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Now Hear This! February 2023
Elle King
Come Get Your Wife
RCABuy Now Elle King, singular, swaggering, sardonic, is a musically and personally fearless woman. With Come Get Your Wife, she sharpens her gaze, digs into her roots, puts her banjo front and center and creates a record thats as alive and electric as she is. Taking all the pieces the rock, soul, bluegrass and country that she loves shes made an album that demands your attention, then delivers on all cylinders. Maneskin
Rush!
AristaBuy Now The self-assured swagger that enlivens Rush! emanates from the focused attack of Maneskins members, whose playing thrums with attitude. Supermodel sets the template with its flinty rock and sinewy rhythmic foundation. The delirious punk rave-up Kool Kids and a handful of widescreen power ballads break up the pummeling hard rock that is this albums raison dtre. Brit Taylor
Kentucky Blue
Thirty TigersBuy Now Brit Taylors highly anticipated sophomore album is a drive down the famed Country Music Highway Route 23 -- back to her Appalachian roots. It is a shift back to her East Kentucky influences where the cry of the fiddle, the moan of the steel guitar, the twangy banjo and the atmospheric string section are like a journey floating through space and time. Produced by Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson. Somebodys Child
Somebodys Child
FrenchkissBuy Now After striking out on his on with fantastic indie pop ear-worms, the revered Frenchkiss Records swooped in to sign the Irish songwriter Cian Godfrey. His debut album pivots between joyous indie pop and crunching, riotous guitar, with Godfrey (aka Somebodys Child) using the space to explore emerging adulthood, and the importance of retaining your innocence. Dave Rowntree
Radio Songs
Cooking VinylBuy Now Radio Songs, the Blur drummers first solo outing, is underpinned by the idea of recreating childhood twirlings of the AM dial in search of signals from bigger cities, other planets. Its melancholy electronica is not, however, unapproachable. Modest yet sumptuous ballads suggest something of a lo-fi Blue Nile, while London Bridge, is basically a Blur song, to which Rowntree is surely entitled. Illiterate Light
Sunburned
Thirty TigersBuy Now Their most fully-realized and ambitious LP yet, Sunburned is full of immediate songs that update and revolutionize the bands approach to making music. There are rich keyboard and programmed percussion textures now populating their songs, as well as soaring anthemic choruses, and hefty doses of fuzz. Its an album for searchers, the people who channel the darkest energy into something healing and positive. Quinn CXII
The People's Champ
RepublicBuy Now Down-to-earth and incredibly vibey, The People's Champ is twelve tracks that feature an incredible roster of collaborators, including Chelsea Cutler, AJR, Big Sean, and Adrian Cota. The album stays true to everything we already love about the Detroit beatmaker: his humble approach to life, his Midwest spirit, and his focus on letting things be and enjoying the ride that is life. Eminem
The Eminem Show: Expanded Edition
AftermathBuy Now The Eminem Show was originally released on May 26, 2002 by Aftermath Entertainment, Shady Records and Interscope. Featuring guest appearances from Obie Trice, D12, Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg, Dina Rae and Eminem's daughter Hailie Jade Scott-Mathers, this Expanded Edition 4 LP set on 180-gram vinyl includes audio from the 1999 Tramps show in New York, as well as the previously unreleased track "Jimmy, Brian, and Mike. My Kid Brother
Happy.Mad.Werid.Sad
FearlessBuy Now After much enthusiasm that helped foster the bands self-titled 2020 EP, My Kid Brother are branching out. Mad.Happy.Weird.Sad, recorded with producer Eric Palmquist (Thrice, Bad Suns, Mutemath), builds on their EPs polished, hooky rock with heavier riffs and thicker grooves, colorful and quirky arrangements, lyrics that span stalker tales to unfiltered love songs, and choruses that punch with a newfound intensity. Sampa The Great
As Above, So Below
Loma VistaBuy Now Having started her professional career outside of her home of Zambia, Sampa The Great returned at the beginning of the pandemic to Africa. As Above, So Below is the result of this return to her roots, embracing the sounds and themes of her origins. Now, in an age of authenticity, meet a 360 Sampa, a higher version of herself. No mask on, or role to play. Zella Day
Sunday In Heaven
ConcordBuy Now Blessed with a velvety, cherubic voice as well as a knack for memorable hooks, Zella Day is a distinctive presence on the modern pop landscape spiritually connected to artists like Lorde and Lana Del Rey (the latter of whom she toured with in 2018), but with a sound all her own. Sunday in Heaven is a powerful statement an expansive exploration from an artist truly in her prime. Heaven, indeed. Varials
Scars For You To Remember
FearlessBuy Now Balance occurs amid extremes. Varials seamlessly alternate between moments of crushing power and melodic poise, unlocking harmony in the middle of opposite poles. The Philadelphia quintet continue to sharpen their signature style with searing intensity, uncontainable energy, and uncompromising creativity, delivering controlled chaos like never before. Iggy Pop
Every Loser
AtlanticBuy Now At 75, Iggy Pop is happy to be smart, pissed off, capable of writing good songs about it all, and singing with a crack rock band behind him. There's a heady joy in his bile that's infectious, and Every Loser is a weirdly joyous celebration of life from someone who knows why you shouldn't toss it aside. We havent seen the last of Pops hairless and curiously leathery chest. This is a good thing. Rachael & Vilray
I Love A Love Song!
