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LISTINGA decade after its initial release of only 300 copies, Tipper's Forward Escape is being offered once more in vinyl format to the legions of fans who sought this vaunted platter for their collection since. Blissfully naive the pressing would be so well received, the 300 copies Tipper self-funded was intended more a physical nod to the album artwork from Android Jones than as the highly sought after and rare collectible these became later. This 2024 'redux' adds a bonus track (Gratis) and updated mixes of each track to separate it from the original release, and the artwork has also received a re-working from the original artist (thus preserving the valuation of those 300 rare copies that have received mythical status in the reselling market over time).
Neck Deep's current outlook is "Don't Overthink it." The songs on upcoming self-titled album "are just fun, and we're not taking ourselves too seriously. We've basically done 90% of the production and recording ourselves... We've pretty much built this record fro the ground up with little to no outside help By that factor alone, it's the most Neck Deep record there's ever been, or at least since our first record, Wishful Thinking. It's the first time since then that we've done everything ourselves" explains Ben Barlow.
Marking 40 years of The Jesus And Mary Chain, ‘Glasgow Eyes’ was recorded at Mogwai’s Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow, where Jim and William continued the creative process that resulted in their previous album, 2017’s ‘Damage and Joy’, becoming their highest charting album in over twenty years. What emerged is a record that finds one of the UK’s most influential groups embracing a productive second chapter, their maelstrom of melody, feedback and controlled chaos now informed more audibly by their love for Suicide and Kraftwerk and a fresh appreciation of the less disciplined attitudes found in jazz. Jim Reid says, “But don’t expect ‘the Mary Chain goes jazz.’ People should expect a Jesus and Mary Chain record, and that’s certainly what ‘Glasgow Eyes’ is. Our creative approach is remarkably the same as it was in 1984, just hit the studio and see what happens. We went in with a bunch of songs and let it take its course. There are no rules, you just do whatever it takes. And there’s a telepathy there - we are those weird not-quite twins that finish each other’s sentences.” ‘Glasgow Eyes’ not only extends The Jesus and Mary Chain's story, but feels simultaneously like a return to roots. From the incendiary ‘Psychocandy’ debut and its classic ‘Just Like Honey’ onwards, the Reid brothers steadily became the misfits who made good without compromise.
The Black Crowes
The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion: Remastered [Super Deluxe Edition 4LP]
Vinyl: $179.98 PREORDER
The Black Crowes and producer George Drakoulias revisit their classic second album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. They’ve gone through the archives to create a deluxe edition featuring unreleased studio recordings, rare b-sides, a February 1993 concert, and a newly remastered album. Highlights include a new mix of the Memphis soul classic “99 Pounds”; the previously unreleased studio recording “Miserable.”
Deluxe 4LP box set includes: a reproduction of the original 132 page promotional hymn book featuring insights on the record and band’s state of mind from both Chris and Rich Robinson and sheet music for the 9 Chris and Rich compositions. Along with the box there are 4 12″x12″ lithographs of images from the southern Harmony photo shoots. The project has been overseen by Chris and Rich Robinson and album producer George Draklouias. There are 14 unreleased recordings, including 2 studio recordings, a live concert from February 1993 and the never heard before live in-studio performance recorded at the end of the Southern Harmony session along with b-sides and the original album, now remastered.
The Vaccines
Pink-Up Full Of Pink Carnations [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Translucent Pink LP]
Vinyl: $23.98 PREORDER
Torchbearers for British guitar music, The Vaccines - Justin Young (lead vocals, guitars), Árni Árnason (bass, vocals), Timothy Lanham (guitars, keys, vocals) and Yoann Intonti (drums) - are back with their sixth studio album Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations. The title comes from a misremembered lyric from Don McClean's "American Pie," a song that for Young fittingly evokes the death of innocence and the American Dream. After he moved to Los Angeles - a city the band has grown up being captivated by - he was forced to wrestle with the disillusionment that comes when expectations, dreams, and reality don't quite meet. Yet, though Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations is an album about reconciling with loss, it's also filled with gratitude for the people and places we once loved.
"Pink carnations symbolise gratitude and tell a person they’ll never be forgotten," says Young. "So whether it's the loss of a lover, or a friend, or even just a dream, the record is a reminder that they’ll live on in whatever capacity the mind allows them to. And it's a reminder to keep on dreaming.”
Produced by Andrew Wells (Halsey, Phoebe Bridgers) with Mixing from Dave Fridmann (Tame Impala, The Flaming Lips), Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations is an immediately anthemic addition to the band's discography. With a mammoth five UK Top 5 albums – including a Number 1 with 2012’s Come of Age – and a fierce live reputation forged through arena-filling headline shows and unforgettable slots at Glastonbury and Reading/Leeds, The Vaccines continue to be a vital band in the British rock canon.
Live Forever is the second solo mixtape by American singer/rapper Lil Peep. It was first released on December 2, 2015, two months after his first mixtape, Lil Peep; Part One. The mixtape was preceded by two singles: "Flannel" and “Haunt U”, and three additional singles were issued posthumously. The mixtape was later re-released on the seventh anniversary of the mixtape's release in 2022. Now available for the first time on vinyl, CD, and cassette
“The band was once described as a 'fucking nightmare' to be around, whilst we are lovely people we do embrace the chaos that comes with all of this so found it fitting to title our next album as such. The songs themselves mainly follow this theme but relate to all aspects of life. Lyrically, it is more of the same... no metaphorical meanings, no fantastical story telling, no pretentious bollocks.... Just tales of a life lived as it will always be.”
Real Estate’s sixth full-length album Daniel was recorded in an ebullient nine-day spree in RCA Studio A, in Nashville with celebrated producer and songwriter Daniel Tashian. In 11 compulsively tuneful songs, they connect the uninhibited wonder of their earliest work with the earned perspective of adulthood.
Martin Courtney actually learned of Tashian through his daughter, who adored an album he’d produced, Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour. The band reached out and spotted an instant connection despite their distinct wheelhouses—the Grammy-winning Nashville country-pop guy who’d helmed several smashes and the Northeast indie rock quintet with narcotic guitars. Real Estate had been thinking about R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People and ’90s “soft-rock radio,” the background music of their youth. Tashian helped lead them back toward it, toward an improved edition of the less self-conscious band they’d been at the start.
