New Releases & Staff Picks - 8/14/26

STAFF PICKS
 DARIO - Thao and the Get Down reissue
ASH - Open Mike Eagle
 JAKE -
KIMBER - Durutti Column
MARY - Womack Sisters, Dent May, and Coltrane
ZACH - Open Mike Eagle and Jungle
DREW -
PAT- Durutti Column and L'Rain

PHOEBE BRIDGERS - Lost Weekend CD/LP/CASS (Dead Oceans)
Phoebe Bridgers is a singer-songwriter from Pasadena, CA. Beloved in equal measure for her deceptively subtle voice and her meticulous, incisive lyrics, her solo records Stranger in the Alps (2017) and Punisher (2020) have been accompanied by a number of collaborations, including the supergroup boygenius, with whom Bridgers won three Grammys for 2023's the record. Her songs are hallmarked by a kind of intimacy that's hard-found in contemporary music, and scale between the macro and the micro with an ease that's matched only by her towering, prodigious way with words.

JUNGLE - Sunshine CD/LP (Caiola)
Jungle cemented their status as a major global force with their 2023 album, Volcano - a record that earned them their first BRIT Award and featured their worldwide smash hit single, 'Back On 74'. The trio - J Lloyd, Tom McFarland and Lydia Kitto - return with their eagerly anticipated album, Sunshine.

WOMACK SISTERS - Womack Sisters CD/LP  (Daptone)
The Womack Sisters, Kucha, Zeimani, and BG Womack, were singing before they could walk. They grew up on the road. Their schools were stages and studios all over the world, where they sang behind their parents, Zekkariyas & Zeriiya (fka Womack & Womack), alongside their four siblings. Nowhere was home for long. No matter where they lived they were always surrounded by music and family. Their 2026 self-titled debut album, The Womack Sisters, is the musical culmination of the Sisters' long and winding journey to find themselves. Releasing on Daptone Records, the intensely soulful collection of tunes produced by Gabriel Roth looks forward by looking back, paying homage to their family's lineage while creating a sound that is uniquely their own. On an album that is deeply autobiographical, perhaps no lyric is as fitting as the final refrain: People come and go, But, darling this I know, It will always be my sisters and me.

MOS DEF - Ecstatic LP [Reissue/2009] (Rhymesayers)
Originally released in June 2009, The Ecstatic stands as a defining artistic statement from Mos Def (now known as Yasiin Bey) - a richly textured return to form that reaffirmed his status as one of hip-hop's most adventurous and intellectually engaged voices. Arriving a decade after his celebrated debut Black on Both Sides, the album was widely regarded as his strongest work in years, earning near-universal praise for it's lyrical breadth, eclectic production, and thematic ambition. Musically, The Ecstatic weaves a global sonic tapestry shaped by anarray of forward-thinking producers including Madlib, J Dilla, Oh No, Preservation, Mr. Flash, Chad Hugo (of The Neptunes), and Georgia Anne Muldrow. The resulting soundscape is both rooted in hip-hop tradition and unbound by genre, integrating elements of jazz, soul, Middle-Eastern inflection, and experimental sample work.

OPEN MIKE EAGLE & KENNY SEGAL - DOOMED! CD/LP (Rhymesayers)
It's five years in a blender. It's every troublesome misunderstanding of a half-decade relationship distorted and stretched into an absurdist black comedy mini-series on wax. It's the sound of every fight we ever had, playing simultaneously. It's several consecutive voice notes that you did not listen to, and instead read the transcription. It's fifteen songs from iconoclastic rapper Mike Eagle and innovative producer Kenny Segal. It's the world's first half-whimsical break-up album. It's DOOMED! 

DESCENDENTS - All CD/LP/Cass (Org Music)
All is the fourth studio album from Southern California punks Descendents. Released in 1987, the record marked the introduction of both bassist Karl Alvarez and guitarist Stephen Egerton, whose arrival brought fresh melodic ideas and more complex instrumentation to the band through their democratic songwriting process. The album takes it's title from the concept of All (achieving the total extent), coined by Bill Stevenson and his friend Pat McCuistion. All would prove to be the final studio album of the band's original run, and it's title would carry forward as the name of the group's next chapter without singer Milo Aukerman.

RUN-DMC - Raising Hell LP [Reissue/1986] (Sony Legacy)
Run-Dmc's third album, Raising Hell, marked a shift from their earlier phase of building and breaking down doors. Produced by Rick Rubin, the album showcased the group's unique sound and the genre's evolution. The worldwide smash, ‘Walk This Way,’ featuring Aerosmith, reached #4 on the Billboard pop charts and solidified RUN DMC's status as MTV idols. Other classic singles include ‘You Be Illin,’ ‘It's Tricky,’ ‘Peter Piper,’ and ‘My Adidas.’ Raising Hell's energetic, charismatic, and innovative sound captivated fans and signaled the beginning of the Golden Era of rap music, with it's sound remaining fresh today.

DENT MAY - The Big One LP (Carpark Records)
There's an ecstatic melancholy in Dent May's music, bittersweet, exuberant songs that break your heart as you sing along. On The Big One, he ditches his solo bedroom process for spontaneous sessions at Honeymoon Suite with a rotating cast of friends. Blending DIY pop with '70s songwriter warmth, May embraces improvisation, community, and cautious optimism, finding joy, connection, and possibility even as the world feels uncertain.

SWEEPING PROMISES - You Say I Romanticize CD/LP (Sub Pop)
Sweeping Promises' introduction to the global punk underground was their debut album, Hunger for a Way Out, which ended up being one of the breakout successes in music during pandemic lockdown. In 2023, they followed up with Good Living is Coming for You, a satirical, hyper-critical rebuke of capitalism that made Album of the Year lists for Pitchfork, NPR, Paste, and BBC, just to name a few. Bassist/vocalist Lira Mondal and guitarist Caufield Schnug decided to tilt their approach a few degrees forward on their third LP. The big theme of You Say I Romanticize is hinted at in it's title. Coming from a lyric sung on album closer ‘Write Lightly’ - a narrative about the importance of self-expression in writing being scrubbed away by professional concerns-many of the characters singer/bassist Mondal fleshed out here are outcasts, marginalized by society and turned into fanatics for a cornucopia of specific causes.

TRASHCAN SINATRAS - Ever The Optimist LP (TCS RECORDING)  
Having surprise announced their return after four years away with a standalone February single, legendary Scottish five-piece, Trashcan Sinatras follow up to announce their first album in ten years. Espousing the less careerist and more careering definition of a life inside Trashcan Sinatras over the last forty years, the unchanged line up of Reader, Paul Livingston (guitars), John Douglas (guitars), Stephen Douglas (drums) and Davy Hughes (bass) has slowly shaped eleven new songs via writing sessions scattered between mountain cabins, late-night poker sessions and quiet everyday routines. Prior to this year's announcements, the last release from Trashcan Sinatras was the accomplished Lay Of The Land EP in 2022. Celebrating a four-decade journey as a band this year, Trashcan Sinatras' story began in 1986, signing to Go! Discs two years later. Their formation in Irvine on Scotland's west coast. Blew a fresh breeze into observational, literary and frequently romantic British guitar music.

HOVVDY - Big World CD/LP (Arts & Crafts)
Big World lives up to it's name. Slated for release on August 14, it arrives on the heels of Hovvdy's 2024 self-titled album with a palpable sense of expansion - songs that stretch outwards and fill every room that they're played in - while still being rooted in the close, unguarded intimacy characteristic of the Texas duo. It's a progression that underscores how Charlie Martin and Will Taylor, now over a decade into their collaboration, continue to refine a shared language without losing the sincerity that has come to define it.

