New Release Round-Up 01-24-20

Wolf Parade - Thin Mind - Sub Pop
Wolf Parade - Dan Boeckner, Spencer Krug, and Arlen Thompson - release Thin Mind, the group’s fifth album for Sub Pop. The 10-track record was recorded by John Goodmanson at Risque Disque on Vancouver Island, BC, mixed by Goodmanson at Bogroll Studios in Seattle, WA, and mastered by Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering in Toronto, ON. Thin Mind has sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and dystopian narratives interwoven throughout. These themes emerged while working at Risque Disque, which Boeckner jokingly describes as a Dutchman’s failed utopia, a problematic structure with a post-apocalyptic vibe: the studio is housed in a stone barn hand-built by the Dutchman in the middle of the woods, using local materials and based on his memory of a building he loved growing up in the Netherlands. Thin Mind finds the core members of Wolf Parade working as a trio, as they did on past albums Apologies to the Queen Mary and At Mount Zoomer, with songwriting duties evenly split between singers Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug. The album includes the singles “Forest Green,” “Julia, Take Your Man Home,” and “Against the Day,” the latter of which features a rare, co-vocal performance from Boeckner and Krug.

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Breaking Benjamin - Aurora - Hollywood Records
Aurora features reimagined versions of the band’s biggest and most popular songs with special guests including Lacey Sturm (ex-Flyleaf), Scooter Ward(Cold) and Spencer Chamberlain (Underoath), to name a few.  Speaking about Aurora, Breaking Benjamin’s founder/frontman, Ben Burnley, had this personal message to share, ”This album is a celebration of our incredible fans; for those who have been there since hearing ‘So Cold’ for the first time in 2004, and the new ones who have joined us on this amazing journey along the way. We’ve always shared a unique emotional connection to our music with our fans, and this album attributes to those dark times and euphoric ones. From wherever you joined along the road to Aurora, this one is for you. Thank you.” 

Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline - Anti
Andy Shauf is becoming one of the most important songwriters of his generation. His songs are tuneful vignettes of small moments and big hearts. On his latest, The Neon Skyline Shauf intertwines stories of a group of friends who frequent a local dive bar, and through them, makes poignant observations about human nature with a novelist’s detail and melancholic humor. The songwriting is down to earth, yet sophisticated and inventively melodic. The Neon Skyline is a creative leap for this already acclaimed artist.

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The Black Lips - Sing In A World That's Falling Apart - Fire Records
It's country music but not as we know it which begs the question: Have these Bad Kids of 21st Century rock 'n' roll finally grown up on their ninth studio album? Are they at peace with themselves? Have they made a record their parents could listen to? The Black Lips new album 'Sing In A World That's Falling Apart' continues to flick the middle finger to one and all. This ain't another gaggle of bearded southern sons fleeing their collective suburban upbringings and collegiate music education. There aren't the usual clichés about drinking, honkytonks, and heartbreak. These are, after all, the same Black Lips who rescued the waning garage punk subgenre by not sounding or dressing their musical predecessors. They also dug contemporary hip-hop and punk and actualized themselves Like so many dramatic moments in the Black Lips career, 'Sing In A World That's Falling Apart' was born out of crisis. The band's stylistic evolution through decades of prolific touring and recording took them where no garage punk band had gone before - huge venues, network television shows, and major music festivals. Here Black Lips are at their grimiest, most dangerous and equipped with the best collection of songs since the aughts. Skidding onto the asphalt in a shower of sparks, they roll on with an unapologetic southern-fried twang, pacing the beast, every now and then dropping a psycho howl into the rubber room madness lurking underneath the truckstop fireworks. This ain't your granny's country album. And conversely this ain't your mama's Black Lips.

Pet Shop Boys - Hotspot - X2
2020 release, the 14th studio album from the British electro-pop duo. Hotspot was mostly written and recorded in Berlin and Los Angeles and produced and mixed by Stuart Price. Features the singles "Dreamland" (featuring Years & Years) and "Burning the Heather".

The Wood Brothers - Kingdom In My Mind - Honey Jar Records
Recorded over the course of a series of freewheeling, improvisatory sessions, Kingdom In My Mind is The Wood Brothers seventh studio release and their most spontaneous and experimental collection yet. A testament to the limitless creativity of the unharnessed mind, the record explores the power of our external surroundings to shape our internal worlds (and vice versa), reckoning with time, mortality, and human nature. The songs here find strength in accepting what lies beyond our control, thoughtfully honing in on the bittersweet beauty that underlies our pain and sadness with vivid character studies and unflinching self-examination. Deep as the lyrics dig, the arrangements always manage to remain buoyant and light, though, drawing from across a broad sonic spectrum to create a transportive, effervescent blend that reflects the trio s unique place in the modern musical landscape.

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Elton John - Live From Moscow - Mercury
2019 was the 40th anniversary of Elton John's historic first tour of Russia - he was the first Western rock star to ever perform in the country. The show in Moscow on 28th May 1979 with Ray Cooper was broadcast on BBC radio in the UK. This release is taken from the original broadcast masters, which have been remastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering. Now available on 180g, 2LP in gatefold package and 2CD with mini gatefold-style sleeve.

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UPCOMING RELEASES

Joey Alexander - Warna - Verve
At 16, Joey Alexander has already recorded two GRAMMY-nominated studio albums, as well as a critically acclaimed surprise release from late 2017 to honor Thelonious Monk's centennial. With his third studio effort Eclipse, Joey took another giant step forward, demonstrating his aptitude as a composer, bandleader, and musician, hinting at the many artistic paths open to him in the decades ahead. Joey has made appearances on 60 Minutes, The Today Show, and NPR's Tiny Desk series.

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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 01-17-20

Halsey - Manic - Capitol
GRAMMY Award-nominated, multi-Platinum artist and alternative pop maverick Halsey returns with her third full-length album Manic featuring her 5x Platinum hit "Without Me" and "Graveyard." The success of "Without Me" has made Halsey the first and only female artist to have at least three songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100. It now ranks as the longest-running Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit by a female artist of this century.

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...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - X: The Godless Void And Other Stories - Dine Alone Records
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead are celebrating their 25th year as a band in 2020 and they are releasing their 10th album "X: The Godless Void And Other Stories" via Dine Alone. This is their first album since 2014.

Algiers - There Is No Year - Matador Records
Algiers return in 2020 with third album ‘There Is No Year’, which will is released on Matador Records. ‘There is No Year’ solidifies and expands upon the doom-laden soul of their foundation, toward an even more epic, genre-reformatting sound, one somehow suspended in the amber of “a different era,” as described by guitarist Lee Tesche.

Bombay Bicycle Club - Everything Else Has Gone Wrong - Caroline
Bombay Bicycle Club's long-awaited new album, Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, is released this week. It is the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the British band's acclaimed No 1 charting, Mercury Music Prize nominated 4th album `So Long, See You Tomorrow, released back in 2014. The new album was largely recorded in the US alongside Grammy Award winning producer John Congleton (St. Vincent/Sharon Van Etten/War on Drugs) and features their euphoric new single `Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You).

Little Big Town - Nightfall - Capitol Nashville
Grammy Award-winning vocal group Little Big Town release their ninth studio album Nightfall, and accompanying headline tour, The Nightfall Tour. The foursomes’ new album drops this week, succeeding a once-in-a-lifetime performance at the historic Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 16. This is the first mainstream country performance featured at Carnegie Hall since Alan Jackson in 2013.  The tour will continue the following two nights at The Apollo and will proceed all spring in over 30 of the most prestigious theaters in the country, closing with two nights at Denver’s art deco gem, The Paramount. Every show excluding Carnegie Hall will feature critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Caitlyn Smith.

 

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UPCOMING RELEASES

Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline - Anti
Andy Shauf is becoming one of the most important songwriters of his generation. His songs are tuneful vignettes of small moments and big hearts. On his latest, The Neon Skyline Shauf intertwines stories of a group of friends who frequent a local dive bar, and through them, makes poignant observations about human nature with a novelist’s detail and melancholic humor. The songwriting is down to earth, yet sophisticated and inventively melodic. The Neon Skyline is a creative leap for this already acclaimed artist.

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The Wood Brothers - Kingdom In My Mind - Honey Jar Records
Recorded over the course of a series of freewheeling, improvisatory sessions, Kingdom In My Mind is The Wood Brothers seventh studio release and their most spontaneous and experimental collection yet. A testament to the limitless creativity of the unharnessed mind, the record explores the power of our external surroundings to shape our internal worlds (and vice versa), reckoning with time, mortality, and human nature. The songs here find strength in accepting what lies beyond our control, thoughtfully honing in on the bittersweet beauty that underlies our pain and sadness with vivid character studies and unflinching self-examination. Deep as the lyrics dig, the arrangements always manage to remain buoyant and light, though, drawing from across a broad sonic spectrum to create a transportive, effervescent blend that reflects the trio s unique place in the modern musical landscape.

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