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New Release Round-Up 04-26-19
The Cranberries - In The End - BMG
“On Monday 15th January this year Dolores O’Riordan died in London. Two days later she was due to come into BMG and play us the song demos for a new Cranberries album. At this point none of us believed there would be another studio album from the band. A couple of months later the remaining band members (Noel, Fergal & Mike) listened through to the vocals with producer Stephen Street and with the full support of Dolores’s family the decision was taken to take the vocal tracks and for the band to complete the recording of the album. This was a direct reaction to the strength of the material Dolores had left as her legacy. The end result is a euphoric alternative rock album on a par with the band’s best work, and together with the striking album artwork (by original band photographer Andy Earl and original sleeve designer Cally Calloman), celebrates vitality and optimism albeit tinged with tremendous poignancy.” —Alistair Norbury, BMG UK PresidentCatfish And The Bottlemen - The Balance - Capitol
Audiences from Manchester to Melbourne, London to Los Angeles, Newcastle to New York, and everywhere in between have been engulfed by the swell of eager sentiment propelled from a vociferous fanbase. Catfish And The Bottlemen possess a magnetic and dynamic focal point in McCann, renowned for posing everyday, easily identifiable observations through his lyrics. The new album The Balance arrives this week._________________________________________________________
Local Natives - Violet Street - Loma Vista
If you distilled California into soundwaves and vibrations, it might resemble the sonic and spiritual interplay of the Los Angeles quintet Local Natives. Violet Street revels in its stylistic eclecticism ranging from kinetic and propulsive pop (“When Am I Gonna Lose You”) to sun-drenched grooves (“Cafe Amarillo”) and stark emotive ballads (“Tap Dancer”). Produced by Shawn Everett (Kacey Musgraves, War On Drugs, Alabama Shakes), their 4th full length album proves to be their most diverse and mature set of tunes, from production through song writing.
Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Mettavolution - ATO Records
Rodrigo Y Gabriela are ready to embark on the next chapter of their remarkable story, with the release of their first studio album in 5 years. The new album, Mettavolution, will be released this week via ATO Records. Three years in the making, Mettavolution brings together Rod and Gab's passionate interest in Buddhism, the history of human evolution and the liberation of the potential we have as a species; all expressed through the medium of two acoustic guitars. Conceived and composed in their studio in Ixtapa on the Mexican Pacific Coast, then road-tested in South America and the USA in 2017, a long list of new material has been distilled down to six new Rodrigo y Gabriela compositions and one audacious, jaw-dropping cover song. Recorded in Los Angeles, producer Dave Sardy, -- best-known for his work with Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, A Perfect Circle and Band of Horses -- has helped Rod and Gab to a new recording career pinnacle.
Josh Ritter - Fever Breaks - Pytheas Recordings
Josh Ritter is returning this year with a new full-length, his tenth studio LP and follow-up to 2017’s Gathering. The Americana songwriter’s latest album, Fever Breaks, spans 10 tracks recorded at Nashville’s RCA Studio A over the second half of the past year. Jason Isbell produced the effort, which features his band The 400 Unit playing backup. It’s an exciting confluence of talents, and the promised chemistry bears out on the album’s gritty lead single “Old Black Magic”.Slick Rick - The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick - Def Jam
Remastered from the rare analog tape the special edition vinyl will be on 2LP for the first time. Limited double vinyl LP repressing of this 1988 debut album from the Rap kingpin. The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick topped Billboard's R&B/Hip Hop albums chart for five weeks and peaked at #31 on the Billboard 200 chart.
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UPCOMING RELEASES
SYML - SYML - Nettwerk Records
Brian Fennell is a student of simplicity. As SYML (pronounced "simmel"), which translates to "simple" in Welsh, Fennell writes emotive songs that capture the ethos of his musical persona. Ultimately his songs are a kind and truthful depiction of emotion grounded by his gut-wrenching vocal delivery. This is SYML’s debut album._________________________________________________________
Bad Religion - Age of Unreason - Epitaph
Bad Religion began in the sprawling suburbs surrounding Los Angeles, with the teenage punks offering an impassioned counterpoint to a culture of consumerism and anti-intellectualism. Founding members Greg Graffin, Brett Gurewitz, and Jay Bentley were eventually joined by guitarists Brian Baker of Minor Threat, Mike Dimkich of The Cult, and drummer Jamie Miller of …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Bad Religion have been highly influential force in modern punk, producing beloved international hits like “Infected,” “21st Century (Digital Boy),” and “Sorrow,” and building a devoted worldwide following. Bad Religion are set to release their new album Age of Unreason, which can be described as "a musical manifesto on the current political landscape.” In a world still brimming with rampant anti-intellectualism, inequality and oppression, the band’s signature brand of sonically charged humanist dissent seems as relevant as ever.
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Judah And The Lion - Pep Talks - Nettwerk Records
Judah And The Lion return with their third album, Pep Talks, following their widely successful Folk Hop n’ Roll and their breakout hit, “Take It All Back.” The album is a mature step for the band, and blends uplifting, powerful anthems with more contemplative and emotional tracks. The album includes “Over my head” and “Quarter-Life Crisis” and features Kacey Musgraves and Jon Bellion._________________________________________________________
Tank and The Bangas - Green Balloon - Verve
Hailing from New Orleans, Tank and The Bangas formed in 2013 and bubbled into national consciousness after appearing on and winning NPR’s wildly popular Tiny Desk Concert contest in 2017. The new album Green Balloon drops May 3rd._________________________________________________________
Tacocat - This Mess Is A Place - Sub Pop
When Seattle band Tacocat—vocalist Emily Nokes, bassist Bree McKenna, guitarist Eric Randall, and drummer Lelah Maupin—first started in 2007, the world they were responding to was vastly different from the current Seattle scene of diverse voices they’ve helped foster. It was a world of house shows, booking DIY tours on MySpace, and writing funny, deliriously catchy feminist pop-punk songs when feminism was the quickest way to alienate yourself from the then-en vogue garage-rock bros. Their lyrical honesty, humor, and hit-making sensibilities have built the band a fiercely devoted fanbase over the years, one that has followed them from basements to dive bars to sold-out shows at the Showbox. Every step along the way has been a seamless progression—from silly songs about Tonya Harding and psychic cats to calling out catcallers and poking fun at entitled weekend-warrior tech jerks on their last two records on Hardly Art, 2014’s NVM and 2016’s Lost Time. This Mess Is A Place, Tacocat’s fourth full-length and first on Sub Pop, finds the band waking up the morning after the 2016 election and figuring out how to respond to a new reality where evil isn’t hiding under the surface at all—it’s front and center, with new tragedies and civil rights assaults filling up the scroll of the newsfeed every day. “What a time to be barely alive,” laments “Crystal Ball,” a gem that examines the more intimate side of responding emotionally to the news cycle. How do you keep fighting when all you want to do is stay in bed all day? “Stupid computer stupor/Oh my kingdom for some better ads,” Nokes sings, throwing in some classic Tacocat snark, “Truth spread so thin/It stops existing.” Despite current realities being depressing enough to make anyone want to crawl under the covers and sleep for a thousand years, Tacocat are doing what they’ve always done so well: mingling brightness, energy, and hope with political critique._________________________________________________________
The Dream Syndicate - These Times - Epitaph
There are two phases of The Dream Syndicate. There was the band with revolving lineups that existed from 1982 to 1988 and made four albums including The Days of Wine and Roses and have influenced bands and delighted fans in the years since. And then there’s the band that reunited in 2012 and is closing in on its seventh year with nary a lineup change. This 21st Century version of the Dream Syndicate released How Did I Find Myself Here in 2017 to universal acclaim, no small feat for a band reuniting after almost three decades. With that reintroduction and a full year of touring behind them, the Dream Syndicate had the freedom to take it all somewhere new, to dig a little deeper, get outside of themselves a little bit. Their new album ‘These Times’ feels like a late-night radio show that you might have heard as a kid, drifting off into dreams and wondering the next morning if any of it was real. So, what does it sound like? If How Did I Find Myself Here was a 10 pm record, all swagger and cathartic explosion, then These Times is the 2 am sibling, moodier and more mercurial, the band acting as DJs of their own overnight radio station, riffing on an idea of what a Dream Syndicate album could be at this moment in time. It is Radio DS19. So, what’s it all about? Founder and singer/guitarist/songwriter Steve Wynn says, “These Times. That’s it. It’s all we’re talking about, all we’re thinking about. There’s no avoiding the existential panic of a world that’s hurtling somewhere quickly and evolving and shifting course by the hour. It seems like a lie to not address or reflect the things that we can’t stop thinking about—the whole world’s watching indeed.”
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Combo Chimbita - Ahomale - Epitaph
Through her folkloric mystique, otherworldly psychedelia, and a dash of enigmatic punk, Ahomale by Combo Chimbita catapults the sacred knowledge of our forebears into the future. Their second studio album and Anti- Records debut sees the visionary quartet drawing from ancestral mythologies and musical enlightenment to unearth the awareness of Ahomale, the album’s cosmic muse. Comprised of Carolina Oliveros’ mesmeric contralto, illuminating storytelling and fierce guacaracha rhythms, Prince of Queens’ hypnotic synth stabs and grooving bass lines, Niño Lento’s imaginative guitar licks, and Dilemastronauta’s powerful drumming, the lure and lore of Combo Chimbita comes into existence. Rooted in Colombia and based in New York, Combo Chimbita lives in the future. After playing together for years, these first-generation New Yorkers began experimenting with different traditional musical styles during their late night residencies at Barbès in Brooklyn. Exploring the connections between visual identity and improvisational long-form trips, Combo Chimbita came together as a four-piece band after they started encouraging more vocals by Carolina Oliveros, who tightens the rhythm with her guacharaca.
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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.
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New Release Round-Up 04-19-19
Cage The Elephant - Social Cues - RCA
John Hill produces the Kentucky alt-rock band Cage The Elephant's fifth album, Social Cues, which features a collaboration with Beck.
Drugdealer - Raw Honey - Mexican Summer
In an era when networked access to information is nearly universal and wearing influences on your sleeve is normalized, it often feels like everything’s been done. Which begs the questions: What’s the point of creating? Does the world need another still life of fruit? Another film about love? Does the world need another melody? On Raw Honey, his second album as Drugdealer, Michael Collins colors these existential conundrums with lush arrangements, memetic melodies, and a vulnerable tunefulness that tries to make sense of self-doubt and connected loneliness in our shared simulacra.The Rolling Stones - Honk - Interscope Records
Honk is the brand-new Best Of compilation album featuring the biggest hits and classic cuts from every Rolling Stones studio album from 1971 to 2016’s Blue & Lonesome. The 2LP collects 20 essential Stones’ tracks – including eight Top 10 singles, “Brown Sugar,” “Tumbling Dice,” “Angie,” “It’s Only Rock’n’Roll (But I Like It),” “Fool To Cry,” “Miss You,” “Emotional Rescue” and “Start Me Up.” and more. The album also features a live version of “Wild Horses” featuring Florence Welch.
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Daniel Norgren - Wooh Dang - Superpuma Records
The experience of Daniel Norgren's music is marked by connection: the artist to the band, the audience to the music, and the body to the soul. His latest album, Wooh Dang, out on Superpuma Records, is Norgrens first worldwide release. Recorded live and entirely on a 16 track analogue rig the album captures the close chemistry between Norgren and his band, comprised of old friends Anders Grahn (bass), Erik Berntsson (drums), and Andreas Filipsson (guitar and banjo). An intertwining of analog instrumentation, live performance, and rural field recordings, Wooh Dang is rife with a deeply hopeful creative intention. It's red blooded, alive, and coursing with equal parts adrenaline and seratonin. Wooh Dang was a real fun album to make and to me its been the world for the last few years, says Norgren. Thanks for taking the time. I hope you enjoy it.
Tech N9ne - N9na - Strange Music
Technicians! Tech N9ne releases his newest album, N9na. Where his previous album, Planet, was about everyone, this is more focused and introspective, honing in on what makes Tech N9ne who he is. With standout tracks like “FTI 2.0” and the title track, “N9NA”, this is sure to be an album bookmarking where Tech is at this point in his life and career.UPCOMING RELEASES
Audiences from Manchester to Melbourne, London to Los Angeles, Newcastle to New York, and everywhere in between have been engulfed by the swell of eager sentiment propelled from a vociferous fanbase. Catfish And The Bottlemen possess a magnetic and dynamic focal point in McCann, renowned for posing everyday, easily identifiable observations through his lyrics. The new album The Balance arrives 4.26._________________________________________________________
Remastered from the rare analog tape the special edition vinyl will be on 2LP for the first time. Limited double vinyl LP repressing of this 1988 debut album from the Rap kingpin. The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick topped Billboard's R&B/Hip Hop albums chart for five weeks and peaked at #31 on the Billboard 200 chart.
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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.
Read More
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