Out This Week 11/15

This week’s list of new releases is full of older and newer favorites. Among those in our heavy rotation is Welsh band Los Campesinos!‘s fourth album, perhaps their most accomplished to date, and which our Music Director, Don Yates, calls “a well-crafted set of anthemic indie-pop combining bright pop hooks and boisterous sing-a-long choruses with smart, heartfelt lyrics about a relationship falling apart.” Brooklyn band Caveman, our recent guests during our live CMJ broadcast from the Ace Hotel in New York City, debuts with a terrific album full of “reverb-drenched indie pop, hazy guitars, haunting keyboards, tribal drums and warm four-part harmonies.” Another strong debut comes from Korallreven, a Swedish duo comprised of Marcus Joons and Daniel Tjäder (also of The Radio Dept.), who create “lush, dreamy, balearic-tinged electronic-pop that nestles blissful melodies, gorgeous vocals, and euphoric samples amidst waves of shimmery synths and cooly kinetic beats.” And speaking of atmospheric melodies, Icelandic band Sigur Rós is plugging the gap since announcing an “indefinite hiatus” in 2008, with a double live album packaged with a seventy-five minute film. Recorded over two nights in London, the performance features only the original four members of the band, who “still manage to create a huge, otherworldly sound for their ethereal ambient-rock on this often-breathtaking recording.”

There’s a lot more to be found in record stores this week, including the first of what will likely be the first of many more collections from the newly disbanded indie rock icons R.E.M.. The humorously titled Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage spans nearly 30 years of the the band’s prodigious output. Sisters Tegan and Sara also have a live album packaged with video out today, and actor Donald Glover (currently playing Troy Barnes on the NBC comedy series Community) has a swear-laden and frequently hysterical rap album under the Wu Tang-generated name Childish Gambino. For more swearing fun -- and plenty of gloom -- try Fuck Death from a solo project by Frog Eyes’ Carey Mercer called Blackout Beach. Carter Tanton‘s new album, which we featured a couple of weeks ago, was pushed back to finally be released today, as is the new one by labelmate Goldmund (a.k.a Keith Kenniff, a.k.a Helios). You can also pick up a new single by Churches, the new solo project of former bassist of Port O’Brien Caleb Nichols, who also recently performed live on KEXP during CMJ as the touring bassist of former POB frontman Van Pierszalowski’s new project, WATERS.

There’s a lot more to be found in record stores today, including reissues from Can and Olivia Tremor Control. Check Largehearted Boy’s list for more, and sample these fine tunes here: