ANDREW BIRD Are You Serious (w/ Fiona Apple) (Loma Vista/CMG) This is the follow-up to last year’s experimental album Echolocations: Canyonarrives. It features “Capsized,” the new track which he debuted on “Conan,” as well as collaborations with Fiona Apple and Blake Mills. Recently, Bird spoke about the album with NPR for “All Songs Considered.” Check out his interview here. NPR’s Bob Boilen described Are You Serious as Bird’s most personal album to date, writing that “Andrew Bird’s lyrics are often a kind of cryptic code, wordplay about the human condition, but on Are You Serious he reveals more about his own life including a blossoming relationship between two relative introverts and the birth of their son.”[2] NPR’s Stephen Thompson wrote that, with this album, Bird’s songwriting “keeps sounding warmer, sweeter, more thoughtful and approachable, while continuing to land lines that stick with you for days.”[3]
MOGWAI Atomic (Temporary Residence Limited) This is the Post-rock outfit’s forthcoming LP about the atomic bomb which arrives this Friday. Atomic, is a reworking of their soundtrack to the BBC documentary Storyville – Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise. The album’s opening number is a glimmering, uplifting composition, its brass heralding that something new, hopeful is on the way. “‘Ether’ is the first song on the album and soundtracks the opening and most optimistic part of the film,” Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite explained in a statement. “We tried to mirror that with the music.”
WEEZER Weezer (White Album) (Crush Music) This is Weezer’s upcoming tenth studio album…Rivers Cuomo described Weezer as a “beach album”, based on his experiences ” hanging around the Westside of Los Angeles, […] with people in Venice and Santa Monica, the beach, the Hare Krishnas, the Sikh on roller blades with the guitar, girls on Tinder within a 4 mile radius, seeing other bands, the kids from La Sera.”[6] Cuomo specifically used Tinder to meet people for song ideas.[7] Sonically, Cuomo credited The Beach Boys as a major influence.[6] The album’s producer, Jake Sinclair, was also “determined to return Weezer to their Nineties glory”, combining the “brashness and unpredictability of Pinkerton with the summer Beach Boys grunge pop of the Blue Album“.[7]
SOUR SEDANS The Fix (Local) Sour Sedans’ 2nd release. The EP explores rock, funk, and adds elements such a saxophone and organ while maintaining Sour Sedans’ trademark riffs and solos. www.soursedans.com / facebook.com/soursedans
AUTOLUX Pussey’s Dead (produced by BOOTS on Dangermouse’s new label) (30th Century Records)
BLACK MOUNTAIN IV (Jagjaguwar)
BLEACHED Welcome The Worms (Dead Oceans)
BOMBINO Azel (produced by Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth) (Partisan Records)
BOULEVARDS (aka Jamil Rashad) Groove! (Captured Tracks)
CHARLES BRADLEY Changes (Daptone Records)
ELEPHANT REVIVAL Petals (Thirty Tigers)
LAURA GIBSON Empire Builder (Barsuk Records)
MARCO BENEVENTO The Story of Fred Short (Royal Potato Family)
MIKE & THE MELVINS Three Men and a Baby (Sub Pop)
MUSIC BAND Wake Up Laughing (Dine Alone Records)
OPERATORS (f/ Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade, Divine Fits & Handsome Furs) Blue Wave (Last Gang Records)
ROBBIE FULKS Upland Stories (Bloodshot Records)
SLOBBERBONE Bees and Seas: The Best of Slobberbone (New West)
TACO CAT Lost Time (Hardly Art)
TEDDY THOMPSON & KELLY JONES Little Windows (independent)
THE HEAVY Hurt & The Merciless (Bad Son Recording/ADA)
WILLIE NILE World War Willie (River House Records/Virtual Label)
YEASAYER Amen & Goodbye (4th studio album) (Mute Records)
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