Mac DeMarco – Here Comes The Cowboy CD/LP (Mac’s Records Label)
Here Comes The Cowboy is Mac DeMarco’s fourth full-length and debut release on his own record label, introduced by the waltzing lead single, “Nobody”. As described by DeMarco, “This one is my cowboy record. Cowboy is a term of endearment to me; I use it often when referring to people in my life. Where I grew up there are many people that sincerely wear cowboy hats and do cowboy activities. These aren’t the people I’m referring to.” Nearly every instrument on the album was played by DeMarco, aside from keyboards on select tracks by touring member and close friend Alec Meen. Traveling sound engineer, Joe Santarpia, helped shape the record, sharing engineering and mixing duties with DeMarco. The rusty old grinning pin on the front and back covers was purchased from a man in the mountains somewhere in the Nantahala National Forest between Chattanooga, TN and Asheville, NC.

The Mystery Lights – Too Much Tension! CD/LP+MP3 (Wick)
The Mystery Lights’ sophomore album on Daptone’s rock subsidiary, Wick Records, finds the group digging deeper into their well of eclectic influences, enriching their sound without echoing the past. It mixes the eerie, insistent synth sounds of groups like The Normal and Suicide, the energy and swagger of punks golden age, the pop sensibility of The Kinks, and the stark, deliberate execution of Television. The Mystery Lights are taking their idiosyncratic brand of rock and roll to dizzying new heights. “Mystery Lights maintaining their raw and brilliantly unrefined sound. ‘I’m So Tired (Of Living In The City)’ has almost punk-like attributes with a rhythm driving and an urgency that’s simmering superficially beneath vintage rock chords and its swirling progressions. Produced by Wayne Gordon at Daptone’s House Of Soul, Too Much Tension! is a modern classic born from vintage technique and soulful execution.” — Statiknoize

Charly Bliss – Young Enough CD/LP (Barsuk)
Charly Bliss has evolved from the bunch of scrappy upstarts behind their brash punk debut Guppy, to the confident, assured artists who have produced the comparatively dynamic and unapologetically pop Young Enough. But, for lead singer Eva Hendricks, the path of this evolution was fraught, as her lyrics inspired by a past abusive relationship show. Songwriting became a source of respite, and, eventually, redemption. “You go through experiences of loss or extreme pain and you just keep moving,” Eva says. “You look around and go, how has the world not stopped? But it is also powerful. It’s like, I’m still here, I’m not a person who is ruled by pain, I still like who I am.” Album tracks “Chat Room” and “Young Enough” are new sonic lynchpins, as is the soaring, mini epic, “Fighting In The Dark”. The delicate synth confessional “Hurt Me” also felt, as Eva puts it, “like something we hadn’t explored yet.” The entire record sounds like a new realm, from the deceptively easeful confessional “Capacity” to the propulsive, more classic pop of Hard To Believe”. In the end, Young Enough feels joyful and celebratory, but also infused with a new sense of depth and maturity.

Esperanza Spalding – 12 Little Spells CD/2xLP (Concord)
Since October 7th, 2018, 4x Grammy Award-winner Esperanza Spalding has been unveiling her innovative new project 12 Little Spells by releasing a new spell – in the form of a new song with video – every day on her Facebook, Instagram, and website. The concept came to Esperanza while exploring different ways to create, experience, and process music; particularly the healing powers of art and how music and the body interact. Each song is inspired by a different body part. Composed by Spalding, 12 Little Spells find the trailblazing artist on vocals flanked by Matthew Stevens (guitar), Justin Tyson (drums), Aaron Burnett (saxophone), Burniss Travis (bass), Corey King (background vocals), and Rob Schwimmer (continuum). Spalding also worked with visual artist Carmen Daneshmandi, opera/theater director Elkhanah Pulitzer, wardrobe specialist Diego Montoya, choreographer Chanel DaSilva and video artist Ethan Samuel Young to create elements of the album and live show.

A.A. Bondy – Enderness CD/LP (Fat Possum)
A.A. Bondy’s first album in eight years was finished the day before the California wildfires burned his house down. He recorded and played everything on the ten track collection himself.

Clinic – Wheeltappers And Shunters CD/LP (Domino)
After an unprecedented seven-year break, Clinic – Liverpool’s cherished post-punk pop experimentalists – return with their eighth album, Wheeltappers And Shunters. The unusual name is taken from the long-forgotten 1970s ITV variety show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club, compered by Bernard Manning, which recreated the smoky, boozy atmosphere of Northern working men’s clubs for a sofa-bound audience. This album is neither a celebration nor a denigration of the culture of the era in which Adrian Blackburn and his collaborator-in-chief, Jonathan Hartley, grew up.

Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres – Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres CD/LP+MP3 (Strap Originals)
Recently released on vinyl – now available on CD. Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres‘ eponymously titled debut album was recorded live to capture the essence and spirit of the Puta Madres at a family home overlooking a fishing village in Normandy, over four days in the summer of 2018 and mixed in Urchin Studios, London. Engineered by Dan Cox and produced by Jai Stanley, it’s a devastatingly intimate portrait of love, loss, happiness, tragedy, addiction and the power of the human soul to transcend its darker levels.

