New Release Round-Up 10-12-18

David Bowie - Loving The Alien (1983-1988) - Rhino
David Bowie: 4. Loving The Alien (1983-1988) is the fourth boxed set spanning his career from 1969 and the follow-up to the awarding winning and critically acclaimed David Bowie: 1. Five Years (1969 – 1973), David Bowie: 2. Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976) and David Bowie: 3. A New Career In A New Town (1977 – 1982). David Bowie: 4. Loving The Alien (1983-1988) features material officially released by David Bowie between 1983 and 1988 including newly remastered studio albums ‘Let’s Dance’ (remaster overseen by Nile Rodgers), ‘Tonight’ (remaster overseen by Hugh Padgham) and ‘Never Let Me Down’, the live albums ‘Serious Moonlight’ from 1983 (previously unreleased) and ‘Glass Spider’ from 1987, and the exclusive new compilation ‘RE:CALL 4’ featuring single versions and edits, soundtrack music and non-album B-sides. Also included exclusively is a brand 2018 version of the 1987 album ‘Never Let Me Down’ co-produced and mixed by Mario McNulty. David had already discussed this in 2008 with Mario McNulty so ‘Never Let Me Down (2018)’ is a much darker album with additional production by Mario and new live drums by Sterling Campbell, new guitars by Reeve Gabrels and David Torn plus a string quartet. The album will also feature new artwork with photography from the original session by Greg Gorman. The album ‘Dance’ was scheduled for 1985 but was never released and never will be, however we have used the artwork for ‘Dance’ for this set for an album which contains 12 original extended remixes from across the three studio albums plus ‘Underground’.

Tom Morello - The Atlas Underground - Mom + Pop Music
Tom Morello is living proof of the transformative power of rock’n’roll. As the co-founder of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave and Prophets Of Rage, and through collaborations with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Johnny Cash, he has continually pushed the limits of what one man can do with six strings. But on his latest album The Atlas Underground, he’s transformed his sound into something even he could not have anticipated, blending Marshall stack riff-rock with the digital wizardry of EDM and hip-hop to create the most ambitious artistic effort of his storied career. The Atlas Underground includes collaborations with Marcus Mumford, Portugal. The Man, the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and GZA, Vic Mensa, K.Flay, Big Boi, Gary Clark Jr., Pretty Lights, Killer Mike and Whethan among others. “The riffs and the beats led the way, but the extraordinary talents of the collaborators set my creativity into uncharted territory,” says Morello of the project, which will be released by Mom + Pop Music.

Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Look Now - Concord Records
Recorded in Hollywood, New York City and Vancouver, British Columbia, 'Look Now' is beautiful in its simplicity, reflective in its lyrical vision, surrounded by melodies and orchestrations that are nothing short of heavenly. It's the first album Costello has made with The Imposters since the 2008 release of 'Momofuku' and his first new album since the acclaimed 2013 Roots collaboration, 'Wise Up Ghost'. 'Look Now' is an outstanding 12-strong addition to his song catalogue. Most of the titles were written solely by Elvis Costello although, 'Don't Look Now' and 'Photographs Can Lie' were co-written with Burt Bacharach, who makes a guest appearance, leading The Imposters from the piano for those two ballads. The album was co-produced by Elvis and Sebastian Krys - the Latin Grammy Producer of the Year for 2007 and 2015, whose love and understanding of music spans both hemispheres.

Atreyu - In Our Wake - Spinefarm
Following a short hiatus Atreyu returned firing on all cylinders with Long Live during 2015. It crashed the Top 30 of the Billboard Top 200 and earned widespread acclaim. The band sold out countless headline shows in addition to sharing the stage with everyone from Slipknot to Linkin Park. After a 2 year tour cycle for Long Live, Atreyu regrouped in Southern California for what would become offering number seven, In Our Wake, reuniting with producer John Feldmann who famously helmed Lead Sails Paper Anchor.

