New Release Round-Up 02-28-20

Caribou - Suddenly - Merge Records
In 2014, Dan Snaith aka Caribou released Our Love to overwhelming critical acclaim. Caribou returns now with his new studio album Suddenly, a warm, untamable, and constantly surprising record about family and the changes we go through as those relationships evolve. Most prominently, Suddenly refers to the moments of dramatic and unexpected change that occur at points in any life and within any family-universal themes that can catch you off guard and change your life in a heartbeat. Those dramatic moments are part of a slower process. These moments rear their heads, for good or bad, during the everyday flow of life. "There's a tension between those sudden things which blindside you and the more glacial, gradual day-to-day changes," he observes. "We are so caught up in the immediate-the details that require our attention every day-that we can be blind to the bigger forces shaping us. That's why so often when something drastic happens suddenly, it catalyzes all sorts of changes in our lives. Our perspective shifts." Suddenly is in the music, too. This is the most surprising and unpredictable Caribou album to date. Though it retains the trademark Caribou warmth and technicolor, this album is littered with swerves and left turns. "I wanted to balance the familiar-the sound that people associate with my music-against these moments of surprise," Snaith says. As his passion and joy in music-making remains as fresh as ever, Suddenly is the purest example of this yet.

Five Finger Death Punch - F8 - Better Noise Music
The eighth album from hard-hitting rockers Five Finger Death Punch. The album was produced by Kevin Churko, the Canadian record producer/engineer and songwriter who currently lives in Las Vegas, where he works out of his private studio, The Hideout Recording Studio. Includes "Inside Out".

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Soccer Mommy - color theory - Loma Vista
For Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy, color theory confronts the ongoing mental health and familial trials that have long-plagued her, presenting listeners with an uncompromisingly honest self-portrait. The new album’s sonic landscape is vast and dexterous, with melodies that shimmer on the surface, but reveal an unsettling darkness with each listen.

The Secret Sisters - Saturn Return - New West Records
As we age, we face obstacles that are beyond our control. Some forces are internal: insecurity, anxiety, fear. Some are external: the loss of loved ones, an unjust system and the fragility of time. Yet the mark of maturity is how you respond when you realize you’re not in control. Where do you find your resilience? This album is a reflection of us coming to terms with how to find our power in the face of an unfair world. These songs lead listeners past “where happy man searches, to a place only mad women know.” We question our purpose, our relationships, our faith. Trading the fears of our youth for the dread that rages within us as mature women. With Saturn Return, our hope is that women can feel less alone in their journey through the modern world. We need each other more than we ever have; the less competition and the more inclusiveness and understanding, the better. We are southern women in the 21st century, convicted by our beliefs.

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Real Estate - The Main Thing - Domino
Over the last decade, Real Estate have crafted warm yet meticulous pop-minded music, specializing in soaring melodies that are sentimentally evocative and unmistakably their own. The Main Thing dives further into the musical dichotomies they're known for'lilting, bright guitar lines set against emotionally nuanced lyrics, complex arrangements conveyed breezily. What emerges is a superlative collection of interrogative songs as full of depth, strangeness and contradictions as they are lifting hooks.

Broken Social Scene - Live At Third Man Records - Third Man Records
Third Man Records had the pleasure of hosting the inimitable Broken Social Scene, carefully absorbing and recording their magnetic and unforgettable live set on the Blue Room stage. Epic, panoramic, and intimate all at the same time, the legendary Toronto collective Broken Social Scene began as an ebbing and flowing collective of artists in the late 90s, collaborating to create a distinct strand of indie rock that is both perplexingly maximal and straight-up catchy. The band kicked off the set with emotive fan favorite “Cause = Time”, then transitioning into “Stay Happy,” the lead track from 2017’s Hug of Thunder, in all it’s hypnotic, horn-driven grandeur. Then, on the flip side, the album’s 2-song B-side wraps with the slow-build anthem “It’s All Gonna Break,” a song once described as “Bob Seger on acid.” Really, how else would you want a show to close? Their live set was captured, mixed and mastered in real time via the world’s only live venue and direct-to-acetate lathe cutting studio. With the release of this Live At Third Man Records album, Third Man is very excited to invite all to be a part of this special experience, Broken Social Scene’s first commercially available live album, in the only venue in the world where performance, art and tactile transcription methodologies converge.

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UPCOMING RELEASES

Caroline Rose - Superstar - New West Records
Here comes SUPERSTAR the bigger, badder, glitter-driven record by Caroline Rose. Written as a sequel to 2018's LONER, the forthcoming release 'plays out like an epic movie about the pursuit of fame and fortune,' Rose states. 'I've always been fascinated by this pursuit, but what's even more fascinating is what happens when it fails.' Indeed, gone are the successful Hollywood hunks and starlets of old. SUPERSTAR chronicles a quirky anti-hero, who after receiving a wrong call from the elite hotel Chateau Marmont, decides to leave their old life behind in order to become a big Hollywood star.

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Mandy Moore - Silver Landings - Verve Forecast
Emmy, Grammy and Golden Globe nominated actress, singer, and songwriter, Mandy Moore returns to music with her first album in a decade, Silver Landings In a purposeful departure from the more tightly structured pop of her previous material, she's worked closely with long-time collaborator and producer Mike Viola and with her husband, Taylor Goldsmith (singer/guitarist/songwriter for L.A.-based folk-rock band Dawes), creating the album's lyrics on her own and recording each song live with a full band setup. The album deftly moves from 70s inspired soft-rock (When I Wasn’t Watching, I’d Rather Lose) to contemporary pop (Save A Little For Yourself, Tryin’ My Best, Los Angeles). “I wanted to make a California-inspired record, something that feels airy and natural”, says Moore.  Moore looks forward to embarking on the next chapter of her music career with a newfound sense of agency. “I very much feel like I'm at the helm of the ship now, where I'm stepping back into music completely on my own terms,” she says. “Everything that's happened up until this point has gotten me to where I am today, and I'm so excited to just keep moving forward.”

 

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Thick - 5 Years Behind - Epitaph
Born from the DIY/all-ages scene in New York, Thick make music with the raw defiance of punk and addictive melodies of pop, punchy and catchy and wildly tongue-in-cheek. With their live show typically spawning a mosh pit described by Stereogum as "more like an aggressive hug," the Brooklyn-based trio brings an unchecked intimacy while building a deep and unshakable solidarity with the audience.

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Lauv - ~how i'm feeling~ - Lauv
The debut album from Lauv, the Platinum-certified independent singer, songwriter, producer, and pop visionary. Featuring hits including "I'm So Tired..." and "Fuck, I'm Lonely". As one of the most successful independent artists of the last decade, with over three billion streams to date and widespread acclaim from Rolling Stone to The New York Times, Lauv continues to shatter the mold of what a mainstream global pop star is.

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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.

New Release Round-Up 02-21-20

Grimes - Miss Anthropocene - 4AD
Grimes started producing music when she had to learn the program Logic for her neuroscience class. Shortly thereafter she had a viral myspace page, which allowed her to start booking shows and focus full-time on music. She lived in a crack den in Montreal with no heat (where she got frostbite twice and her neighbor was bludgeoned to death in the hallway), playing raves until her 2012 breakout, Visions, which was recorded during a 2 week speed binge wherein she did not leave her bedroom. Upon the success of this album, Grimes attempted to enter society as a regular human, which has clearly not gone super well but has nonetheless been entertaining. She’s since become an award winning music video director as well as a music writer, producer, engineer, singer-songwriter. She’s toured globally to sold out crowds, headlined festivals, and is now moving into the space of corporate surrealism. She recently had experimental eye surgery only available to the upper class. She is putting out her final earth album Miss Anthropocene.

Best Coast - Always Tomorrow - Concord Records
This week sees the release of Always Tomorrow, the hotly anticipated new album from Best Coast. Inspired by the 70s, the LA based duo expand their signature indie pop sound into a harmonic blend of melodic guitars and keyboards as warm and refreshing as a California breeze. Multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno, along with the irrepressible Bethany Cosentino, combine to bring her masterful storytelling to new heights, crafting their most eloquent and reflective album to date. It’s the Best Coast you know and love at an entirely new level.

