New Releases - 11/5/21
Hitting The Racks
Here's your weekly rundown of what's hitting the new release racks at Grimey's
New Releases
ABBA – Voyage CD/LP (Capitol)
The quartet of Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid, one of the most successful pop groups of all time, return with Voyage – their first new album in 40 years. The highly anticipated 10-track collection is introduced by the pair of promising singles "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down". "I Still Have Faith In You" is an atmospheric, slow tempo piece that builds dramatically with harmonized choruses and rock guitar accompaniment. "Don't Shut Me Down" also starts slowly, but soon picks up pace with an infectious beat. Both tracks have the powerful vocals and intelligent lyrics that characterized the group's songbook in their earlier years together.
AHI – Prospect CD/LP (22nd Sentry)
"Powerfully moving" (NPR) songwriter AHI's new album Prospect builds on the Toronto musician's songwriting rooted in the lessons of community, uplift and oneness that he has drawn from years spent backpacking across the world, including extended stays in the Ethiopian Highlands and jungles of Trinidad before pursuing a career in music. Prospect, produced by Grammy Award winner Paul Mabury in Nashville, finds AHI taking a turn inward to reflect on his own identity as well as what he's seen in his local community. "This universe can often leave us feeling small and insignificant," says AHI, "but I truly believe that our lives are part of something bigger and more meaningful than we understand. You and I are the prospect, and it's important to live our lives like they're worth something because our impact on each other is far more immense than we can ever imagine."
Craig Armstrong – Nocturnes - Music For Two Pianos LP (Modern Recordings)
Recently released on CD – now available on 180gm color vinyl. “The decision to compose for two pianos gave me the ability to write more abstract compositions, blurring the melodies and harmonies to make a diffused sound. Other Nocturnes are purer and focus on delicate melodic fragments, revealing their compositional process as they develop. Each short piece should stand on its own however the atmosphere and intention of each movement work together as a whole. Writing the work, which was composed and recorded at home was in a way therapeutic amidst the pandemic. I would like to think the beauty of the sound and reflectiveness of the music communicates and in turn perhaps might help the listener find some solace in these strange times.”
Brian Fallon – Night Divine CD/LP (Lesser Known)
Night Divine is a series of hymns covered by The Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon. This is a project he's been wanting to create for a long time, inspired by his time singing in the church choir as a child. "This was the first music I'd ever heard and learned," Fallon said. "It's one of the earliest musical memories I have. So, the idea has been churning in my head for a long time. Even when I was making rock 'n' roll, this was always in the background." He finally got the opportunity to make the intimate record during lockdown, with background vocals by his mother. The 10-track collection is introduced by the lead single and album opener, "The Virgin Mary Had One Son". "I heard Odetta sing an incredible live version of ‘Virgin Mary Had One Son', and it was actually one of the performances that inspired me to learn the piano," he notes. "Joan Baez sang it back in the sixties too. From those two versions, I put down my own structure with the acoustic guitar and the vocal. The other sonic elements appear and disappear like characters in a play. In the end, everything comes out for one last note." [Limited edition “natural” vinyl with black swirl.]
Robben Ford – Pure LP (earMUSIC)
With nine unique tracks, Pure features a pure Robben Ford - a guitar virtuoso who has a tremendous music vocabulary of jazz, blues and rock. The album seamlessly blends a soulful west coast vibe with bluesy hard rock. [Limited edition red vinyl.]
Neal Francis – In Plain Sight CD/LP (ATO)
Neal Francis' sophomore album offers up a body of work both enchanting and painfully self-aware. Recorded entirely on tape and mixed by Grammy Award-winner Dave Fridmann (Spoon, Tame Impala, Flaming Lips), the record spotlights Francis's refined yet free-spirited piano playing, an instrument he took up at age four. The songs came to life over the course of a tumultuous year spent living in a (possibly) haunted church in Chicago. The result: a portrait of profound upheaval and weary resilience. [Limited-edition indie store exclusive electric teal color vinyl available in the shop and in the Grimey's webstore.]
