New Releases & Staff Picks - 4/12/24

STAFF PICKS
Lindsay - Metz
Dario - James Elkington/Nathan Salsburg and Sunburned Hand of the Man
Kimber - Sunburned Hand of the Man
Jake - Patrick Shiroishi 7" and Clipping 7"
Zach - Metz, Ozean, Against Me reissue
Ash - Red Hot & Ra

Girl In Red – I’m Doing It Again Baby! CD/LP (Sony)
The eagerly anticipated sophomore album from the Norway born, and Oslo based singer-songwriter. This 10-song album chronicles the artist’s last two and a half years with honesty and wit, and a willingness to play around with her music.

Noah Kahan – Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) 2xCD/3xLP (Mercury)
Over the past year, Grammy Best New Artist-nominated Vermont singer & songwriter Noah Kahan has exploded from his New England roots into the global mainstream and has been touted as one of this year’s biggest and best new artists. The global sensation is back with an expanded version of Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever). This expanded release showcases seven additional tracks from Kahan’s platinum-certified Stick Season album as well as his double platinum-certified, and first career Top 10 hit, “Stick Season”, and platinum-certified Top 40 hit “Dial Drunk.” [An indie store exclusive color vinyl pressing is available.]

METZ – Up On Gravity Hill CD/LP (Sub Pop)
On Up On Gravity Hill, the new album by Toronto power-trio METZ, the band creates a kaleidoscopic sonic world as tender as it is dark, aided once again by engineer Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar, Lingua Ignota, Battles, The Body). For those who believe in the power of the rock band to exemplify the highest resonance of human connection, there is much on Up On Gravity Hill to lift the spirit, a puzzle worth repeated listening to unlock or just to get lost in again and again. The album contains some of the most spacious, sympathetic, and accessible songs - could we call them pop? - of their career. If this seems contradictory, well, METZ has always been something of a contradiction. In the words of guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins, "We've never been heavy enough for metal or hardcore purists, but we're way too heavy for indie rock. We just don't have a lane-and that's okay. We exist outside the lines of delineation. I think this record is even more like that." [A translucent red color Loser Edition vinyl pressing is available.]

James – Yummy CD/LP (Virgin)
Yummy is the 18th studio album from Manchester-based hitmakers James. The new album features the single "Is This Love" and was produced by Leo Abrahams and mixed by Cenzo Townsend. [An indie store exclusive red color vinyl pressing is available.]

Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me CD/LP (Capitol)
“Partially inspired by the artist’s own experiences – diaristic in a way, imbued with nostalgia and slices of her past selves – partially a fictional character’s journey of self-discovery, in Don’t Forget Me, Maggie Rogers finds a great balance between introspection and action. Looking inward whilst moving on and looking forward; looking at the road ahead, while the listener can close their eyes and enjoy the pop-folk ride, as if on a car trip with Rogers and her friends and characters. The album was co-produced by the singer-songwriter and Ian Fitchuk, who also co-wrote eight of the ten tracks. There’s a raw authenticity to the sound and lyrics, reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac, that can be attributed to the making process itself: most of them are first takes, and part of a deliberate decision to record for the sake of telling all these stories waiting to come out, rather than wanting to make a perfectly polished album. In the end, it pays off. Overall, Don’t Forget Me has some superb storytelling that confirms this artist’s talent for adapting life as well as fiction into music.”

Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary (30th Anniversary Edition) [Reissue/1994] (Sub Pop)
Limited edition on pearl vinyl limited. Sunny Day Real Estate and Sub Pop celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band's landmark album Diary with a new pearl-vinyl edition of the remastered double LP. This new version coincides with the band's 2024 US tour commemorating the anniversary of the album.

Ozean – Ozone 12” (Numero)
Set your shoes to gaze mode and rip into this king size cloud of ethereal dream pop. Inspired by the spate of Brits leaning into swirling distortion and punishing volume, San Jose's Ozean played just two shows in their brief existence, dissolving before the Scene That Celebrates Itself ever broke the silicon barrier. The quartet's 1991 self-titled demo cassette has been remastered and pressed at 45rpm, a timeless document of late adolescent wonder and experimentation.

Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter CD (Columbia)
CD this week, LP in stock early next week! Cowboy Carter (also referred to as Act II: Cowboy Carter) is the eighth studio Beyoncé, released on March 29, 2024. The album is the second installment of Beyoncé's trilogy project, following Renaissance (2022). Beyoncé conceived Cowboy Carter as a journey through a reinvention of Americana. Mostly labeled a country album, Cowboy Carter also blends together diverse musical genres such as R&B, pop, hip hop, blues, soul, rock and folk music. Conceptually, the album is presented as a radio broadcast by fictional station "KNTRY Radio Texas", with country singers Dolly Parton, Linda Martell and Willie Nelson acting as disc jockeys.

James Elkington / Nathan Salsburg – All Gist CD/LP (Paradise Of Bachelors)
The duo's third album of instrumental guitar recordings pushes their sinuous compositions into labyrinthine new shapes, interlocking and interlocutory, supported by a cast of stellar collaborators. Interwoven among the dazzling original pieces is a fascinating array of covers, ranging from traditional Breton dance tunes to a deconstruction of Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo Stance". “Their melody-first sensibilities are perfectly suited to each other... playfully complex guitar work that sounds as if it was tossed off in an afternoon of whiskey and laughs.” – NPR. “An intoxicating, intricate web... Wherever Salsburg and Elkington go, it's always a pleasure.” - Aquarium Drunkard. “Sounds like winter has always been approaching, like Indian summer never quite fades, like fall isn't built around loss.” – Stereogum

Clipping / Cooling Prongs – Tipsy b/w Midnight 7” (Sub Pop)
This new split single by Clipping and Cooling Prongs features Clipping’s noise-infused remake of J-Kwons 2004 hit “Tipsy” on the A side, and a harrowing ambient noise track by Cooling Prongs on the B side.

Patrick Shiroishi – Sparrow In A Swallow’s Nest b/w The Light Is Not Afraid 7” (Sub Pop)
Patrick Shiroishi is a Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Los Angeles who is perhaps best known for his extensive and incredibly intense work with the saxophone. Over the last decade he has established himself as one of the premier improvising musicians in Los Angeles, playing solo and in numerous collaborative projects. Shiroishi may well be considered a foundational player in the city's vast musical expanse. He has presented work and performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the International Museum of Surgical Sciences and has toured around the world in various solo and band configurations including The Armed, contemporary classical ensemble Wild Up and Upsilon Acrux. This new single features an exclusive, original A side, "Sparrow In A Swallow's Nest", which features Emma Ruth Rundle on vocals, backed with a new original, "The Light Is Not Afraid", featuring Patrick on vocals.

Facs – North America Endless b/w Take Me To Your Heart 7” (Sub Pop)
Chicago trio Facs have been perfecting their brand of intense, cathartic art rock over the course of four ever-evolving albums. Beginning with 2018's Negative Houses through 2021's landmark Present Tense, the trio digs deep into the gaping maw of a black hole and pulls back whatever debris they can grasp onto. Their 2023 LP Still Life In Decay came as an addendum to their last album- a "post-event review," if you will. The band is made up of Brian Case (90 Day Men, The Ponys, Disappears) Jonathan Van Herik (Disappears), and Noah Leger (Milemarker). This new single features an exclusive, original A side, "North America Endless", and a cover of The Eurythmics song "Take Me To Your Heart" on the B side. White vinyl.

Against Me - Transgender Dysphoria Blues [10th Anniversary Reissue] LP (Total Treble)
10th anniversary limited edition blue colorway of Against Me!'s sixth studio album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, originally released in 2014. Featuring the hit "True Trans Soul Rebel."

Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter  [Reissue/2007] LP (Pytheus Recordings)
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years  [Reissue/2006] LP (Pytheus Recordings)
Limited color vinyl reissue of the American singer-songwriter’s fourth and fifth studio albums. 

