On their dreamy fifth album, Scottish band Camera Obscura adds a local flavor by recording with Portland based producer (and former Seattleite) Tucker Martine. Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls Desire Lines "a beautifully crafted set of bittersweet, soul-tinged indie-pop, featuring a warm, lush sound with guitars, synths, horns, organ and other instrumentation accompanying Tracyanne Campbell’s emotive vocals." It's easily this week's most recommended new release, but there's much more great new music in record stores today from artists like Portland-via-Alaska, oddly punctuated band Portugal. The Man, whose latest, Danger Mouse produced album is "a more streamlined and subdued take on their expansive prog-pop, toning down the glam-rock sound of 2011’s In the Mountain In the Cloud and bringing in more gospel and R&B influences," and from the Josh Homme-led Queens of the Stone Age, who tone it down just a bit on their sixth studio album for "a solid set of brooding, psych-tinged hard rock with an occasional glam-rock bent at times." Maybe the most anticipated this week, though, is the debut from young British production brother duo’s hotly anticipated debut from young British production brother duo Disclosure (look for the full review of that album soon!).
Other new releases you'll want to check out come from London duo Big Deal, whose new LP expands on their sparse debut with "a fuller, more muscular sound" resulting in "a well-crafted set of ‘90s-influenced pop-rock with fuzzy guitars, intimate female/male vocals, melancholy lyrics and catchy melodic hooks"; from Fiery Furnaces vocalist Eleanor Friedberger, whose sophomore effort is "another well-crafted set of ‘70s-inspired pop-rock, featuring a warm sound with electric piano and guitars along with occasional organ, woodwinds and other instrumentation accompanying her rich alto and lyrics of love lost and found"; New Albany, IN, band Houndmouth, who debut with "a potent album of blues-tinged roots-rock combining the classic ensemble sound of The Band with the sing-along folk-pop of The Head and The Heart, highlighted by the group’s soulful male/female harmonies, strong melodies and often-colorful lyrics"; Trans-Tasman meets UK band Splashh, whose debut is full of "psych-tinged, ’90s-steeped garage-pop with fuzzy guitars, shimmering synths and hazy vocals"; and Oakland band Rogue Wave, led by Zach Rogue (a.k.a. Zach Schwartz), who "return to their earlier psych-pop sound with this catchy blend of jangly guitars, atmospheric keyboards and sturdy pop melodies."
You'll find all of these in record stores today, plus more new releases from St. Louis' Pokey LaFarge, locals Brent Amaker and The Rodeo and Sean Nelson, Portland roots stompers The Builders and the Butchers, LA soul-funk duo Quadron, and a darkly ingenious team-up of Stephen King, John Mellencamp and T Bone Burnett as Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. Sample some of this week's recommended new albums below before picking them up for yourself.
Brent Amaker and The Rodeo - Death Is Always Near
Florida band Surfer Blood couldn't wait until summer to release their anticipated sophomore album of poppy, surf-influenced indie rock, but that's just as well, as Pythons takes a relatively darker turn. Our Music Director, Don Yates, praises the new album for its "more polished and streamlined sou…
It's an eclectic mix of new releases this week, including some moody music out of the UK, led by trip-hop pioneer Tricky, whose latest album is, according to our Music Director, Don Yates, "his most focused effort in years" featuring the sounds he's most known for, i.e. "gloomy, mostly downtempo be…