Halfnoise - Motif *signed* LP (Congrats Records)
HALFNOISE is back with a new album, Motif—their first since 2019’s Natural Disguise. Zac Farro is perhaps best known for his drumming in Paramore but his HALFNOISE releases are local favorites and many have taken note of his recent production work (Becca Mancari, Elke). According to New Noise magazine’s Frankie Torok, “Motif is the soundtrack to a genuine, real-life love story. Inspired by his relationship with partner and collaborator Kayla Graninger (aka Elke), the forthcoming album charts the journey of new love from infatuation to maturity, from New York City to Los Angeles, and from spontaneity to the everyday.” [All copies are signed by Zac and are strictly limited to one per customer. Available in the shop and in the Grimey's webstore.]
Hard Feelings – Hard Feelings CD/2xLP+MP3 (Domino)
Hard Feelings is the collaborative project between Joe Goddard (Hot Chip) and Amy Douglas (DFA, Horse Meat Disco). For all intents and purposes Hard Feelings, their self-titled debut album, is "an opera of sad bangers." Loosely conceptual without being a full concept album, the material is the ultimate immersive cinematic experience for your feet and ears, seated fluidly at the intersections of new wave and synth-pop inspired pop music and full-on dance majesty. [Limited edition red vinyl is available for special order.]
Curtis Harding – If Word Were Flowers CD (ANTI-)
Simply calling Curtis Harding a soul man feels reductive. Harding's voice conveys pain, pleasure, longing, tenderness, sadness and strength-a full gamut of emotions. Today his voice takes on an optimistic lilt with his new album, If Words Were Flowers. If Words Were Flowers is Harding's first new music since 2018, a follow up to his critically acclaimed Face Your Fears. It features songs like "Hopeful", where Harding croons with devotion over a classic soul groove, textured with infectious horn playing, background singers and modern psychedelic flourishes. Harding fuels his psychedelic sound with the essence of soul but isn't bound by it. Instead, his songs convey an eclectic blend of genres leaping from the many musical lives he has lived from following his evangelical Gospel-singing mother on tour around the country as a child to rapping in Atlanta, forming a garage band with The Black Lips' Cole Alexander to singing back-up for Cee Lo Green. Through these experiences he fully embraces life's darkest intricacies and conjures dynamic, addictive melodies. [Vinyl edition due December 10.]
Hawthorne Heights – The Rain Just Follows Me LP (Pure Noise)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. The Rain Just Follows Me stands as some of Hawthorne Heights frontman JT Woodruff's most resonant writing to date, as he unravels themes of both physical and emotional distance as well as personal identity - anxieties so exacerbated by the last year that it's incredible the album was completed before the pandemic hit. (“There's so many undertones of what would happen over the next 16 months,” he says with a laugh. “I don't know if that makes us the emo Nostradamus or what.”) Most of all, The Rain Just Follows Me is quintessentially Hawthorne Heights. It's who they've always been - they just needed to push down the heartache and strife long enough to rediscover those intangible characteristics. [Indie exclusive black/white/red tri-striped vinyl.]
Lou Hayter – Private Sunshine LP (Skint)
Effortlessly hopscotching between vintage acid and ‘80s R&B, insouciant Francophone pop and twinkling electro house, Lou Hayter delivers something at once utterly unique and defiantly timeless with her much anticipated debut solo LP.
Dave Holland – Another Land LP (Edition)
Limited edition color vinyl pressing. Bassist/composer Dave Holland has never stopped evolving, reinventing his concept and approach with each new project while constantly honing his instantly identifiable voice. From the electric whirlwind of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew-era band to the elegant flamenco of his collaboration with Spanish guitar legend Pepe Habichuela; accompanying the great vocalist Betty Carter in her last years to forging a new sound with the pioneering avant-garde quartet Circle alongside Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton, and Barry Altschul; standing alongside legends like Stan Getz, Hank Jones, Roy Haynes, and Sam Rivers to providing early opportunities to now-leading players like Chris Potter, Kevin and Robin Eubanks, or Steve Coleman; Holland has been at the forefront of jazz in many of its forms since his earliest days. He returns here with a power-packed set and a new all-star trio of jazz heavyweights including superstar guitarist Kevin Eubanks and drumming prodigy Obed Calvaire. The funky, rocky, powerful Another Land finds the writing credits spread between the three artists.
Houndmouth – Good For You CD/LP (Dualtone)
Recorded with Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Hiss Golden Messenger) and mixed by Jon Ashley (The War On Drugs, B.J. Barham), the fourth full-length album from the Indiana-bred, platinum-selling band marks a return to what Houndmouth does best: "shaggy, swinging, big-screen storytelling" (NPR Music) set to a rustic, home-recorded sound.
Billy Idol – Happy Holidays CD/LP (BMG)
A holiday release from the alt-rock/punk icon. [An indie store exclusive white color vinyl pressing is also available.]
Wanda Jackson – Encore LP (Big Machine)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Wanda Jackson's sonic farewell, Encore, was produced and conceptualized with Kenny Laguna and Joan Jett with the belief that the ethos Wanda pioneered has lived in Jett's modern version of self-expression that has been taboo for women in music. Wanda's 32nd album is a final chapter amplifying a career that's ignited others too, from The Cramps to Amy Winehouse, Adele to Jack White. Marked by Wanda's incandescent swagger and effervescence, Encore is an in-your-face sonic experience that walks listeners through the rockabilly, country and even punk colors of one of music's most thrilling vocalists.
Joan As Policewoman – The Solution Is Restless CD/LP (PIAS America)
The Solution Is Restless is a brand-new collaborative album by Joan As Police Woman, Tony Allen and Dave Okumu. Joan was invited to Africa Express: The Circus in 2019, where Damon Albarn introduced her to Tony Allen for the first time and they played a version of Nina Simone's “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”. That same year she was invited to the Africa Express in Waltham Forest, where Damon Albarn came to see her collaborate. They got on so well, that besides it being the seed where this record started to grow, it also led to Joan lending guest vocals to the Gorillaz's track “Simplicity”, off their 2020 album Song Machine album. Dave Okumu and Joan have known each other for a few years and worked together on Pieces Of A Man: The Gil Scott-Heron Project in March 2016. When Joan and Tony decided to record together, she invited her longtime friend to join from London and they ended up improvising all night in a Parisian studio. Then when the world shut down, she used those recordings to write this new record The Solution Is Restless.
Aimee Mann – Queens Of The Summer CD (Super Ego)
New release from the acclaimed singer/songwriter. Queens Of The Summer Hotel contains 15 songs inspired by the book Girl Interrupted, written by Susannah Kaysen. [Vinyl edition due November 21.]
Connan Mockasin – Jassbusters Two LP+MP3 (Mexican Summer)
Jassbusters Two is the second instalment of the soundtrack to Bost'n 'n' Dobs'n, the daytime TV miniseries created by Connan Mockasin. Recorded at Gary's Electric Studio in Brooklyn, New York, Mockasin and his band of imagined music teachers (Nicholas Harsant on bass, Matthew Eccles on drums, and Rory McCarthy, aka Infinite Bisous, on rhythm guitar) freestyled across long live takes, weaving under, over, and straight through each other's blurry riffs.
Mr. Bungle – The Night They Came Home 2xLP (Ipecac)
White color vinyl pressing. This 14-track vinyl double-LP set gathers the audio of Mr. Bungle's 2020 livestream event, The Night They Came Home. Includes performances of songs from their album, The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo along with cover songs and more. This version of Mr. Bungle is original members Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn, joined by Scott Ian of Anthrax and Dave Lombardo of Slayer/Dead Cross.
Motoko & Myers - Colocate LP (Soda Gong)
Motoko & Myers is the collaborative project of Bay Area-based duo Wonja Fairbrother and Daniel Letson, and their distinctive style combines melodic, pop song structures with live improvisation and odd or no-meter approaches to rhythm and timing. Their sophomore album is a collection of bright, addictive listening, full of tracks that manage to feel at once hooky and aleatory, naive and rigorously arranged. Recorded and assembled sporadically over a period of several years, the album's idiosyncratic palette was achieved through much technical and methodological eccentricity: "4-handed" collaborative keyboard playing; 12-bit sampling and archaic presets; field recordings of cicadas in Louisville, Kentucky and church bells in Freiburg im Breisgau. The album's nine tracks exude a homespun quality that is rare to find in contemporary electronic music -- hazy, warm, and disarmingly organic.
