Out This Week 12/6

It’s another short list of new releases this week, but there are some killer highlights that will make you rethink your Top Albums of 2011. Akron-to-Nashville duo The Black Keys seventh album hits stores this week, and it’s killer. Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls it “the band’s most vibrant, energetic and just plain rocking record.” The Roots‘ thirteenth album is a conceptual work, revealing the life and death of Redford Stephens, a semi-fictional character who recounts his life in reverse through a series of internal monologues, voiced by rappers including Phonte, Dice Raw, Bilal Oliver, Truck North and Big K.R.I.T. No doubt this album will be considered one of the greats of the year, though it may take some time for it to really sink in. Immediately accessible and loveable, Seattle’s The Head and the Heart have released an iTunes EP featuring alternate takes of favorite songs and two new songs not recorded before, and British DJ/producer Zomby follows up his recent album with “a diverse 7-song EP of electronic grooves ranging from energetic old-school jungle and breakbeat rave to darker, more subdued shades of bass music.”

Other albums worth picking up in stores (online and on the block) this week while you’re doing your holiday shopping include another iTunes Sessions EP of holiday songs performed by My Morning Jacket, a posthumous collection of unreleased songs by Amy Winehouse, a beautiful gathering of songs by Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds (recorded in his apartment), and a new project from Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo called Thee American Revolution. Also, look for rockin’ re-issues by Bitch Magnet and Rocket From The Tombs, a live album by The Cure, and vinyl box sets from The Cramps and Elvis Costello. There’s more to be found on Largehearted Boy’s list and among these fine tracks gathered for you to sample right now: