Out This Week 4/17

Let’s face it: you don’t want to be running around on Record Store Day this Saturday, trying to pick up both the latest releases and the many awesome RSD exclusives. Get out there today and pick up this week’s new releases now. Topping your list should be the new album from U.K. space rockers Spiritualized, whose seventh studio album, our Music Director, Don Yates, calls “an often-gorgeous set of epic psych-rock containing elements of soul, gospel, prog and more, with elaborately arranged songs fleshed out with distorted psych guitars, celestial organ, cinematic strings, horns, gospelized choruses and bold pop melodies.” Sweet Hearth Sweet Light comes several years after his last (2008′s Songs in A&E) and is his second since recovering from a serious illness. As with A&E, Jason Pierce spent years mixing and producing the new album but stated publicly that this time he hoped to “embrace” a more pop oriented sound. Even so, fans of his Velvety psych sound will find it spacey enough to turn on, tune in, and drop out!

Other must-haves this week include the long-awaited full-length debut from Seattle’s Absolute Monarchs, featuring My Goodness’ Joel Schneider and “a ferocious, riff-heavy blend of aggressive post-punk, Fugazi post-hardcore and noisy indie-rock, with dual heavy, angular guitars, pummeling rhythms, bellowing lead vocals and sharp, often surprisingly melodic, song hooks;” the followup to a strong 2011 mixtape by Philly rapper/producer Lushlife, whose Plateau Vision is an “excellent album of gritty yet expansive hip hop combining a classic ‘90s New York rap sensibility with hazy, psych-influenced production that creatively samples from the worlds of indie-rock, psych-pop, classical and more”; and the re-release of Oklahoma singer JD McPherson‘s impressive debut of “old-school jump blues and ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll, with a raw, vibrant sound combining vintage electric guitar, rollicking piano, energetic horn riffs, jumping rhythms and powerful, grainy vocals.” For more of JD’s amazing sound, check out his recent performance live on KEXP during our SXSW broadcast.

Other new releases you’ll want to pick up this week, include the second album from Chicago’s Maps & Atlases, which combines a more pop-oriented approach and “a catchy blend of African-influenced guitar lines, percolating tropical rhythms, impressive harmonies and sunny pop melodies”; a second album also from Spencer Krug’s Moonface, on which he teams up with the Finnish prog-rock band Siinai to create “a suitably dark, expansive and hypnotic sound to accompany Krug’s jittery vocals, melancholy lyrics and lush pop melodies”; and the latest album from Sidi Toure, who blends “traditional Malian styles with hints of blues and rock, featuring a raw and rootsy acoustic-oriented sound with guitars, sokou (a traditional single-string African violin) and calabash.”

Also, check out the latest from Portland’s Horse Feathers, the new EP from Seattle’s post-goth youngsters Grave Babies, and the second cinematic album from Amélie soundtrack composer Yann Tiersen, plus two remix albums by Battles and Grinderman. Listen to the samples from this week’s new releases gathered here and head out to get your pre-Records Store Day shopping done now!