Parcels – Day/Night 2xCD/2xLP (Because Music)
Parcels has always been a band of extreme light and shade: they're from surf hotspot Byron Bay in Australia but living in Berlin for years; their sweet-as-honey vocal harmonies rival the Beach Boys, but their live shows can turn into slamming techno rave-ups. The band returns with an ambitious third studio album, Day/Night, a double record huge in scope and sound, whose hopeful messages of perseverance through difficult times are a balm for these uncertain times.
People Years – XIV CD (Cornelius Chapel)
People Years is a dream of an amalgamated spitball wadded by the nerdy version of you and made from subterranean and atmospheric particles of bands like Luna, Pavement, Pink Floyd, and LCD Soundsystem, loaded into a straw, and launched into the midnight hair of that Robert Smith-worshipping goth girl named Summer, who sat a few rows in front of you in class. [Vinyl edition due November 19.]
Phew – New Decade LP (Mute)
Recently released on CD – now available on limited-edition clear vinyl. Renowned avant-garde artist Phew returns with a new album, New Decade. Working within the medium of voice and analog electronics, New Decade's six tracks define Phew as a master of her craft - fusing her ghostly vocals with intense droning textures and clamorous guitar feedback. New Decade is a stark and haunted album, populated by voices that intone empty pleasantries in English and Japanese or manifest as wordless shrieks and groans, against a backdrop of fractured, dubbed-out electronics.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – The Future CD (Fantasy)
With the highly anticipated new album The Future, Nathaniel Rateliff once again demonstrates that he is a writer and performer of the highest order. The third full-length from Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats showcases his unique observations of our world and people's ongoing struggle in learning how to better understand each other. "I look at the album overall as a big question," notes Rateliff. "When I was writing the record we were in the middle of a pandemic and our future looked pretty bleak. I just continue to try to write from a place of hope. Then my own neurosis, and maybe being a libra gets in the way, and I can't make up my mind. There is this constant back and forth battle in me personally and I am sure that comes out in my writing." [Limited-edition indie store excusive vinyl pressing due November 12.]
Diana Ross – Thank You CD/2xLP (Verve)
Thank You is Diana Ross's much-anticipated first studio album since 2006's covers set I Love You and her first based on new material since 1999's Every Day Is A New Day. A feelgood celebration of the classic Diana Ross sound with echoes of vintage Motown songwriting, Thank You was recorded in the superstar's home studio, and promises "a powerful, inclusive musical message of love and togetherness." Ross co-wrote and collaborated on the 13-song set with such award-winning songwriters and producers as Jack Antonoff, Troy Miller, Triangle Park, Spike Stent, Prince Charlez, Amy Wadge, Neff-U, Freddie Wexler, Jimmy Napes, Tayla Parx, Fred White, and Nathanial Ledgewick.
Ross From Friends – Tread 2xLP (Brainfeeder)
On Tread, Ross From Friends (aka British producer Felix Clary Weatherall) dials up the intricate and emotive qualities of his production style that have previously led Mixmag to praise his "idiosyncratic dexterity that not only makes your heart ache, but dance right out of your chest". An artist who demonstrates an ever-increasing mastery of his craft, Tread is a record that is at once sleek and melodic but also eminently danceable, nostalgic but brilliantly modern, with nods to sounds and styles that are not so much reflected but refracted and recontextualized through Clary Weatherall's lens. Lead single "The Daisy" exemplifies the spirit of the album. A bewitching club track that skips out of the speakers, the peppy two-step drums cozying up to swollen pads that tug on your heart strings. [Indie-store exclusive clear vinyl.]
JD Simo – Mind Control CD (Crows Feet)
New release from the Chicago-born/Nashville-based blues guitarist, singer, songwriter.
