New Release Round-Up 06-09-23
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit - Weathervanes - Southeastern Records
A Jason Isbell record always lands like a decoder ring in the ears and hearts of his audience, a soundtrack to his world and magically to theirs, too. Weathervanes carries the same revelatory power. This is a storyteller at the peak of his craft, observing his fellow wanderers, looking inside and trying to understand, reducing a universe to four minutes. He shrinks life small enough to name the fear and then strip it away, helping his listeners make sense of how two plus two stops equaling four once you reach a certain age -- and carry a certain amount of scars. “There is something about boundaries on this record,” Isbell says. “As you mature, you still attempt to keep the ability to love somebody fully and completely while you’re growing into an adult and learning how to love yourself.” Weathervanes is a collection of grown-up songs: Songs about adult love, about change, about the danger of nostalgia and the interrogation of myths, about cruelty and regret and redemption. Life and death songs played for and by grown ass people. Some will make you cry alone in your car and others will make you sing along with thousands of strangers in a big summer pavilion, united in the great miracle of being alive. The record features the rolling thunder of Isbell’s fearsome 400 Unit, who’ve earned a place in the rock ‘n’ roll cosmos alongside the greatest backing ensembles, as powerful and essential to the storytelling as The E Street Band or the Wailers. They make a big noise, as Isbell puts it, and he feels so comfortable letting them be a main prism through which much of the world hears his art. He can be private but with them behind him he transforms, and there is a version of himself that can only exist in their presence. When he plays a solo show, he is in charge of the entire complicated juggle. On stage with the 400 Unit, he can be a guitar hero when he wants, and a conductor when he wants, and a smiling fan of the majesty of his bandmates when he wants to hang back and listen to the sound.
Niall Horan - The Show - Capitol
Niall Horan's `The Show' - his third solo album and first since 2020's chart-topping `Heartbreak Weather' - will be released on June 9, 2023. Preceded by its lead single "Heaven," the album matches the pure emotion of his globally beloved past work with a powerful new element of soul-searching reflection. Each vinyl copy of `The Show' includes a randomly selected print of a letter handwritten by Niall about a song from the album.
Jenny Lewis - Joy'All - Blue Note Records
Jenny Lewis’ fifth solo album, Joy'All arrives June 9th. Joy’All finds the singer-songwriter embarking on a new era, in a new town – and on a new label, as she joins the iconic roster of Blue Note/Capitol Records. While Joy’All pulls from a bounty of sonic inspiration – from classic soul to ‘90s R&B, as well as country and classic singer-songwriter records – the album’s rich, intimate and warm live sound is the hallmark of eight-time GRAMMY-winning producer Dave Cobb. Recorded at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, Joy’All includes new single “Psychos” and the previously released single “Puppy and a Truck.”
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Milky Chance - Living In A Haze [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Ocean Blue LP]
Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors - Strangers No More
Janelle Monae - The Age of Pleasure
Christine And The Queens - PARANOĎA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE
Freddie Gibbs - $oul $old $eparately [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Neon Yellow LP + Flexi Disc]
Ultra Q - My Guardian Angel
Dream Wife - Social Lubrication [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Deluxe Red & Black LP]
Squid - O Monolith
Youth Lagoon - Heaven Is A Junkyard
King Krule - Space Heavy [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Clear LP]
TEKE::TEKE - Hagata
My Morning Jacket - MMJ Live Vol. 3: Bonnaroo 2004 [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Thunderdome (Cloudy & Clear) 2LP]
Jess Williamson - Time Ain't Accidental [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition Hot Pink LP]
Tears For Fears - The Hurting [Half-Speed LP]
Extreme - Six
Oceans Ate Alaska - Disparity
James - Be Opened By The Wonderful [Indie Exclusive Limited Edition White 2 LP]
Rob Grant - Lost At Sea
& More .....
UPCOMING RELEASES
Queens Of The Stone Age - In Times New Roman... - Matador
‘In Times New Roman...’, the 8th studio album from Queens Of The Stone Age is raw, brutal & rough around the edges but with a refinement that reveals itself further with each successive listen — and QOTSA founder Joshua Homme’s lyrics are as witty and withering than ever. The results are instantly identifiable; QOTSA’s sonic signature, expanded and embellished with new and unprecedented twists in virtually every song, a live in-a-room recording that showcases a band at the height of their creative powers. ‘In Times New Roman...’ is a party for the obscene and the clean, the outcasts and the weirdos, and anyone and everyone in between. One of the most important bands in recent rock history is B A C K but it’s no exaggeration to call this album a devastating rebirth."
Sammy Rae & The Friends - Chapter One - Nettwerk Records
Singer/songwriter, bandleader, and human being Samantha Bowers first began writing songs at age 12 while taking piano lessons and listening to Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Freddie Mercury playing on the family stereo. By 16, she developed a love of jazz and began to study the great female vocalists of the century (mainly Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and Sarah Vaughn). She and her eight-piece group make music that has elements of pop, soul, funk, rock and jazz and focus on themes like coming-of-age, defiance, and self-expression. Their genre blending performances are high-energy, honest and quirky, influenced by the great performances of those childhood classic rock heroes.
