Music Releases 05-31-24
Honeymind is the anticipated third album (and debut on Interscope Records) from musician and actor Ben Platt. Named for the “honeylike” state of being in love (“like all the jagged thoughts and fears and anxieties in my brain are slowly smoothed out, until my mind is coated with warmth and sweetness,”) the album was Executive Produced by Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile), written with notable songwriters Hillary Lindsey, Natalie Hemby, and Alex Hope, and sees Ben exploring a more understated, folk-leaning sound. Featuring, "Andrew."
The Border is legendary country artist Willie Nelson’s 75th solo studio record of new material. Produced by Willie’s longtime collaborator, Buddy Cannon, The Border features four newly penned tracks by the pair combined with a half dozen tunes from some of their favorite songwriters including two cowritten by Rodney Crowell plus Shawn Camp, Mike Reid and Bobby Tomberlin. Backed by some of Nashville’s finest musicians, the album is another instant classic to follow up their last album of new material, A Beautiful Time which won Best Country Album at the 2023 Grammys.
Written and produced by Songwriter’s Hall Of Famer Linda Perry, Crooked Boy features four brand-new tracks from Ringo Starr with his trademark vocals and legendary drumming.
Ugandan-born, Austin-based Jon Muq's debut, Flying Away, melds African and Western melodies, reflecting his astonishing journey. Produced by Dan Auerbach, the album is infused with themes of resilience, and Muq's spontaneous, reflective songwriting captures the essence of his cross-continental life. From busking for children on the streets of Kampala, to cruise ship clubs, to sharing stages with music's biggest stars, Muq now embarks on the grandest voyage of all: releasing his first album.
‘Believe Me Now?’ is Becky’s most authentic, career defining project to date. An album which sees her digging deeper into her life-long passion for underground dance music and club culture. Whether she’s drawing on influences from the worlds of drum ‘n’ bass, anthemic house, techno or atmospheric trance, Becky’s flair for blending the heart of such genres with her soaring powerhouse vocal has produced an album that’s rich with credibility and personal integrity, yet with immense global appeal. Indie Exclusive Black & White Splatter LP.
An ode to Natasha’s daughter, Delphi. Bat For Lashes is known for her otherworldly albums with lead characters “Laura”, “Daniel” & “The Bride”. For the first time, Natasha writes about her personal experiences and the magical, sometimes melancholy intimacy of early motherhood.
Ship To Shore [Indie Exclusive Limited marbled Yellow/Orange LP and Signed Postcard]
When Richard Thompson began writing songs for his latest album, Ship to Shore, the artist was instinctively drawn to his own musical roots, employing them in the service of fashioning a deep and diverse 12-track collection that pulls from various styles, genres and eras, but remains unmistakably Richard Thompson. There’s the rumbling, Motown-style rhythm that propels “Trust,” and the straightforward riff-rock of “Turnstile Casanova.” The drone-y “The Old Pack Mule,” an “old man’s song” that takes musical cues from 1600s-era European music, and “Life’s a Bloody Show,” an ode to “snake-oil salesmen and hucksters” that floats on a glammy, cabaret-like melody that’s “almost like a parody of a Noël Coward song, or something from Berlin in the 1920s,” Thompson says. “I liked the idea of having a strong base to work from and reaching out from there,” he says. “And I think of my base as being British traditional music, but there’s also Scottish music, there’s Irish music. There’s jazz and country and classical. As far as I’m concerned, once you establish your base you can reach out anywhere. It’ll still be you ringing through, wherever you decide to go musically.”
Originally released in 1963 on Prestige, Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane features Burrell and Coltrane alongside Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb playing across 5 tracks. This new edition is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and presented in a Tip-On Jacket.
“Not a lot of people talk about the true origins of bluegrass music,” says Swamp Dogg, “but it came from Black people. The banjo, the washtub, all that stuff started with African Americans. We were playing it before it even had a name.”
