New Releases & Staff Picks – 4/11/25
Bon Iver’s three-song collection SABLE, was a prologue mired in darkness, a controlled burn clearing the way for new possibilities. fABLE is the book that follows. Where SABLE was a work of solitude, fABLE is an outstretched hand. Radiant, ornate pop music gleams around Vernon’s voice as he focuses on a new and beautiful era. On every song, his eyes are locked with one specific person. It’s love, which means there’s an intense clarity, focus, and honesty within fABLE. The song-and by extension the entire album -is a pledge. He’s ready to find that pace.
Smashing Pumpkins – RSD Essential version of SIAMESE DREAM is here. 2LPx Red Smoke 180gm. One of the most influential albums of the 90s, featuring “Today,” “Disarm” and “Cherub Rock,” on exclusive Red Smoke 180 Gram Color Vinyl.
Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing housed in gatefold jacket. 10th Anniversary Edition of Lord Huron’s seminal, multi platinum album Strange Trails. Includes re-illustrated artwork and brand-new 20-page comic book, The Yawning Grave.
Babe Rainbow’s Slipper Imp and Shakaerator is a sun-soaked celebration of psychedelic acid-pop, infused with the laid-back magic of Australia’s Gold Coast. A return to their roots, the album blends nostalgic riffs, shimmering ’80s funk, flowing rhythms, and lysergic jams into an effortlessly joyful, homegrown album that’s wild, radiant, and ready to be shared. Available on Blue Laguna color recycled vinyl.
Daughter of Swords is the solo project of North Carolina singer-songwriter Alex Sauser-Monnig (they/she), who has also released music with bands Mountain Man and The A’s. Their solo debut, Dawnbreaker, was a hushed folk record released in 2019; in the years since, Sauser-Monnig found a new understanding of self, personally and musically. Across the last several years, Daughter of Swords’ music has grown thornier, an unpredictable and knotty tangle of technicolor synths, heady guitar, bubbling rhythms, a sheen enveloping songs about raw human intensity writ large – crushes, desire, anger, alienation, the horrors of late-stage capitalism, the cascading paradigm shifts it seems we’re all hurtling toward.
Cold Specks returns with her fourth album, Light for the Midnight. Following the acclaim of her first three records, Cold Specks (Al Spx) has solidified her reputation as a singular voice in modern music. From her spellbinding acapella performance on Later… with Jools Holland to collaborations with Moby, Massive Attack, and Michael Gira of Swans, Cold Specks has consistently delivered artistry that resonates. With Light for the Midnight, she embarks on her most personal journey yet. At its core, the album is a raw and deeply emotional reflection on endurance, survival, and transformation. A collection of fervent ballads and atmospheric pop songs, it channels Spx’s soulful voice into expansive sonic worlds.
The Crescent City’s chameleonic funk-rock-pop veterans Galactic reunite with the “Soul Queen of New Orleans” Irma Thomas for a full album of new music on Audience With the Queen, an uplifting joint-effort that shines new light on the Grammy-winning singer’s timeless sound. Now 84, Thomas has contributed era-defining hits to New Orleans’ R&B “Golden Age,” earned worldwide acclaim for her blues masterpiece After the Rain and remains among the city’s most celebrated gospel singers. With Galactic at her side across 8 high-energy, groove-laced originals and a dazzling revamp of Nancy Wilson’s “How Glad I Am,” Thomas sounds more vibrant than ever. This unique full-length LP featuring two of New Orleans’ most beloved music acts is a must-have for fans of any genre.
Four pieces by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, a pioneer of “holy minimalism.” The album centers around a never-before-released rendition of “Silentium,” the second movement of Pärt’s most famous concerto, Tabula Rasa, performed by Boston-based chamber orchestra A Far Cry. The group plays “Silentium” at nearly half the speed of the best-known version, released on ECM in 1984. The piece, known for its healing properties for the dying and often used in palliative care facilities (one patient famously called it “angel music”), is breathtaking at half speed, seemingly stilling time itself.
DOSEONE & STEEL TIPPED DOVE – All Portrait, No Chorus LP (Backwoodz Studioz)
All Portrait, No Chorus is the new album from indie rap pioneer doseone and NYC producer Steel Tipped Dove. Together, these two artists have crafted an uncompromising masterpiece. Knowing the caliber of MC he is paired with, Dove skillfully paints with every color on the palette, and doseone skates effortlessly on every track, whether skating languid figure 8s or landing lyrical triple axels. Somehow the veteran sounds sharper than ever and the songs are lean and hungry, cut to the quick.
DEAD PIONEERS – Po$t American LP (Hassle)
PO$T AMERICAN is the second full-length album by Dead Pioneers. It’s music that speaks to & for this precise time. It is an album for now. Dead Pioneers emerged as a dynamic extension of vocalist Gregg Deal’s performance art, seamlessly blending music with critical cultural commentary. Rooted in the same themes of identity and resistance that define his visual work, the band’s sound acts as a powerful platform for addressing the complexities of Indigenous experience. PO$T AMERICAN is the band’s second full-length album. Written in February and recorded in July, it preempts the 2024 American election but wraps up the fears and frustrations as eloquently and, crucially, humorously as the band’s 2023 self-titled debut.
SHARP PINS – Radio DDR LP (K Records)
Let the old folks fight it out Sharp Pins are too busy staying up late watching vampire movies. Fathers and Children of the Revolution Finally cartographed and designed by the actual Youth in Revolt “Nothing Stands in their way they ARE the face of today” How can you tell you’ve been in the presence of the Sharp Pins? You see their sticker on yr phone, yr car, yr guitar, yr drums, yr bass, yr clarinet, yr flugelhorn, yr tuba, yr dog it’s a MOD MOD WORLD, we’re just living in it. Sharp Pins is the super solid lo-fi noise pop project of talented Chicago musician Kai Slater of Lifeguard and Dwaal Troupe. Radio DDR originally released at home as a Hallogallo tape.
LESS THAN JAKE – Hello Rockview LP reissue (Smartpunk)
Hello Rockview is the third studio album by ska punk band Less Than Jake, released on October 6, 1998. Produced by Howard Benson, it is the band’s second and final album on Capitol Records, and recorded at Mirror Image Studios in Gainesville, Florida.