This Week’s New Releases & Staff Picks 6/12/20
STAFF PICKS
Kimber – Fourtet
Lindsay – Rolling Blackouts, El Michel’s Affair
Dario – Bibio
Eric – Free Nationals
Visit our webstore to purchase these titles plus pre-order future releases.
THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Sideways To New Italy CD/LP+MP3 (Sub Pop)
Aussie rock/pop outfit Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s second record Sideways To New Italy sees the band interrogate their individual pasts and the places that inform them. In clicking the scattered pieces back into place, they have crafted for themselves a new totem of home to carry with them no matter where they end up. The album is inspired by New Italy – a village near New South Wales’s Northern Rivers – the area drummer Marcel Tussie is from. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pit-stop of a place with fewer than 200 residents, it was founded by Venetian immigrants in the late-1800s and now serves as something of a living monument to Italians’ contribution to Australia, with replica Roman statues dotted like souvenirs on the otherwise rural landscape.
Badly Drawn Boy – Banana Skin Shoes CD/2xLP (One Last Fruit)
Always one to wear his heart on his sleeve, Damon Gough’s ninth album as Badly Drawn Boy is a truly personal and heartfelt collection of songs. A huge statement of intent and one of the most glorious, colorful warming, honest pop record you’ll hear this year.
El Michels Affair – Adult Themes CD/LP (Big Crown)
Adult Themes takes El Michels Affair’s cinematic soul aesthetic literally and sends the listener on a journey through a whirlwind of moods and energies. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Four Tet – Sixteen Oceans CD/2xLP+MP3 (Temporary Residence)
Following up 2017’s New Energy, Sixteen Oceans once again showcases the producer at the top of his game – dropping sublime melodies one minute and rough rollers the next.
Hinds – The Prettiest Curse CD/LP (Mom + Pop Music)
Each time they take the stage, Madrid-bred rock band Hinds create a kind of wild magic, a feel-good free-for-all often complete with synchronized dancing and giddy crowd-surfing from the members themselves. While the band’s first two albums channeled the euphoric energy of their live show in their gorgeously punchy take on garage-rock, their The Prettiest Curse adds entirely new texture to their sound. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Sarah Jarosz – World On The Ground CD (Rounder)
Three-time Grammy winner Sarah Jarosz returns with World On The Ground, her first new album in four years. The soulful and gorgeous collection – produced by John Leventhal (Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello) and recorded in his Manhattan home studio – follows Jarosz’s Grammy-winning 2016 release Undercurrent. World On The Ground is a collection of stories both real and imagined exploring the tension and inertia of small-town living. Jarosz, a native of Wimberley, TX (pop. 2,626) and current NYC resident, explores the desire for escape set against the ease of staying put. The album is populated by sensitive souls, aimless wanderers, and back-porch daydreamers. [Vinyl edition due July 10].
LA Priest – Gene CD/LP+MP3 (Domino)
Arriving four years after the iconoclast variously known as Sam Dust, La Priest thrilled the world with the cosmic pop of his debut album Inji, Gene is named after a new modular drum machine Sam dreamt up and built alone. Working in isolation for more than two years, soldering iron in hand, Sam designed Gene using 150 electrical circuits he made up himself.
Muzz – Muzz CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
The debut album from Paul Banks (Interpol), Matt Barrick (The Walkmen) and Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman). The resulting songs are dark and gorgeous, expansive and sparse, like Cormac McCarthy prose stretched across a cowboy painting of a sunset.
The Free Nationals – The Free Nationals 2xLP (OBE)
Double gold-nugget colored vinyl LP pressing. Widely known as Anderson. Paak’s band, The Free Nationals step out on their own with their debut, self-titled, album. With features that include the first official posthumous verse from Mac Miller, along with heavyweights such as, Anderson. Paak, Kali Uchis, Daniel Caesar, JID, Syd, Westside Gunn, Conway, Benny Sings, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and more.
Sondre Lerche – Patience LP (Sondre Lerche LLC)
Norwegian indie-pop auteur Sondre Lerche has returned with his most ambitious and eclectic work to date in the form of his ninth studio album, Patience. Written over six years, and recorded mainly in Norway, the inspiration came from ambient music, running marathons and a quest for serenity. At 16, Lerche’s melodic debut, Faces Down, won a Best Newcomer Norwegian Grammy; it was followed by Two Way Monologue. Patience gives homage to these early works but with wisdom he’s gained over the years.
Liam Gallagher – MTV Unplugged (Live At Hull City Hall) CD/LP (WB)
Recorded in Hull, UK in August of last year, MTV Unplugged showcases Liam Gallagher’s solo career highlights alongside Oasis classics in new arrangements featuring backing choir, a string section and more. The MTV special aired globally in September in celebration of the release of his second solo album Why Me? Why Not and includes the solo hits “Wall Of Glass” and “One Of Us” as well as Oasis’ global smash single “Champagne Supernova”.