Snail Mail – Valentine CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
Valentine was written and produced by Lindsey Jordan and co-produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee). Written in 2019 - 2020 the album is filled with romance, heartbreak, blood, sweat and tears. The sonic leap forward can be heard from the first moments of the title track – the whispered voice and eerie synths erupting into a full-on stadium-sized adrenaline-rush of a chorus. From there it's all go – with electronic anthems, baroque FM rockers, smoldering slow-jam R&B, and heart rendering finger-picked ballads. The star of the show however is Lindsey's voice. Her vocals and words are rawer, deeper, snarlier, and more feeling than ever before. [Limited-edition indie store excusive gold vinyl available in the shop and in the Grimey's webstore.]
Youth Fountain – Keepsakes & Reminders LP (Pure Noise)
Limited-edition indie store exclusive brown in beer with bone splatter color vinyl pressing of the Vancouver, BC emo/pop/punk band’s new sophomore album. [CD edition due November 12.]
Reissues, Compilations, Live Recordings & Vault Excavations...
Agression – Greatest LP (Deadline Music)
Limited edition vinyl pressing of this career retrospective from an influential group of the venerable hardcore punk scene. Features their finest moments ever captured including the punk rock anthems "Salty Leather", "Slamming At The Club", "The Keeper" and many more.
Air – 10 000 Hz Legend [Reissue/2001] 2xCD+Blu-ray Audio (Rhino/Parlophone)
Deluxe two CD + Blu-ray 20th anniversary edition. In 2001, iconic French Touch duo and electronic music pioneers Air released their second proper album 10 000 Hz Legend which recalled everything from classic '70s rock to '80s synthesizer experiments while still looking forward to a bright shining digital music future. The second CD of this deluxe edition features three live versions from a 2001 a KCRW session and four previously unreleased demo versions. The Blu-ray audio disc contains a Dolby Atmos Mix, a 5.1 surround mix, and PCM stereo mix of the album.
Bad Suns – Language & Perspective [Reissue/2014] LP (Vagrant)
Vinyl reissue of the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Bad Suns.
The Black Keys – El Camino (10th Anniversary Edition) 3xLP/5xLP (Nonesuch)
This Deluxe three-LP set contains the original album remastered plus a previously unreleased full live concert. [The Super Deluxe five-LP box set adds a BBC Session Recorded in 2012, the 2011 Electro-Vox Session, a photo book, a limited-edition poster and lithograph, and “new car scent" air freshener.] El Camino was produced by Danger Mouse and The Black Keys and was recorded in the band’s then-new hometown of Nashville during the spring of 2011. The Black Keys won three awards at the 55th annual Grammy Awards for El Camino—Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Album—among other worldwide accolades. In the UK, the band was nominated for a BRIT Award (Best International Group) and an NME Award (Best International Band). The week of release, the band performed on Saturday Night Live, the Colbert Report, and the Late Show with David Letterman, and later that year, went on to perform their first Madison Square Garden show. [The Super Deluxe four CD edition is due December 3.]
Blondie – Yuletide Throwdown 12” (Capitol)
This 12" single features "Yuletide Throwdown", co-written and performed with Fab 5 Freddy, recorded around the time of "Rapture", and using the same samples. The audio has been remastered from the analog tapes and includes an exclusive remix by Cut Chemist. The rare 1981 holiday flexi-disc has been reissued for the first time on 180gm vinyl and packaged in die-cut bespoke "disco-bag" style sleeve with artwork by New York graffiti artist, Hugo Gyrl. An indie store exclusive hot pink color vinyl pressing is also available.
Bnny – Everything LP (Fire Talk)
Released last week on CD – a limited-edition indie-store exclusive Milky Way color vinyl edition is now available. Everything, the debut album from Chicago quartet Bnny, may as well be a field recording taken from the lone country of grief. Written in sessions that span several years by singer Jess Viscius as she processed the death of her partner, the album is a chronicle of love at its most complex and loss at its most persistent. In the same vein as Sky Blue Sky-era Wilco or the harrowing vulnerability of Tomberlin or Helena Deland, Viscius' songwriting is evocative and intentional. A longstanding member of the Windy City music scene, the album was produced by Dehd's Jason Balla, and the sparse arrangements pick apart complicated truths while feeling both timeless and transcendent.