NonesuchBuy Now Rachael & Vilraythe duo singer/songwriter Rachael Price (Lake Street Dive) and the guitarist/singer/songwriter Vilrayreturn with their second studio album. Combining Prices singular voice with Vilrays knack for songwriting, I Love a Love Song! showcases their respect for their jazz predecessors, taking the best of the past and creating something new. Featuring 11 new songs and one 1930s classic. Bob Dylan
Fragments Time Out of Mind Sessions: 1996 1997
LegacyBuy Now The latest chapter in the highly acclaimed Bootleg Series takes a fresh look at Dylan's mid-career masterpiece. This edition includes a new 2022 remix, by Michael H. Brauer, of the eleven original recordings on Time Out of Mind, and 12 previously unreleased outtakes and alternate versions of songs written for Time Out of Mind, including such iconic tracks as Love Sick, Not Dark Yet and Make You Feel My Love. Raye
My 21st Century Blues
Human ResourcesBuy Now The biggest weapon Raye wields on her debut is her undeniable talent. Oscar Winning Tears has runs that simmer with tooth-kissed sass, and belts so effortlessly impassioned they put 80% of modern popstars to shame. Meanwhile, Hard Out Here sees Raye belt out a powerful verse with the rage and sorrow of a fresh war veteran. In telling her story, Raye delivers a versatile and stinging gut punch of an album. LISTEN HERE LISTEN HERE Margo Price
Strays
Loma VistaBuy Now In just three remarkable solo albums Margo Price has cemented herself as a force in American music and a generational talent. On her fourth full-length Strays, recorded in Topanga Canyon and produced by Jonathan Wilson, the singer and songwriter presents a clear-eyed mission statement delivered in blistering rock and roll. Margo Price has something to say, and nothing to prove. Sylvan Esso
No Rules Sandy
Loma VistaBuy Now The stimulus behind Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborns shiny, sophisticated electronic pop is, they say, an ongoing argument between themselves. If so, recording the North Carolina duo's fourth album must have been a tumultuous, unfettered affair. Its a free-wheeling surge of glitchy beats and fizzing, ravey energy, with the wobbly UK garage underpinnings of Echo Party a notable standout. The Arcs
Electrophonic Chronic
Easy Eye SoundBuy Now In 2015, Dan Auerbach entered the studio with Leon Michels, Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss, and the late Richard Swift (who passed away in 2018) to record The Arcs' debut album. Now, more than 7 years later, those same sessions became the bedrock on which the surviving members fleshed out the follow-up, Electrophonic Chronic, a collection of psychedelic rock, gritty funk, and heady, soulful grooves. -
What's New 1-27-23
Easy Eye SoundIn 2015, Dan Auerbach entered the studio with Leon Michels, Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss, and the late Richard Swift (who passed away in 2018) to record The Arcs' debut album. Now, more than 7 years later, those same sessions became the bedrock on which the surviving members fleshed out the follow-up, Electrophonic Chronic, a collection of psychedelic rock, gritty funk, and heady, soulful grooves.
Loma VistaIn just three remarkable solo albums Margo Price has cemented herself as a force in American music and a generational talent. On her fourth full-length Strays, recorded in Topanga Canyon and produced by Jonathan Wilson, the singer and songwriter presents a clear-eyed mission statement delivered in blistering rock and roll. Margo Price has something to say, and nothing to prove.
Loma VistaThe stimulus behind Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborns shiny, sophisticated electronic pop is, they say, an ongoing argument between themselves. If so, recording the North Carolina duo's fourth album must have been a tumultuous, unfettered affair. Its a free-wheeling surge of glitchy beats and fizzing, ravey energy, with the wobbly UK garage underpinnings of Echo Party a notable standout.
