New Releases - 6/9/23
Hitting The Racks
Here's your weekly rundown of what's hitting the new release racks at Grimey's
New Releases
Colby Acuff – Western White Pines CD (SME Nashville)
Working with acclaimed producer/engineer Eddie Spear (Zach Bryan, Brandi Carlile, Cody Jinks), Acuff's first major label project is in motion, recorded with a new team of top-flight talent at Nashville's Sound Emporium. Another batch of gritty, solo-written songs - plus the first ever co-writes of a promising career - Western White Pines will help introduce a country talent as wild and free as the Idaho mountains themselves.
Bala Desejo – Sim Sim Sim LP (Mr Bongo)
Sim Sim Sim is the Latin Grammy award-winning debut album from Bala Desejo. A band who are at the forefront of Rio de Janeiro's artistic renaissance, they channel influences of Brazilian ‘60s Tropicália, ‘70s psychedelia and MPB to create a nostalgic, yet joyfully, avant-garde sound. The band is comprised of four distinct characters, each one an incredible talent and each with impressive credentials in the Brazilian Independent music scene. Central to the resurgent Rio de Janeiro musical community, the quartet of Dora Morelenbaum, Julia Mestre, Lucas Nunes and Zé Ibarra thrive in a group dynamic. They formed Bala Desejo to play collaboratively for a festival date in 2021, but when that show became a victim of pandemic shutdowns the idea for an album project materialized. [A limited-edition red color vinyl pressing is available as well as standard black.]
Beta Librae - Daystar LP (Incienso)
Tech house producer Beta Librae returns to Incienso with her third album, Daystar. Whereas her previous album for the label Sanguine Bond was an altogether headier affair, Daystar, like the name implies, is a bright and bold waypoint in the ever-expanding Beta Librae universe. On eight songs, including a striking collaboration with James K on the lead single "Late At Night", Beta gathers up new elements of sound and pairs them with her unmistakable rhythmic shapes to bring forth the most wide-ranging and cohesive BL album yet.
Selwyn Birchwood – Exorcist LP (Alligator)
Purple color pressing. On Exorcist, Birchwood delivers the most far-reaching, musically adventurous album of his career. Exorcist was recorded in Florida and produced by Grammy Award-winner Tom Hambridge, with each of the 13 vividly detailed songs written and arranged by Birchwood. The soul-baring tracks all hit with lasting rhymes and unexpected rhythms. Each twists its own tale.
Laura Cantrell – Just Like A Rose: The Anniversary Sessions CD/LP (Propeller Sound)
After a nine-year hiatus, Laura Cantrell, a familiar presence in the international Americana and roots music scene, is back with her latest studio album. Over the years, she has won over loyal audiences both in her home country and the UK through her constant touring and numerous media appearances. Although the album was originally intended to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her debut album, the recording was delayed due to covid restrictions. This new collection was expertly crafted in studios located in both New York City and Nashville, with the help of renowned luminaries like Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, and Rosie Flores. [Indie exclusive translucent green vinyl.]
Christine and The Queens – Paranoia, Angels, True Love CD/3xCD/LP/3xLP (Because Music)
French singer/songwriter Héloïse Adélaïde Letissier aka Christine and The Queens presents his new album Paranoia, Angels, True Love which includes the single "To Be Honest" and guest appearances from Madonna and 070 Shake. Speaking about the album, Chris said: "This new record is the second part of an operatic gesture that also encompassed 2022's Redcar les adorables étoiles. Taking inspiration from the glorious dramaturgy of Tony Kushner's iconic play, Angels In America, Redcar felt colorful and absurd like Prior sent to his insane dream-space. The follow-up Paranoia, Angels, True Love is a key towards heart-opening transformation, a prayer towards the self – the one that breathes through all the loves it is made of. Prior's real agony in Angels In America is a deep, painful becoming, a shedding of all waters and memories, that then allows angels to immerse deep too, and offer back profound, narrative-altering love – a rest in true love." [Single disc CD and vinyl versions include 9 new songs. The deluxe triple-disc CD and vinyl edition feature 20 new songs.]
Curren$y – The Drive In Theatre Part 2 2xLP (Jet Life)
Smokey clear vinyl pressing. the next installment in the cult fan favorite series features appearances from Rob49, Fendi P, Dash, URA, Blü, I'sis, Premo Rice, and Jade Angelle, and sees production from Kino Beats, Trauma Tone, Harry Fraud, Cookin Soul, and more. In traditional form, Curren$y skates over smooth, jazz-infused beats and delivers a perfect album to put on and let play out while relaxing or working.
