New Releases for February 17, 2023
CDs + Vinyl:
Avatar – Dance Devil Dance CD/LP (Black Walts/Thirty Tigers)
Avey Tare – 7s CD/LP+MP3 (Domino)
During the first week of January 2021, Avey Tare (Animal Collective) began making regular drives to his friend Adam McDaniel’s Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, NC to give guts and flesh and color to the skeletal demos he’d made at home the year prior. The plot for 7s, Avey’s fourth solo album, then, was set: trusting, intuitive, exploratory collaboration among friends, after a winter without it. These songs are like overstuffed jelly jars, cracking so that the sweetness oozes out into unexpected shapes.
Jaimee Harris – Boomerang Town CD/LP (Folk N’ Roll/Thirty Tigers)
“For her sophomore recording effort, Jaimee Harris took inspiration from her experiences growing up in small-town Waco, Texas. ‘These characters reflect people whose resilience, hope, and faith are being tested. I love them. I am them,’ she wrote in a post announcing the record. She has captured those sentiments and more in the 10 arresting songs that comprise Boomerang Town. Love – and compassion – for the fragility of being human permeates the work, making it masterful.” – Deborah Crooks, Holler.
Inhaler – Cuts & Bruises CD/LP (Gefffen)
Cuts & Bruises is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Inhaler’s debut album, It Won’t Always Be Like This, which hit No. 1 in both the UK and Ireland. This became the fastest-selling debut album on vinyl by any band this century and saw Inhaler become the first Irish group to top the album charts with a debut in 13 years.
LE SSERAFIM – Fearless (Limited Edition A – CD + Photobook) (Geffen)
The K-pop group’s first single for the Japanese market includes a Japanese version of Blue Flame and the band’s first Japanese original song.
Mötley Crüe – Crücial Crüe: The Studio Albums 1981-1989 5xCD/5xLP (BMG)
Crücial Crüe features Mötley Crüe’s smash-hit, multi-platinum studio albums Too Fast For Love (1981), Shout At The Devil (1983), Theatre Of Pain (1985), Girls, Girls, Girls (1987), and Dr. Feelgood (1989).
P!NK – TRUSTFALL CD/LP (RCA)
TRUSTFALL is the highly anticipated new studio album from critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and global pop icon P!NK.
Screaming Females – Desire Pathway CD/LP (Don Giovanni)
Desire Pathway was recorded at Minnesota’s Pachyderm Studios (where Nirvana recorded In Utero) and produced by Matt Bayles (Foxing, Pearl Jam, Mastodon, et al). Bright and full, the album captures the band at a time when nothing was certain other than their abiding desire to make music together. Desire Pathway opens with the Sabbathy hypnotism of “Brass Bell”. Following a swelling haze of synth, feedback shrieks, martial snares advance, and the band explodes into a bracing groove.
Ron Sexsmith – The Vivian Line CD (Cooking Vinyl)
New release, the 17th album from the Canadian singer/songwriter. The Vivian Line features 12 songs written and performed by Ron.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Good Son [Reissue/1990] LP (BMG)
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – No More Shall We Part [Reissue/2001] LP (BMG)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! [Reissue/2008] 2xLP (BMG)
Vinyl reissue of the sixth, eleventh and fourteenth albums by Nick Cave’s post-Birthday Party alt rock band.
Dark Funeral – We Are The Apocalypse LP (Century Media)
Approaching nearly 30 years since the beginning of their journey as one of Swedish black metal’s most genuine and unvarnished exemplars, Dark Funeral continue to reach for new heights to bring audiences into its otherworldly and unholy visions on the band’s seventh full-length LP, We Are The Apocalypse.
Deerhoof – Apple O’ [Reissue/2003] LP+7” (Joyful Noise)
Deerhoof’s fan-favorite breakthrough album, Apple O’, gets a 20th-anniversary edition after years of being out of print in the physical realm. Pressed on cotton candy pink color vinyl with bonus 7” of previously unreleased live recordings.
Joe Ely – Joe Ely [Reissue/1977] LP (MCA Nashville)
Joe Ely – Honkey Tonk Masquerade [Reissue/1978] LP (MCA Nashville)
Joe Ely – Down On The Drag [Reissue/1979] LP (MCA Nashville)
Since his debut in the 1970s, Joe Ely has blended rock ‘n’ roll sensibilities with hardcore honky-tonk to become one of the most recognizable and respected artists from the Lone Star State. Ely’s first three solo albums have been remastered and sourced from the original production masters.
Guided By Voices – Sandbox [Reissue/1987] LP (Scat)
Even back in 1987, Guided By Voices was not content to release just one album in a year-Sandbox was released in the summer of that year following Devil Between My Toes’ appearance that February. Likewise, in similar GBV style, the sound and approach of the two albums could not be more different. Where Devil mostly mines a darker, lo-fi psychedia, along with several instrumental explorations, Sandbox is sunny, direct, has a bigger, crunchier sound, and zero instrumentals.
The Head And The Heart – Every Shade Of Blue 2xLP (WB)
From the anthemic “Virginia (Wind In The Night)”, an ode to Russell’s native state to which he’s recently relocated (“If it was solely up to me, I’d live her for the rest of my life,” he says), to the minimal but momentous “Tiebreaker”, Every Shade Of Blue showcases The Head And The Heart’s unique ability to dip it’s toes into a variety of musical genres. It’s the band’s knack for supreme melody, however, that remains a constant. And it’s why many of the songs on Every Shade Of Blue, including the slow-rolling title track, “Every Shade Of Blue”, which Russell says has “a Sinatra vibe,” are undeniable pop-radio missiles.
Lil Baby – It’s Only Me 2xLP (Quality Control)
Released last October on CD – now available on vinyl.
Melanie Martinez – Cry Baby [Reissue/2017] 2xLP (Atlantic)
Melanie Martinez’s 2015 double-platinum debut album Cry Baby has now been expanded to a two LP set featuring the full deluxe album tracking listing. Three songs (“Play Date”, “Teddy Bear” and “Cake”) have been added to the album’s original 13 tracks while the enclosed booklet has expanded to 20 pages featuring new illustrations.
Jackie McLean – Bluesnik [Reissue/1962] LP (Blue Note)
Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean had the blues on his mind when he went into the Van Gelder Studio in 1961 to record his hard bop masterpiece Bluesnik with a blazing quintet featuring Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Kenny Drew (piano), Doug Watkins (bass), and Pete La Roca (drums). The six-song set of bluesy originals brims with immediacy and vibrancy.
