New Release Round-Up 08-17-18

Ariana Grande - Sweetener - Republic
Sweetener is the fourth album from Ariana Grande, the Grammy Award-nominated, multi platinum, record-breaking superstar that has emerged as one of the most magnetic and massively successful performers in pop music today. The album features the number 1 smash 'no tears left to cry,' as well as 'the light is coming (feat. Nicki Minaj)' and 'God is a woman.' With the release of 'no tears left to cry,' she became the first artist in music history to see the lead single from her first four albums debut in the Top 10 on Billboard Hot 100. 

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Death Cab for Cutie - Thank You For Today - Barsuk
Thank You For Today, Death Cab for Cutie's ninth studio album, was produced and mixed by Rich Costey (Fiona Apple, Franz Ferdinand, Muse), who also produced the band's last album the GRAMMY® nominated Kintsugi. Thank You for Today marks the first Death Cab for Cutie release to see long time bandmates Gibbard, Nick Harmer, and Jason McGerr joined in the studio by new members Dave Depper (Menomena, Fruit Bats, Corin Tucker, Ray Lamontagne) and Zac Rae (My Brightest Diamond, Fiona Apple, Lana Del Rey, Gnarls Barkley). Depper and Rae have both been part of Death Cab's touring band since 2015. Death Cab for Cutie will celebrate their new album with a much anticipated fall tour. Check out the single "Gold Rush"

Nicki Minaj - Queen - Cash Money
Nicki Minaj releases her fourth studio album, 'Queen,' via Cash Money Records / Republic Records. The album includes previously released tracks, 'Chun-Li,' 'Rich Sex,' and new track 'Bed (feat. Ariana Grande).' Her current single 'Chun-Li' is quickly approaching Top 5 airplay at Urban radio and recently broke into Top 10 airplay at Rhythmic radio. Nicki will support her album with a 28-date North American headlining tour with Future, which commences 9/21 in Baltimore and concludes 11/24 in Las Vegas.

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Great Lake Swimmers - The Waves, The Wake - Nettwerk Records
JUNO nominated, Polaris Prize shortlisted Great Lake Swimmers frontman Tony Dekker set out to specifically make an album without any acoustic guitar. Recorded in the 145 year old Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church in London, Ontario and produced by Chris Stringer (The Wooden Sky, Elliot Brood, Timber Timbre), "The Waves, The Wake" releases this week via Nettwerk.

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Thee Oh Sees - Smote Reverser - Castleface
Crack the coffers, Oh Sees have spawned another frothy album of head-destroying psych-epics to grok and rock out to. Notice the fresh dollop of organ and keyboard prowess courtesy of Memory Of A Cut Off Head-alum and noted key-stabber Tom Dolas, while the Paul Quattrone/Dan Rincon drum-corps polyrhythmic pulse continues to astound and pound in equal measure, buttressed by the nimble fingered bottom end of Sir Tim Hellman the Brave and the shred-heaven fret frying of John Dwyer, whilst Lady Brigid Dawson again graces the wax with her harmonic gifts. Aside from the familiar psych-scorch familiar to soggy pit denizens the world over, there's a fresh heavy-prog vibe that fits like a worn-in jean jacket comfortably among hairpin metal turns and the familiar but no less horns-worthy guitar fireworks Dwyer's made his calling card. Perhaps the most notable thing about Smote Reverser is the artistic restlessness underpinning it's flights of fancy. Dwyer refuses to repeat himself and for someone with such a hectic release schedule, that stretching of aesthetic borders and omnivorous appetite seems all the more superhuman!

UPCOMING RELEASES

The Devil Makes Three - Chains Are Broken - New West Records
The power of words isn’t lost on longstanding Americana triumvirate The Devil Makes Three —Pete Bernhard, Lucia Turino, and Cooper McBean. For as much as they remain rooted in troubadour traditions of wandering folk, Delta blues, whiskey-soaked ragtime, and reckless rock ‘n’ roll, the band nods to the revolutionary unrest of author James Baldwin, the no-holds barred disillusionment of Ernest Hemingway, and Southern Gothic malaise of Flannery O’Connor. In that respect, their sixth full-length and first of original material since 2013, Chains Are Broken, resembles a dusty leather-bound book of short stories from some bygone era. As the band began writing ideas for Chains Are Broken, they veered off the proverbial path creatively. Instead of their typical revolving cast of collaborators, The Devil Makes Three stuck to its signature power trio, with one addition. This time, they invited touring drummer Stefan Amidon to power the bulk of the percussion. Another first, they retreated to Sonic Ranch Studios in El Paso, TX a stone’s throw from the Mexican border to record with producer Ted Hutt [Dropkick Murphys]. The incorporation of new sounds as well as the experimentation in space finds the Devil Makes Three crafting a new yet still familiar sound. Coupled with a continued focus on in-depth lyricism that tells a story in every song, Chains Are Broken is a liberating, rump-shaking collection of past, present and future.

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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.

New Release Round-Up 08-10-18

Death Grips - Year of the Snitch - Harvest
Year of the Snitch is the sixth studio album by experimental hip hop group Death Grips, released this week through Third Worlds and Harvest Records. LP and Indie Exclusive Clear LP to follow next month. 

Jason Mraz - Know. - Atlantic
The album serves as a follow-up to the 2014 LP "YES!", and is Jason Mraz's first full-length studio recording in over four years. The bulk of the album was written against the backdrop of the 2016 Presidential election and its aftermath, and Mraz found himself writing a lot of "frustrated, angry, even sad songs, but nothing I wanted to sing." Instead he has chosen to convey an uplifting, positive message. Know. was produced by Andrew Wells, who brings an organic and groovy feel to the album's classic, acoustic rock sound.

Shooter Jennings - Shooter - Low Country Sound
Ever the outlaw, Shooter Jennings has now crafted what might well be his most truly idiosyncratic work thus far, Shooter. Produced by longtime friend and collaborator, Low Country Sound founder Dave Cobb, at the renowned RCA Studio A on Nashville's Music Row, the album sees Jennings staking out a fairly straightforward goal: to simply make a great country record. It should be noted, Jennings' last studio album was a genuinely visionary tribute to Giorgio Moroder so in some ways, making a straight up country record is as much of a left turn as anything else in his brilliantly mercurial career thus far. But with songs like "Fast Horses & Good Hideouts" or the raucous "I'm Wild & My Woman Is Crazy," Jennings more than affirms his mission by returning to country's original, if oft misplaced, mandate: singing songs about growing up and getting older, about going out and getting trashed. In short, making music for real people with real lives. With SHOOTER, Jennings truly puts his own mark on country music, living up to his extraordinary birthright with unparalleled passion, experience, and heart.

The Magpie Salute - High Water I - Eagle Records
High Water I is the first album of original material from The Magpie Salute. The album, pressed on 2LP, is limited to 1,000 copies pressed on blue and white splattered vinyl. These colors will not be used on future pressings of High Water I. This is the story of The Magpie Salute. As much as the group represents a musical union of swaggering rock ‘n’ roll, psychedelic blues, and campfire-worthy storytelling, it also marks a reunion of musicians whose paths twisted and turned right back to each other. Pulled together by guitarist Rich Robinson, it continued a storyline he began in the Black Crowes with guitarist Marc Ford and bassist Sven Pipien. Meanwhile, vocalist John Hogg shared Hookah Brown with Robinson as keyboardist Matt Slocum and drummer Joe Magistro both joined him for solo records and tours over the years.

Jake Shears - Jake Shears - Freida Jean Records
Showcasing the essence of what Jake Shears does best, the eponymously titled solo debut from the Scissor Sisters frontman is an album brimming with anthemic choruses and lyrics about the joys and vagaries of love and sex - all of it underpinned by a swampy soul influence imparted from his newly adopted hometown New Orleans. Shears' artistic vision blossomed in the epicenter of Southern decadence, where he had headed following the Scissors hiatus in 2012. Initial ideas for the album were mapped out at the city's famed Marigny Studios before he decamped to Louisville, KY to work with producer Kevin Ratterman (Ray LaMontagne, My Morning Jacket) who recruited members of My Morning Jacket, VHS or Beta, Jim James' solo band, and Floating Action to lay down the album's foundation. With string and brass arrangements by Christian Hebel (Barbra Streisand) and Lance Horne (Alan Cumming), they returned to NOLA to capture the city's signature sound with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Sturgill Simpson's brass section. The result is a thrilling work that plays inside some of the hallmarks of classic American rock music and marries them with Jake's inimitable point of view, humor, and gift for unforgettable hooks.

UPCOMING RELEASES

Great Lake Swimmers - The Waves, The Wake - Nettwerk Records
JUNO nominated, Polaris Prize shortlisted Great Lake Swimmers frontman Tony Dekker set out to specifically make an album without any acoustic guitar. Recorded in the 145 year old Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church in London, Ontario and produced by Chris Stringer (The Wooden Sky, Elliot Brood, Timber Timbre), "The Waves, The Wake" releases on August 17, 2018 via Nettwerk.

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Ariana Grande - Sweetener - Republic
Multi-platinum, Grammy-Award nominated artist Ariana Grande to release highly-anticipated album, 'Sweetener,' via Republic Records on 8/17. Album includes smash hit, 'no tears left to cry,' which closed out the US Top 40 radio panel week-of impact and made Ariana the first artist to kick-off four album campaigns with a Top 10 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The pre-order will launch with new track 'the light is coming (feat. Nicki Minaj).' Ariana Grande will support the album with numerous media appearances.

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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section.