CHRISTIAN DEATH - Iron Mask LP [Reissue/1992]  (Cleopatra)
Limited purple splatter vinyl LP pressing. Expanded reissue of this landmark album that saw Rozz Williams take control of Christian Death and launch a new wave of gothic music in the US. Originally released in 1992, this album continues to be the introductory release for new discoverers of both the incredibly gifted and mourned vocalist Rozz Williams as well as the legendary Christian Death. Includes 2 fantastic bonus tracks.

JOHN COLTRANE - Coltrane LP [Reissue/1957] (Craft Recordings)
Original Jazz Classics celebrates John Coltrane's centennial with this release of the mono edition of Coltrane. Originally released on Prestige in 1957 the album features Coltrane alongside Johnnie Splawn, Sahib Shihab, Red Garland, Mal Waldron, Paul Chambers, and Albert Tootie Heath. This new edition of the album is released on 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes at Cohearent Audio and a Stoughton Tip-On Jacket.

JOHN COLTRANE - Meditations LP [Reissue/1966] (Verve)
Meditations, released in 1966 on Impulse! Records, captures John Coltrane's late-period quartet in transition, expanding into new sonic territory while retaining the core intensity of his classic lineup. Recorded in 1965 at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio with producer Bob Thiele, the session features pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones, tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and drummer Rashied Ali. Across the suite-like program, the music flows as a continuous meditation on transcendence and collective expression, pushing Coltrane's spiritual jazz into heightened realms of energy and abstraction. It marks one of the final appearances of his classic quartet members Tyner and Jones before they departed, leaving Coltrane to pursue new directions with Sanders and Ali. The Verve Vault series is always mastered from analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

MILES DAVIS - Cookin With The Miles Davis Quintet LP [Reissue/1957]  (Craft Recordings)
Original Jazz Classics celebrates Miles Davis' centennial with the release of Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet. Originally released on Prestige in 1957 and one of four albums recorded during sessions at Van Gelder studios, Cookin' features Davis alongside John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, Red Garland and Philly Joe Jones. This new edition of the album is released on 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes at Cohearent Audio and a Stoughton Tip-On Jacket.

LAURA VEIRS - Temple Songs  LP (Raven Marching Band)
Laura Veirs returns with Temple Songs, her first album in four years - and the first she has written, recorded, arranged, produced, and performed entirely on her own. "I didn't know if I would write songs again,” says Veirs, who spent the intervening years building a backyard studio, getting married, blending a family with four teenagers, deepening her visual art practice (painting), and expanding her music teaching. Turns out that period was a gathering phase. When I made the commitment to recording the album myself, the muse caught me again and it came together very quickly.

THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN - We Brave Bee Stings and All LP [Reissue/2009] (Kill Rock Stars)
"As sharp as I sing, it still soothes you, doesn't it? Like a lick of ice cream?" sings Thao Nguyen on her Kill Rock Stars debut, We Brave Bee Stings and All. Whether it's intentional or not, the line describes her sound perfectly. Nguyen's rich, breathy voice - and the way she croons, yelps, and drawls with it - recalls Cat Power, Fiona Apple, and Sinéad O'Connor. However, these comparisons suggest that Thao is a searing, intense artist when nothing could be further from the truth: her country-tinged indie folk-pop is playfully observant, mischievous with just a hint of vulnerability. By playing against type and putting a voice that seems tailor-made for brooding into songs that are sunny and sweet, Nguyen carves out her own intriguing territory among indie folk songstresses.

CHRIS BALLEW - Volume One LP (Aurora Elephant)
Volume One by Chris Ballew is a compilation of all the very best songs from my first four solo records: I Am Not Me, Soul Unfolded, Primitive God and Bone By Bone. The music is full of pop-tastic candy hooks filtered through a psychedelic lyrically poetic membrane to create a delicious pop cosmic sound. Enjoy a pillow of loopy distortion and lucious vocal stacks that will take you on a sleepy yet danceable ride.