Death Cab For Cutie – Asphalt Meadows (Acoustic) LP (Barsuk)
Death Cab For Cutie went back into the studio in December 2022 with the goal of reinterpreting their latest record Asphalt Meadows with the most minimal arrangements possible and presenting the songs in their rawest, most intimate forms. Now, they're proud to announce that the acoustic album version of Asphalt Meadows. The album also includes one of the band's favorite songs "The Plan" by Low as a tribute to the late amazingly talented Mimi Parker.
Spencer Deem – Adultsw!m LP (Drink Sum WTR)
Navy blue color vinyl pressing of the new album from the New Orleans rap/hip-hop artist. “Being an artist has allowed me, in a sense, to take my time growing up. Artistic process allows me to take as much time as I need thinking and processing life and releasing. The validation I feel from having an attentive audience encourages me to be more and more vulnerable with each release. On my last project I reached into my childhood for inspiration and my stories were received warmly. On this album I felt enabled to be vulnerable to this compounded feeling of uncertainty brought on by having to grow up and live through unprecedented times. I contemplated long about the life and legacy I'm building and the future of the world, ultimately accepting that it's all at the mercy of fate. The album art by Beatriz Whitehill symbolizes that very poetically.”
Robert Ellis – Yesterday’s News CD/LP (Niles City)
Robert Ellis is redefining himself with Yesterday's News - a record of unhurried meditations delivered by an artist learning to slow down and appreciate the tiny miracles that make life worth living. Hailed by NPR for his "musical daring and impeccable song craft," and Rolling Stone for his "sharp eye for storytelling," Ellis recorded Yesterday's News to tape in just two days, embracing a raw minimalism that prizes patience and restraint above all else: "close your eyes and drift into a dream." [A limited-edition random color vinyl.]
Freddie Gibbs - $oul $old $eparately LP/Cassette (WB)
A lot of people don't realize that Freddie has been in the game for over a decade and came in on the same Freshman XXL cover as Meek Mill, Nipsey Hussle etc... Yet he was the only one with no major label backing or artist affiliation and his partnership with Warner is his very first solo major label deal. With that being said, he feels as if he has made it thus far in his career without compromising his morals, creative integrity and principals as a Man all while resisting temptations... Hence the title $oul $old $eparately or $$$. [Indie store exclusive yellow vinyl.]
Bendik Giske – Bendik Giske LP (Smalltown Supersound)
Norwegian saxophonist Bendik Giske knows himself well. With his new, self-titled record, he is in his prime as an artist: confident in his voice and abilities, buoyed by critical acclaim from all corners - including two Norwegian Grammy nominations - and a surge in audiences everywhere. With the intriguing choice of Beatrice Dillon as album producer - clearly the British electronic musician is a fellow traveler in the practice of original aesthetic expression - her influence is immediate and keenly felt. Together, they strip away a layer of melodicism, honing in on pattern and rhythm to bring out a different dimension of his mesmerizing sound.
Rob Grant – Lost At Sea LP (Interscope)
The debut album by Rob Grant. An accidental recording artist, Grant has never had a lesson on any instrument in his life, but when he sits down at a piano, something magical happens. Father of international icon Lana Del Rey, he enlisted an array of talent to contribute to the making of the album. Features and writing credits include Lana Del Rey, while production credits include Jack Antonoff, Luke Howard, Laura Sisk, and Zach Dawes.
Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors – Strangers No More CD/LP (Magnolia Music)
There are no strangers at a Drew Holcomb show. For the better part of two decades, the award-winning songwriter has brought his audience together night after night, turning his shows into celebrations of community, collaboration, and contemporary American roots music. Strangers No More, the eighth album from Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors, celebrates that sense of togetherness. Produced by Cason Cooley, it expands the band's mix of timeless songwriting, modern-day Laurel Canyon folk, amplified Americana, and heartland rock & roll. [Indie exclusive blue marbled vinyl. Get a wristband with purchase to go through the signing line and get your record signed when Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors perform at Grimey’s on June 21st at 4PM! Now available in the shop and in the Grimey's webstore.]
Niall Horan – The Show LP (Capitol)
Throughout his third solo album The Show, chart-topping Irish artist Niall Horan matches the pure emotion of his globally beloved past work with a powerful new element of soul-searching reflection. Built on a lush and radiant form of alt-pop, the album draws much of its mesmerizing power from his use of harmonies - an element inspired by Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne, and other members of the '60s/'70s music scene in Laurel Canyon. The collection is introduced by the yearning single "Heaven," Horan's first piece of solo material in nearly three years.