Norah Jones – Pick Me Up Off The Floor CD/LP (Blue Note)
Nine-time Grammy-winner Norah Jones’ seventh solo studio album, Pick Me Up Off The Floor grew out of her acclaimed singles series, as the unreleased songs unexpectedly congealed into an album of tremendous depth and beauty. Jones didn’t mean to make another album. After she finished touring 2016’s Day Breaks – her beloved return to piano-based jazz – she walked away from the well-worn album cycle grind and into an unfamiliar territory without boundaries: a series of short sessions with an ever-changing array of collaborators resulting in a diverse stream of singles (with Mavis Staples, Jeff Tweedy, Brian Blade, Rodrigo Amarante, Thomas Bartlett, Tarriona Tank Ball, and more). But then slowly but surely, the session songs Jones hadn’t released congealed into that very thing she’d meant to avoid – an album. But Pick Me Up Off The Floor is not some disjointed collage. It holds together beautifully, connected by the sly groove of her piano trios, lyrics that confront loss and portend hope, and a heavy mood that leans into darkness before ultimately finding the light.
Jehnny Beth – To Love Is To Live CD/LP+MP3 (20L07 Music)
Best known as the charismatic lead singer and co-writer of UK band Savages, who received Mercury Prize nominations for both of their now-classic two albums Silence Yourself (2013) and Adore Life (2016), Jehnny Beth’s voice, lyrical perspective, and incredible live performances have captivated audiences since the early Aughts. But it’s in To Love Is To Live that Jehnny truly steps into the spotlight. The album is a sonic tour de force, a dark cinematic meditation on the strange business of being alive.
Bibio – Sleeping On The Wing CD/LP+MP3 (Warp)
Bibio returns with a new collection of music, just over a year on from his last album Ribbons. This collection continues the story of Ribbons, with ten tracks drawing on similar inspiration and using a similar palette of instruments and sounds. It is much more instrumental focused with only two tracks featuring vocals.
Built To Spill – Built To Spill Plays The Songs Of Daniel Johnston CD/LP (Ernest Jenning)
In 2017 Built to Spill was invited to play a few shows as Daniel Johnston’s back-up band. This is what those rehearsals sounded like; 11 tracks of Johnston’s fractured pop presented through the eyes of Built To Spill.
Larkin Poe – Self Made Man CD/LP+MP3 (Tricki-Woo)
Self Made Man sees the multi-instrumentalist sister duo, comprised of the Atlanta-bred, Nashville-based Rebecca and Megan Lovell, pushing their music and message towards hitherto unexplored terrain, inspired by their epic world travels yet still powerfully rooted in the creative heritage of their beloved American South. [Limited tan colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Maserati – Enter The Mirror CD/LP (Temporary Residence)
Marking their 20th year as a band, Maserati returns with their first new album in five years. Produced by the band and mixed by Grammy-winning producer, John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Swans, Angel Olsen), Enter The Mirror is Maserati’s most compelling mélange of triumphant guitar hooks, abstract synth-pop, and Wax Trax-inspired noise anthems. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
The 1975 – Notes On A Conditional Form 2xLP (Interscope)
Following 2018’s A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, The 1975’s much-anticipated fourth studio effort, Notes In A Conditional Form is the second of two albums from the British band’s third release cycle, Music For Cars. Over the past six months, the band has dropped a selection of sonically-diverse singles, including the shoegazey “Me & You Together Song”, and the twangy, “The Birthday Party”. Limited clear vinyl pressing also available.
24-Carat Black – III LP (Numero)
From Shrine to Stax, Isaac Hayes to Gloria Ann Taylor, The Mad Lads to The Staples Singers, Detroit to Atlanta, Kendrick to Pusha-T, Dale Warren’s singular voice is the lone constant. Beneath the ethereal beauty of his productions was a genius crippled by his unbridled id. His ever- evolving 24-Carat Black project spanned the ’70s, producing a masterpiece and an unfinished follow up. Discovered in a storage space were Warren’s 1980s demos cut with grown ‘n’ sexy divas Princess Hearn, Vicki Gray, and LaRhonda LeGette right before his untimely death at the age of 50. III is an unfinished symphony that peels away the final layer of Dale Warren’s mysterious oeuvre.
Jay Som – A Thousand Words b/w Can’t Sleep 7”+MP3 (Polyvinyl)
Following the release of Jay Som’s critically acclaimed sophomore album, Anak Ko (2019), the band’s creative force, Melina Duterte, is already back with two beautiful new songs. “A Thousand Words” and “Can’t Sleep” both give listeners a crystal clear reminder as to what made Jay Som one of the most popular indie acts of the last few years. Limited blue colored vinyl pressing.
Kaytranada – Bubba 2xLP (RCA)
Vinyl pressing of the second studio album by Canadian electronic music producer. Features guest appearances from Kali Uchis, Pharrell Williams, Mick Jenkins, Tinashe, Estelle, Charlotte Day Wilson, and GoldLink, among others.
Sonic Boom – All Things Being Equal LP+MP3 (Carpark)
It’s auspicious that Sonic Boom – the solo project and nom-deproducer of Peter Kember (Spectrum, Spacemen 3) – returns in 2020 with his first new LP in three decades. Kember’s drawn to the year’s numerological potency, and this intentionality shines into every corner of All Things Being Equal. It’s a meditative, mathematical record concerned with the interconnectedness of memory, space, consumerism, consciousness’ everything. Through regenerative stories told backwards and forwards, Kember explores dichotomies zen and fearsome, reverential of his analog toolkit and protective of the plants and trees that support our lives. [CD edition due June 26.]