July 28, 2017 —

New Releases and Staff Picks 7/28/17

STAFF PICKS

Kimber – Gillian Welch
Lindsay – LaPalux, Badbadnotgood
Dario – James Vincent McMorrow
Brittany – Cage the Elephant

THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES

Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Volume II [Reissue/1994] 2xCD (Warp)
Aphex Twin – I Care Because You Do [Reissue/1995] CD/2xLP+MP3 (Warp)
Aphex Twin – Richard D. James Album [Reissue/1996] CD/LP+MP3 (Warp)
Aphex Twin – Come To Daddy [Reissue/1997] CDEP/12”+MP3 (Warp)
Aphex Twin – Windowlicker [Reissue/1999] CDEP/12”+MP3 (Warp)
Classic Aphex Twin back in print on CD and vinyl formats.
 
Arcade Fire – Everything Now CD/LP/Cassette (Columbia)
“Filing a review of Arcade Fire’s new album, one that will be aggregated with myriad others, is really antithetical to the whole point of it, i.e. that we’re so overwhelmed with thoughts, feelings, opinions – ‘content’ – in 2017, that the meaning of words is diminishing at a rate of terabytes-per-second. This palpable modern information overload has been niggling at the band for years, but Everything Now is their fullest expression of it yet. The torrent of content we absorb on a daily basis is a topic ripe for art that has been largely been under-explored in music thus far, but Arcade Fire don’t do it in somber and morbid fashion, Everything Now being their most upbeat, joyful album to date. It’s like they’ve chopped up a bunch of Abba tracks with this album, tenderized them, sprinkled them with glitter and reassembled them into something a little more subtle and insouciant. Arcade Fire’s fifth studio album doesn’t have the sprawling nature of The Suburbs or Reflektor nor the cacophonic intensity of Funeral, but the sequin-festooned, disco-ish Everything Now is every bit as good as these albums in its own right. Departures in sound are often unwelcome when we’re already so happy with where a beloved band are, but, in this case, their experiments are a complete success.” – The Independent. [Two covers are available: ‘Day Version’ and an exclusive indie-store-only ‘Night Version.’ We have the limited blue colored vinyl pressing!!]

Cage The Elephant – Unpeeled CD (RCA)
Cage The Elephant’s new live album, Unpeeled, was recorded over a series of intimate shows in cities including Los Angeles, Washington DC, Knoxville, and Nashville where the band performed in a stripped down arrangement with a string quartet and additional percussion. Unpeeled features 21-tracks: 18 curated songs from their past four albums plus three re-imagined versions of existing songs. Said frontman Matt Shultz about the inspiration behind the double live release: “Many times you’re adding sonic layers looking for something to hide behind, and what you don’t realize is that that vulnerability and that nakedness might be the most compelling and interesting thing about the song.” [Vinyl edition due August 25.]

Alice Cooper – Paranormal 2xCD/2xLP (earMUSIC)
Alice Cooper’s new studio album, his first in 6 years, Paranormal was recorded in Nashville with long-time collaborator Bob Ezrin. The 10-track album also features a bonus CD mini-album consisting of two brand new songs written and recorded together with the original Alice Cooper band members Dennis Dunaway, drummer Neal Smith and guitarist Michael Bruce alongside carefully selected live recordings. Paranormal also features special guest appearances by U2’s Larry Mullen Jr., ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Deep Purple’s Roger Glover. [Limited edition red color vinyl pressing also available.]
 
Joywave – Content CD (Hollywood)
“Content is a world of shifting dynamics. Daniel Armbruster’s (Joywave’s lead singer and lyricist) fragile words give way to howling, bewildering blasts of rock and electronic programming. Powerful, immersive, lush, emotionally distant. The production by Armbruster, bassist Sean Donnelly and Rich Costey, who has worked with layered, dense-sounding bands such as Arctic Monkeys and Muse, is careful to keep the vocals out front. Other sonic details are a treat, but hardly cute: There are what critics call ‘Beatlesque’ moments. The dreamlike segue of applause folding into a murky machine rhythm of ‘Thanks, Thanks For Coming.’ Armbruster tipping toward Paul McCartney-like Tin-Pan Alley vocals. The final track, ‘Let’s Talk About Feelings,’ is the most subversively daring of all 11 songs. ‘I am drowning in love with you,’ Armbruster sings over Bailey’s lounge piano, the shimmer of Brenner’s cymbals and cocktail-crowd chatter. Armbruster dares to carry the song like a cracked Perry Como. It’s a theatrical, murky sadness.” – Democrat & Chronical [Vinyl edition due September 15.]