Elaine Howley - The Distance Between Heart and Mouth LP (Touch Sensitive Records)
Cyan vinyl. Touch Sensitive Records presents the Cork-based musician Elaine Howley's debut solo album, The Distance Between Heart and Mouth. The product of an audio diary kept on a four-track cassette machine throughout 2019 and 2020, the album recreates the intimacy of a radio show filled with Howley's favorite sounds, pallets, and textures; effortlessly joining the dots between pop and experimentation, summoning the kaleidoscopic world of Trish Keenan and Broadcast, the bruised lo-fi soul of Tirzah, and the dubbed-out blues of Leslie Winer. Over nine patient, spontaneous self-recorded and produced tracks, Elaine Howley traces the outline of a small space that could be considered one of the longest journeys to be taken.
Humazapas – Sara Mama LP (Aya)
The concept of "getting back to your roots" rarely has such a literal meaning, or at the same time such an ancestral meaning, as in the case of the Ecuadorian group Humazapas. Usually in the music industry this concept is used when an artist returns to a past sound, going back to that moment of newness, exploration, and ingenuity, perhaps. But not Humazapas. These natives of the Kichwa communities of the Ecuadorian Andes, who have been working on this project for a decade, see "getting back to your roots" as a profound connection with their cultures, language, dance, the rituals that connect them to their deities and, of course, music.
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit – Weathervanes CD/2xLP (Thirty Tigers)
New album from Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, tackling issues such as gun violence, the opioid crisis, and women's rights all through Isbell's signature songwriting lens. Weathervanes is a collection of grown-up songs: Songs about adult love, about change, about the danger of nostalgia and the interrogation of myths, about cruelty and regret and redemption. Life and death songs played for and by grown ass people. Some will make you cry alone in your car and others will make you sing along with thousands of strangers in a big summer pavilion, united in the great miracle of being alive. Weathervanes features the rolling thunder of Isbell's fearsome 400 Unit, who've earned a place in the rock ‘n' roll cosmos alongside the greatest backing ensembles, as powerful and essential to the storytelling as The E Street Band or The Wailers. [Indie store exclusive cheap CD and ’natural’ vinyl versions are available in the shop and in the Grimey's webstore.]
James – Be Opened By The Wonderful 2xLP (Virgin)
Recorded at Blueprint Studios in Manchester in celebration of their 40th Anniversary, Be Opened By The Wonderful is a celebration of James' most loved and rare tracks, reimagined with a 22-piece orchestra and 8-piece choir and including one brand-new track, "Love Make A Fool". [Indie store exclusive white vinyl. CD version due July 21.]
Jayda G – Guy CD/LP+MP3 (Ninja Tune)
Jayda G, the Grammy-nominated writer, producer, DJ, environmental toxicologist, campaigner, and broadcaster, returns with her new full length album Guy. Co-produced with Jack Peñate (who has previously worked with the likes of SAULT, David Byrne and Adele), with contributions from Lisa-Kaindé Diaz (of Ibeyi), Ed Thomas (Stormzy, Nia Archives, Jorja Smith) and more. The album brings Jayda’s own voice and words more prominently into focus than ever before, across 13 tracks that draw on her house, disco, R&B and soul roots while emphasizing her pop songwriting sensibilities, interspersed with archival recordings of her late father, the eponymous William Richard Guy. [Indie exclusive signed eco-mix color vinyl.]
Noah Kahan – Stick Season 2xLP (Mercury)
Stick Season is Vermont singer-songwriter Noah Kahan's thirrd studio album. After five years of critical acclaim, global touring and numerous collaborations, Noah returned to his Vermont roots and sought a more organic style of writing and arrangement, a challenge from within to convey a vivid representation of what he loves, fears, and struggles with most passionately. [Indie store exclusive brown vinyl.]
King Krule – Space Heavy CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
Written from 2020 to 2022 in between London and Liverpool, Space Heavy took shape over the course of Archy Marshall's commutes between the two cities where he was splitting his time. Befitting an album quite literally written on the commute between the two places he called home, Archy found himself fascinated by the notion of "the space between" – the space haunted by dreams of love, touching a narrative of lost connection, losing people and situations to the guillotine of the universe. Space Heavy, indeed. The result is an album that inhabits the deepest reaches of the subterranean sonic world that Archy has constructed over the course of his career as King Krule. [Indie store exclusive clear vinyl.]
Krystal Klear - Automat Kingsland 12" (Running Back)
Ain't no stopping him now. Krystal Klear's streak continues with Automat Kingsland. The recipe remains, perfectly seasoned to taste. The extended menu of four tracks is musical testament to the artist's life of the last six months. Emphasizing movement at a pace that is hard to hold on to, but embraced nonetheless. Trying to transport that "lost in translation" (and transit) sense of normal life due to constant motion to a dancefloor near you. Euphoric melancholia meets rave romance, shutters open to let happiness crawl in and anxiety turns into excitement through the usual cocktail of tearjerkers and white noise risers. Automatic non-stop existential output.