Willie Colon - La Gran Fuga [Reissue/1971] LP (Conchord)
La Gran Fuga is an album of Willie Colón & Héctor Lavoe issued in 1971 by Fania Records. It was the second of Colón and Lavoe's records to go gold, after Cosa Nuestra and before El Juicio.

The Selecter - Too Much Pressure (40th Anniversary Edition) LP (Chrysalis)
THE SELECTER were one of the key bands of the ska revival in the late 70s. They were one of the few racially and sexually integrated bands on the scene. Vocalist Pauline Black wrote about sexism, racism, and social issues. Their debut release was the AA side of the Specials single 'Gangsters' in the summer of 1979, which just consisted of Neol Davies and John Bradbury (of The Specials) before quickly forming a full band by the end of the year. Their debut album 'Too Much Pressure' was released in February 1980 getting to No. 5 in the UK charts, which also included two further hit singles 'Three Minute Hero' and 'Missing Words'.

Various - Red Hot & Ra - Magic City LP (Red Hot)
The Magic City is the third album in the Red Hot & Ra series - This entire album was imagined, produced & curated by Meshell Ndegeocello - The album is a features Marshall Allen, Immanuel Wilkins, Deantoni Parks, Pink Siifu, Stuart Bogie and Justin Hicks. It is a dreamlike strange & soulful interpretation of Sun Ra's composition, This record follows Ndegeocello's 2023 album The Omnichord Real Book, named the #1 jazz album of the year by NPR and nominated for Best Alternative Jazz Grammy.

The Reds, Pinks, & Purples - Unwishing Well CD/LP
Crystalizing the tragic self-celebrating kingdoms of fortunate failures, false heroes, music press deities of limitless deceit, hometown dive gods and humanity in the grips of all its romanticized wonder and woe — DIY pop titans The Reds, Pinks & Purples take aim at the threads of hope with untethered abandon on their new album Unwishing Well. Spanning 10 gem-like tunes, it's yet another exhibition of Glenn Donaldson's flawless mastery of intimate - yet expansive - downcast pop.

Sunburned Hand Of the Man - Nimbus CD/LP (Three Lobed Recordings)
Three Lobed and Sunburned Hand of the Man have a long history. The label has been releasing the group’s output for nearly two of its three decades of making music. As Sunburned has picked up momentum again in recent years, the label’s been right there, releasing the highly acclaimed Pick a Day to Die in 2020, and in late 2022 reissuing a 20th anniversary edition of Headdress, the classic and confounding first Sunburned LP. Label head Cory Rayborn acted as the catalyst for storyteller Kelly Davis to assemble "No Way Out", an astonishing eight-part oral history podcast released by Aquarium Drunkard in 2023. It was a free-wheeling kaleidoscope of a project, mirroring the band’s own elusiveness and flux. Sunburned life was related, analyzed, mythologized, dissected, and obfuscated.

COMING NEXT WEEK!
PEARL JAM - Dark Matter CD/LP
BRAINSTORY - Sounds Good CD/LP
LARRY JUNE / CARDO - Night Shift LP
T BONE BURNETT - Otherside CD/LP
TAYLOR SWIFT - Tortured Poets Department CD/LP
CLOUD NOTHINGS - Final Summer CD/LP
MELVINS - Tarantula Heart CD/LP
HIGH ON FIRE - Cometh The Storm CD/LP
LUCY ROSE - This Ain’t The Way You Go Out CD/LP
PINK FLOYD - Darkside of the Moon LP 50th Anniv
HERBIE HANCOCK - Speak Like A Child LP reissue
BOBBY HUTCHERSON - Happenings LP reissue
BEYONCE - Cowboy Carter LP
NIA ARCHIVES  - Silence Is Loud LP
LEYLA MCCALLA - Sun Without The Heat CD/LP
JPEGMAFIA / DANNY BROWN - Scaring The Hoes LP DLC pack (includes 4 new songs)