DURUTTI COLUMN - Renascent LP (London Records)
Renascent marks the long-awaited return of legendary Manchester outfit The Durutti Column, their first new studio album in over fifteen years. Around the guitar work of Vini Reilly, the album plays between sonic atmospherics and structure: warm ambient washes, piano, beats and guest vocal turns by a new generation (Caoilfhionn Rose). Both contemporary and otherworldly, and with a swathe of new champions citing the band as an influence (Blood Orange, Harry Styles, The Avalanches, Mark William Lewis), Renascent is a timely and vital rebirth for The Durutti Column.

JAMES ELLIS FORD - Lost In Another World LP (Domino)
Lost In Another World is James Ellis Ford's excellent, emotionally resonant second solo album. It was made from start to finish in just over two weeks in early 2025, while James was on a hospital ward between punishing rounds of chemotherapy, following a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive cancer of the white blood cells. He hadn't even fully absorbed the implications of the diagnosis - nine months of treatment with only a 30% survival rate - before a bed was found for him at Barts, London. During the second round of treatment, James (known for his production work with Fontaines D.C., Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Depeche Mode and as both a solo artist and one half of Simian Mobile Disco) did the only thing that felt natural to him; he wrote, played, sang, recorded and mixed a solo album about the experience.

L'RAIN - Fata Morgana LP (Mexican Summer)
L'Rain's kaleidoscopic fourth album fata morgana is a fearless reckoning with self-doubt and the mirages of belonging and alienation that shape Taja Cheek's lived experience of the contemporary moment. A shimmering vision of light and sound, seductive, ephemeral, impossible to contain, fata morgana is a genre-defiant synthesis of dancehall, tape meditations, slow jams, gospel, and crunched metal influences in answer to the question: How do you grow in a world not meant for you to thrive in?

JOYCE MORENO / TUTTY MORENO / ADRIAN YOUNGE - Joyce E Tutty Moreno Jid027 LP  (JAZZ IS DEAD)
Joyce and Tutty Moreno, the legendary vocalist/guitarist and drummer who helped define the sound of Brazilian popular music, have partnered with Adrian Younge to create JID027. The result is an album that captures the ethereal beauty of collective improvisation, the weight of saudade, and the unbreakable bond between two of Brazil's most revered musicians.

LUNA - Romantica LP [Reissue/2002] (Wax Mage)
Romantica - Luna's sixth album. This was a tumultuous period for the band, who found themselves without a label following the declared bankruptcy of their previous label, Jericho Records, who had signed the band after Elektra let them go. Justin Harwood had departed midway through the touring for The Days of Our Nights and was replaced by Britta Phillips, who had previously toured with Ben Lee, and was formerly the singing voice of Jem (Jem & the Holograms). In this period Wareham and Phillips became romantically involved and you can likely hear that in the songs.

ME FIRST & THE GIMME GIMMES - Are A Drag LP [Reissue/1999] (Fat Wreck Chords)
ME FIRST & THE GIMME GIMMES - Blow In The Wind [Reissue/2001] (Fat Wreck Chords)
ME FIRST & THE GIMME GIMMES - Love Their Country LP [Reissue/2006] - (Fat Wreck Chords)
Colored LP reissues from the punk prankster cover group Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

COMING NEXT WEEK
WEEZER - Weezer CD/LP
BLACK MARBLE - Life In Small Spaces CD/LP
BRANDON FLOWERS - Thrasher CD/LP
JULIA HOLTER - Materia CD/LP
WILD PINK - Still Coming Down CD/LP
YHWH NAILGUN - Magazine CD/LP
AFGHAN WHIGS - Soft Control CD/LP
CRAMPS - Gravest Gravy LP Reissue
LAMBCHOP - Punching The Clown CD/LP
DJ PLEAD - Please LP
TOBACCO - High On Life 2 OST LP
FINN WOLFHARD - Fire From The Hip CD/LP