Blackgrass, Swamp Dogg’s remarkable new album, is no history lesson, though. Produced by Ryan Olson (Bon Iver, Poliça) and recorded with an all-star band including Noam Pikelny, Sierra Hull, Jerry Douglas, Chris Scruggs, Billy Contreras, and Kenny Vaughan, the collection is a riotous blend of past and present, mixing the sacred and the profane in typical Swamp Dogg fashion as it blurs the lines between folk, roots, country, blues, and soul. The tracklist is an eclectic one—brand new originals and vintage Swamp Dogg classics sit side by side with reimaginings of ’70s R&B hits and timeless ’50s pop tunes—but the performances are thoroughly cohesive, filtering everything through a progressive Appalachian lens that nods to tradition without ever being bound by it. Special guests like Margo Price, Jenny Lewis, Justin Vernon, and The Cactus Blossoms all add to the excitement here, but it’s ultimately the 81-year-old Swamp Dogg’s delivery—sly and playful and full of genuine joy and ache—that steals the show. The result is a record that’s as reverent as it is raunchy, a collection that challenges conventional notions of genre and race while at the same time celebrating the music that helped make Swamp Dogg the beloved iconoclast he’s known as today.
The album promises a fantastic mix of self penned songs and classic covers, showcasing Tom's powerful vocals. The album includes Tom's last single Winter Song, co-written by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy.
Tom has truly transformed from the humble teacher who first appeared on our TV screens to the global performer he is becoming. As well as the album release, Tom is set to embark on the Curtain Call UK tour in 2024. The 14-date tour will feature songs from the album as well as many stage and screen classics. For fans who've followed Tom's journey from talent shows to the global stage, this headline tour is eagerly anticipated.
With early releases achieving eight No.1 rankings in international iTunes territories, with over 85 million views online and 4 million Spotify streams this year, Tom is making moves to hit the big time in 2024.
Night Reign is the new album from GRAMMY-winner Arooj Aftab, an ode to the night as her primary source of inspiration and a vivid reflection of the creative community she has fostered in her home of Brooklyn, New York. Featuring nine original compositions, three English-language tracks, and an array of guest artists, Night Reign is a perfumed, public garden of renewal, desire, shelter, and love guided by Aftab’s voice – its reach and intensity complementing the sun’s departure. Indie Exclusive Silver LP. Limited Edition.
Produced and mixed by Dan Molad, Wildewoman (The New Recordings) re-imagines and expands Lucius’ sparkling debut album, enhancing its instrumentation and deepening these remarkable songs. The new, 13-track set features friends Marcus Mumford on “Go Home (The New Recording),” and Devon Gilfillian on “Tempest (The New Recording).” The CD and vinyl version also features close friend and collaborator Brandi Carlile on the previously unreleased fan favorite “Housewarming (The New Recording).”
Featuring a 40-piece orchestra and stars, including Joanna Ampil, Michael Ball, Maria Friedman, Daniel Dae Kim, Audra McDonald, Julian Ovenden, Lucy St. Louis, Aaron Tveit, Marisha Wallace and Patrick Wilson, My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert was recorded live at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The celebration showcases original arrangements of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s iconic songs from Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Cinderella, The Sound of Music and more.
"The bi-coastal quartet fleshes out classic elements of hardcore and metal with industrial, shoegaze, and noise. Even their love songs feel extreme." - Pitchfork
CANDY return with their new album, It's Inside You. A brazen take on hardcore, metal, and disparate electronics and experimental soundscapes, It's Inside You sees CANDY take another step forward with a compelling, extreme, and one-of-a-kind take on the genre.
From the frenzied album opener "eXisTenZ", CANDY's intent is clear; It's Inside You kicks off as violently as possible. Cited as thriving in "this jumble of gothic industrial and digitized metal" by Pitchfork, the single minute, thirty-second track twists and turns as a contorted thesis statement for what will follow. Tracks like "Dehumanize Me" continue this trend, establishing an interplay between ferocious hardcore stomps helmed by guitarist Michael Quick, with pulse-pounding, electronic rhythms set against this monstrous riffing. "Dreams Less Sweet" crashes and bashes onto the record, while vocalist Zachary Quiram mourns the modern condition: "dreams laid dead/stuck grieving/how do you fight the feeling?/are we living in a world just to die?"