Jenny Lewis – Joy’All CD/2xLP/Cassette (Blue Note)
Jenny Lewis' fifth solo album Joy'All finds the singer-songwriter embarking on a new era, in a new town – and on a new label, as she joins the iconic roster of Blue Note/Capitol Records. While Joy'All pulls from a bounty of sonic inspiration – from classic soul to ‘90s R&B, as well as country and classic singer-songwriter records – the album's rich, intimate and warm live sound is the hallmark of eight-time Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb. Recorded at Nashville's historic RCA Studio A, Joy'All includes the new single "Psychos" and the previously released single "Puppy And A Truck". [Indie store exclusive green vinyl. All copies at Grimey’s are SIGNED by Jenny! Limited 2 per customer, per format. Only available in person in the store for now. If we still have stock, we will put some online early next week.]
Lightning Dust – Nostalgia CD/LP (Western Vinyl)
Sticky with unresolved, living feelings, walls of synths and bass lines rise to chill-inducing heights, while maintaining space around Amber Webber's singular voice as she sings of romantic warfare like some kind of cosmic Stevie Nicks, on an album that sounds arena-ready and devastatingly intimate all at once. [Limited-edition ‘cosmic amber’ color vinyl.]
Janelle Monáe – The Age Of Pleasure CD/LP (Atlantic)
A groundbreaking, genre-blurring singer, songwriter, producer, and performer, Janelle Monáe's inventive style melds a refined pop sensibility with an extraordinary postmodern mash-up of soul, funk, and rock ‘n' roll. The Grammy Award-winner follows-up 2018's critically acclaimed Dirty Computers with the highly anticipated 2023 album The Age Of Pleasure, which comes introduced by the shimmering singles "Float" and "Lipstick Lover". Monáe explained to Apple Music 1's Zane Lowe that, "All the songs were written from such an honest space. So I hope that people feel that when they listen to the music, that they feel that when they come and, you know, counter with me when I'm around, I definitely have had an opportunity to evolve and grow and to tap into the things that bring me pleasure, the things that perhaps I should rethink and rework." [Indie store exclusive ‘orange crush’ color vinyl.]
Aja Monet – When The Poems Do What They Do 2xLP (Drink Sum WTR)
Aja Monet's poems are a work of gravity. They are a fundamental for which all things are attracted, considered upon, and enacted towards. Her work moves, constantly, between origin and outcome, allowing them to exist in converse. In her debut album when the poems do what they do, we glimpse her indefatigable commitment to speak. The thematic origins of this album at times center around Black resistance, love and the inexhaustible quest for joy. In when the poems do what they do Aja Monet appears as a woman of letters and storm, her poems do not roar in pentameter - but rather in storm surge because, "Who's got time for poems when the world is on fire?!."
Emile Mosseri – Heaven Hunters CD/LP (Greedy Heart)
On Heaven Hunters, Mosseri looks inwards, using his distinctive sound and gift for musical storytelling for his most personal work. Produced by The Haxan Cloak, Heaven Hunters explores the weight of choosing one path in life, putting to death every other possible future, and finding comfort in redefining happiness. For Mosseri, the search for Heaven - a concept of perpetual happiness void of suffering - is a fruitless effort that blocks us from finding peace and balance in life as it really is. Driven by Mosseri's poignant lyrics and intimate singing, Heaven Hunters is a celebration of the highs and lows that create that equilibrium, built around songs of longing, love, heartbreak, familial struggle, and domestic bliss. [Limited edition bone white vinyl.]
Public Body – Big Mess LP (Fat Cat)
Formed in Brighton with a clear aim to write the perfect soundtrack to whatever you do whilst procrastinating at your day job, Public Body pick apart the mundanity of daily life and all its annoyances in irresistible fashion.
Smoke M2D6 – Quarantine Heart Throb LP (K. Records)
Smoke M2D6's boundary-pushing musical production and Jedi-like audio engineering have earned him wide and enthusiastic artistic acclaim, as well as a host of awards. As an MC, Smoke M2D6 has toured the country, performing in all the lower 48 states, and was one of the original founding members of Northwest super-crew OLDOMINION. Though Smoke M2D6 has not released an album since the 2006 opus Bleed, he has been super-busy creating beats and producing other artists including many of his Oldominion crew mates Onry Ozzborn, Nyqwil, IAME and JFK.