Several days into recording, all five members of Real Estate were discussing album titles when someone suggested “Daniel,” simply because it seemed funny to bestow a human name upon a record. Was it for Daniel Tashian? Maybe. Was it a nod to The Replacements’ Tim? Possibly. Was it the sign of a band that has now been around long enough to take its music seriously without taking itself or its perception too seriously? Absolutely.
Eminem
The Marshall Mathers LP2: 10th Anniversary Edition [Expanded Deluxe 4 LP]
Vinyl: $99.98 PREORDER
10th Anniversary Expanded Deluxe Edition of The Marshall Mathers LP2. It features 11 bonus tracks, including B- sides and instrumentals. Originally released on November 5, 2013, the album serves as a sequel to The Marshall Mathers LP released in 2000. It features the singles “Berzerk,” “Survival,” “Rap God,” “Headlights” and “The Monster,” which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album won Eminem a record sixth GRAMMY Award for Best Rap Album and is now certified 4x platinum. 4 LP set on 180g black vinyl.
Following acclaimed Topical Dancer album with Charlotte Adigéry, here comes Letter To Yu, Bolis Pupul’s debut solo album, produced by fellow Belgians, Soulwax. It’s no coincidence that Bolis Pupul’s music sounds the way it does. Born in Belgium to a Chinese mother and Belgian father and raised in Ghent, Bolis’ electronica is a joyous cross-cultural assemblage. The creation of the album is built around Bolis’ trip to Hong Kong earlier this year, made to reconnect with his mother’s roots.
On Before And After, Young chooses favorites from his playbook like a trip into his music history and performs them mostly alone on a solo acoustic journey. Each of the songs blend into each other and morph with mesmerizing clarity into a continuous flow of music creating a 48-minute pure and intimate listening experience. The 13-track album spans Neil’s career, from Neil’s early Buffalo Springfield contribution, "Burned" (1966) to the recent "Don't Forget Love"(2021) and includes the previously unreleased song “If You Got Love”.
As Neil put it on his NYA site:
Songs from my life, recently recorded, create a music montage with no beginnings or endings. The feeling is captured, not in pieces, but as a whole piece. Only for listening.
Nicki Minaj releases her new album Pink Friday 2 on December 8, 2023. Electric Blue LP.
Big Big Love is the first single from the eponymous album that is a mantra for embracing humanity with kindness. The single will be released in conjunction with the Michael Franti & Spearhead tour date celebrating a return to Red Rocks on June 2. Franti announced the US Big Big Love tour on January 31 which launched May 13 and runs through August 20.
Michael Franti is a globally recognized musician, humanitarian, activist, and award-winning filmmaker revered for his high-energy live shows, inspiring music, devotion to health and wellness, worldwide philanthropic efforts and the power of optimism. Throughout his multi-decade career, Franti has earned three Billboard No. 1's with triumphantly hopeful hits "Sound of Sunshine," "Say Hey (I Love You)," and "I Got You," as well as sic Top 30 Hot AC singles, 10 Top 25 AAA singles and three Billboard Top 5 Rock Albums.
Michael Franti & Spearhead continue to foster their community both on and off stage with a wish granting non-profit, Do It For The Love, founded by Franti and his wife, Sara. Do It For The Love brings those with life threatening illnesses, veterans, and children with severe challenges to concerts worldwide, fulfilling over 3,300 wishes and touching the lives of over 12,000 people to date. Franti also owns SOULSHINE Bali, a 32-room top-rated boutique retreat hotel located in Ubud, Bali.
Coming off the success of “Area Codes,” Kaliii returns with the release of her EP, Toxic Chocolate: Area Codes Edition. The original “Area Codes” peaked at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100, #5 on the Hot Rap Songs, and #10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. Toxic Chocolate spawned hits like “UonU (Feat. Yung Bleu)“ and “Standards.” performances.
Bring Me The Horizon
Sempiternal: 10th Anniversary [Limited Edition Picture Disc LP]
Vinyl: $41.98 PREORDER
Music For Nations/Legacy Recordings are proud to present a celebration of 10 years of Bring Me The Horizon’s Sempiternal. Originally released in 2013, Sempiternal is one of the most definitive metal albums of a generation. It smashed preconceptions with its trailblazing release and was both forward-thinking and innovative. It was also the perfect nod to their metal and post-hardcore roots; but with a fresh genre defining approach. It was the record that would catapult the band to global success on a grand scale.
To mark the decade of an album with a heritage and sonic veracity still firmly intact, a special 10th anniversary eco-friendly vinyl pressing has been carefully fashioned to emphasise the music and underline the enigmatic artwork still steeped in symbology and mystique.
2-disc package in a 7-inch sleeve, containing the Atom Heart Mother album on CD and a Blu-ray disc featuring newly discovered film of the performance from over 50 years ago. Originally only released in Japan in 2021, the set contains some unique memorabilia – a special photo book containing many rare, never-seen-before photos, reproductions of the pamphlet, the poster, the concert ticket, and the flier distributed at the event.
Mixing warm acoustic tones and strong vocals with heavy emo elements, the band launched several DIY tours, quickly developing a national presence. Signing with Boston indie Topshelf Records, they released their debut album, “The Earth Pushed Back" and in 2014, Have Mercy signed with vaunted indie Hopeless Records, which released their second LP, “A Place of Our Own”, later that year. Working with producers Paul Leavitt (All Time Low) and Brian McTernan (Thrice), Swindle and a rotating crew recorded the band’s Hopeless follow-up, “Make the Best of It”, which was released in early 2017. Have Mercy returned with “The Love Life” in 2019, which charted Swindle’s tumultuous personal life over the previous three years. The band came back in August 2022 with a self-tiled EP, released via Zodhiac Records, which caught the attention of Brooklyn Vegan, FLOOD Magazine, The Noise, and more.
Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!
Pardon My French: 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition [Red Smoke 2LP]
Vinyl: $29.98 PREORDER
Five years ago it seemed like Uncle Lucius had run its course. They had torn a swath out of the Texas roots music scene over a 13 year run, worn out 5 vans and recorded 4 albums, and grown a reputation at home and abroad as a thrilling, dynamic live act. Long-time fans were certain they'd be a massive global hit. The only question was when. Growing families demanded their fathers' attention, and years of touring started to feel like circles around a drain. The tide went out, and they folded up their sails.
The audience had other ideas. Interest in the band continued to grow during their absence from the touring circuit. Pro athletes used their songs for walk on music, and top-rated television shows (Yellowstone) featured their music during pivotal scenes.
"We should have broken up years ago," they joked.
They never intended to reunite. Some things are not up to us. intention is well & good, but some people are made to play together, meant to create together. And intuition was their intention, all along.
The tides had transferred, the forces realigned. Uncle Lucius was a dream, first materialized over dank nights at the Horseshoe Lounge, drinking cheap beer with Dixie while the jukebox moaned. It crystallized on endless highway drives and onstage fever dreams. It felt like part of the past, but where one van breaks down, another van comes rolling up.
After a five year hiatus, the band will be bringing their methods of soul, joy, and thunder to select stages across the country. All we've got is now.
On December 8th, the newly-reformed band will release their 5th album since 2015. Like It's The Last One Left carries on the Texas band’s deep rock and blues traditions while covering topics like mental health, love, and self-care.
Earlier this year, Mac DeMarco released his 199-song album, One Wayne G, a collection of songs Mac recorded between 2018-2023. Previously available only in digital formats, the One Wayne G Blu-ray marks the first time the album will be available in physical form.
Junior Wells
In My Younger Days [RSD Essential Indie Colorway Natural Opaque LP]
Vinyl: $27.99 PREORDER
U2
Atomic City [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Photoluminescent Transparent 7in Single]
Vinyl: $16.98 PREORDER
‘Atomic City’, the brand-new track from U2, is produced by Jacknife Lee and Steve Lillywhite and comes alongside the band’s run of dates at the Sphere in Las Vegas. This Limited Edition Photoluminescent Transparent 7’’ Vinyl includes the original song alongside an etching on the B-Side.
Elaine Brown
Seize The Time - Black Panther Party [RSD Essential Indie Colorway White Marble LP]
Vinyl: $27.99 PREORDER
Willie Nelson
Long Story Short: Willie 90: Live At The Hollywood Bowl [2CD/Blu-ray]
CD: $35.98 PREORDER
On April 29 and 30 of this year, a variety of artists spanning genres and generations came together with Willie Nelson to celebrate the legend's 90th birthday for a star-studded, once-in-a-lifetime event at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. This 2CD+Blu-Ray captures the highlights of this amazing night, including 39 performances across the 2 CDs and the same songs captured in HD on the Blu-Ray. Artists performing songs from every era of Willie’s seven decade career range from Keith Richards, Neil Young and Tom Jones to Chris Stapleton, Dave Matthews and Miranda Lambert; Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash and George Strait to Beck, Avett Brothers and The Lumineers; Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Norah Jones to Jack Johnson, Leon Bridges and Tyler Childers.
Fort Minor
The Rising Tied [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Zeotrope Picture Disc 2LP]
Vinyl: $54.98 PREORDER
Fort Minor is a side project of Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda that he created in 2004, collaborating with multiple artists including Styles of Beyond, John Legend, Common and many more. The Rising Tied was released in 2005 and is the only album release from Fort Minor. It has been certified Platinum by the RIAA in the US.
Four singles were released off the 16-track album including the iconic sports anthem “Remember The Name” and “Where’d You Go” which reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.
The CD and digital deluxe edition (also released in 2005) of The Rising Tied featured 3 additional tracks: “Be Somebody”, “There They Go” and “The Hard Way”. In 2015, Fort Minor released a non-album single “Welcome”. These 4 tracks are now added to a 2-LP vinyl deluxe edition of The Rising Tied all making their vinyl debut.
The 2023 vinyl deluxe re-issue of The Rising Tied will be released on 3 formats, 2 of which are limited editions:
1. 2-LP (20 tracks) Limited Edition Translucent Ruby Red Color Vinyl, Slipcase, Gatefold Sleeve, Insert.
2. 2-LP (20 tracks) Limited Edition Zoetrope Picture Disc. Gatefold Sleeve & Insert. Each of the two LPs has different zoetrope designs.
3. 2-LP (20 tracks) Black Vinyl, Gatefold Sleeve, Insert.
Brittany Howard's "What Now" and "Meditation" feat. Ramona Reid & Ann Sensing on orange splatter 7" vinyl single.
Legendary SoCal artists (HED) P.E. have been breaking rules and going against the grain for more than two decades. While the world becomes increasingly more black and white, (HED) P.E defiantly stands in opposition and refuses to be categorized in one genre or another. On their 11th studio album, "DETOX", (HED) P.E. celebrate the musical fusion between punk rock, hip hop, jazz, reggae, heavy metal, and thrash.
&TEAM’s first full album, First Howling : NOW will feature new songs as well as the songs which have been previously released in First Howling : ME and Howling : WE. The Limited Edition A (CD+Book) includes a 56-page photobook, 40-page lyric book, mini-poster, postcard, and photocard A (1 of 9 types / randomly enclosed).
Kali Uchis
Orquídeas [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Alternative Cover Silver Metallic LP]
Vinyl: $32.99 PREORDER
GRAMMY® Award-winner Kali Uchis releases her fourth studio album, Orquídeas. Marking Uchis’ striking return to Spanish-language music, the project features a superstar lineup with KAROL G, Peso Pluma, El Alfa, and JT. Inspired by the sensual allure of Colombia’s national flower, the orchid, Orquídeas traverses multiple Latin genres including reggaeton, dembow, bolero and salsa furthering Uchis’ connection to her Colombian roots.
Sean Price & M-Phazes
Land of the Crooks [RSD Essential Indie Colorway Neon Green Color-in-Color w/Smoke LP]
Vinyl: $28.99 PREORDER
Green Day is not your savior.
But the spirit of rock n roll might be. And as the greatest punk band alive, they’re the loudest vessel we have… to give it a shot.
Green Day are ready to flip off the famous, stupid and contagious, by putting a mirror to the present tense like only they can, with Saviors — an inspired new studio album to be released in early 2024.
Amazingly, Saviors represents Green Day's 14th studio album, yet somehow this enduring power trio -- Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool & Mike Dirnt -- remain devoted to their defiant craft that has fueled their career-long destruction of every boundary bestowed on the genre, and landed 3 East Bay punks in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
The album was recorded in both London and Los Angeles under the audacious ear and Rock prowess of Green Day's longtime friend & collaborator, GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Rob Cavallo.
“Nashville’s new star” (CBS This Morning) Brittney Spencer announces her highly-anticipated debut album, My Stupid Life, out January 19th via Elektra. The first track, “Bigger Than The Song,” showcases Spencer’s ability to excel on the fringe of genre periphery with her honest and free-spirited songwriting, and it’ll be performed on NBC’sTODAY Show on September 29.
