STAFF PICKS
Lindsay – Cross Record, Japanese Breakfast, Clikatat Ikatowi
Dario – Cross Record and Lonnie Holley
Kimber – Clikatat Ikatowi
Jake – Macie Stewart
Zach – Tobacco City, Sonic Youth, and Dead Pioneers reissue
Ash – Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

JAPANESE BREAKFAST – For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) CD/LP/CASS (Dead Oceans)
After a decade making the most of improvised recording spaces set in warehouses, trailers and lofts, Japanese Breakfast’s fourth album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), marks the band’s first proper studio release. Produced by Grammy Award winner Blake Mills, the record sees front-woman and songwriter Michelle Zauner pull back from the bright extroversion that defined its predecessor Jubilee to examine the darker waves that roil within, the moody, fecund field of melancholy, long held to be the psychic state of poets on the verge of inspiration. The result is an artistic statement of purpose: a mature, intricate, contemplative work that conjures the romantic thrill of a gothic novel.

MY MORNING JACKET – Is CD/LP (ATO)
For more than 25 years, My Morning Jacket have achieved an incredibly rare feat in rock & roll, upholding a long established cultural legacy while sustaining the curiosity and creative hunger of their earliest days. For their 10th studio album, the band teamed up with GRAMMY Award-winning producer Brendan O’Brien (Springsteen, Pearl Jam) for what may be their most masterfully realized work yet, once again expanding the limits of their sound while elevating their artistry to unprecedented heights. Available on summer sky and blue iceberg vinyl.

HORACE SILVER – Serenade To A Soul Sister (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition) (Blue Note)
Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Horace Silver had been delivering hard bop classics for over a decade when he moved into more groovy territory in the late ’60s on albums including, Serenade To A Soul Sister. Featuring two different quintets performing a set of Silver originals from the high-octane “Psychedelic Sally” to the groove waltz title track to the tender ballad “Next Time I Fall In Love.” This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes.

ROLAND KIRK – Now Please Don’t You Cry, Beautiful Edith LP (Verve Acoustic)
Released in 1967 with personnel including Lonnie Liston Smith (piano), Ronnie Boykins (bass), and Grady Tate (drums), Now Please Don’t You Cry, Beautiful Edith marked the beginning of Kirk’s groovier explorations that would eventually lead him to record Blacknuss in 1971. It’s vintage Kirk in a pared-down setting and is considered an essential Kirk album. Verve Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered on 180g vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

BURIAL / CODE 9 – Phoneglow 12″ (Hyperdub)
Burial and Kode9’s acclaimed joint 12”, initially released as a Hyperdub webshop exclusive in summer 2024, now available in record stores worldwide, with revised label art and custom sleeve.

SWAMI JOHN REIS – Time To Let You Down LP (Swami)
Celebrating 55 years in the music business! Swami John Reis is back with his second LP in eight months. Time To Let You Down is a savage blast of junk shoppe punk that kicks you in the ding ding. This eleven track LP is chock full of fist pumpers, head bumpers, stinky dumpers, meaty thumpers and toe stumpers. The tempos are often breakneck and the dense arrangements tumble like bricks into hot cheese. The undeniable sonic girth barges at will into lathered ear tubes allowing these barbaric anthems to echo in hollow domes. Feel the whip crack break skin on the acne scarred backs of our cultural oppressors. The sound is tough. The songs are a bitch. Incite your expectations with the single “Fed To The Dogs” or the title track. Salty leather and wobbly chain link fences can’t contain its rebel intent.

SONIC YOUTH – Hold That Tiger LP (Superior Viaduct)
Hold That Tiger’s sterling reputation among the Sonic Youth faithful is well deserved. In fact, it isn’t a stretch to suggest that the album is to the first handful of SY releases what It’s Alive is to the first three Ramones LPs—a feral and liberatory public snapshot of a band’s blossoming imperial phase. Indeed, HTT is the sound of a group at the peak of their powers, presenting new songs alongside a handful of older ones with the kind of wild, cathartic enthusiasm common to rock ’n’ roll’s most revered live albums. This first-time reissue comes with a gatefold jacket. Mastered by Bob Weston from the original tapes. Recorded by Aadam Jacobs. Audio repair/editing by Aaron Mullan.

DE LA SOUL – Grind Date CD/LP (BMG)
This special release marks the 20th anniversary of The Grind Date. de la Soul’s seventh studio album features guest appearances by Ghostface, MF Doom, Carl Thomas and Common. This limited edition 2 LP set is pressed on splatter color vinyl and includes 4 bonus instrumental versions of the leading tracks, “The Grind Date,” “Verbal Clap,” “Shopping Bags,” and “Days of Our Loves.”