The Brief Encounter – Introducing The Brief Encounter [Reissue/1977] LP (Real Gone Music)
If you own a copy of this 1977 release on legendary Nashville deejay John Richbourg's Seventy-Seven Records label, then you are on your way to amassing generational wealth! But it's not just the scarcity of the original pressing that has driven prices to sky-high levels, the opening track proclaims 'We're the baddest group of people you've ever seen,' and it's not wrong. Funkadelic, Isley Bros., O'Jays, Kool & the Gang, pick your favorite '70s R&B act and this rural North Carolina (!) band measures up with booty-shaking bass and drums, deft wah-wah guitar, beautifully arranged horn charts, and angelic group harmonies employed with equal aplomb to steamy funk workouts ('Time Is Moving') and sublime soul balladry ('Loving and Caring'), all written by the band itself. To honor the roots of The Brief Encounter, this first-ever U.S. reissue is being pressed in North Carolina on smoky (mountain) vinyl, don't miss this chance to grab one of most elusive soul classics of the '70s!
Deana Carter – Did I Shave My Legs For This? (25th Anniversary Edition) CD (Capitol Nashville)
25th Anniversary Edition of the 5x platinum groundbreaking 1996 debut album Did I Shave My Legs For This? from award-winning country singer/songwriter Deana Carter. All songs have been remastered and includes two new tracks. Deana performed and produced new ensemble collaborations of the title track featuring Terri Clark, Sara Evans, Ashley McBryde, and Vince Gill on guitar and the iconic hit single, “Strawberry Wine” featuring Lauren Alaina, Martina McBride, Ashley, Kylie Morgan, and Vince.
Steve Earle – Townes: The Basics [Reissue/2009] LP (New West)
Steve Earle & The Dukes (& Duchesses) – The Low Highway [Reissue/2013] LP (New West)
Steve Earle & The Dukes – Terraplane [Reissue/2015] LP (New West)
Steve Earle & The Dukes – Ghosts Of West Virginia [Reissue/2020] LP (New West)
Limited color vinyl LP pressings.
Garbage – Beautifulgarbage [Reissue/2001] 3xLP (Geffen)
Deluxe 20th Anniversary edition. Beautifulgarbage saw a slight departure for the band in terms of their sound and delivered four hit singles – “Androgny”, “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)”, “Breaking Up The Girl” and “Shut Your Mouth”. The album itself has been remastered. The Deluxe triple CD edition adds two discs of B-sides and alternate versions with six previously unreleased selections, remixes and unreleased mixes. The Deluxe triple-LP features the remastered album on two discs plus a bonus LP of B-sides.
Jerry Garcia/John Kahn – GarciaLive Volume 14: January 27th, 1986 The Ritz LP (ATO)
GarciaLive Volume 14 showcases a buoyant acoustic performance from Jerry Garcia and longtime friend/bassist John Kahn during the middle of a rare duo tour. Recorded on January 27, 1986, at The Ritz in New York City, Garcia and Kahn deliver two exquisite sets featuring Grateful Dead favorites (“Ripple”, “Friend Of The Devil”, “Dire Wolf”, and “Bird Song”, among others), spirited takes on Bob Dylan's “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and “Simple Twist of Fate”, and more from Garcia's songbook.
Tigran Hamasyan – A Fable [Reissue/2011] LP (Verve)
A Fable is Tigran Hamasyan's first solo album after having recorded three previous albums as a leader. Released in 2011, it was hailed for the rare maturity of a young musician to deliver such a landmark recording. Well-known for the way he fuses potent jazz improvisation with the rich folkloric music of his native Armenia, Tigran once again borrowed from the rich tradition he inherited and made a giant step with A Fable.
Catherine Howe – What A Beautiful Place [Reissue/1971] LP (Numero)
This recorded autobiography of Catherine Howe, age 20, briefly appeared in 1971. Too young for memoirs, most artists have barely established any sort of musical competence by the age of legal adulthood, let alone compositions matching the maturity and complexity of Howe's. What A Beautiful Place, however, is a prodigious effort wrought from the melancholy ruminations of post-adolescence. The album's twelve songs unfold like a classic bildungsroman, beginning in the smoke-stained industrial county of Yorkshire, transformed by the electrified creative landscape of mid-century London, and retiring to the warm pastoral bliss of the county of Dorset on England's southern coast. [Limited edition yellow vinyl.]
Jethro Tull – Benefit (The 50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) 4xCD+2xDVD (Rhino/Parlophone)
Features remixes by Steven Wilson, an abundance of previously unreleased material, packaged within a deluxe hardback book, containing 100 pages of commentary from numerous contributors alongside hordes of images of the band creating and performing their first million-selling 1970 album.
Billy Joel – The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1 9xLP (Sony Legacy)
The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1 boxset is comprised of Billy Joel's first six studio albums and two live albums, including previously unreleased Live at The Great American Music Hall. These titles are presented in recreations of their original packaging and accompanied by a 50-page book featuring rarely seen photos and memorabilia from this chapter of Billy Joel's recording career along with an essay by Anthony DeCurtis. Albums included: Cold Spring Harbor (1971), Piano Man (1973), Streetlife Serenade (1974), Turnstiles (1976), The Stranger (1977), 52nd Street (1978), Songs In The Attic (1981), and Live At The Great American Music Hall (1975).
Fumio Miyashita - Waterfalls Symphony LP (Personal Affair)
Miyashita's previously unreleased final recording, recorded in 1999. NHK, Japan's national broadcaster, produced a program to introduce famous waterfalls in Japan, and various musicians performed at waterfalls all over the country. In this program, Fumio Miyashita dedicated a performance at Nachi Falls, one of the most famous waterfalls in Japan. This album is like an otoemaki, or a scroll painting of music, created based on the inspiration he got from the performance at that time.
Mingus – Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus [Reissue/1964] LP (Verve)
Limited 180gm vinyl pressing in gatefold jacket. One of the quintessential Charles Mingus recordings regardless of label, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus finds a mini-big-band playing some of Mingus' best-known compositions -albeit with new titles. Features Mingus favorites Eric Dolphy, Booker Ervin, and Jaki Byard among its all-star cast.
Mom Jeans. – Best Buds [Reissue/2016] LP (Counter Intuitive)
Released in July 2016, Best Buds is the debut album from the California based band Mom Jeans. The album mainly deals with past relationships, loss, and depression. The generally upbeat arrangements give way to the much sadder, angstier lyrics typical of emo. [Limited edition red/yellow/blue tri-color vinyl.]
Pretenders – Pretenders [Reissue/1980] 3xCD (Rhino)
Pretenders – Pretenders II [Reissue/1981] 3xCD (Rhino)
Curated by Chrissie Hynde, Pretenders’ first two albums have been reissued as striking 12” x 12” 3xCD deluxe sets, each featuring a high-quality book with brand-new liner notes by acclaimed journalist Will Hodgkinson. Also includes a myriad of rare and unseen photos of the band. Each contains the original album remastered by Chris Thomas, alongside demos, rarities, and many live performances: a BBC session on The Kid Jensen Show, and performances at The Paris Theatre, London and Paradise Theater in Boston (Pretenders); and live sets from Central Park, New York City in 1980, and The Santa Monica Civic in 1981 (Pretenders II).
Primus – Green Naugahyde (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) 2xLP (ATO/Virgin)
This 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition color vinyl reissue comes packaged in a gatefold jacket with emboss and spot gloss plus updated artwork (new gatefold image, new inner sleeve art, naugahyde texture printed inside gatefold pockets). Originally released in 2011 after a long hiatus, Green Naugahyde reunited Primus with their early drummer Jay Lane and harkened back to their early days (think Frizzle Fry). Green Naugahyde expands on Primus' incomparable sound, bringing it into the next millennium. It is a cerebral and complex album that is teeming with the band's signature blend of whimsy and underlying darkness. The trio were described by Rolling Stone at the time as a "tight knotty rhythm team." [This title shipped late and will arrive early next week.]
