Out This Week 4/13

All systems are go on perhaps the biggest album out this week: MGMT‘s sophomore effort, Congratulations, on which the Brooklyn band veers away from creating dancey pop singles to more experimental, spacey territory. Produced by space rock pioneer Peter Kember, formerly of Spacemen 3, the new album is hardly a psychedelic drone-fest. As the album cover pictured above suggests, it’s a whole lot of weird wacky fun.

And if you’re looking for more of that, check out Rafter‘s latest LP, Animal Feelings, a kaleidoscopic pop culture romp that blends electronics and live instruments into clever jams. Dosh, another acoustic/electronic hybridizer, skips most of the goofs but is no less quirky on his latest, Tommy, which features guest vocals from his occasional collaborator Andrew Bird, among others. In a more serious effort, Iceland’s Jóhann Jóhannsson composes a masterful work of electronica meets orchestra in his new album, & In the Endless Pause There Came Sound of Bees. And if you want more electronic sounds, be sure to pick up Ghostly International‘s two-part collection Horizon Line / Ghostly By Night, which gathers ten remixes and reinterpretations of Ghostly classics on one disc, and ten new, forthcoming, and unreleased songs, on the other.

If you’d rather pop of a more acoustic bent, you can finally pick up the official label release of Freelance Whales‘ Weathervanes, which has seen serious airplay on KEXP over the last few months (and the band recently performed during KEXP’s broadcast from SXSW). Other great new releases, with even more folky leanings, include the latest from the Vermont-raised Sam Amidon, Sweden’s The Tallest Man on Earth, Portland’s Nick Jaina, and Jesse Marchant, aka JBM, whose debut will likely appeal to fans of Justin Vernon’s atmospheric, acoustic indie folk with Bon Iver.

But if it’s something more punishing you want, try the latest from Canadian metal brokers Cancer Bats, who do a riffing take on Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” or Heliocentric from the Swiss band The Ocean. Or maybe if hip-hop is your thing, the Murs & 9th Wonder collaboration ForNever, or if blues punk, the Legendary Shack Shakers‘s new one, or all-girl Swiss 80s post-punk, the re-release of Chin-Chin‘s Sound Of The Westway. No matter which way fly, there’s plenty landing on record store shelves this week... and don’t forget that this Saturday is Record Store Day! Look for soon-to-be hard to find exclusives as you support one of the last pleasures of a pre-digital world.