New Release Round-Up 09-21-18

Prince - Piano & A Microphone 1983 - Warner Bros.
A previously unheard home studio cassette recording of Prince performing at his piano in 1983 will be released as Piano & A Microphone 1983 this week. The nine-track, 35-minute project from the Prince Estate in coordination with Warner Bros. Records is planned for what would have been the rock icon's 60th birthday. This rare, intimate glimpse finds Prince working through songs including "17 Days" and "Purple Rain" (which would both be released the following year), a cover of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You," "Strange Relationship" (issued in 1987 on the Sign O' The Times album) and "International Lover," as well as a rare recording of the pre-Civil War spiritual "Mary Don't You Weep," which will be heard on the end credits of Spike Lee's upcoming film BlacKkKlansman, due out in August.

Nas - NASIR - Def Jam
Nas returns this week with NASIR. The seven-track release for the New York rap artist was produced by Kanye West.

Joyce Manor - Million Dollars To Kill Me - Epitaph
Joyce Manor are back with a new album, entitled Million Dollars To Kill Me. Frontman Barry Johnson along with co-founding guitarist Chase Knobbe, new drummer Pat Ware—(“Awesome new drummer,” adds Johnson)—and longtime bassist Matt Ebert, wrote enough songs to fill a full-length, and then worked to get songs lifted from emails between Johnson and one of his musical hero Impossibles’ guitarist/vocalist Rory Phillips, with whom he had been co-writing long distance, to match the ones written at full volume. (“Bedroom charm versus live rock band,” Johnson explains.) Their next step was a new step: their first time recording outside their L.A. hometown, at Converge’s Kurt Ballou’s GodCity studio in Salem, Massachusetts. They recorded daily 10-to-6 and then slept right upstairs in bunk beds: “Kinda felt like camp,” says Johnson. “It was a pleasure—I would recommend it to anyone.” If 2016’s Cody was about growing up, then Kill Me is about what happens next—the reckonings with love, money, doubt and confusion, and the hope that persists despite it all. 

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Slash - Living The Dream - Roadrunner Records
"I always planned on getting back together with the Conspirators as soon as possible, and continuing on with what we started," Slash says. Which brings us to Living The Dream, the new full-length offering from the group-which, in addition to SLASH and singer KENNEDY, also includes bassist TODD KERNS, drummer BRENT FITZ and, making his recorded debut after several years of live work with The Conspirators, rhythm guitarist FRANK SIDORIS. The album, their third overall following World on Fire and 2012's Apocalyptic Love, is possibly the band's strongest collective statement to date. From the barnstorming, high-octane riffery of opener "Call of the Wild" to the wah-drenched funk rock of "Read Between the Lines," the haunting majesty of "Lost Inside the Girl" to the swaggering deep-in-the-pocket Seventies grooves of "Serve You Right," the stately, quasi-classical melodic themes of "The Great Pretender" to the massive hooks and anthemic, singalong choruses of first single "Driving Rain," LIVING THE DREAM packs a compendium of sounds and styles into 12 tightly arranged and sharply executed tracks, all of it shot through with SLASH's trademark electrifying and dynamic riffing and high-wire, lyrical solos.

Billy F Gibbons - The Big Bad Blues - Concord Records
The Big Bad Blues, as the title suggests, focuses on Billy F Gibbons' lifelong love of the blues and rock & roll, showcasing the blues-influenced vocals and guitar licks that have together served as the foundation for his numerous hits over the past five decades. The album features 11 tracks balancing some classic covers like 'Rollin' and Tumblin,'' and 'Standing Around Crying' along with some of Billy's signature new blues originals.

Richard Reed Parry - Quiet River Of Dust Vol. 1 - Epitaph
Richard Reed Parry's Quiet River Of Dust, is a meditative, widescreen musical experience with Beach Boy harmonies and a hypnotic pulse. Layered songs that move in a linear fashion, following a current rather than circular composition. Japanese folk myths, death poems and British folk music are tributaries flowing into a river of avant-garde composition and traditional song craft, written and performed by a member of the Grammy-winning rock band, Arcade Fire. Being released as two volumes, Quiet River of Dust Vol. 1 will be available on the start of the autumn equinox, September 21 2018. Quiet River of Dust Vol. 2 is coming out next year on the spring equinox 2019. 

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William Fitzsimmons - Mission Bell - Nettwerk Records
Singer/Songwriter and music producer William Fitzsimmons' album Mission Bell is a chronicling of the tumultuous last year of his life - particularly of the separation from his second wife. Sonically, Mission Bell is Fitzsimmons' first analog tape-centric album. The sounds are raw, real, and tangible. The familiar comforts of acoustic guitars are present but now joined generously by synthesizers, electric guitars, drum loops and violins. 

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The Paper Kites - On The Corner Where You Live - Nettwerk Records
"On The Corner Where You Live" is the latest album from Australian band The Paper Kites, a follow up to "On The Train Ride Home" which was released earlier this year. Produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Middle Kids) the album builds upon the romantic, dusky mood the band perfected on twelvefour (No. 1 debut on the ARIA chart) and includes standout tracks “When It Hurts You" and "Deep Burn Blue". The album is also available as a Deluxe Double Edition 2LP which includes "On The Train Ride Home".

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UPCOMING RELEASES

All Them Witches - ATW - New West Records
By most bands’ fifth LP, the sound is pretty set. Parameters established. Refinement dissipated in favor of to-formula execution of what’s worked in the past. Fair enough. All Them Witches go a harder route. In 2017, the Nashville four-piece offered what might’ve otherwise become their own template in their fourth album, Sleeping Through the War. Also their second for New West Records behind 2015 mellow-vibing Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, it brought a larger production value to dug-in heavy psych blues jamming, with oversight from producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson). After exploring new ground through their early work on 2013’s Lightning at the Door and 2012’s Our Mother Electricity as well as Dying Surfer, the band had arrived at something new, sprawling, and grander-feeling than anything before it. So naturally in a year they’ve thrown that all to the Appalachian wind, turned the process completely on its head and gone the absolute other way: recording in a cabin in Kingston Springs, about 20 miles outside of Nashville on I-40, with guitarist Ben McLeod at the helm. Take that, expectation. The result, mixed by Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith, Kurt Vile), is the most intimate, human-sounding album All Them Witches have ever recorded and another redefinition of who they are as a band. Introducing keyboardist/percussionist Jonathan Draper to the fold with McLeod, bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Parks, Jr., and drummer/graphic artist Robby Staebler, All Them Witches’ All Them Witches isn’t self-titled by mistake. It’s the band confirming and continuing to develop their approach, in the shuffle of “Fishbelly 86 Onions,” the organ-laced groove of “Half-Tongue,” the tense build of “HJTC” and the fluid jam in closer “Rob’s Dream.” It’s a reaction to being a “bigger” band. To playing bigger shows, bigger tours, etc. From the sustained consonants in Parks’ vocals to McLeod’s commanding slide in “Workhorse” and drifting melancholy at the outset of “Harvest Feast,” All Them Witches is their laying claim to the essential facets of their identity. And most crucial to that identity is its shifting nature. All Them Witches didn’t get to this point by resting on laurels, and if anything, the urgency of these tracks – fast pushers and sleepy jams alike – is among their greatest strengths. It’s a rawer delivery, as stage-ready as the band itself, and as ever, it captures All Them Witches in this moment. Is it who they’ll be tomorrow? Who the hell knows? Check back in and we’ll all find out together. That’s the whole idea.

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Rod Stewart - Blood Red Roses - Republic
Rod Stewart will release his 30th studio album – “Blood Red Roses” – September 28^th on Republic Records! The album highlights Stewart’s acclaimed songwriting roots – blending the poignant observation, self-reflective introspection and playful swagger which established him as one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time. “Blood Red Roses,” a deeply personal 13-track collection of originals and three covers, is quite simply peak Rod Stewart.  The album’s first single, “Didn’t I” is about the damage drugs can do from a parent’s’ point of view. This new album, his first in three years, follows international bestsellers “Another Country” (2015) and “Time” (2013) and will be released nearly 50 years to the date of when he signed his very first solo recording contract.

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John Butler Trio - Home - Nettwerk Records
Centered around Butler’s virtuoso guitar stylings and powerful, progressive lyricism, Home draws upon a remarkable variety of musical genres, spanning folk, blues, funk, classic rock ‘n’ roll, and beyond. Out September 28, HOME is a message of redemption, a reflection of the inner and outer worlds Butler was experiencing and observing during this chapter of his life. The John Butler Trio is guitarist/vocalist John Butler, bassist Byron Luiters and percussionist Grant Gerathy.

  

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Jon Batiste - Hollywood Africans - Verve
Recorded in a church in New Orleans, and produced by T-Bone Burnett, Jon Batiste’s major label debut is a stunning showcase of the brilliant pianist and vocalist. Primarily just Jon and his piano, Hollywood Africans includes standards, unexpected covers, and original songs. This release displays Batiste’s dynamic talents and highlights his musicality and virtuosity on his instrument.

  

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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 09-14-18

Thrice - Palms - Epitaph
Thrice created Palms with a free-form and fluid approach to the album’s sonic element. The result is their most expansive work to date, encompassing everything from viscerally charged post-hardcore to piano-driven balladry. To carve out that eclectic sound, Thrice enlisted trusted producer Eric Palmquist for the recording of the percussion and vocal tracks, and self-produced all of the guitar parts on Palms. “When we track our own stuff we tend to be far less neurotic about getting every note perfect,” says singer Dustin Kensrue. “It’s more about getting the right emotion out of the performance, so that it connects on a deeper level.” Kensrue, co-founded Thrice with guitarist Teppei Teranishi, bassist Eddie Breckenridge, and drummer Riley Breckenridge in 1998. Hailing from Orange County, California, the band formed when three of its members were still in high school, making their debut with the kinetic punk/hardcore hybrid of the 2000 album Identity Crisis. Their breakthrough arrived with 2003’s The Artist in the Ambulance—Thrice’s third full-length, whose singles “All That’s Left” and “Stare at the Sun” each landed on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Palms is the band’s first release since signing to Epitaph in early 2018, and the album matches its raw passion with a measured intensity, a rare feat for an album so informed by the volatility of the times. “Even though some of these songs are really aggressive-sounding, I wanted to make sure they never felt like finger-pointing, especially at a time when there’s so much talking past each other,” says Kensrue. Within that approach, Thrice reveal their profound commitment to making an enduring impact on the listener.

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Carrie Underwood - Cry Pretty - Capitol Nashville
Multi-platinum global superstar and seven-time Grammy Award winner, Carrie Underwood releases Cry Pretty, her first studio album on Capitol Records Nashville. The title track and lead single was released worldwide on April 11. The title track, “Cry Pretty” reached the Top 10 on the Media Base & Billboard charts.

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Paul Weller - True Meanings - Parlophone
True Meanings is an album characterised by grandiose-yet-delicate, lush orchestration: an aesthetic to which Paul Weller's better-than-ever voice, singing some of his most nakedly honest words, is perfectly suited. A dreamy, peaceful, pastoral set of songs to get lost in, it is both an album that his faithful audience has been wanting him to make for a long time, and an album that many new people outside of that audience will relate to. True Meanings was recorded in just over three weeks at Weller's own Black Barn Studio with the aforementioned revolving cast of characters dropping in for a day here and there. The orchestration was added soon after and that was that. It is always a good sign when the recording of an album is swift, and here you can just hear that the man at the center of these songs is more focused and inspired than he has ever been.

Tony Bennett & Diana Krall - Love Is Here To Stay - Verve
Tony Bennett and Diana Krall celebrate their shared love of the music of George and Ira Gershwin on their new collaborative album, Love Is Here To Stay. Love Is Here To Stay is a subtle, sophisticated and beautifully rendered love letter to The Gershwins’ music and their status as one of the premiere songwriters of the American popular standard. It is a masterclass in vocal delivery and phrasing and the command that Bennett and Krall display of the material in both their duets and solo tracks makes it appear effortless, belying the honed skill of the vocalists. The duet tracks include “S’Wonderful,” “I’ve Got Rhythm,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” and “Fascinating Rhythm,” among them. “Fascinating Rhythm” was Tony Bennett’s first physical recording in 1949, made under his then stage name, Joe Bari, which he revisits as a duet with Krall for this project.

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Richard Thompson - 13 Rivers - New West Records
Richard Thompson's new album, 13 Rivers, is the artists first self-produced record in over a decade. 13 Rivers is a very stripped down, bare-bones recording and according to Thompson the album is a reflection of current events that have happened in his life. This has been an intense year for myself and my family, getting older doesn't mean that life gets easier! There are surprises around every bend. I think this reflects in the immediacy of the stories, and the passion in the songs. Sometimes I am speaking directly about events, at other times songs are an imaginative spin on what life throws at you. The music is just a mirror to life, but we try to polish that mirror as brightly as possible. The album was recorded at Boulevard Recording in Los Angeles, California. 13 Rivers features Richards regular accompanists, Michael Jerome and Taras Prodaniuk, as well as Thompsons guitar tech, Bobby Eichorn, on second guitar. Each track on the album was recorded in analog, with minimal overdubbing. Boulevard is a really funky-looking studio, says Richard, but it sounds great. It used to be called The Producers Workshop, and was owned by Liberace, whose ghost is reportedly still hanging around. Steely Dan records were done there, and The Wall by Pink Floyd was mixed there. Clay Blair, the engineer, is a Beatles nut, and has every piece of Beatles gear he can lay his hands on - so if things sound a bit like Abbey Road, so be it! 13 Rivers consists of thirteen tracks. It is an album as much about growth as it is about reflection. Says Thompson, I don't know how the creative process works - I suppose it is some kind of bizarre parallel existence to my own life. I often look at a finished song and wonder what the hell is going on inside me. We sequenced the weird stuff at the front of the record, and the tracks to grind your soul into submission.

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Cold War Kids - Cold War Kids - Downtown
Cold War Kids is the self-titled compilation album by the American indie rock band from Long Beach, CA. Forming in 2004, and signing with Downtown Records in 2006 where they released 5 stellar albums, Cold War Kids compiles their biggest hits from the Downtown Records years and features 14 tracks including “First”, “Hang Me Up To Dry”, “Miracle Mile” and many more. 

Marc Ribot - Songs Of Resistance 1942-2018 - Epitaph
With his new album Songs Of Resistance 1942-2018, Marc Ribot—one of the world’s most accomplished and acclaimed guitar players—set out to assemble a set of songs that spoke to this political moment with appropriate ambition, passion, and fury. The eleven songs on the record are drawn from the World War II anti-Fascist Italian partisans, the U.S. civil rights movement, and Mexican protest ballads, as well as original compositions, and feature a wide range of guest vocalists, including Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Justin Vivian Bond, Fay Victor, Sam Amidon, and Ohene Cornelius. Over a forty-year career, Ribot has released twenty-five albums under his own name and been a beacon of New York’s downtown/experimental music scene, leading a series of bands including Los Cubanos Postizos and Ceramic Dog. Since his work with Tom Waits on 1985’s Rain Dogs album, though, he is best known to the world as a sideman, playing on countless albums by the likes of Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, Norah Jones, the Black Keys, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Grammy-winning collaboration Raising Sand.

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UPCOMING RELEASES

Richard Reed Parry - Quiet River Of Dust Vol. 1 - Epitaph
Richard Reed Parry's Quiet River Of Dust, is a meditative, widescreen musical experience with Beach Boy harmonies and a hypnotic pulse. Layered songs that move in a linear fashion, following a current rather than circular composition. Japanese folk myths, death poems and British folk music are tributaries flowing into a river of avant-garde composition and traditional song craft, written and performed by a member of the Grammy-winning rock band, Arcade Fire. Being released as two volumes, Quiet River of Dust Vol. 1 will be available on the start of the autumn equinox, September 21 2018. Quiet River of Dust Vol. 2 is coming out next year on the spring equinox 2019. 

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Joyce Manor - Million Dollars To Kill Me - Epitaph
Joyce Manor are back with a new album, entitled Million Dollars To Kill Me. Frontman Barry Johnson along with co-founding guitarist Chase Knobbe, new drummer Pat Ware—(“Awesome new drummer,” adds Johnson)—and longtime bassist Matt Ebert, wrote enough songs to fill a full-length, and then worked to get songs lifted from emails between Johnson and one of his musical hero Impossibles’ guitarist/vocalist Rory Phillips, with whom he had been co-writing long distance, to match the ones written at full volume. (“Bedroom charm versus live rock band,” Johnson explains.) Their next step was a new step: their first time recording outside their L.A. hometown, at Converge’s Kurt Ballou’s GodCity studio in Salem, Massachusetts. They recorded daily 10-to-6 and then slept right upstairs in bunk beds: “Kinda felt like camp,” says Johnson. “It was a pleasure—I would recommend it to anyone.” If 2016’s Cody was about growing up, then Kill Me is about what happens next—the reckonings with love, money, doubt and confusion, and the hope that persists despite it all. 

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William Fitzsimmons - Mission Bell - Nettwerk Records
Singer/Songwriter and music producer William Fitzsimmons' album Mission Bell is a chronicling of the tumultuous last year of his life - particularly of the separation from his second wife. Sonically, Mission Bell is Fitzsimmons' first analog tape-centric album. The sounds are raw, real, and tangible. The familiar comforts of acoustic guitars are present but now joined generously by synthesizers, electric guitars, drum loops and violins. 

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The Paper Kites - On The Corner Where You Live - Nettwerk Records
"On The Corner Where You Live" is the latest album from Australian band The Paper Kites, a follow up to "On The Train Ride Home" which was released earlier this year. Produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Middle Kids) the album builds upon the romantic, dusky mood the band perfected on twelvefour (No. 1 debut on the ARIA chart) and includes standout tracks “When It Hurts You" and "Deep Burn Blue". The album is also available as a Deluxe Double Edition 2LP which includes "On The Train Ride Home".

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