DELFONICS – Adrian Younge Presents: The Delfonics LP (Linear Labs)
Adrian Younge presents: The Delfonics is quintessential sweet-soul from The Delfonics lead vocalist William Hart produced by Adrian Younge. From the very beginning, it was Younge’s intention to create an old-school Delfonics vibe but offer a very hip-hop-informed perspective. There are distinguishing musical elements that Delfonics fans will recognize, like the electric sitar guitar, the French horn, string arrangements, and the tympani. Recorded and mixed by Adrian Younge at Linear Labs, the preeminent analog studio of Los Angeles, CA.

CROSS RECORD – Crush Me LP (Ba da bing!)
Cross Record’s new album, Crush Me, is steeped in the pressures and wonders of existence—a profound statement, especially coming from artist and death doula Emily Cross (Loma). A two-and-a-half-year gestation period offered challenges, disappointments, and joys reflected in the cramped space of the album, which explores how we handle the weights we carry. Emily Cross had held hundreds of Living Funerals and was as many episodes deep into her podcast, What I’m Looking At. She was five years into serving clients as a death doula and fresh off a tour with Loma, her band with Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater) and Dan Duszynski, when she began work on her fourth album. After moving from Austin, TX to Dorset, UK, she established the Steady Waves Center for Contemplation (named after a track from her second record, Wabi-Sabi ), where she hosted Living Funerals, met clients, scheduled mindful tea sessions, and showcased experimental music nights. All the while, she was scribbling down song ideas.

MORE EAZE + CLAIRE ROSAY – No Floor LP (Thrill Jockey)
More Eaze and Claire Rousay’s collaborations are effortlessly joyful; their music evoking the warmth and respect they have for each other. Their bond goes back to their youthful hometown of San Antonio, Texas where they played in country outfits and noise rock bands respectively. more eaze (the moniker of violinist/multi-instrumentalist Mari Maurice) and rousay have spent the past decade pushing boundaries, standing together at the vanguard of genre-shattering music that thrills and surprises with its vulnerability and creativity.

CLIKATAT IKATOWI – Trials and Tribulations Of LP (Numero)
Unhinged, damaged art-punk from San Diego’s mid-’90s Gravity scene. Gathered here are Clikatat Ikatowi’s three albums-Orchestrated And Conducted By…, River Of Souls, and a first time vinyl pressing for their 1993 demo, all remixed and remastered from the original analog tapes. The accompanying 24-page book pairs Tony Rettman’s colorful essay with dozens of period photos and flyers, an in-depth history of a city and scene that defined the shape of noise to come.

VIDA VELLA –  Panorama LP (Beso y Abrazo)
Features members of Pansy Division, Avengers, Camper Van Beethoven, Anohni and the Johnsons, Oranger, Enorchestra and the State Band of Guanajuato. Panorama is an LGBTQIA+ album and it is a bilingual Spanish/English album .Recorded in Leon, Guanajuato with a cross section of notable US underground music stalwarts and emerging Mexican instrumentalists.

GYEDU-BLAY AMBOLLEY – Simigwa LP (Strut)
Strut Records is proud to announce a new official reissue of Simigwa by Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, launching a series of releases on Strut celebrating the legendary Ghanaian label Essiebons. Strut introduces a brand new reissue of 1975 highlife classic album Simigwa from Gyedu-Blay Ambolley on vinyl LP, featuring an exclusive interview with Ambolley himself.

SUN RA – Uncharted Territory LP (Modern Harmonic)
Sun Ra was a master of misdirection. Tape boxes wrongly labeled—whether by accident or design—are legendary among Ra archivists. One can speculate about the artist’s intent or carelessness, but source misinformation abounds on Ra tape cases, album jackets, cassettes, ephemera—as well as in interviews. It’s as if Ra, in furtherance of his own mythmaking, wanted to keep historians guessing. This project began as a misidentified tape discovered by Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive. The 7-inch reel, which contained a live Ra solo piano performance of 11 works—some recognizable, others not—was of stellar quality, and was marked as a 1979 Carnegie Hall date. But the program on the tape did not align with known facts (e.g., titles played, concert duration) which were chronicled in a Newsday review of Ra’s appearance at Carnegie in September of that year. With a prod from writer/historian Ted Gioia and further research by myself, the tape was eventually identified as a mostly unreleased July 1977 performance by Ra at a downtown NYC “jazz café” called The Axis-in-Soho.

MACIE STEWART – When The Distance Is Blue LP (International Anthem)
When the Distance is Blue is Macie Stewart’s International Anthem debut. The Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser describes the collection as “a love letter to the moments we spend in-between”—a letter realized via an intentional return to piano, her first instrument and the origin of her creative expression. Here Stewart creates a striking and cinematic work through collages of prepared piano, field recordings, and string quartet compositions, one that gives shape to a transient universe all its own while tracing the line of her musical past, full circle.

TOBACCO CITY – Horses LP (Scissor Tail Editions)
Tobacco City is a Chicago-based band that blends cosmic country with a mix of psychedelic rock and honky-tonk soul. Their sound captures the essence of small-town nostalgia while embracing modern-day themes, exploring heartache, longing, and the bittersweet nature of life. With their uplifting energy and authentic songwriting, Tobacco City continues to carve out a unique space in the country-tinged Americana scene.

LONNIE HOLLEY – Tonky CD/LP (Jagjaguwar)
Tonky is an album that takes its name from a childhood nickname that was affixed to Holley when he lived a portion of his childhood life in a honky tonk. Lonnie Holley’s life of survival and endurance is one that required – and no doubt still requires – a kind of invention. An invention that is also rich and present in Holley’s songs, which are full and immersive on Tonky, an album that begins with its longest song, a nine minute, exhaustive marathon of a tune called “Seeds,” which begins with a single sparse sound and then expands. Chants, faint keys, strings, and atop it all, Holley’s voice, not singing, but speaking plainly about working the earth when he was young, the violence he endured in the process of it all, going to bed bloodied and in pain from beatings. The song expands into a metaphor about place, about the failures of home, or anywhere meant to protect you not living up to what it sells itself to be, even if you tirelessly work at it, work on it, work to make something worthwhile of it. “Seeds” not only sets the tone for an album that revolves around rebirth, renewal, and the limits of hope and faith, but it highlights what Holley’s greatest strength as a musician is, to me, which is a commitment to abundance, and generosity.

NICO – Chelsea Town Hall LP (Modern Harmonic)
Limited translucent blue colored vinyl LP pressing. A 1985 live performance from the Velvet Underground’s cult icon! Nico’s doom-laden contralto voice, the bizarre choice of a harmonium for accompaniment, and the sheer eeriness and other-worldliness of her repertoire mark Nico as one of the most extraordinarily original performers of the rock era.

BROTHER ALI – Satisfied Soul CD/LP (Mello)
Brother Ali’s “Satisfied Soul” (his debut Mello Music Group album) is a thunderclap, a 17-track sermon where truth and vulnerability collide with legendary producer Ant’s signature production. Ali wields his pen like a blade, slicing through the smoke of political despair and personal revelation, delivering wisdom with a preacher’s cadence and a rebel’s fire. Ant crafts a sonic mosaic of dusty drums, warm vinyl crackle, and ghostly rhythms that feel like they’ve been pulled from the deep pockets of America’s forgotten record shops. This is thought provoking, spiritual rap, full of jagged self-reflection and unflinching critique, rooted in hope and defiance. Ali’s voice weaves stories that feel more like conversations with an old friend than mere tracks. This isn’t just an album—it’s a movement wrapped in the spirit of resilience.

DOC WATSON – Live at Club 47 (Yep Roc)
Recorded live February 10, 1963 at Club 47 in Cambridge, MA, today known as Club Passim, this never-before-heard album features four previously unreleased songs from Doc’s early repertoire, in addition to performances of Doc’s favorite songs of the Carter Family, Frank Hutchison, Charlie Poole, and Merle Travis. Doc is accompanied by John Herald and Ralph Rinzler of The Greenbrier Boys on five of the album’s tracks.

FUCKED UP – Someday LP (Get Better)
Beginning with 2023’s One Day, and then Another Day, Someday is the third in a planned four-part project, as ambitious in scope as the Polaris Prize-winning The Chemistry of Common Life or 2014’s criminally underrated Glass Boys. With a fluidity that can only come from a quarter-century of work, the songs on these loosely related albums move between the unbearable intimacy of simply existing in the world, and the grand, sometimes ruinous currents of that world. On Someday, Fucked Up have found a delicate balance, zeroing in on the inner workings of people to whom life has either been terribly unkind, or far too kind for far too long, at some invisible other’s expense.