Drahla – Third Article CDEP/12” (Captured Tracks)
Blending wiry post-punk with unpredictable art-rock, Drahla have garnered early critical praise with their first singles, including “Faux Text” b/w “Burden Of Proof” which was released via Too Pure Singles Club earlier this year. Formed in late 2015, Drahla quickly found their identity in Leeds’ fertile music scene with their minimal yet robust bass-heavy sound, while their reputation as a fervent live act saw them sharing stages with Parquet Courts, The Cribs, Buzzcocks, Dream Wife, Menace Beach and more.

Get Up Kids – Problems CD/LP+MP3 (Polyvinyl)
On their new album Problems – their first full-length in eight years – The Get Up Kids examine everything from life-changing loss to loneliness to the inevitable anxiety of existing in 2019. But by sustaining the essence of their sound – anthemic choruses with sing-along-ready melodies – the band highlights those troubles as a shared experience, giving way to an unbreakable solidarity. And at the heart of Problems is an invaluable element the band’s embodied since their 1997 debut Four Minute Mile: a penetrating lyricism that’s both acutely introspective and indelibly resonant.

Big Brave – Gaze Among Them CD/LP (Southern Lord)
Since their inception in 2012, Big Brave has explored terrains of experimental rock with a clear focus on the key principles; space, volume, and raw emotion. The essence of the group’s magic has always been the way they balance these dynamics, and particularly how much sheer power comes from the beautifully quiet moments. Their fourth album, A Gaze Among Them features guest appearances from Thierry Amar (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt Zion) on contrabass and Seth Manchester’s synth overdubs.

The Gooch Palms – III CD/LP (BMG)
Hailing from Australia’s steel city, Newcastle, Australia, The Gooch Palms are two professional party starters guaranteed to get you singing at the top of your lungs and shaking your ass.

Tim Hecker – Anoyo CD (Kranky)
Anoyo (the world over there) draws from the same sessions which led to the 2018 work Konoyo but rendered starker, solemn, and stripped back, with more of a naturalist tint. Tim Hecker’s processing here moves in veiled ways, soft refractions and whispered shrouds woven within improvisational sessions of traditional gagaku interplay, evoking a sense of vaulted space, temples at dawn, shredded silk fluttering in the rafters. This is boldly barren music, skeletal and sculptural, shaped from wood, wind, strings, and mist. Modern yet ancient, delicate and desolate, Anoyo inverts its predecessor to compellingly conjure a parallel world of illusion, solitude, and eternal return.

Olivia Neutron-John – Olivia Neutron John CD/LP (Sister Polygon)
Olivia Neutron-John draws you into its hypnotic repetition only to disorient with a catchy line gone awry and into a totally different atmosphere, like Ian Curtis playing on the moon. The punk sensibilities of ON-J’s dance music ride a delicate balance between chaos and precision.

Jamila Woods – Legacy! Legacy! CD/LP (Jagjaguwar)
Jamila Woods has a voice and lyrical sensibility that transcends generations, and so it makes sense to have this lush and layered album that bounces seamlessly from one sonic aesthetic to another. From the airy boom-bap of “Giovanni” to the psychedelic flourishes of “Sonia”, the instrument which ties the musical threads together is the ability of Woods to find her pockets in the waves of instrumentation, stretching syllables and vowels over the harmony of noise until each puzzle piece has a home.

Cotton Jones – Paranoid Cocoon [Reissue/2009] LP (Suicide Squeeze)
Cotton Jones features ex-members of Page France. This music mixes elements of soul, rock, and gospel into a gauzy cocoon of small-town sound. An album of quiet, wooden psychedelia that reflects the duo’s casual pursuit of comfort and freedom under the mountains of Cumberland, Maryland, where creeks zigzag in the lonesome dark of the forest, and a red moon hangs overhead.

NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
THE NATIONAL – I Am Easy To Find CD/LP/Deluxe LP
HEAD AND THE HEART – Living Mirage CD/LP
NICK LOWE – Love Starvation / Trombone LP
COM TRUISE – Persuasion System CD/LP
WEEZER – Teal LP
EPIC BEARD MEN (SAGE FRANCIS/B DOLAN) – This Was Supposed To Be Fun CD/LP
HOLLY HERNDON – Proto CD/LP
ENDLESS BOOGIE – Vol I II CD/LP
JUAN MACLEAN – What Do You Feel Free About 12″
DEATH VALLEY GIRLS – Glow In The Dark LP
DAVE HAUSE – Kick CD/LP
THE HEAVY – Sons CD/LP
INTERPOL – Fine Mess CDEP/12″
L7 – Scatter The Rats CD
UMPHREY’S MCGEE – Anchor Drops Redux CD/LP
INSTITUTE – Readjusting The Locks CD/LP
ALEX LAHEY – Best Of Luck Club CD/LP
SISKIYOU – Not Somewhere CD/LP
KERO KERO BONITO – Swimming / Open Road LP