The album’s 13 tracks are a culmination of her experience during her time trying to “make it” in Music City, discovering herself in the process. The Baltimore native moved to Nashville ten years ago, and this album is Spencer’s commitment to be unapologetically herself. Recorded at Sound Emporium Studios and Blackbird Studio in Nashville, the album is produced by GRAMMY award-winning Daniel Tashian (Kacey Musgraves, Little Big Town, Brett Eldredge), with the exception of two tracks, Marcus “MarcLo” Lomax (Monsters & Strangerz, Maren Morris, Justin Bieber, Kelsea Ballerini), who produced the lead single — “Bigger Than The Song” — and Romil Hemnani (BROCKHAMPTON), who produced “New To This Town.”
“This feels like a long time coming,” says Spencer. “It took me three years from the time I released my first EP Compassion to now to release my first album. These songs serve as my introduction to country music and I wanted to give them all the time and care that they (and my fans) deserve. I wrote a lot of songs from the back corners of my mind because I wanted to take a good, deeper look at myself and create something true to who and where I am at this time in my life. The more I put the pen to my feelings and thoughts, the more I realize I’ve heard similar sentiments throughout my life. Through making this album, I’ve learned we’re not alone in our heads, and I hope this album hugs the tiny, loud parts of our overthinking brains that sometimes need it most.”
The project features award-winning collaborators including Grace Potter, Maren Morris, Abbey Cone & Sarah Buxton, plus guitar contributions by Jason Isbell.
Sleater-Kinney returns with Little Rope, one of the finest, most delicately layered records in the band’s 30-year career. On the surface, Little Rope's ten songs veer from spare to anthemic, catchy to deliberately hard-turning. But beneath that are perhaps the most complex and subtle arrangements of any Sleater-Kinney record, and a lyrical and emotional compass pointed firmly in the direction of something both liberating and terrifying: the sense that only way to gain control is to let it go.
SLIFT’s ILION is a towering work of rock music, a steamrolling record that starts at the highest peak and never lets up. If that sounds overwhelming, trust that this Toulouse trio have you in good hands. Their third full-length feels massive and oceanic, merging the furious intensity of metal and the wigged-out guitar heroics of psych rock with post-rock’s epic sense of scale. ILION is the kind of music where you listen to it and think to yourself, “This came from only three people?” It sure did, and SLIFT’s utter ferocity is way more than a tempest in a teacup. It reaches outwards for miles and creates new zeniths within unforeseen horizons of rock.
“New Blue Sun is the continuation of discovery for me. My entire career has been fueled by this and it is the only thing that keeps me honest. This album is the most honest and interesting offering I can give today. I never could have imagined in high school, when I started rapping and doing music that I would be here right now playing wind instruments. Ha. This life ride always surprises me. I’m here for it.” — Andre 3000
This limited edition 3-LP vinyl is pressed on 180g black vinyl with fold out poster, printed inner sleeves and note from the artist.
Introducing Office Dog, hailing from Otepoti/Dunedin and residing in Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland. The trio, led by Kane Strang on guitar/vocals, alongside Rassani Tolovaa on bass and Mitchell Innes on drums, present their debut album Spiel — out January 26, 2023 via New West Records Records. Assembling intricate musical collages, Office Dog fearlessly explore the depths of complex emotions through layers of tension, release, and celestial lyricism.
Office Dog formed in 2021. Amidst a busy solo career, front-person Kane Strang sought a more collaborative musical outlet. He teamed up with fellow musicians and previous collaborators Mitchell Innes and Rassani Tolovaa, and the trio began writing together across various locations in Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland. Over the next year, fragments began assembling into songs, ultimately culminating in the creation of Office Dog’s debut full-length album, ‘Spiel’, recorded in collaboration with producer De Stevens at Roundhead Studios and mastered by Jonathan Pearce (The Beths).
The Menzingers
Some Of It Was True [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Strawberry Shortcake Splash LP]
Vinyl: $26.98 PREORDER
Strawberry Shortcake Splash LP (Indie Exclusive). The Menzingers are an absolute institution. The Philadelphia punk legends' multi-decade reputation as road warriors with an unbeatable catalog is cemented as hard truth-and their seventh album, Some Of It Was True, stands as their most immediate-sounding and energetic record to date. The follow-up to 2019's sensational Hello Exile accomplishes the daunting task of capturing the Menzingers' distinctive live energy in the confines of the studio, resulting in a sound that's both rich, raw, and complementary to the group's increasingly prismatic songwriting approach. More than 15 years in, the Menzingers are still holding their listeners square in the immediate present, and Some Of It Was True documents that power in thrilling fashion.
"We wanted to make a fun record and write songs that we wanted to play live, and that's exactly what we did," co-vocalist/guitarist Greg Barnett says "We've always said that we want every album to sound live, but we never recorded an album live before. This was the first time we committed to that idea. We wanted to sound like how our band sounds onstage." Making the process easier: Grammy-nominated producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, the War on Drugs, Waxahatchee), who joined the Menzingers in El Paso's legendary Sonic Ranch studios and lent his incredible ear for raw, immediate sound to help the band achieve Some Of It Was True's in-the-room live feel. "The Menzingers are as real as it gets," Cook says on his time in the studio with the band. "I had an absolute blast working with these guys and was moved to tears many times. They are truly dedicated to artistic growth, and to each other, in ways I found both refreshing and beautiful. I am now a lifer."
Sarah Jarosz
Polaroid Lovers [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Blue & Green Splatter LP]
Vinyl: $25.98 PREORDER
Polaroid Lovers is the 7th studio album from four-time GRAMMY winner Sarah Jarosz. Produced by Daniel Tashian, Polaroid Lovers is a bold creative statement that sees Jarosz exploring new sonic territory. The 11 songs on the album, all co-written by Jarosz with songwriters including Tashian, Jon Randall, Ruston Kelly, and Natalie Hemby, touch on themes both personal and universal: love, longing, and finding one’s place in the world.
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes
Dark Rainbow [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Honey LP]
Vinyl: $25.98 PREORDER
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes return with their fifth studio album, 'Dark Rainbow' - set for release on 26 January 2024. The Rattlesnakes have built a reputation for blistering anthems that owe as much to brooding desert rock as it does hardcore and power-pop. They’re redefining punk-rock with a sound that straddles eras and genres, putting The Rattlesnakes in a category all their own, while also challenging tired cliches and setting the world to rights.
John Moreland
In The Throes: Remastered [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Grass Green LP]
Vinyl: $23.98 PREORDER
Remastered reissue of acclaimed singer-songwriter John Moreland's sophomore album, In The Throes (2013), featuring "Break My Heart Sweetly" and "3:59 AM"
Blue Raspberry is Katy Kirby’s follow up to her renowned debut album Cool Dry Place, which came out in February 2021. Singer/songwriter Katy Kirby introduced her warm, articulate vocals, perceptive lyrics, and playful adult-alternative style on her debut album as she toured tirelessly supporting bands like Waxahatchee, Andy Shauf, Julia Jacklin and Alex G.
That record was a tried-and-true folk collection, perfectly displaying the chops of a young songwriter and emanating the warm feel of a band in a room; Blue Raspberry, made with the same band and producers (Logan Chung and Alberto Sewald) , hits the gas and enters completely new territory as we see Katy truly step into her own as a songwriting force. She fearlessly leans far into baroque piano pop on tracks like ‘Redemption Arc’ and the title track ‘Blue Raspberry’, and lyrically she explores themes of loss and queer love. Very few are able to capture the same emo- tional, theatrical magic of artists like Fiona Apple, Tom Waits and Joanna Newsom but Katy pulls it off on this record; standout ‘Drop Dead’.
There’s a double meaning to the title of What Now, the revelatory new album from Brittany Howard. “With the world we’re living in now, it feels like we’re all just trying to hang onto our souls,” says the Nashville-based musician and frontwoman for four-time Grammy Award-winning Alabama Shakes. “Everything seems to be getting more extreme and everyone keeps wondering, ‘What now? What’s next?’ By the same coin, the only constant on this record is you never know what’s going to happen next...”
What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, “J's week beats your year.”
What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. “When I'm writing for the band,” he says, “I'm always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I'm thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it's just what happened.”
Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, “Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I'm really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it's kind of limiting. [laughs] Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it's harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones.”
Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on “I Can't Find You,” where he is Jack Nitzsche to J's Neil Young, creating one of the album's loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew “Doc” Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn's steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc's great 2022 Sub Pop single, “Your Feel,” he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads.
What Do We Do Now is the finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, and the way they're presented is just about perfect. Asked if he would be touring to support the album, J says he'll be doing some weekend dates, but he probably won't be putting a band together. And I'm sure these songs will sound great solo and acoustic, but the arrangements on this album are truly great and put a cool, different spin on Mascis' instantly recognizable approach to making music.
So, what do we do now? Not sure. But apparently, what J does is to make one of his most killer records ever. Hats off to him.
–Byron Coley
Various Artists
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes [Orange LP]
Vinyl: $32.99 PREORDER
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES (MUSIC FROM & INSPIRED BY) IS THE OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK TO THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEW FILM IN THE HUNGER GAMES SAGA. THE SOUNDTRACK WAS EXECUTIVE-PRODUCED BY NINE-TIME GRAMMY®-WINNING PRODUCER DAVE COBB (CHRIS STAPLETON, BRANDI CARLILE, STURGILL SIMPSON) AND FEATURES “CAN’T CATCH ME NOW”, WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY OLIVIA RODRIGO.
Chelsea Wolfe
She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Cobalt Blue LP]
Vinyl: $24.98 PREORDER
Kali Malone’s anticipated new album “All Life Long” is a collection of music for pipe organ, choir, and brass quintet composed by Kali Malone, 2020 - 2023. Choral music performed by Macadam Ensemble and conducted by Etienne Ferschaud at Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-L’Immaculée-Conception in Nantes. Brass quintet music performed by Anima Brass at The Bunker Studio in New York City. Organ music performed by Kali Malone and Stephen O’Malley on the historical meantone tempered pipe organs at Église Saint-François in Lausanne, Orgelpark in Amsterdam, and Malmö Konstmuseum in Sweden.
Kali Malone composes with a rare clarity of vision. Her music is patient and focused, built on a foundation of evolving harmonic cycles that draw out latent emotional resonances. Time is a crucial factor: letting go of expectations of duration and breadth offers a chance to find a space of reflection and contemplation. In her hands, experimental reinterpretations of centuries-old polyphonic compositional methods become portals to new ways of perceiving sound, structure, and introspection. Though awe-inspiring in scope, the most remarkable thing about Malone’s music is the intimacy stirred by the close listening it encourages.
Malone’s new album All Life Long, created between 2020 - 2023, presents her first compositions for organ since 2019’s breakthrough album The Sacrificial Code alongside interrelated pieces for voice and brass performed by Macadam Ensemble and Anima Brass. Over the course of twelve pieces, harmonic themes and patterns recur, presented in altered forms and for varied instrumentation. They emerge and reemerge like echoes of their former selves, making the familiar uncanny. Propelled by lungs and breath rather than bellows and oscillators, Malone’s compositions for choir and brass take on expressive qualities that complicate the austerity that has defined her work, introducing lyricism and the beauty of human fallibility into music that has been driven by mechanical processes. At the same time, the works for organ, performed by Malone with additional accompaniment by Stephen O’Malley on four different organs dating from the 15th to 17th centuries, underscore the mighty, spectral power that those rigorous operations can achieve.
All Life Long simmers in an ever-shifting tension between repetition and variation. The pieces for brass, organ, and voice are alternated asymmetrically, providing nearly continuous timbral fluctuation across its 78-minute runtime even as thematic material reiterates. Each composition’s internal framework of fractal pattern permutations has the paradoxical effect of creating anticipated keystone moments of dramatic reverie and lulling the listener into believing in an illusory endlessness. On an even more granular level, the historical meantone tuning systems of each organ used, and the variable intonation of brass and voice, provide further points of emotional excavation within the harmony.
The titular composition “All Life Long” appears twice on the album, first as an extended canon for organ and again in the final quarter, compactly arranged for voice. In the latter, Malone pairs the music with “The Crying Water” by Arthur Symons, a poem steeped in language of mourning and eternity. For organ, “All Life Long” moves with a patient stateliness, the drama concentrated in moments when shifting tonalities generate and release dissonance and ecstasy. For voice, each word is saturated with feeling, the singers swooping gracefully downward to capture the melancholy of the narrator’s relationship to the timeless tears of the sea. “Passage Through The Spheres,” the album’s opening piece, contains lyrics in Italian pulled from Giorgio Agamban’s essay In Praise of Profanation. In it, Agamban defines profanation as, in part, the act of bringing back to communal, secular use that which has been segregated to the realm of the sacred, a process Malone enacts each time she performs on church organs.