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Justin Courtney Pierre - In The Drink - Epitaph
It's been a couple of years since we heard from Justin Courtney Pierre. When we last left off, his celebrated rock band Motion City Soundtrack decided to take a hiatus following a victory lap in support of their sixth album, Panic Stations. This culminated with a Riot Fest performance and a sold-out, career-spanning show at The Metro in Chicago in September of 2016. In reality, what he's been doing lately hasn't been terribly exciting bio fodder: He's been in Minneapolis, mowing the lawn, cultivating tomatoes, taking care of his daughter and figuring out who he is if he isn't the guy fronting Motion City Soundtrack. “I guess the jumping off point for this album was that I wanted to see if I could just write everything myself and perform as much of it as I could,” Pierre says of the impetus for his first solo album, In The Drink. When it came to recording the songs, it made perfect sense to enlist longtime collaborator and Motion City Soundtrack guitarist Josh Cain to produce In The Drink. “Working with Josh on this album was super fun because we have been working together for 20 years and basically share a brain. But it didn't have the same dynamic of Motion City Soundtrack in the sense that at the end of the day I got to call all the shots,” Pierre says. Musically, In The Drink sees Pierre evoking his usual influences like Pavement, Superchunk, The Flaming Lips, Jawbox, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, more Jawbox, Tom Waits, The Carpenters and Eddie Money, but through his own unique perspective and sung via his instantly recognizable tenor. From the quirky, anthemic pop of “Anchor” or “I Don't Know Why She Ran Away” to more moody, darker material such as “Moonbeam” (which features guest vocals from Jenny Owen Youngs) and the experimental closer “Goodnight Hiroyuki,” the album is Pierre at his most unfiltered and the results are sublime (even if it sounds nothing like Sublime).

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John Hiatt - The Eclipse Sessions - New West Records
The Eclipse Sessions, John Hiatt’s newest album, offers up his strongest set of songs in years. Long celebrated as a skilled storyteller and keen observer of life’s twists and turns, Hiatt can get at the heart of a knotty emotion or a moment in time with just a sharp, incisive lyric or witty turn of phrase. The 11 tracks presented in The Eclipse Sessions, from the breezy opener “Cry to Me,” to the stark “Nothing in My Heart,” the lost-love lamentation “Aces Up Your Sleeve” to the rollicking “Poor Imitation of God,” demonstrate that the singer-songwriter, now 66, is only getting better with age, his guitar playing more rugged and rootsy, his words wiser and more wry. Hiatt goes all in with The Eclipse Sessions. There’s a grit to these songs—a craggy, perfectly-imperfect quality that colors every aspect of the performances, right down to Hiatt’s vocals, which are quite possibly his most raw and expressive to date. “They ain’t pretty, that’s for sure,” he says about the creaks and cracks that punctuate his phrases in songs like “Poor Imitation of God” and “One Stiff Breeze.” “But I don’t mind a bit. All the catches and the glitches and the gruffness, that sounds right to me. That sounds like who I am.” The Eclipse Sessions is the sound of an artist not only living in but also capturing the moment.

  

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Edie Brickell and New Bohemians - Rocket - Verve Forecast
Thirty years ago, Edie Brickell and New Bohemians exploded out of Dallas and became an international sensation with their double-platinum debut album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, featuring the Top Ten hit, “What I Am.” Now, the group returns with Rocket, their first new music in a dozen years—and as the title indicates, they remain a propulsive and unclassifiable force, a whirlwind of musical ideas and styles. Rocket is released via Verve Forecast.

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UPCOMING RELEASES

Jason Isbell - Live From The Ryman - Southeastern Records
Live From The Ryman was primarily recorded during the group's six sold out nights at Nashville's legendary Ryman Auditorium in 2017. The album features 13 live versions of songs from their last three critically acclaimed, award-winning studio albums - Southeasten (2013), Something More Than Free (2015), The Nashville Sound (2017). Available on Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Transparent Green Vinyl.

 

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Greta Van Fleet - Anthem Of The Peaceful Army - Republic
Modern Rock N’ Roll band Greta Van Fleet to release highly anticipated new album, Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, on 10/19 via Lava Records. Album includes current single “When The Curtain Falls,” which is approaching top 5 airplay at Active Rock radio and is building at Alternative radio. They will re-launch their nearly sold out headlining tour on 9/11 in Canada. Greta Van Fleet recently set a record as the first band in 15 years to hit #1 airplay at Active Rock radio with 2 consecutive singles!

