Out This Week 1/20

It's an impressive week for new releases! Beloved Northwest band Sleater-Kinney end their hiatus with the release of No Cities To Love. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "The recently reunited trio’s eighth album (and first in 10 years) is a strong return-to-form, with an intense blend of punk, classic and hard rock combining fierce guitar interplay, urgent, dynamic rhythms, searing vocals and sharply crafted lyrics examining power, injustice, love and the band’s place in the world." Another Portland band, The Decemberists, share their seventh studio album (and first in five years), "a consistently strong set of polished, fairly diverse folk-pop combining a richly layered, impeccably detailed sound with Colin Meloy’s plaintive vocals and finely chiseled, often-poignant lyrics, which are also some of his most personal and poignant to date." Scottish popsters Belle & Sebastian also return with their ninth full-length, "one of their strongest and most diverse offerings, combining sophisticated arrangements with often-spiritually inspired lyrics on expertly crafted songs ranging from jangly folk-pop and atmospheric orchestral ballads to sleek, discofied dance-pop."

There are also some stand-out new releases from up-and-comers like UK group Menace Beach. Yates notes their debut is "a promising, ‘90s-inspired blend of fuzzy shoegazer psych-rock and grungy slacker-pop. Produced by Hookworms frontman MJ, the album combines scuzzy guitars, driving rhythms, alternating male/female vocals and catchy pop hooks." Calgary-based band Viet Cong (comprised of ex-Women members Matt Flegel and Mike Wallace along with Monty Munro (ex-Lab Coast) and guitarist Danny Christiansen) release their debut, "an expansive, impressively arranged blend of dark post-punk and prog-tinged psych-rock." The latest from Hanni El Khatib "finds him clothing his blues-tinged garage-rock in darker, more brooding tones while also stylistically broadening his sound a bit by injecting it with elements of psych-rock, hip hop, electronic and more." And Until The Ribbon Breaks expands from the solo project of Pete Lawrie Winfield into a trio on their debut release, "a dark, brooding blend of electro-pop, hip hop and R&B with haunting keyboards, spacious hip hop beats, breathy vocals and intimate lyrics."

• (Various Artists) FKAtwigs – “Two Weeks”
• from YT2014 compilation on Young Turks
• Alex Calder – “Strange Dreams”
• from Strange Dreams on Captured Tracks
• Amen Dunes – “Song To The Siren”
• from Cowboy Worship EP on Sacred Bones
• BC Camplight – “Just Because I Love You”
• from How to Die in the North on Bella Union
• Belle and Sebastian – “Nobody's Empire”
• from Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance on Matador
• Boxed In – “Mystery”
• from Boxed In on Nettwerk Music Group
• Cerrone – “Love In C Minor (Dimitri From Paris Remix)”
• from The Best of Cerrone Productions on Because
• Cloakroom – “Lossed Over”
• from Further Out on Run for Cover
• The Decemberists – “Make You Better”
• from What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World on Capitol
• Disappears – “Another Thought”
• from Irreal on Kranky
• Elephant Micah – “By the Canal”
• from Where in Our Woods on Western Vinyl
• Erase Errata – “History of Handclaps”
• from Lost Weekend on Under the Sun/Revolver
• Etienne de Crécy – “You (with Madeline Follin)”
• from Super Discount, Vol. 3 on Pixadelic
• Franz Nicolay – “To Us, The Beautiful!”
• from To Us, the Beautiful! on Xtra Mile Recordings
• The Go-Betweens – “Cattle And Cane”
• from G Stands for Go-Betweens, Vol. 1 on Domino
• Hanni El Khatib – “Moonlight”
• from Moonlight on Innovative Leisure
• Jack Name – “Running After Ganymede”
• from Weird Moons on Castle Face
• Jellyfish – “The King Is Half-Undressed”
• from Bellybutton [Deluxe Edition] reissue on Virgin EMI
• Jellyfish – “New Mistake”
• from Spilt Milk [Deluxe Edition] reissue on Omnivore
• Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – “Sundry”
• from Euclid on Western Vinyl
• Ledisi – “Rock With You”
• from The Intimate Truth EP on Verve
• Marilyn Manson – “Deep Six”
• from The Pale Emperor on Loma Vista Recordings
• Menace Beach – “Tastes Like Medicine”
• from Ratworld on Memphis Industries
• Mind Brains – “Body Horror”
• from Mind Brains on Orange Twin
• Perfect Pussy – “I”
• from I Have Lost All Desire for Feeling on Captured Tracks
• Pop. 1280 – “Krankenschwester”
• from "Penetrate" b/w "Krankenschwester" 7" on Sacred Bones
• Raised Fist – “Flow”
• from From the North on Epitaph
• Sick Feeling – “Liberal Arts”
• from Suburban Myth on Collect/Terrible
• The Sidekicks – “Deer”
• from Runners in the Nerved World on Epitaph
• Siskiyou – “Deserter”
• from Nervous on Constellation
• Sleater-Kinney – “Surface Envy”
• from No Cities to Love on Sub Pop
• Until the Ribbon Breaks – “Revolution Indifference (feat. Run The Jewels)”
• from A Lesson Unlearnt on 1405
• Universal Togetherness Band – “More Than Enough”
• from Universal Togetherness Band on Numero
• Viet Cong – “Continental Shelf”
• from Viet Cong on Jagjaguwar
• The Waterboys – “November Tale”
• from Modern Blues on Kobalt
• Willie Nile – “Let Me Be The River”
• from If I Was a River on River House Records
• Wu-Block – “Wu Block Biznez”
• from Hidden Gems on Nature Sounds