Sløtface - Sorry For The Late Reply - Nettwerk Records
Norwegian indie rock band Sløtface deliver a powerful sophomore record in "Sorry For The Late Reply". Fierce yet melodic, the album takes on everything from break ups to climate change and lead vocalist Haley Shea's immigrant experience.

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Courtney Barnett - Mtv Unplugged Live In Melbourne - Mom & Pop Music
On October 22nd Courtney Barnett performed a unique and special show at the invitation of MTV Australia in her hometown of Melbourne. The “Unplugged” performance features Barnett as you’ve never heard her before, warm, vulnerable and emotional. Under a garland of lights and a canopy of florals in the outdoor courtyard of Howler, Barnett performed a stirring set of eight songs to an intimate audience including “Depreston”, “Avant Gardener” and “Sunday Roast." Joined by her usual band Dave Mudie and Bones Sloane, she also enlisted cellist Lucy Waldron.

 

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man - Epic
This is the Ozzman’s first album in 10 years and with his recent appearance on the Post Malone track “Take What You Want” as well as his single “Under The Graveyard” which has now been #1 at Active Rock for five weeks and #1 at Classic Rock for nine weeks we are poised to have a massive return to the marketplace.  Some of the announced features include longtime guitarist Zakk Wylde, Slash & Duff McKagan (GNR), Chad Smith of the RHCP, and Post Malone guitarist / producer Andrew Watt.  There are additional big name features that have yet to be announced.

Purr - Like New - ANTI
2020 debut album from New York City born, raised and forever-based songwriting partners Eliza Barry Callahan and Jack Staffen. Like New was produced by Jonathan Rado (Weyes Blood, Father John Misty, Whitney, The Lemon Twigs). The duo - who had previously captured attention releasing deft, stripped down, warm-toned pysch-pop under their names, Jack and Eliza - shifted to what naturally felt like their next musical gear. If Jack and Eliza showcased the songwriting prowess of a promising young duo (they are both still in their early twenties), then Purr let's Callahan's and Staffen's work bloom in the fertile ground of a fully realized soundscape. Purr builds upon an ageless, classic sound that at once looks at the past while leaning into their own, individual future - with Staffen's and Callahan's vocals humming at the center.

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UPCOMING RELEASES

The Secret Sisters - Saturn Return - New West Records
As we age, we face obstacles that are beyond our control. Some forces are internal: insecurity, anxiety, fear. Some are external: the loss of loved ones, an unjust system and the fragility of time. Yet the mark of maturity is how you respond when you realize you’re not in control. Where do you find your resilience? This album is a reflection of us coming to terms with how to find our power in the face of an unfair world. These songs lead listeners past “where happy man searches, to a place only mad women know.” We question our purpose, our relationships, our faith. Trading the fears of our youth for the dread that rages within us as mature women. With Saturn Return, our hope is that women can feel less alone in their journey through the modern world. We need each other more than we ever have; the less competition and the more inclusiveness and understanding, the better. We are southern women in the 21st century, convicted by our beliefs.

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Five Finger Death Punch - F8 - Better Noise Music
2020 release, the eighth album from hard-hitting rockers Five Finger Death Punch. The album was produced by Kevin Churko, the Canadian record producer/engineer and songwriter who currently lives in Las Vegas, where he works out of his private studio, The Hideout Recording Studio. Includes "Inside Out".

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Broken Social Scene - Live At Third Man Records - Third Man Records
Third Man Records had the pleasure of hosting the inimitable Broken Social Scene, carefully absorbing and recording their magnetic and unforgettable live set on the Blue Room stage. Epic, panoramic, and intimate all at the same time, the legendary Toronto collective Broken Social Scene began as an ebbing and flowing collective of artists in the late 90s, collaborating to create a distinct strand of indie rock that is both perplexingly maximal and straight-up catchy. The band kicked off the set with emotive fan favorite “Cause = Time”, then transitioning into “Stay Happy,” the lead track from 2017’s Hug of Thunder, in all it’s hypnotic, horn-driven grandeur. Then, on the flip side, the album’s 2-song B-side wraps with the slow-build anthem “It’s All Gonna Break,” a song once described as “Bob Seger on acid.” Really, how else would you want a show to close? Their live set was captured, mixed and mastered in real time via the world’s only live venue and direct-to-acetate lathe cutting studio. With the release of this Live At Third Man Records album, Third Man is very excited to invite all to be a part of this special experience, Broken Social Scene’s first commercially available live album, in the only venue in the world where performance, art and tactile transcription methodologies converge.