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Buxton - Stay Out Late - New West Records
Stay Out Late is ultimately, the end result of understanding who we are, and more importantly, who we are not. This will be our 15th year as a band, and our 5th record overall. In the years preceding the making of this record, we all had to define what it meant for us to be happy making music. There are certain mechanisms and tropes we all fall into as a result. And as hard as we may try to emulate what we consider to be higher art, or rather, classic music; we always end up with a Buxton record. Sergio couldn't write for almost 2 years after 'Half A Native'. The answers to "why" had run dry. We all saw each other, hung out and everything was like normal. I can't really pinpoint the moment it all made sense again. The question had suddenly changed to "why not" and we were back in the studio making demos. There was a lurking sense that nobody would ever hear these songs, and that lead to a sort of creativity I'm not sure we'd really experienced before. All ideas were on the table, and more importantly they stayed on the table. There are a handful of truly great masterpieces and the attempt of achieving that is one of the most daunting and exhausting pursuits any artist can take on. In the van we're constantly educating ourselves and finding new and in many cases old points of inspiration. Whether it be Mark Hollis, HC McEntire, Mickey Newbury or rediscovering the genius of Bette Midler, we find ourselves at the mercy of our own limitations of expression. Yet somehow in our most vulnerable project, we're simultaneously the most comfortable in our skin as we've ever been. The core of this record is about being in it for the long haul, looking back, and being able to accept it all.  We can only hope that the listener can in some way share and make tangible the joy that went into making this record.

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Doe Paoro - Soft Power - Epitaph
Transforming pain into transcendence is the genius of many pop artists, but Doe Paoro brings an entirely new depth to that process. On her third album Soft Power, the L.A.-based singer/songwriter digs into her own frustration and anguish, and ultimately comes away with a newfound strength that’s profoundly inspiring. Soft Power thus bears a raw vitality that marks a major departure from Doe’s previous album. Naming Carole King among her inspirations, Doe notes that the new record’s more urgent feel comes partly from reconnecting with the instinctive approach of her earliest songwriting. Throughout the album, Doe infuses her songs with a rebellious spirit. A passionately charged track about misogyny, “Guilty” blends cascading guitar lines with sharply cutting lyrics (I know I’m not the first / that you made defend her word). “Over” brings classic girl-group harmonies and smoldering vocal work to speak to the song’s central question: Now that I’m older / does it get easier / to get over? Several songs also confront the notion of setting boundaries, with “Projector” centering on “the refusal to let someone else superimpose their story onto yours” and “Walk Through the Fire” emerging as a brutal testament to the fact that “self-examination is ultimately a solo job – and there’s no easy way to do it”. The result is an album that’s undeniably potent in its emotional impact. “One thing I’ve continued to find through writing songs is the ability to alchemize painful experiences into something that’s useful and healing”, says Doe. “For me that’s the highest purpose of music—both in terms of what it offers to me and what I wish to offer to others”. 

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Beta Radio - Ancient Transition - Nettwerk Records
North Carolinian duo Beta Radio's Ancient Transition - their debut on Nettwerk Records - captures the band's signature blend of organic sounds, delicate synths, and disarmingly beautiful harmonies. The album is a reflection on home and its many different meanings, the wholeness that comes with having a sense of home and the tumult that can come with lacking one.

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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 10-05-18

Twenty One Pilots - Trench - Fueled By Ramen
Twenty One Pilots shook the world with the release of their 2015 LP BLURRYFACE, an album that would go on to sell over 7 million copies worldwide and earn the band their first ever GRAMMY® Award as they shattered longstanding chart records, and captivated audiences worldwide on sold-out arena runs and at international festivals. Now three years later, the duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun have returned to write the next chapter of their story with Trench, the band's highly anticipated new studio album. TRENCH finds Twenty One Pilots fearlessly reimagining the possibilities of their music through the same candid expression and genuine identity that helped to cement their place as one of the largest bands in the world. Also available on Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Olive Green Vinyl.

John Lennon - Imagine: The Ultimate Collection - Capitol
This week, Universal Music celebrates the apex of John Lennon’s solo career with a six-disc box set, Imagine: The Ultimate Collection. This historical, remixed and remastered 140-track collection is fully authorised by Yoko Ono Lennon who oversaw the production and creative direction. Spread across four CDs and two Blu-ray discs, this truly unique expanded edition offers a variety of listening experiences that are at once immersive and intimate, ranging from the brand new Ultimate Mixes of the iconic album, which reveal whole new levels of sonic depth, definition and clarity to these timeless songs, to the Raw Studio Mixes that allow listeners to hear Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band’s original, unadorned performances, to enveloping 5.1 surround sound mixes, and a Quadrasonic Album Mix, presenting the original four speaker mix remastered in Quadrasonic sound for the first time in nearly fifty years. This ultimate deep listening experience, which features scores of previously unheard demos, rare outtakes and isolated track elements, also includes The Evolution Documentary, a unique track-by-track audio montage that details the journey of each song from demo to master recording via instructions, rehearsals, recordings, multitrack exploration and studio chatter. The comprehensive nature of the full Imagine – The Ultimate Collection is the absolute best representation of a career artist working at the top of his creative game.  Imagine will also be released in concurrent multiple physical and digital configurations including as a 2CD Deluxe Edition, 1CD remaster, and 2LP 180 gram heavyweight black vinyl edition.