Radiohead – Kid A Mnesia 3xCD/3xLP (XL)
Twenty-one years since the release of Radiohead's seminal albums, Kid A and Amnesiac, comes a combined and expanded triple vinyl disc reissue entitled Kid A Mnesia. The release presents the records together as originally intended, with an additional disc of bonus material - including two original unreleased recordings from the era: the never-before-heard "If You Say The Word" and a previously unreleased studio recording of "Follow Me Around". "We humbly submit Kid A Mnesia," notes the band. "It's a coming of age for Kid A and Amnesiac and it's joined by a new album, Kid Amnesiae, a memory palace of half-remembered, half-forgotten sessions and unreleased material." [Limited-edition indie store excusive red vinyl.]
Keith Richards – Run Rudolph Run [Reissue/1978] 12” (BMG)
Limited-edition red color vinyl pressing. Written by Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie, and most famously performed by Chuck Berry, Keith's cover of “Run Rudolph Run” was originally released on Rolling Stones Records, with a B-Side of Jimmy Cliffs The Harder They Come. The single was re-released digitally in 2007. This time the song was bundled with a previously unreleased 2003 recording of Pressure Drop with Toots & The Maytals. Arranged and produced by Keith Richards.
Snarky Puppy – Live At The Royal Albert Hall 3xLP (Groundup Music)
Limited color vinyl LP pressing. In 2012, Snarky Puppy booked their first European tour through Facebook posts, begging people to help find a bar they could play in. Years later, on November 14, 2019, Snarky Puppy recorded their sold-out show from the iconic Royal Albert Hall in London, which serves as their first official live release in almost four years. Featuring an extended line-up of 15 out of their 18 regular members, the record includes many tracks from their recent studio album, Immigrance. Live At The Royal Albert Hall captures an interesting mix of new and old songs, illustrating their musical and artistic progression over the years.
Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso [Reissue/2014] LP (Psychic Hotline)
Pink vinyl reissue. Recorded in a little bedroom studio out in Durham, North Carolina, Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn's debut LP as Sylvan Esso arrived in 2014 at the juncture of pop and experimental. Even now, years later, the LP remains an urgent and fitting introduction to a push-and-pull that would go on to inform the duo's sound - a thoughtful headiness that also wants you to get out on the dance floor. A blend of analog and digital, Meath and Sanborn were two unexpected puzzle pieces fitting together with singular ease, producing a ten-track LP that was both minimalist and shimmering, with dark undulations rippling beneath the synthy-surface and crystalline quality of Meath's voice.
Thoughtcrimes – Tapnight [Reissue/2019] LP (Pure Noise)
In 2019, Thoughtcrimes, the Long Island-based hardcore band featuring ex-Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Billy Rymer, released their convulsive debut EP, Tap Night. Now, not only is it finally getting the high-quality vinyl pressing it deserves via new label home Pure Noise, two previously unreleased tracks have been added.
Rokia Traoré – Tchamantché [Reissue/2008] 2xLP (Verve)
Tchamantché, meaning point of equilibrium in Bambara, is the fourth album of Mali singer Rokia Traore. Released in 2008, and dedicated to her fellow countryman Ali Farka Touré, the album is a turning point in the singer's career after she has spent a large part of it revisiting the Malian musical tradition. Tchamantché reveals a unique sound in which electric Gretsch guitar riffs come to mingle with the ancestral sounds of Malian instruments, offering a new setting to her crystalline voice.
Warda - Khalik Hena LP (Wewantsounds)
The first vinyl reissue of legendary Arabic diva Warda's Khalik Hena, recorded with a full Egyptian orchestra and originally released on the label Soutelphan in 1973. A cult classic sampled by Jay Z and J Dilla, the album mixes traditional Arabic music with a tinge of '70s grooves. Warda delivers a hypnotic vocal performance backed by her full-size orchestra featuring those unparalleled Arabic strings that made recordings by Oum Khalthoum, Farid El Atrache, and Abdel Halim Hafez so famous. Teaming up with her (second) husband, legendary composer Baligh Hamdi, she recorded a string of classic albums -- hypnotic tour-de-forces stretching over two sides in an almost trance-like mode, enhancing Warda's powerful vocal and ability to mesmerize audiences. Blending traditional and modern instrumentations (electric guitar, organ), the music is both complex and groovy.