Lapalux – Ruinism CD/2xLP (Brainfeeder)
Throughout Ruinism the British producer takes this exploration further, journeying onward to the more ominous limbo space between life and death. In this liminal space where the finite and infinite intermingle, Lapalux sounds more at home than ever. Much of Ruinism’s inspiration was born out of a theatrical score Lapalux (aka Stuart Howard) wrote for the performance art piece Depart which was performed in an East London cemetery. The aptly named project served as genesis for a direction wrought with doom and melancholia. Ruinism is all sonic wreckage and rubble created using only hardware and real instruments. The sound simultaneously destroys and redeems itself across a tight and formidable 48-minutes. [Limited blue color vinyl pressing also available.]

Manchester Orchestra – Black Mile To The Surface CD/2xLP+MP3 (Loma Vista)
Describing a rock record as “cinematic” usually implies a double-length, sprawling album with a full orchestra on every song; Manchester Orchestra’s A Black Mile To The Surface is cinematic in that it conjures worlds. There’s magical surrealism at work, with songs about a boy with no ears (“The Alien”) and the father/sleeping child callback of “The Sunshine.” There’s a story to parse here – three brothers, an abandoned wife and child, a mysterious journey through the depths of a miles-deep mine, a narrative of twists and turns, recurring characters, alternating timelines – but the songs and melodies stand on their own. [Deluxe color vinyl pressing with an etching on Side D also available.]

James Vincent McMorrow – True Care CD/2xLP+MP3 (James Mahogany Books)
The beloved Irish singer-songwriter is now four albums deep into his career, with We Move and True Care both arriving in the last year alone. His soulful voice stretches to breathtaking heights here as he man’s guitar, keyboards and more. He’s known for folk anthems, but his experiments with R&B are a testament to his ability and drive to evolve.

Pet Shop Boys – Nightlife: Further Listening 1996-2000 2xCD/LP (Rhino)
Pet Shop Boys – Release: Further Listening 2001-2004 3xCD/LP (Rhino)
Pet Shop Boys – Fundamental: Further Listening 2005-2007 3xCD/LP (Rhino)
Digitally remastered and expanded editions. Single-disc 180gm vinyl also available.

Various Artists [BADBADNOTGOOD] – Late Night Tales CD/2xLP+MP3 (Late Night Tales)
For the 46th release in the Late Night Tales series, Canadian quartet BADBADNOTGOOD create the ultimate late night selection of tracks utilizing their record collections. (The CD edition is mixed, while the vinyl version is unmixed.)

Kinks – One For The Road [Reissue/1980] 2xLP (Friday Music)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Limited audiophile 180gm pink colored vinyl reissue of the Kinks’ 1980 live double-album.
 
OOIOO – Gold & Green [2000] 2xLP+MP3 (Thrill Jockey)
OOIOOs seminal album Gold & Green is finally widely released on vinyl for the first time. “OOIOO traffic in a crafty kind of post-punk primitivism…the synths, power chords, polyrhythmic drumming and wordless chants building into an irresistible, throbbing whole.” — The Wire

Sun Ra – The Magic City [Reissue/1966] LP (Cosmic Myth)
This 2017 definitive vinyl edition has been remastered with historical and technical notes. Although shorter in scope than side A’s magnum opus, the four works on The Magic City‘s flip side reflect the same improvisational approach, spatiality, and lack of structure. One session outtake, “Other Worlds,” an alternate version of “Shadow World,” is included as a bonus track on side B.

Gillian Welch – The Harrow And The Harvest [2011] LP (Acony)
The long-awaited first pressing of Gillian Welch’s The Harrow & The Harvest was mastered direct from the original tapes through custom Ortofon amplifiers to a Neumann VMS-80 cutting system and plated and pressed on standard-weight audiophile-quality vinyl.

 

 

NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES

COLDPLAY – Kaleidoscope CD/LP
EAGLES OF DEATH METAL – I Love You All The Time CD/LP/Indie Exclusive LP
DEADCROSS – Self Titled CD/LP (feat members of Slayer, Misfits, Faith No More, Tomahawk, The Locust, Festival Of Dead Deer)
SOCCER MOMMY – Collection CD/LP
BRIAN ENO – Another Green World LP reissue
BRIAN ENO – Before & After Science LP reissue
BRIAN ENO – Here Come The Warm Jets LP reissue
BRIAN ENO – Taking Tiger Mountain LP reissue
MAJOR LAZER – Know No Better CD
ERASURE – World Be Gone CD
GAL COSTA – India CD/LP
PREOCCUPATIONS – Cassette LP
CALVIN HARRIS – Funk Wav Bounces Vol 1 LP
NAOMI PUNK – Yellow CD/LP
HARD WORKING AMERICANS – We’re All In This Together CD/LP