This is not music of praise, or of spiritual revelation, but it is an artistic enactment of translating the indescribable. It carries the gravity of liturgical chant, and its fixation on the infinite, but draws its weight from the earthly realm of human experience. A music that draws the listener into the present moment where they can discover themselves within the interwoven musical patterns that can come to resemble the passage of days, weeks, years, a lifetime.
"On RAT WARS, HEALTH, are not only making the heaviest, most genre-obliterating music of their career, they’re documenting just how insane it feels to be alive right now. It’s The Downward Spiral for people with at least two monitors and a vitamin D deficiency. “RAT WARS” is a definitive statement on the insanity and the insipidness of contemporary life. "
Legendary indie-rock band Grandaddy has announced a brand new studio album Blu Wav set for release February 16, 2024 via Dangerbird Records. A prolific storyteller, Jason Lytle is inspired by the overwhelming beauty of nature to the mundane moments that spark life’s strongest memories. Introducing pedal steel into the band’s repertoire for the first time, buoyant lead single “Watercooler” comments on the dichotomy of both. It was inspired by having his own outdoorsy rock guy (in both senses of the word) lifestyle while his partner had an office job. Lytle shares, “Most of my relationships have involved girls who worked in office settings. This song is about the end of one, or perhaps a few, of those relationships. Listeners will also notice the pedal steel on this track and eventually on many others from the forthcoming new album. It’s a first for Grandaddy, and I couldn't be more thrilled about this fact.” With the album title Blu Wav meant to be a literal mash-up of “bluegrass” and “new wave”, the new collection has a distinct feel, a uniform vibe, and a somewhat unexpected sound. It was conceived as Grandaddy maestro Jason Lytle was driving through the Nevada desert, and Patti Page’s "Tennessee Waltz" came across the classic country station on the radio. He was immediately intrigued by the possibilities of what it might sound like to keep the slow sway and sweet, simple lyrics of the bluegrass waltz while adding layers of dense synthesizers and the electronics of new wave. It incorporates the lo-fi lushness and sometimes-psychedelic orchestration Grandaddy is known for with Lytle’s first foray into true country. Seven of its 13 songs are waltzes, and as Lytle notes, “there’s an inordinate amount of pedal steel.” Grandaddy recently celebrated their legacy with a series of 20th anniversary reissues including the acclaimed Sumday Twunny box set which earned a Pitchfork ‘Best New Reissue”. Lytle also contributed vocals to a posthumous Sparklehorse album by request of his friend and fellow psychedelic pop auteur Mark Linkous’ family. Grandaddy has released five official LPs, most recently 2017’s Last Place. Grandaddy members include Jason Lytle, Aaron Burtch, Jim Fairchild, Tim Dryden, and the late Kevin Garcia, who passed away in 2017.
TANGK is, at its core, a love album. Open to anyone who requires something to shout out loud in order to fend off any encroaching sense of the void, now or forever. TANGK is a bona fide pop record in a way we’ve never heard from IDLES before, that is, something for everyone to pass around and share, communal anthems intended for overcoming our grievances. The word - pronounced “tank” with a whiff of the “g” - began as an onomatopoeic reference in-studio for the sound of a guitar tone, but has grown into a sigil for living in love. Joe sings on TANGK in a way we’ve never heard before, completing his transformation from post-punk firebrand into soul singing evangelist. TANGK was co-produced by Nigel Godrich, Kenny Beats, and IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen.
Mother Mother
Grief Chapter [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Coke Bottle Clear LP]
Vinyl: $24.98 PREORDER
Grief Chapter is an album with songs rooted in mortality, grief, and living fearlessly. Tracks like “Nobody Escapes,” “To My Heart,” and “Head Shrink” are sure to ignite their devoted legion of fans, and undeniable alt-rock anthems “Explode!,” “Days,” “Normalize” and “The Matrix” will sound at home on festival stages and amphitheaters they’ll be headlining in the US next summer. The album was produced by Mother Mother frontman Ryan Guldemond, and mixed by the revered Rich Costey.
The music of Atlanta trio Omni has always swung fast and hit hard. And Souvenir, their fourth album and second for Sub Pop, packs their biggest punch yet. Inactive during the majority of the pandemic–the longest downtime in their history–they approached this recording with lots of pent-up energy. Guitarist Frankie Broyles, singer/bassist Philip Frobos, and drummer Chris Yonker converted their creative fuel into sharp, driving songs that land immediately, sporting chopping riffs, staccato beats, and wiry melodies.
Why does Souvenir sound so sharp? Because each track is a compact unit that stands on its own, reflecting the time and place in which it was created. That’s why Omni called the album Souvenir: it’s a collection of audio objects, a stash of musical miniatures. Think of it as a family photo album, a binder of rare playing cards, a shoebox holding precious gems.
Take “Plastic Pyramid,” the first song Omni wrote after coming out of lockdown. Filled with twists and turns, it’s a journey unto itself, charged by clanging chords, spinning rhythm, and Frobos trading lines with Izzy Glaudini of Automatic, with whom Omni toured with last fall. (Glaudini sings on two other Souvenir tracks, the first guest vocalist the band has collaborated with). Or take opener “Exacto,” a slicing web of intertwined guitar and bass. Its razor-fine notes and syncopated beats perfectly match pointillist Frobos lyrics such as “Exacto, de facto, concise, quite right”–a line that could well be an Omni mantra.
The precision and clarity of Souvenir comes from some new Omni developments. For one, this is their first album with Yonker as their full-time drummer, and his forceful playing adds exclamation points to every pointed moment on Souvenir. In addition, the trio worked with Atlanta-based engineer Kristofer Sampson for the first time. Sampson pushed the band to a higher degree of power, with Frobos’s vocals more upfront in his pulsing mix and the rest of the music leaping out of the speakers.
You might notice that Frobos’ singing is a bit more emotional and even nostalgic this time around. In crafting his vocals, he was inspired by the early college radio rock of formative favorites like REM, the Cure, and Big Audio Dynamite–the kind of bands whose melodies could have been top 40 hits in an alternative universe. The lyrics on Souvenir are also by turns funny, absurd, and even cryptic. A wry humor has always coursed through Omni’s songs, and this time, it comes in shades of both dark and light. In “Granite Kiss,” an “astronomical” love story concludes with the hope that “we can decay together,” while in “PG,” a romantic walk in the park includes a rose-colored mugging.