FOLK IMPLOSION – Dare To Be Surprised LP (Joyful Noise)
John Davis and Lou Barlow were in the middle of recording Dare to Be Surprised, the follow-up to their 1994 debut album, Take A Look Inside, when it happened. The KIDS stuff – the handful of songs and instrumental tracks they’d contributed to the soundtrack of the now infamous Harmony Korine/Larry Clark film – had been something of a lark, but it was while recording it at Boston’s venerable Fort Apache that they met Wally Gagel. A happy accident: Gagel happened to be the house engineer on duty the day they showed up, but they found in him someone whose general sensibilities, and, critically, enthusiasm for new wave, matched their own. The results marked a shift from earlier Folk Implosion efforts. The partnership between Lou Barlow, already an indie-rock veteran with two of the era’s most influential bands in Dinosaur Jr. And Sebadoh amongst his credits, and John Davis, the erstwhile librarian whose skeletal solo work paired elliptical guitar figures with lyrics that evoked the language poets, seemed at first like an opportunity to get silly with it in ways that wouldn’t have sat quite right with their other projects. What came out of Fort Apache was different: mannered, moody, dubby even (they sampled Erik Satie, for crying out loud!). Lacking the budget to go back to the proper studio that the KIDS gig had afforded them, the Folk Implosion settled instead on Gagel’s small recording space in Boston’s South End. There were rules, rules born from frank conversations. No chords. No strumming. No indie rock! They whiled away afternoons in the park writing lyrics, trading lines. And over a year of episodic sessions, a weekend here, a few days there, an album came together. When “Natural One” blew up it could’ve changed the calculus – the opportunity was there to scrap what they’d been working on and start over with major-label money – but they elected instead to stay the course, confident in the process. It seems a bit of a shame from this remove that Dare to Be Surprised was destined to live in the shadow of the KIDS soundtrack’s success, but the ’90s were a weird time, and it was sometimes hard to recognize things for what they were. What this was, it’s clear now, is the sound of a band truly finding its feet, and forging something genuinely new in the process.

DEAD PREZ – Let’s Get Free (25th Anniversary) (Sony Legacy)
Let’s Get Free was the debut studio album by hip-hop duo Dead Prez, originally released in 2000. Critically acclaimed upon its release, Let’s Get Free was called a “return to politically conscious rap” and, “the most politically conscious rap since Public Enemy”; the duo’s messages also earned them favorable comparisons with Brand Nubian, The Coup, Def Jef and X-Clan. The album’s lyrics, performed in front of sparse beats are startlingly direct, militant, and confrontational. M-1 and stic. Man excoriates the media, the music industry, politicians, and poverty, and urge their target audience to study socialism and ideas of black power. Rolling Stone gave the album four stars and lauded its equation of “classrooms with jail cells, the projects with killing fields and everything from water to television with conduits for brainwashing by the system”.

VINCE GUARALDI –  It’s The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown: Original Soundtrack Recording (Lee Mendelson Films)
Limited vinyl LP pressed at 45rpm. For the first time ever, Vince Guaraldi’s 1974 “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (Original Soundtrack Recording – Peanuts 75th Anniversary Edition)” premieres, with the complete 19 track score plus 1 special bonus track. The holiday classic was written and created by Charles Schulz, directed by Phil Roman and produced by Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson. The Guaraldi score is finally available on CD, vinyl and digital. Mixed and mastered for audiophiles, jazz lovers, and Peanuts® fans everywhere from the original 2″ session tapes to a 192kHz/24bit master. This album is a wonderful Easter treat 50+ years in the making.

SELENA GOMEZ + BENNY BLANCO – I Said I Love You First CD/LP (Interscope)
Selena Gomez and benny blanco team up to release their first project as a couple. The album celebrates the pair’s love story, giving fans a unique window into their relationship. This album came together organically as a direct result of the comfort that they both felt when working together creatively, allowing them to produce art that authentically reflects their experiences. It chronicles their entire story – before they met, falling in love, and looking to what the future holds. Available on candy cane red vinyl. I Said I Love You First

DEAD BOYS – Live In San Francisco LP (Cleopatra)
The first official release of this wild and thrilling 1977 live recording of the legendary punk rock rabble rousers, Dead Boys! Recorded at the historic Old Waldorf in San Francisco, this concert album captures every drop of sweat, fleck of spittle and burst of crazed energy that made Dead Boys the kings of American punk rock! Available for the first time on PURPLE vinyl!

