (Wild Magnolias), Fullee Love (aka Soup of Jurassic 5) & New Orleans Bounce legend HaSizzle. Side A features all the classic originals helmed by musician/producer Dan Ubick, while the B-Side contains extended mixes and remixes by label owner Professor Shorthair.
MICHIGANDER – Michigander LP (Totally Normal)
The last decade has seen Michigander quietly emerge as a 21st century troubadour whose deft balance of rock energy, alternative adventurousness, and heart-on-his-sleeve songcraft continues to endear audiences and tastemakers alike. Born in Michigan and based in Nashville, singer, songwriter, and producer Jason Singer has steadily progressed one gig and release at a time. However, he truly steps into his own on his self-titled full-length debut album, Michigander.
GNONNAS PEDRO & HIS DADJES BAND – Roi De L’Agbadja Moderne 1974-1983 LP (Analog Africa)
Hailing from Benin, were “Agbadja” is an ancestral rhythm played during burial ceremonies, Gnonnas adapted, modernised and coined it “Agbadja Modern”, becoming known as its king. After performing for a decade, Gnonnas recorded various masterpieces in Lagos between 1975 and 1980 which catapulted him to superstardom back home, but also made him a name in other West African countries. The double-LP Roi De L’Agbadja Moderne 1974-1983 comes as a Gatefold Cover with a full color 8-pages booklet including photos and liner notes. Featuring 16 of Gnonnas’ finest songs which resonated across the African continent, the unique blend of Agbadja, Cuban fon, jerk, highlife and other African rhythms sung in Fon, Mina, Yoruba, French, English, and even Spanish offer a truly unique musical journey.
MADVILLAIN – Madvillainy Audiophile Edition LP (Stones Throw)
The only studio album by Madvillain (MF DOOM & Madlib) – widely regarded as one of the best hip-hop albums of all time. “Inexhaustibly brilliant, with layer-upon-layer of carefully considered yet immediate hip-hop, forward-thinking but always close to its roots.” – Pitchfork. This new version includes upgraded packaging combined with audiophile sound quality for the ultimate listening experience. Re-cut at 45 PRM and pressed on 180g vinyl.
From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is sonically different from Van Etten’s previous work. Writing and recording in total collaboration with her band for the first time, Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The result of that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound and songwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon – life and living, love and being loved – but the sounds are new, wholly realized and sharp as glass.
The new record by Lina Tullgren is a deeply gorgeous intervention, a carefully ornamented dilemma, the most inviting crisis. Made with a host of Los Angeles musicians, Decide exposes Tullgren’s daring and trust. Each song is a ring of curious sound: the skip of harp strings, the flutter of woodwinds, the ratchet of percussion, the euphonium’s sigh. And at the center of each wreath, Tullgren sings, finding this space between Judee Sill and Sam Jayne. It’s a tone that signals weariness, but a weariness hand-in-hand with tenacity.
FACS – Wish Defense CD/LP (Trouble In Mind)
With their sixth studio album Wish Defense, Chicago trio FACS take a good, long look in the mirror to face themselves. The return of original member Jonathan Van Herik – who stepped away from the group just before their debut album “Negative Houses” was released in 2018 – replacing longtime bassist Alianna Kalaba brings renewed vigor & a marked angularity from the band’s more recent output. The songs still hit hard, but the approach is sideways – the roles have changed since Van Herik’s original tenure & his previous time with Case & powerhouse drummer Noah Leger in Disappears; now on bass, Van Herik was originally the group’s guitar player and features on the debut, while current guitarist Brian Case played bass.
HER SPACE HOLIDAY – Home Is Where You Hang Yourself LP reissue (Numero)
Following his post-hardcore heroics with Indian Summer and Calm, Marc Bianchi unplugged his distortion pedal and switched on the four-track. From his boyhood San Mateo, California bedroom, Her Space Holiday explores the bewilderment of young adulthood through a dreamy prozac lens. This expanded 25th anniversary edition of Home Is Where You Hang Yourself includes an extra LP of remixed songs from Duster, Bright Eyes, Micromars, and Mahogany, an elegant tip-on jacket, lyrics, and 20 milligrams of millennial malaise. Ask your doctor if Her Space Holiday is right for you.
LEATHER STRIP – Tribute To The Cure: Pornography CD/LP (Cleopatra)
A true legend of industrial music, Claus Larsen a/k/a Leæther Strip, presents this impeccable and hard hitting tribute to The Cure’s most gothic album, Pornography! Larsen reinvisions all 8 of the Pornography album’s dense and dramatically dark tracks, plus two special bonus Cure covers for the CD and digital formats! Comes at a time when The Cure is resurgent in popularity thanks to their blockbuster new album Songs Of A Lost World which has topped album charts in numerous countries including the UK, Germany, Denmark and others!