Squid – O Monolith CD/LP+MP3 (Warp)
Teeming with melodic epiphanies and layered sounds, Squid’s second album O Monolith is a musical evocation of environment, domesticity, and self-made folklore. Like its predecessor, 2021’s critically acclaimed album Bright Green Field, it is dense and full of tricks – but also warmer and more characterful, with a meandering, questioning nature. A sense of open conversation is cultivated: this is unmistakably music made by friends, but it’s not exclusionary – they’re inviting you in to listen with them. Expansive, evocative and hugely varied, O Monolith retains Squid’s restless, enigmatic spirit, but it still holds surprises for those familiar with Bright Green Field. It’s a reflection of the outsized progression of a band always looking to the future. Like its namesake, O Monolith is vast and strange, alive with endless possible interpretations of its inner mysteries. [Limited-edition translucent blue vinyl.]
Dudu Tassa / Jonny Greenwood – Jarak Qaribak CD/LP (World Circuit)
Celebrated singer, musician and producer Dudu Tassa teams up with award-winning composer and guitarist Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead, The Smile) for a new album Jarak Qaribak (Arabic for 'Your Friend Is Your Neighbour'), bringing together vocalists and musicians from throughout the Middle East for a very special album of cross-border collaborations.
TEKE::TEKE – Hagata CD/LP (Kill Rock Stars)
Blending past and present, from Canada to Japan, multiple lives lived at once, each track on Montreal-based psych-rock group TEKE::TEKE’s new album Hagata carries a sense of change, impact, of having been marked in an intimate way. And yet the force behind that marking is always just out of grasp, a wisp, a ghost, an energy, a spirit that compels you to keep reaching. From the tender-hearted “Jinzou Maria” to the rumbling and raucous “Yurei Zanmai”, the songs of Hagata bear an eerie yet somehow familiar sensation. Japanese pop tones, Serge Gainsbourg grandeur, folk whisper, and Brazilian surf rock all mix into the psychedelic stew. [Limited-edition blue vinyl.]
This Is The Kit – Careful Of Your Keepers CD/LP+MP3 (Rough Trade)
Singer-songwriter and composer, Kate Stables returns with a wondrous new This Is The Kit album, Careful Of Your Keepers, that chronicles a world of mistakes and mishaps, cruel circumstances, and universe-driven surprises. It's a record that embraces the concept of “outrospection” – the idea that you get to know oneself by developing relationships and empathic thinking with others – and brings the Paris-based, UK born bandleader's signature ability to move swiftly between cryptic poetry to honest inquisition to the fore. Guiding the ship through changing seas is producer Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals), who deftly enhances the innate shared language that Stables has with her band, capturing beautiful instrumental performances while leaving the space required for her robust, silken voice to lead. The music here is daring and soft, cutting and warm, a wild feat of complexity and combined dispositions. [Indie store exclusive green vinyl.]
Torture Rack – Primeval Onslaught LP (20 Buck Spin)
Torture Rack exists for one reason, to pulverize skulls and grind bones through bludgeoning gore-soaked death metal depravity. New album Primeval Onslaught continues that bloodstained legacy, witnessed previously on Barbaric Persecution and Malefic Humiliation, with a barrage of meat-torn-from-bone riffs and greased-flesh savagery. [Limited-edition purple w/ hot pink splatter vinyl.]
Jess Williamson – Time Ain’t Accidental CD/LP+MP3 (Mexican Summer)
Time Ain't Accidental is the sound of a woman running into life and art head-on, on her own terms, for the first time in a while. Blending the vocal power and emotional immediacy of mainstream country with the honest transmissions of writers like Townes Van Zandt and Terry Allen, the album's reckoning with loss, isolation and personal reclamation signals a tectonic shift for Williamson: from someone who once made herself small to a woman emboldened by her power as an individual. [Indie store exclusive hot pink vinyl.]
Youth Lagoon – Heaven Is A Junkyard CD/LP (Fat Possum)
With whispers of country, Heaven Is A Junkyard is mutant Americana in a world of love, drugs, storytelling, and miracles – held together by Trevor Powers' voice and an upright piano. "If a lyric wasn't right, a song wasn't right," says Powers, who scrapped two-and-a-half albums worth of material because it ‘wasn't honest.’ Heaven Is A Junkyard is about all of us. It's stories of brothers leaving for war, drunk fathers learning to hug, mothers falling in love, neighbors stealing mail, cowboys doing drugs, friends skipping school, me crying in the bathtub, dogs catching rabbits, and children playing in tall grass," says Powers. Throughout the album, he stitches together a lyrical style that feels both punk and western. Recorded in six weeks with co-producer Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Adele, Gil Scott-Heron), Heaven Is a Junkyard is a work of absolute devotion. A portrait of the God-haunted American West. And a reminder that there is always love in the tall grass. [Limited-edition clear vinyl.]