LOU DONALDSON – Say It Loud! (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition)
Lou Donaldson had been a Blue Note stalwart since his earliest recordings in 1952 and over the following 15 years produced numerous classic dates spanning bebop, hard bop, and soul jazz. But when the alto saxophonist hooked up with the funky drummer Leo Morris (aka Idris Muhammad) for 1967’s Alligator Bogaloo it began a run of great groove-oriented albums, including 1968’s Say It Loud. Filling out the band were Donaldson’s fellow Blue Note labelmate Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Charles Earland (organ), and Jimmy Ponder (guitar) on this emphatic session, which opens with a firmly in-the-pocket version of James Brown’s “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud).” This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

aya – I’m Hole LP (Hyperdub)
Originally released in 2021 as a book and digital album, im hole is now presented on ecomix splatter-effect vinyl. A welcome reminder ahead of new aya music in 2025. On im hole, aya distilled the incisive sonic experimentation of her early run of releases, the tongue-in-cheek giggles of her DJ sets and edits, and the identity-fluxing lyricism of her live shows. The album was immediately championed from all corners, ‘Best New Music’ in Pitchfork to DJ Mary Anne Hobbs Album of the Year, followed by incredible live shows which drew new listeners further into the net.

DEAD PIONEERS – Dead Pioneers LP (Hassle)
Who were the first punks? Do The Damned have more of a shout than The Sex Pistols? The Stooges or Ramones? Gregg Deal, the acclaimed visual and performance artist behind his new project Dead Pioneers, is making a claim that Indigenous Americans were the first real punks. Deal suggests that the overarching theme of the album is “an introduction to the band itself”. Created with a DIY disposition and the “love of a scene that saves lives”, they reel off a roll call of marginalised groups and protected characteristics: “Indigenous rights, Black rights, Brown rights, Asian rights, Gay rights, Trans rights, Workers rights and beyond…”.

VARIOUS – Songs That Right Wrongs Mixtape Vol 1 LP (Song Action Collective)
In collaboration with local art & advocacy group Fuerte Arts Movement – The Song Action Collective proudly presents the limited edition vinyl release of the Songs That Right Wrongs Mixtape. With every track, we aim to inspire a generation and amplify the voices of the unheard. Join us in creating a world where art sparks activism and empowers communities to rise. This vinyl release isn’t just an album—it’s the soundtrack of a movement.  – “At Fuerte, We believe that every community already possesses the leadership, wisdom, and creativity needed to challenge oppressive systems and build alternative futures. Our role is to support and amplify that leadership by providing creation spaces, resources, and strategic tools that equip directly affected organizers and members to win campaigns that challenge corporate interests, reclaim public spaces, and achieve tangible policy and social wins.” 

COMING NEXT WEEK
LUCY DACUS – Forever Is A Feeling CD/LP
DEAFHEAVEN – Lonely People With Power CD/LP
HORRORS – Night Life CD/LP
YUKUMI – For You LP
DARKNESS – Dreams On Toast CD/LP
PERFUME GENIUS – Glory CD/LP
ALISON KRAUSS + UNION STATION – Arcadia CD/LP
MUMFORD & SONS – Rushmere CD/LP\
COCOROSIE – Little Death Wishes CD/LP
DESTROYER – Dan’s Boogie CD/LP
JAMES ELKINGTON – Pastel De Nada LP
FEELIES – Only Life LP
FEELIES – Time For A Witness LP
KINGS OF CONVENIENCE – Declaration Of Dependence LP reissue
KINGS OF CONVENIENCE – Riot On An Empty Street LP reissue
CHARLIE MEGIRA + THE BET SHE’AN VALLEY – Hillbillies Boom Chaka Boom Boom LP
ARTHUR RUSSELL – Open Vocal Phrases Where Songs Come In and Out LP
ARTHUR RUSSELL – Sketches For World Of Echo CD
SACRED PAWS – Jump Into Life CD/P
NAILS – You Will Never Be One Of Us LP
SPELLLING – Portrait Of My Heart CD/LP
UNDEROATH – Place After This One LP
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA – 1C-02 Bogota LP
SURE FIRE SOUL ENSEMBLE – Gemini CD/LP
COKE – Coke LP reissue
MINISTRY – Squirrely Years Revisited LP
SEEFEEL – Quique LP reissue
WILLIAM TYLER – Future Myths LP
UNREST – Perfect Teeth LP reissue
DEAN WAREHAM – That’s The Price Of Loving Me LP
ROB MAZUREK – Alternate Moon Cycles LP
MAKAYA MCCRAVEN – In The Moment LP
BRYAN FERRY – Loose Talk LP