Elsewhere on the record, tracks like "Love Like Snow" showcase a different side of the band. Electronic, mechanical melodies are set against desperate cries for human connection. It's Inside You flexes more than just muscular Hardcore brutality. "Dancing to the Infinite Beat" and "Hypercore" also see raw emotion laid bare against frenetic, electronic punishment before crescendoing into cathartic, ear-worm choruses.
With It's Inside You, CANDY signals the future for what Hardcore, Metal, and Electronics can truly be.
FFO: Turnstile, Knocked Loose, Converge, Mindforce, Full of Hell, Ceremony, Code Orange
After an impressive 2010s run of albums that earned him a devoted fanbase, accolades from outlets like The New York Times, Fresh Air, and Pitchfork, and a place in the upper echelon of modern Americana singer-songwriters, John Moreland has already taken two unexpected turns this decade, both of which highlight his fierce artistic independence. First, he released a brilliant and sonically layered folk-electronica meditation on modern alienation, 2022’s Birds In The Ceiling, that took some of his fans by surprise. Then, after wrapping up a difficult tour behind that record in November 2022, he stopped working entirely. He took an entire year off from playing shows and didn’t use a smartphone for 6 months. “At the end of that year, I was just like ‘Nobody call me’. I needed to not do anything for a while and just process,” Moreland says. After nearly a decade in the limelight, constantly jostled by the expectations of his audience, the music industry, and anonymous strangers online, he carved out some time to rest, heal, and reflect for the first time.
The result of that unplugged year at home is 2024’s Visitor, a folk-rock record that is intimate, immediate, deeply thoughtful, and catchy as hell. Moreland recorded the album at his home in Bixby, Oklahoma, in only ten days, playing nearly every instrument himself (his wife Pearl Rachinsky sang on one song, and his longtime collaborator John Calvin Abney contributed a guitar solo), as well as engineering and mixing the album. “Simplicity and immediacy felt very important to the process,” he says.
This is a return to the approach Moreland took on his breakthrough albums, 2013’s In The Throes and 2015’s High On Tulsa Heat, both of which were largely self-recorded at home with a small cadre of additional musicians. Echoes of these early albums can be heard on Visitor (Moreland makes a passing reference to In The Throes’ opening track “I Need You To Tell Me Who I Am” in two different songs on Visitor), which finds Moreland shutting out the noisy world outside, and the even noisier digital world in his pocket, to reconnect with a muse that’s had to increasingly compete for his attention in the intervening years. Visitor charts his journey back to this muse. If Birds In The Ceiling’s theme was alienation, Visitor’s theme is un-alienation.
Jessie Baylin returns with a Deluxe Edition of Strawberry Wind, an album that delivers on a promise Baylin made with
herself: to create an honest record for kids and parents alike. With three new tracks added to the vinyl release, the
album delightfully expresses a childlike sensibility through tracks overflowing with an excitement for life that speaks
well to children. Weaving through lyrical themes of dream life, supermoons, and summertime vibes, there are also some
gentle doses of reality on Strawberry Wind. “I don’t want to lie to my kids. Life can be hard sometimes, and you need to
find a way to deal with it,” says Baylin. “There will always be things in life you can’t control, but you can dream of a better
world and make your own refuge.” She continues, “I wanted it to feel magical and remind people of the child inside of all
of us that is filled with a sense of wonder, pure joy, and hope.”
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Greatest Hits - Rock LP
Unleash the rebel within with the electrifying Joan Jett & the Blackhearts Greatest Hits, a compilation album that brings together the fiercest and most beloved tracks from rock 'n' roll's eternal queen, Joan Jett. Perfect for the devoted Joan Jett & the Blackhearts fan, this album is a journey through the career of a woman who smashed through the glass ceilings of the music industry with her guitar, charisma, and unwavering determination. The LP includes the hit songs "Bad Reputation," "I Hate Myself For Loving You," "I Love Rock N' Roll" and more.
Cyndi Lauper - Let The Canary Sing - Pop Vinyl LP
Let The Canary Sing is a career-spanning collection following Lauper's career starting from her days in Blue Angel, to her breakout single, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" to the iconic pop stardom that followed. With hits, "True Colors," "I Drove All Night," and more, this collection is a staple for any Cyndi Lauper fan.