Immediacy rushes throughout every moment of Souvenir, making it the band's most powerful album to date. Omni has truly crafted a musical keepsake–a set of songs that you’ll want to keep close, an aural memento you'll cherish for the rest of time.
Blackberry Smoke
Be Right Here [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Golden Birdwing LP]
Vinyl: $24.98 PREORDER
Hailed as "the reigning heavyweight champions of Southern rock" (No Depression), Atlanta-based quintet Blackberry Smoke is back with their 8th studio album, Be Right Here, produced by Dave Cobb. Be Right Here follows 2021's You Hear Georgia, which was the best-selling Country and Americana/Folk album in the country, entered at #7 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart and #4 on the Billboard Top Albums chart. Released to critical acclaim, No Depression praised the band for being “as much students of singer-songwriter-folk and outlaw country as they are of jam-based, chest-pumping rock,” ” while Guitar World declared "Many try to reproduce that holy grail, golden-era-of-classic-rock sound through their six-string escapades, yet only a handful ultimately succeed. One such band who succeeds in spades is Blackberry Smoke, whose most recent album You Hear Georgia serves up 10 tracks of pure rock ‘n’ roll bliss.”
In addition to Blackberry Smoke—Starr (vocals, guitar), Richard Turner (bass, vocals), Brit Turner (drums), Paul Jackson (guitar, vocals) and Brandon Still (keyboards)—the album also features background vocals from longtime collaborators The Black Bettys.
Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist
VOIR DIRE [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Silver LP]
Vinyl: $24.98 PREORDER
Voir Dire, the momentous album by Earl Sweatshirt and Alchemist, undoubtedly represents the long-awaited convergence of two rap titans. Earl's personal and intricately woven wordcraft, along with Alchemist's treasure trove of obscure, captivating samples, combine to create an artistic chemistry that permeates "Voir Dire" (which translates from French to "Speak Your Truth"). Earl accomplishes just that as he delves into the analysis of specific phases of his life, particularly in the past where his reflections resonate with immense potency, meticulous detail, and profound insight. The album features notable Los Angeles wordsmith Vince Staples on two tracks and esteemed rap artist, MIKE. On Voir Dire, unmatched lyricism and remarkable maturity take center stage, while personal experiences such as new fatherhood emerge and evolve over stripped-down, spacious Alchemist production — culminating in what many consider to be the best rap album of the year.
Paloma Faith
The Glorification Of Sadness [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Clear LP]
Vinyl: $29.98 PREORDER
Produced by award winning producer and composer Martin Wave and co-written with JKash, Andrew Wells, Ellie King and Charlie Puth. It has ALL the makings of a new era of Paloma. It’s confident. It’s cinematic. It’s empowering. It’s compelling from beginning to end, all powered by the kind of anthems that transformed her into an icon. The single is about finding the confidence of walking away from a relationship and being empowered with your own happiness, its limitless expression of pop allows it to sit comfortably next to Paloma’s many chart successors and then some.”
“I’ve been wanting to make a record like this for a long time. The band, Franny and I produced it ourselves in my living room with no adults present. It’s all acoustic, not an electric lick on the album…banjos and mandos and string basses and stripped-down drums. I put a ton of work into the tunes and I’m pretty proud of this batch. Had a little help from my old co-writing pal Jaida Dreyer on a couple, also wrote a good one with my screenwriter buddy, Brian Koppelman. Lots of gambling songs and lots of minor keys. And my band guys absolutely killed it too, they’re all badasses.
I’m dedicating the record to my old compadre, Ian Tyson, who passed away a few months back. I’ve named the album for him as well. ‘El Viejo’, or ‘the old one’ is what our mutual friend Tom Russell took to calling him in later years. The title track is a pretty special one for us.
We had a blast making this thing, and we hope you enjoy it too.”
- Corb Lund
I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME
GLOOM DIVISION [Indie Exclusive limited Edition Dreamsicle LP]
Vinyl: $25.98 PREORDER
I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME's second album, GLOOM DIVISION, is a glimpse into the mind of Dallon Weekes. Produced by Dave Fridmann (Tame Impala, MGMT), the album is the follow-up to iDKHOW’s Razzmatazz (ft. the #1 Alternative Radio single "Leave Me Alone"), & an EP ft. the gold record "Choke.” The most autobiographical work to date from Weekes (formerly of Panic! At The Disco), GLOOM DIVISION leaves listeners with the same sense of euphoric fascination that sparked the album’s creation.
Offering fuzzy grunge-pop with doses of shimmering synths and emo angst, Ned Russin co-fronted Title Fight before halting in 2018 & Ned began playing music as Glitterer. Now a full band, Glitterer returns with Rationale combining 90s grunge, capital-R riffs a la The Stooges, & a keyboard lead that gives self-depre-cating melodrama., After relying more on synths for the entirely solo, home-recorded Glitterer LP in 2017, he involved collaborators on the crunchier Looking Through the Shades in 2019. This trend toward driving indie rock grit with ‘90s influences continued on 2021’s Life Is Not a Lesson and now Rationale.
Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra, they/them) announces their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, due February 23, 2024 on Nonesuch Records. The record represents a new phase of beginning in Segarra’s lauded evolution as a storyteller. Created during a period filled with grief, when they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and the history of activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury, discovering a stronger, singular style of writing that felt like a long-awaited revelation. In each song, lyrics serve as memory boxes for Segarra to process their trauma, identity and dreams for the future. Segarra uses their lyrics as a way to immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, to illustrate the many shapes and patterns of time’s passing, and honor both the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves. Though the record was made in North Carolina and produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Kevin Morby, Waxahatchee), the Bronx-born, New Orleans-based Segarra brings listeners to places far beyond, evoking vivid experiences of small shops and buffalo stampedes in Santa Fe, childhood road trips and Florida storms, struggles of addiction in the Lower East Side, days-long journeys to outrun the cops in Nebraska, and more.
The followup to their acclaimed Nonesuch debut, Life on Earth—which landed on Best of 2022 lists from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR Music, Mojo, Uncut, among others—The Past Is Still Alive sees Hurray for the Riff Raff reunite with Brad Cook, while further expanding their creative cast of collaborators. Anjimile, Conor Oberst and S.G. Goodman all join Alynda Segarra on vocals at various points throughout the LP, with a band of musicians including Cook, Libby Rodenbough, Matt Douglas, Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, Phil Cook, Yan Westerlund and Mike Mogis, who also mixed the album.
The “nature punk” of Life on Earth marked a departure for Hurray for the Riff Raff, as they contemplated surviving and thriving amidst a world in crisis The Past Is Still Alive brings the focus back inwards. The arrangements are raw, the melodies direct and indelible, and the lyrics personal, yet largely rooted in family and community. There are love songs to real characters, locations and mythic figures like Sky Red Hawk (“Buffalo”), the first trans woman Segarra ever met (“Hawkmoon”), queerness and sacred spaces (“Colossus of Roads”), leaving home behind (“Snake Plant”), short-lived romances and the wisdom gained through chaos (“Vetiver”). Elsewhere, in the self-portraits painted on “Alibi,” “Ogallala” and other album highlights, Segarra reflects on the land they have traveled, the hardships witnessed and bravery gained while running away from everything and everyone they knew at age seventeen, hopping freight trains and hitchhiking across the country with a band of street urchins.
In recent months, Hurray for the Riff Raff debuted a stage adaptation of their beloved 2017 album, The Navigator, based on their quest to reclaim their Puerto Rican identity. They also toured with Bright Eyes and First Aid Kit, performed for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and NPR Music’s 15th Anniversary Concert, played festivals like Pitchfork and more. Next spring, they will bring the music of The Past Is Still Alive on the road, for a headline tour across the US, UK and EU, that they have partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to supporting This Must Be the Place and their work to distribute Naloxone - the lifesaving medicine that reverses an overdose – at events across the nation.
Sheer Mag
Playing Favorites [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Clear w/Pearlescent Flo Orange Wisp LP]
Vinyl: $24.98 PREORDER
Playing Favorites is Sheer Mag’s third full-length and first with Third Man Records, the band capitalize on a decade’s worth of devotion to their own collective spirit—a spirit refined in both the sweaty trenches of punk warehouses and the larger-than-life glamour of concert halls—emerging with a dense work of gripping emotions, massive hooks, and masterfully constructed power-pop anthems. This is the record the Philadelphian rock and roll four-piece has always been destined to make.
Mannequin Pussy
I Got Heaven [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Speciality Clear W/ Black Smoke LP]
Vinyl: $26.98 PREORDER
Mannequin Pussy’s music feels like a resilient and galvanizing shout that demands to be heard. Across four albums, the Philadelphia rock band that consists of Colins “Bear” Regisford (bass, vocals), Kaleen Reading (drums, percussion), Maxine Steen (guitar, synths), and Marisa Dabice (guitar, vocals) has made cathartic tunes about despairing times. “There’s just so much constantly going on that feels intentionally evil that trying to make something beautiful feels like a radical act ,” says Dabice. “The ethos of this band has always been to bring people together.”
Their new album, I Got Heaven, which is out March 1 via Epitaph Records, is the band’s most fully realized recording yet. Over ten ambitious tracks which abruptly turn from searing punk to inviting alternative pop, the album is deeply concerned with desire, the power in being alone, and how to live in an unfeeling and unkind world. It’s a document of a band doubling down on their unshakable bond to make something furious, thrilling, and wholly alive.
Following the 2019 release of their critically acclaimed third album Patience, Mannequin Pussy returned in 2021 for their EP Perfect. They toured that release relentlessly and added guitarist Maxine Steen to the band’s official lineup. The band changed their entire creative formula, choosing to write together in the studio in Los Angeles with producer John Congleton , over slowly crafting tracks at home. “Everyone felt empowered to speak up about their own ideas to make this thing the best it could possibly be,” says Regisford.
Lenny Kravitz
Blue Electric Light [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Pink/Blue 2LP]
Vinyl: $36.98 PREORDER
Timeless. Explosive. Romantic. Inspiring. How else to characterize Blue Electric Light, Lenny Kravitz’s 12th studio album? Kravitz’s mastery of deep-soul rock ‘n roll is a long-established fact. As a relentless creative force—musician, writer, producer, actor, author, designer—he continues to be a global dynamic presence throughout music, art and culture. Blue Electric Light is an impassioned suite of songs, that broadens this distinction and is the latest contribution of a man whose music—not to mention his singular style—continues to inspire millions the world over. On the album, Kravitz's talents as a writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist resonate as he wrote and played most of the instruments himself, with longtime guitarist Craig Ross. Lenny Kravitz has won four GRAMMY® Awards and sold 40 million worldwide. He was recently recognized by the CFDA with their “Fashion Icon Award” and was also selected as a 2023 Hollywood Walk of Fame inductee.
All Now emerges from a period of chaos for the band that was followed by a period of enforced quiet. The Staves released their third album, Good Woman, in February 2021; it was an album of love and loss, written during a disconcerting period of turmoil and pain. “There was a delayed reaction to trauma and these big changes out of your control,” says Jess of the period that came after Good Woman, as the band—like the rest of us—were forced to sit with their thoughts.
The Staveley-Taylors were also still processing the death of their mother and other seismic changes: Emily took a backseat on this album (while still contributing vocals on a handful of tracks) to focus on motherhood, while Camilla reckoned with her own mental and physical health issues, including chronic pain and a series of operations due to endometriosis, which began to take an increasing toll.
Struggling after two years of deep solitude and pain following the release of Good Woman, The Staves did what they know how to do best: they got back to writing with the idea of going back to basics and focusing almost solely on each other and their guitars as a starting point.
It began with Jess, navigating this new landscape by harnessing her creativity on her own, at first in the studio in Hackney at the end of 2022, then slowly luring Camilla back to the next chapter of The Staves, before reaching out to Congleton, who the band had worked with on Good Woman.
“I felt so much love and inspiration entering into motherhood that I just needed to create something really powerful,” explains Samantha Poulter, the Berlin-based DJ and producer, who grew up in the Sydney suburbs and better known to fans as Logic1000. That vitality and renewed sense of purpose is captured on her debut album Mother. The 12-track set is a laser-focused “love letter to house music,” written in collaboration with her husband and long-time creative partner Thom McAlister.
Nine-time Grammy Award winner and 2023 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee, Sheryl Crow, will release her 11th full length studio album, Evolution. The album comes as a welcomed surprise after Crow publicly stated that she would not release another full-length album after Threads (2018) and kicks off with her lead single “Alarm Clock,” which is perhaps Sheryl Crow’s most radio-friendly pop song since “Soak Up The Sun.”