Reissues, Comps, Live Recordings, Vault Excavations...
Adeem the Artist - Cast Iron Pan-Sexual LP (Four Quarters)
New pressing of 2021 breakthrough LP from the non-binary 'country queer' artist.
Alcest – Les Voyages De L'âme [Reissue/2012] LP (Prophecy)
Picture-disc vinyl reissue of the blackgaze artist’s third album.
Alkaline Trio – Good Mourning [Reissue/2003] 2xLP (Vagrant)
Alkaline Trio – Crimson [Reissue/2003] 2xLP (Vagrant)
Vinyl reissue of the Chicago alt-punk band’s fourth and fifth albums.
Animal Collective - Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished + A Night at Mr. Raindrop's Holistic Pharmacy 3LP (Domino)
Chiming laments for a childhood's end, the debut album from Animal Collective opens with the phrase "want to hear a secret, I know one," suggesting these secrets just might be buried deep within the flocks of high frequencies, electronic glitches, bleeps and swells that follow. Originally released in 2000 and credited to Avey Tare & Panda Bear prior to the full, collective band name being used on releases, this reissue of Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished features remastered audio and new artwork by Abby and Dave Portner. This limited edition, deluxe 3LP version includes a 5-track EP of never-before-released material, A Night at Mr. Raindrop’s Holistic Pharmacy, and is pressed on powder blue vinyl.
Matt Berry – Kill The Wolf [Reissue/2013] 2xLP (Acid Jazz)
Critically acclaimed, Kill The Wolf features progressive music,'70s pop and psychedelic experimentation that established him as a musician in his own right. The original release, a short run of 300 box sets, has since become a sought-after rarity. For the album's tenth anniversary, this special edition deluxe versions compiles all the exclusive material. [The gatefold double LP features three additional bonus tracks and mimic's the original album's blood-splatter appearance.]
The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers [Reissue/2020] LP+MP3 (Carpark)
Limited green color vinyl pressing. Everything changed for Auckland, New Zealand's The Beths when they released their debut album, Future Me Hates Me, in 2018. They quit their jobs, said goodbye to their hometown, and devoted themselves entirely to performing across the globe. Songwriter/lead vocalist Elizabeth Stokes worked on The Beths' second LP, Jump Rope Gazers, in between these intense periods of touring. Like their earlier music, the album tackles themes of anxiety and self-doubt with effervescent power pop choruses and rousing backup vocals, zeroing in on the communality and catharsis that can come from sharing stressful situations with some of your best friends.
Hayes Carll – Alone Together Sessions [Reissue/2021] LP (EMI Nashville)
For nearly two decades, Hayes Carll has been making consistently great singer-songwriter records, influenced by the back-porch songcraft of Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. While off the road in Nashville for his longest stretch in years, Carll had the chance to revisit some of his best material - which he reimagines on a new acoustic album, Alone Together Sessions.
Citizen – Youth [Reissue/2013] LP (Run For Cover)
Blue color vinyl pressing. Since its initial release in 2013, the songs that make up Youth have been staples in mixtapes, playlists and record collections for listeners chasing what felt like a long-lost feeling in alternative music. Youth takes notes from the headbanging tempo of grunge, the hazy reverb of shoegaze, and the catharsis of emo together to make something deeply personal and profound.
Alice Cooper – Killer [Reissue/1971] 2xCD/2xLP (Rhino)
Alice Cooper – School’s Out [Reissue/1972] 2xCD/2xLP (Rhino)
Deluxe double-disc CD and vinyl editions of the fourth and fifth studio albums recorded by the quintet of singer Alice Cooper, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. Bob Ezrin produced all four of Alice Cooper’s platinum albums from the 1970s, including Killer and School’s Out. These deluxe editions feature newly remastered versions of the original releases along with bonus material including unreleased live recordings.
Christoph de Babalon - If You're Into It, I'm Out of It 2LP (Cross Fade Enter Tainment)
2023 repress. Originally released in 1997. Christoph De Babalon was a key member of Germany's mutant splinter cells who fused UK rave music with more experimental, Teutonic techno, ambient, and hardedge politics to brutal effect during the mid-late '90s. This music has patently withstood the test of time, distinguished by a haunting atmospheric pallor and ruff-neck way with jungle that'll make you feel just as clammy and psychotic as when you first heard it (most likely on a trip to Berlin or via Christoph Fringeli's invaluable C8 database). If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It distills a feeling of that era, as the utopian outlook of rave's early years had evidently given way to something much darker, more maudlin, perhaps symptomatic of ennui with dance music's hyper-commercial land grab, or even a premonition of pre-millennial tension. With his debut album proper, De Babalon effectively plotted out terrain that bridged DJ Scud's rugged jungle breakcore with soundscaping more commonly associated with Thomas Köner or Deathprod, and in the process set the ground for myriad contemporary producers and sounds ranging from Raime and Blackest Ever Black to Demdike Stare, Pessimist, and beyond.
Blossom Dearie – Blossom Dearie [Reissue/1957] LP (Verve)
In her first recording for Verve, Blossom Dearie showcased her first-class piano playing and sense of swing on this self-titled 1957 gem. Dearie surveys the Great American Songbook on standouts like "Deed I Do," "Thou Swell," and three songs sung in French.
Debbie Gibson – Electric Youth [Reissue/1989] LP (Friday Music)
Limited edition red vinyl reissue. Electric Youth was the second studio album by singer-songwriter Debbie Gibson, originally released in 1989. It is the highest-charting album of Gibson's career.
Holy Motors – Slow Sundown [Reissue/2018] LP (Wharf Cat)
Red color vinyl pressing. Slow Sundown, Holy Motors' debut full length release, finds the Estonian dreamcatchers utilizing a sonic palette ranging from dark psychedelic pop to shoegaze-infected western music.
Eartha Kitt – Bad But Beautiful [Reissue/1962] LP (Verve)
Kitt is in excellent form on this never-before-reissued 1962 album, swinging her way through Billy May arrangements on classics like "Love For Sale" and "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend."
Chris Knight – The Jealous Kind [Reissue/2003] LP (Dualtone Music Group)
The Jealous Kind is an album about a remarkable artist at the peak of his creative gifts, a place where labels don't matter as much as the extraordinary power of his songs. "Knight seems like the last of a dying breed," wrote Rob Tannenbaum in The New York Times, "a hard-nosed iconoclast, a taciturn loner who hunts on his own land, a grownup Huck Finn with an acoustic guitar as well as a college degree. Chris Knight writes songs that place him in the company of Johnny Cash."
Les Abranis - Amazigh Freedom Rock 1973-1983 LP (Bongo Joe Records)
A compilation from the pioneering Algerian band that blended traditional Berber music with western rock, folk, disco, and funk, all the while proudly celebrating their Kabyle heritage. Shamy El Baz and Karim Abdeno founded Les Abranis in 1967 and experimented by mixing Kabyle vocals and melodies with garage and psych-rock, but as the '70s progressed they increasingly moved away from the garage and psychedelia of their early days and began to interpret their Kabyle repertoire in more open and creative ways, melting prog rock, jazz, and some early electronic influences. Amazigh Freedom Rock is a comprehensive look into their discography, from the garage-rock experimentations of their early days to their lushly orchestrated North African fusion masterpieces of the 1980s.
Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III [Reissue/2008] 2xLP (Republic)
Lil Wayne's classic 8x platinum album, Tha Carter III, is celebrating its 15th anniversary with this double-LP standard black vinyl reissue. Released in 2008, the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 selling over 1 million copies in its first week. It features the multiplatinum singles "Lollipop (feat. Static Major)", "A Milli", "Got Money (feat. T-Pain)", and "Mrs. Officer (feat. Bobby Valentino & Kidd Kidd)".
Love And Rockets – Hot Trip To Heaven [Reissue/1994] 2xLP (Beggars Banquet)
Love And Rockets – Sweet F.A. [Reissue/1996] 2xLP (Beggars Banquet)
Love And Rockets is the seminal, groundbreaking trio of Daniel Ash (vocals and guitar), David J (vocals and bass) and Kevin Haskins (drums). They formed in 1985 after the first split of their band Bauhaus. Love and Rockets provided a clean slate and an opportunity to plumb the depths of imagination and influences. The band's fifth album Hot Trip To Heaven was strikingly different from anything previous, and has a diverse range of influences from twisted lounge jazz to ambient trance. Rick Rubin guided Love and Rockets to a return to more guitar- based songs for 1996's Sweet F.A.
My Morning Jacket – MMJ Live Vol. 3: Bonnaroo 2004 2xLP (ATO)
My Morning Jacket, touring behind It Still Moves, took the stage at Bonnaroo on a scorching day in the summer of 2004. Ominous dark clouds rolled in early in the performance. "I'll never forget it," reflected Jim James, "We're playing, and the sky just rips open and rain starts pouring down. People are losing their minds... Everybody is petrified that we're going to get electrocuted, but it was such a transcendent moment that we just didn't care." It would become one of the festival’s most iconic sets. [Two limited-edition pressings are available: indie store exclusive “Thunderdome Edition” clear; and .]
Paul Oakenfold - Bunkka [Reissue/2002] 2xLP (New State Ent.)
Double 180gm LP pressing. The first-time vinyl pressing of Paul Oakenfold's 1 million-selling classic debut Bunkka. The original vinyl release from 2002 featured remixes, whereas this version contains the original album mixes.
Prince – The Gold Experience [Reissue/1995] LP (Sony Legacy)
Prince – The Truth [Reissue/1997] LP (Sony Legacy)
The Gold Experience, released in 1995, was the first full-length Prince album to be credited to his unpronounceable symbol and was released at the most public, heated stage of his battle with the major label industrial complex. The Truth is widely regarded as one of Prince's most underappreciated hidden gems. The album was originally released as an accompaniment to the 1998 triple album Crystal Ball, which marked the first time that Prince released an album totally independently.
Charlie Puth – Nine Track Mind [Reissue/2016] LP (Atlantic)
Charlie Puth's Nine Track Mind album is pressed on a single clear LP and is a one-time pressing. This vinyl is a part of Atlantic Records' 75th Anniversary vinyl collection. Puth gained popularity virally by posting his work to YouTube - ultimately becoming widely known for writing and performing the song "See You Again", a collaboration with fellow rapper Wiz Khalifa.
Ratt – The Atlantic Years 1984 – 1990 5xCD/6xLP (BMG)
This box set collects five albums from the glam rock band during their successful tenure on Atlantic. All albums feature the classic line up of Stephen Pearcy (vocals), Warren DeMartini (guitars), Robbin Crosby (guitars), Juan Croucier (bass/vocals), and Bobby Blotzer (drums).
Otis Redding – Otis Forever: The Albums & Singles (1968-1970) 6xLP (Atlantic)
Four original stereo albums and a new compilation of all the original mono singles by Otis Redding were released posthumously between 1968 and 1970. This six-LP box set contains the posthumous studio albums The Dock Of The Bay (1968); The Immortal Otis Redding (1968); Love Man (1969); and Tell The Truth (1970). Also included is a double LP compilation of Redding's ATCO singles released between 1968 and 1970. Available on standard black vinyl.
The Rolling Stones – Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) [UK Version] [Reissue/1966] LP (Abkco)
Originally released in 1966, Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) was the first hits compilation from the Rolling Stones. The UK Edition contains four #1 singles, including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", and "Get Off Of My Cloud". The original "fisheye" artwork has been restored for this version and is pressed on 180gm vinyl in a gatefold jacket.
Tears For Fears – The Hurting [Reissue/1983] LP (Mercury)
Tears For Fears debut album The Hurting was released on March 7, 1983, and peaked at #1 on the UK albums chart in its second week of release. It reached platinum status in January 1985 and contains three Top 5 U.K. singles - "Mad World", "Change", and "Pale Shelter". This LP has been mastered at Abbey Road Studios and cut at half-speed for superior quality.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe – Live In 1960 LP (Org Music)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the first great recording star of gospel music and among the first gospel musicians to appeal to rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll audiences, later being referred to as "the original soul sister" and "the godmother of rock and roll". This live recording from 1960 had never been on vinyl, until now.
Various Artists – Luke Una Presents: É Soul Cultura Vol. 2 2xLP (Mr Bongo)
For many listeners, Manchester based DJ Luke Una's intriguingly woven pattern of new, old, rare and under-discovered music from around the world became the soundtrack to rejuvenated positivity. The selection is eclectic, global, and plucked from different times and spaces. In theory, perhaps they shouldn't work together, but there is a mysterious link that makes them gel. That's what Luke does best. He creates a sort of musical alchemy, unifying the diverse. This isn't a compilation focused purely on the rare, even though many tracks featured do fall into that camp. It is best described by Luke himself, "It's not about showing off, collector rarity, or ego-strutting, it's all about telling stories."
Donovan Woods – Both Ways [Reissue/2018] LP (Meant Well, Inc.)
Donovan Woods – The Other Way [Reissue/2019] LP (Meant Well, Inc.)
Donovan Woods – Without People [Reissue/2020] LP (Meant Well, Inc.)
Donovan Woods is a Canadian folk and country singer-songwriter. He has released several albums of folk and roots music, including the Juno Award-winning Both Ways. His most recent three albums are now available on vinyl – two of which (Both Ways and Without People) are color pressings. Love’s Lessons is a brilliant record that delivers an unending stream of warm electric shocks.