WILLIAM HOOKER – Jubilation CD/LP (ORG)
William Hooker is a musician, composer, and poet with over 70 recordings as a leader, encompassing jazz, new music, experimental music and multi-disciplinary forms of expression (e.g. dance, silent film and spoken word). He has been recognized [by The Wire] as “an iconoclast, and one of the most innovative musicians and drummers of his generation,” which is evident nowhere more than on his latest album. Hooker says of the work, which features collaborators Matt Lavelle, Sarah Manning, On Davis, and Adam Lane, “our express purpose was to play great music and to communicate such.” The group – captured live in 2023 at acclaimed Brooklyn performance arts venue Roulette – does just that, and the result is pure Jubilation (noun; a feeling of great happiness and triumph).
PHISH – LP On Pp 05 (Twist / Stash Uniondale, NY 4/ 2/ 98) (Jemp) LP
The fifth installment in the ‘LP on LP’ vinyl series showcases “Twist” and “Stash” from the opening night of two Nassau Coliseum shows. Nassau hosted the first of two, two-night engagements that comprised Phish’s Island Tour – an impromptu live excursion on Long Island and Rhode Island that arose during ‘The Story of the Ghost’ pre-production sessions in Vermont. On side A is the deep-space Island “Twist” from set II that explored intergalactic territory with a bass nod to Star Trek. Side B’s “Stash” from set I also went deep with a beautiful, sometimes dark jam that erupted into staccato melody and an ambient outro. Together these two tracks capture the exploratory feel of the Island Tour shows. ‘LP on LP’ 05 was recorded by Paul Languedoc and mixed from the multitrack masters by Vance Powell.
PHISH – LP On LP 06 (Simple / Blaze On – 8/ 6/ 2021) LP
The sixth volume in the ‘LP on LP’ vinyl series highlights “Simple” and “Blaze On” from the first show of a three-night stand at Ruoff Music Center (better known as Deer Creek) in the Indianapolis suburbs. Deer Creek is one of Phish’s most-played venues with 23 shows between 1995 and 2016 before this 3-nighter (shows #24-26), rescheduled from 2020 due to COVID-19. Side A is the Deer Creek “Simple” – a lush performance displaying the band’s expanding and experimental sonic palette. Side B consists of an extended “Blaze On” that stretches to 27 minutes (the longest to date) of funky, must-hear Phish. These two cuts highlight modern-day peak Phish in a summer soiree at a favorite spot in what was once the cornfields of Indiana. ‘LP on LP’ 06 was recorded by Garry Brown and mixed from the multitrack masters by Vance Powell.
DONNAS – Gold Medal LP reissue (Real Gone)
Famously formed in 8th grade for a school talent show, The Donnas began as a self-styled co-ed answer to The Ramones, playing gleefully unapologetic, pop-punk paeans to adolescent alienation and hedonism from a decidedly female perspective. But by the time of 2004’s Gold Medal, their sixth album and second for the major label Atlantic, the group has clearly—dare we say it?–matured. With the notable exception of the single (and career highlight) “Fall Behind Me,” Gold Medal marks a move away from the Donnas’ harder/faster ethos towards a more polished (acoustic guitars…whaaat?) pop sound veering towards ‘70s psychedelia.
COMING NEXT WEEK!
ALTONS – Heartache in Room 14 CD/LP
LUMINEERS – Automatic CD/LP
FATHER JOHN MISTY – I Love You Honeybear LP colored reissue
VELVETEERS – Million Knives CD/LP
WAR AND TREATY – Plus One CD/LP
BARTEES STRANGE – Horror CD/LP
GARY LOURIS – Dark Country CD/LP
WOMBATS – Oh The Ocean CD/LP
VARIOUS – Fania Records: Latin Sounds Of NY 1964-1978 LP
MARINERO – Lalala CD/LP
MARSHALL ALLEN – New Dawn CD/LP
fkj – 22-23 Live Sessions LP
HORSEGIRL – Phonetics On And On CD/LP
SOUL COUGHING – Ruby Vroom LP
OPEN MIKE EAGLE – Hella Personal Film Festival LP
HOME IS WHERE – The Whaler LP reissue
LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – So Lonely In Heaven LP
RED CLAY STRAYS – Made By These Moments LP reissue