It’s a fantastic week for music lovers. You’ll find no less than five of the albums released today in KEXP’s heavy rotation plus an assortment of other great albums you’re likely to hear frequently on our airwaves. Perhaps the most anticipated of that list comes from PJ Harvey, who returns with another terrifically unique album. This time, rather than looking inward as with her somber 2007 release, White Chalk, the British singer/songwriter looks out at the world formed by warfare and nationalism. Let England Shake is a highly researched but no less heartfelt meditation on the loss and pain of war, recorded once again with long-time collaborators Mick Harvey (formerly of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and John Parish. After a couple of folky albums -- solo and with collaborators -- Omaha’s Conor Oberst comes back to Bright Eyes with a much more rockin’ attitude on The People’s Key, while Athens, GA, rockers Drive-By Truckers do a quick flip to the dark side of 2010′s The Big To-Do with the band’s self-professed “R&B murder” of Go-Go Boots. More cinematic noir can found on Greg Dulli’s ambitious new album with The Twilight Singers, their first in five years. Though by comparison to the relative veterans on this list the U.K.-based band Yuck might seem like newborns, their sound taps the wellspring of mid-90s college rock, with sonic references to Dinosaur Jr., Teenage Fanclub, and others. The four-piece actually consists of only two members from England, with the other two from New Jersey and Hiroshima, and like their composition, their sound is mix of influences that should appeal to nearly all fans of good ol’ “indie rock.”
Also in record stores today, the seventh release -- and first on Sub Pop -- from the insanely good and insanely loud Scottish post-rockers Mogwai and the latest from dream pop duo Asobi Seksu. We could devote whole paragraphs more to the other new releases, including the new album from FM Cornog, who for the last 17 years has been recording under the name East River Pipe; the sophomore album by the Seattle musician who knows most recently what it was like to be a sophomore, Michael Lerner, a.k.a. Telekinesis; the debut from another young performer, Alex Schaaf, whose lo-fi folk project Yellow Ostrich has since grown into a duo; and the fifth album from Montreal collective The Dears.
Check out all of these and more in record stores today. You’ll find a solid list at Largehearted Boy and some particularly good highlights right here:
Arbouretum - Destroying to Save (MP3)
from The Gathering on Thrill Jockey
Asobi Seksu - Trails (download)
from Fluorescence on Polyvinyl Records
The Babies - Run Me Over (MP3)
from The Babies (self-released)
Beans - Mellow You Out (feat. Tunde Adebimpe) (MP3)
from End It All on Anticon
Bright Eyes - Shell Games (MP3)
from The People’s Key on Saddle Creek
The Dears - Omega Dog
from Degradation Street on Dangerbird Records
Dream Diary - El Lissitzky
from You Are the Beat on Kanine Records
Drive-By Truckers - Used To Be A Cop (download)
from Go-Go Boots on ATO Records
East River Pipe - Cold Ground (MP3)
from We Live in Rented Rooms on Merge
Eddie Spaghetti - Never Thought I Would (MP3)
from Sundowner on Bloodshot Records
Elk - Volleyball (MP3)
from Let’s Get Married on Shape Up Records
Gwyneth and Monko - Get in the Sun (MP3)
from Gwyneth and Monko (self-released)
PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder
from Let England Shake on Vagrant Records
A Hawk and a Hacksaw - Cervantine
from Cervantine on L.M. Dupli-cation
La Sera - Devils Hearts Grow Gold (MP3)
from La Sera on Hardly Art
Lifeguards (Robert pollard & Doug Gillard) - Paradise Is Not So Bad (MP3)
from Waving at the Astronauts on Serious Business Records
Lord Numb - Eileen (MP3)
from Numbskull on SVC Records
Mogwai - San Pedro (MP3)
from Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will on Sub Pop
Poor But Sexy - Hotter Than A Poptart (MP3)
from Let’s Move In Together (self-released)
Quiet Lights - No More Canyons (MP3)
from No More Canyons on Eastern Seaboard/Old Flame Records
The Five O’Clock Heroes - Rough Boys
from Different Times on Glaze Records
Snowblink - Ambergris (MP3)
from Long Live on Fire Records
Snow Caps - Moonbroken Heart (MP3)
from Moonbreak on Edible Onion
Shugo Tokumaru - Lahaha (MP3)
from Port Entropy on Polyvinyl Records
Skull Defekts - Fragrant Nimbus (MP3)
from Peer Amid on Thrill Jockey
Sonic Youth - Soundtrack
to Simon Werner a Disparu on Sonic Youth / Syr
Stockholm Syndrome - Apollo (MP3)
from Apollo on Response Records
Telekinesis - Car Crash (MP3)
from 12 Desperate Straight Lines on Merge
Tristen - Eager for Your Love (MP3)
from Charlatans At The Garden Gate on American Myth Recordings
The Twilight Singers - On the Corner (MP3)
from Dynamite Steps on Sub Pop
Wake Up Lucid - Paint Your Lips (MP3)
from Sugar (self-released)
WIN WIN - Releaserpm (feat. Lizzie Bougatsos) (MP3)
from WIN WIN on Vice Records
Yellow Ostrich - Whale (MP3)
from The Mistress on Afternoon Records
Yuck - Rubber (MP3)
from Yuck on Fat Possum
Zoey Van Goey - The Cake and Eating It (MP3)
from Propeller Versus Wings on Chemikal Underground