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Jim James - Uniform Clarity - Verve
Jim James returns with Uniform Clarity, the My Morning Jacket front man’s second solo album of 2018, produced by Grammy-award winning producer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, The War On Drugs).  Uniform Clarity explores the acoustic side of the songs on June’s Uniform Distortion with an intimateness rarely felt in recorded music. Check out Uniform Distortion on CD / LP / Indie Exclusive LP.

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Eric Church - Desperate Man - EMI Nashville
“Desperate Man” Eric Church's first single off the new album is currently in the Country Radio charts at #15.  Co-written by Church with Texas musician Ray Wylie Hubbard as well as collaborating with producer Jay Joyce.  The CMA Award winning singer won the Album of the Year in 2016 for Mr. Misunderstood and has reached Platinum status.  It included the hit singles- Mr. Misunderstood, Record Year, Kill A Word, and Round Here Buzz. Desperate Man contains 11 Tracks. “Excitement for new music from my favorite artists is a feeling I can remember from my formative years. The unknown and the possibilities of the anticipation are one of the true joys of music,” shares the North Carolina native. “Well, even though how we discover songs from our favorite performers may have evolved, the feeling remains the same.”

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Ron Gallo - Stardust Birthday Party - New West Records
Stardust Birthday Party is about human evolution. Specifically, one humans evolution: mine, Ron Gallo. That’s the name my parents gave me. Hi. At one point, I was a very lost mid-twenties person living in Philadelphia, in a relationship with someone struggling with mental health issues and crippling heroin addiction. I was asleep. I didn’t know how to handle my life. I was also writing songs for HEAVY META - my “frustrated with humanity” album. I laugh about it all now, but at the time it all felt like an absolute nightmare. It was the perfect doorway to look inside the place I’d been avoiding forever: myself. Stardust Birthday Party is about what is happening underneath all of this life stuff. My path inward. The details of my path are pointless because everyone’s path is different. It is about me sitting with myself for the first time and confronting the big question “WHAT AM I, REALLY?” It’s about the love and compassion for all things that enters when you find out you are nothing and everything. I think at one point I wanted to change the world, but now I know I can only change myself, or rather just strip away everything that is not me to reveal the only thing that’s ever been there. And that’s what this album is about, it’s me dancing while destroying the person I thought I was, and hopefully forever. In the liner notes of John Coltrane’s album A Love Supreme (which we pay tribute to on this album) he wrote: “During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music.” That’s it. That is the pure essence of creativity. Someone embodying what they have realized about themselves and the world that surrounds them. That is why this album exists. Thank you for letting me share this with you. Ron Gallo.  Also available on Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Birthday Cake Vinyl.
 
 

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Joe Strummer - Joe Strummer 001 - Ignition Records
First ever, career-spanning, definitive compilation of Joe Strummer’s work, comprising 32 tracks. Includes solo tracks as well as tracks with The Mescaleros, the 101ers and more. 4LP vinyl package contains 20 released and 12 previously unreleased tracks plus a bonus 12" of "U.S. North" - a Strummer/Jones song from 1986.

Kristin Hersh - Possible Dust Clouds - Fire Records
A highly personalised sociopathic gem delivered as a futuristic rewriting of how music works, a melodious breeze with a tail wind of venomous din. A ten-track album, her tenth studio set. Enveloping the juxtaposition of the concept of dark sunshine , a brooding solo record creating with friends to expand her off-kilter sonic vision; a squally, squeaky mix of discordant beauty. Feedback and phasing gyrate from simply strummed normality, imagine Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine cranking up a Dylan couplet. Messing with both extremes of the sonic spectrum: atonal and arrhythmic, a unique sound and a glorious return to form for one of alternative rock's true innovators. Sometimes the most subversive thing I can do musically is adhere to standard song structure, sometimes the creepiest chords are the ones we've heard before, twisted into different shapes, and sometimes a story is lived a thousand times before we can ride it like a roller coaster. Nothing wholly unfamiliar is gonna make you look twice. When you can describe a record as being deceptively anything, you're hinting at the sociopathic nature of music. Something I love. Imagine truly buying your own sunshine and charm, but also your darkness and violence; the two sides of your psychology showing each other off in relief. Songs can do that...we can't, really. Darkness we've seen. Kristin Hersh, July 2018