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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.

#BobMarley75

Throughout history, no artist has dominated the world of music quite like Bob Marley. A musical, political and spiritual icon of mythical proportions, both poet and prophet, Marley was the first Jamaican artist to give voice to the struggles of his people and the Rastafarian culture, and the first to gain worldwide fame. October 2020 will see the 40th anniversary of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” Released in October 1980 and taken from his ninth album Uprising (Island Records), the song was inspired by a speech from Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey’s “The Work That Has Been Done” and is considered by many as one of the greatest songs ever written in popular culture. In a time when political unrest and oppression feels more prevalent than ever, “Redemption Song” maintains a poignancy and power and acts as a long-standing testament to Bob Marley’s brilliance and voice for the people. Bob Marley’s music catalog has amassed billions of streams and sold millions of albums worldwide, while his hits compilation, Legend, remains the world’s best-selling reggae album and longest-charting album in the history of Billboard’s Catalog Albums chart.

Click To Preview The Albums

New Release Round-Up 01-26-18

Calexico - The Thread That Keeps Us - New West Records
Over the past two decades, a strong sense of place has shaped the music of Calexico, infusing their albums with a stylistic unpredictability and richness of texture. While 2015’s Edge of the Sun brought the Tucson-bred band to the Mexico City borough of Coyoacán, their new full-length The Thread That Keeps Us mostly came to life in a house studio near the Northern California coast nicknamed “The Phantom Ship” by CALEXICO vocalist/guitarist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino.

 

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Hollie Cook - Vessel of Love - Merge Records
Hollie Cook combines her unique vocal talent with charming charisma to craft her own dynamic strand of lovers rock with enduring tropical vibes, weaving a path from her West London roots to an arena of diverse collaborations, critically acclaimed records, and iconic live appearances around the world. Cook’s ability to continually surprise, delight, and progress solidifies her position as one of the most exciting voices in reggae, and this is crystal clear on her third full-length and Merge debut, Vessel of Love.

Ty Segall - Freedom's Goblin [LP] - Drag City
Ty Segall goes all the way, flipping the Freedom coin to find passion, laughter and savagery on both sides. A head-spinning compendium of stompers, weepers, ballads, screamers, bangers and funker-uppers, all marking a different impasse, like a flag whirling into a knot, exploding and burning on contact, in the name of life and loathing and the pursuit of what you love.

Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa - Black Coffee [Red LP] - J&R Adventures
It's been 4 years since the critically acclaimed, Grammy nominated, and #1 Billboard Blues album Seesaw was released by Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa. They have reunited for Black Coffee - another collection of scorching interpretations of ten soul gems that pair Hart’s breathtaking vocals and Joe’s masterfully expressive playing. Featuring songs made famous by; Edgar Winter, Ray Charles, Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Lucinda Williams and more. LP is 180g, red vinyl, and contains an exclusive bonus track.

Nightmares On Wax - Shape The Future [2LP] - Warp Records
One of the most influential artists of a generation and a long-standing member of the Warp Records family, Nightmares On Wax announces his new album Shape The Future. A perfect marriage of soul, hip-hop, dub and timeless club sounds that act as a salvo masterpiece of contemporary and classic genre-blending, brilliantly solidifying Nightmares On Wax place as an inspirational electronic music figurehead.

Cornelius - Mellow Waves [LP] - Rostrum Records
Acclaimed Japanese producer, composer, and recording artist Cornelius first proper studio album in over 11 years, featuring the singles If You're Here, Sometime / Someplace, and In a Dream. 180g black vinyl gatefold LP

American Folk [Soundtrack] - American Folk Records
American Folk is the soundtrack to the award-winning 2018 independent film, American Folk, starring Joe Purdy and Amber Rubarth. In addition to both original compositions and classic folk song renditions by Purdy and Rubarth, the soundtrack includes John Prine's ''Some Humans Ain't Human'' and Jerry Garcia & David Grisman's ''Freight Train.''

 

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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section and don't forget that many of these titles are also available on vinyl.