XLAn in-demand beatmaker who has worked with Denzel Curry, Vince Staples, and more, the producer finally releases his solo debuta dynamic record bursting with soul samples and complicated emotions. Charismatic, self-effacing and generous, Louie reveals the duality of the artist an enigmatic, introspective searcher who has experienced pain and duress, and alchemized it via looped samples and hypnotic drum patterns.
Sunday BestBorn in Oklahoma, raised in Paris, living in NYC, assistant to a Nobel Prize Winner, licensed tour guide and Murder Mystery business owner, JW Francis is the newest signing to Sunday Best Recordings. His brand of utterly irresistible bedroom dream-pop takes its lead from the city JW lives in, with echoes of Jonathan Richman, The Velvet Underground and the lo-fi sound New York has been inspiring for decades.
CapitolFeaturing guests like Kim Petras, Koffee, Jessie Reyez and Ed Sheeran, Gloria (the artists fourth LP) is a compact, steadily flowing collection of pop songs that showcase Smiths vocal versatility and personal growth. Smith one of the worlds most recognizable voices graps how being true to themselves can make their own instruments power even mightier.
Sub PopGone is the scrappy garage/glam, in favor of sophisticated singer- songwriterly pop constructed around acoustic guitar, strings, extravagantly multi-tracked vocal harmonies and consistent tunes. There are still the nods to Marc Bolan, but with Smalltown Stardust, Kyle Thomas transcends references, transmitting purest joy in nature which cannot fail to make the listener's heart sing.
Mascot Label GroupA true legend of guitar music, theres nothing reining Steve Vai in, as he shows on new album Vai/Gash. Together with his since-departed biker friend Johnny Gash Sombrotto, he recorded these eight tracks back in the early 90s so that theyd have real biker music to blare from their Harley Davidsons. Three decades later, hes finally putting them out to the world as the ultimate tribute.
MergeThe Canadian hardcore legends have been known for their epic scale in the past, so it might be a surprise that Fucked Ups sixth studio album is their shortest to date, written and recorded in the confines of one literal day (hence the title). Dont mistake size for substance, though: The bands sound has only gotten bigger, more hard-charging, with even denser thickets of melody.
MergeEvery Acres focus is very much on McEntires (Mount Moriah) close-up storytelling and confessions on grief, loss, and links to land and loved ones -- the odd, soaring electric guitar solo aside. Fans of the early records of Margo Price and Courtney Marie Andrews will find much to love here, while the diversion into groovesome country soul on Rows Of Clover keeps the head nodding.
Grand JuryOn her second album of raw, deliciously sad indie-rock, Samia dwells on broken relationships, toxic behavior and addiction revealing an album thats diaristic and uncomfortably relatable. Honey constantly flits between blackly comic confessionals and excruciating bloodletting. Its playful, painful and loaded with hooks that worm their way to the surface making it ripe for bleak midwinter wallowing.
RelapseIts unusual for a band thats been around since the 80s to be doing some of their best work in the 2020s, but thats exactly what Obituary have accomplished. Dying Of Everything destroys in the time-honored tradition of early classics while maintaining the killer studio sound that the band has perfected while their legacy as a Death Metal institution, churning out some of the heaviest riffs in their career.
MatadorLate Developers floats through genres with ease from the frantic Billy Bragg-with-hella-flute-energy of the opening track and what might be Stevie Jacksons best song, into an all-out dance party in the third quarter of the record. They then unearth a 1994-era pre-Belle and Sebastian tune, with the help of Camera Obscuras Tracyanne Campbell right before they bring you home with a true bop.
NapalmKatatonia's sound has evolved over the years, shifting from death/doom to a more varied musical palette that utilizes everything from gothic to post to prog. They have amped up the intensity a bit on Sky Void of Stars compared to their past few albums, but no matter if it's heavy or mellow, the band always delivers first-class musicianship and exquisite songwriting.
Cooking VinylDriven by analogue synths, distorted chimes and hallucinogenic soundscapes, Ladytron crash-landed at the turn of the century, using the dancefloor as a bridgehead to the collective unconscious. On Times Arrow the group adds new richness, distant shimmers and a shoegaze-adjacent glow with their trademark understated voices now inhabiting a space somewhere between cloudscape and dream.
Human Season RecordsGigis Recovery is such a leap in songwriting and execution that it might as well not be the same band behind it. Where the first was terse and unwieldy (and amazing in its own right) this one is open even joyous despite its heavy subject matter. At their best, which is often on Gigis Recovery, TMC combine muscular drama and skeletal grace with a confidence that Radiohead would be proud of.
Music Releases 01-27-23
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