UPCOMING RELEASES

Justin Courtney Pierre - In The Drink - Epitaph
It's been a couple of years since we heard from Justin Courtney Pierre. When we last left off, his celebrated rock band Motion City Soundtrack decided to take a hiatus following a victory lap in support of their sixth album, Panic Stations. This culminated with a Riot Fest performance and a sold-out, career-spanning show at The Metro in Chicago in September of 2016. In reality, what he's been doing lately hasn't been terribly exciting bio fodder: He's been in Minneapolis, mowing the lawn, cultivating tomatoes, taking care of his daughter and figuring out who he is if he isn't the guy fronting Motion City Soundtrack. “I guess the jumping off point for this album was that I wanted to see if I could just write everything myself and perform as much of it as I could,” Pierre says of the impetus for his first solo album, In The Drink. When it came to recording the songs, it made perfect sense to enlist longtime collaborator and Motion City Soundtrack guitarist Josh Cain to produce In The Drink. “Working with Josh on this album was super fun because we have been working together for 20 years and basically share a brain. But it didn't have the same dynamic of Motion City Soundtrack in the sense that at the end of the day I got to call all the shots,” Pierre says. Musically, In The Drink sees Pierre evoking his usual influences like Pavement, Superchunk, The Flaming Lips, Jawbox, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, more Jawbox, Tom Waits, The Carpenters and Eddie Money, but through his own unique perspective and sung via his instantly recognizable tenor. From the quirky, anthemic pop of “Anchor” or “I Don't Know Why She Ran Away” to more moody, darker material such as “Moonbeam” (which features guest vocals from Jenny Owen Youngs) and the experimental closer “Goodnight Hiroyuki,” the album is Pierre at his most unfiltered and the results are sublime (even if it sounds nothing like Sublime).

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Atreyu - In Our Wake - Spinefarm
Following a short hiatus Atreyu returned firing on all cylinders with Long Live during 2015. It crashed the Top 30 of the Billboard Top 200 and earned widespread acclaim. The band sold out countless headline shows in addition to sharing the stage with everyone from Slipknot to Linkin Park. After a 2 year tour cycle for Long Live, Atreyu regrouped in Southern California for what would become offering number seven, In Our Wake, reuniting with producer John Feldmann who famously helmed Lead Sails Paper Anchor.

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John Hiatt - The Eclipse Sessions - New West Records
The Eclipse Sessions, John Hiatt’s newest album, offers up his strongest set of songs in years. Long celebrated as a skilled storyteller and keen observer of life’s twists and turns, Hiatt can get at the heart of a knotty emotion or a moment in time with just a sharp, incisive lyric or witty turn of phrase. The 11 tracks presented in The Eclipse Sessions, from the breezy opener “Cry to Me,” to the stark “Nothing in My Heart,” the lost-love lamentation “Aces Up Your Sleeve” to the rollicking “Poor Imitation of God,” demonstrate that the singer-songwriter, now 66, is only getting better with age, his guitar playing more rugged and rootsy, his words wiser and more wry. Hiatt goes all in with The Eclipse Sessions. There’s a grit to these songs—a craggy, perfectly-imperfect quality that colors every aspect of the performances, right down to Hiatt’s vocals, which are quite possibly his most raw and expressive to date. “They ain’t pretty, that’s for sure,” he says about the creaks and cracks that punctuate his phrases in songs like “Poor Imitation of God” and “One Stiff Breeze.” “But I don’t mind a bit. All the catches and the glitches and the gruffness, that sounds right to me. That sounds like who I am.” The Eclipse Sessions is the sound of an artist not only living in but also capturing the moment.

  

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Edie Brickell and New Bohemians - Rocket - Verve Forecast
Thirty years ago, Edie Brickell and New Bohemians exploded out of Dallas and became an international sensation with their double-platinum debut album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, featuring the Top Ten hit, “What I Am.” Now, the group returns with Rocket, their first new music in a dozen years—and as the title indicates, they remain a propulsive and unclassifiable force, a whirlwind of musical ideas and styles. Rocket is set for release on October 12 via Verve Forecast.

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