Out This Week 1/29

2013 continues to bolt out of the gate with another solid week of new releases. With the long awaited followup to their well-received 2009 debut, Local Natives top our list of must-buys. Hummingbird finds the Silver Lake, Los Angeles, group pushing into new territories of song structure, challenging listeners while still enticing them the same rich harmonies that made them an initial success. Another anticipated followup out this week is the seventh studio album by Canadian twins Tegan & Sara, whose Heartthrob is an well-produced, achingly romantic collection of indie pop. Philadelphia’s Bleeding Rainbow (formerly known as Reading Rainbow) has expanded their roster and their sound on their new and third album. Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls Yeah Right “an impressive blend of shoegazerish psych-rock and dream-pop, with noisy, squalling psych guitars, airy male/female harmonies and sugary pop melodies.” And after trimming down his project, New Zealand expatriate Ryan McPhun carries on as The Ruby Suns, with “a cleaner and brighter along with more synth- and dance-oriented take on the band’s tropical-flavored indie pop.”

Other new releases from artists you’ll hear on KEXP, come from Adam Green & Binki Shapiro, he of Moldy Peaches and she of Little Joy, whose debut together is an “expertly crafted set of ’60s-inspired folk-pop duets, smoothly combining a variety of colorful instrumentation with the duo’s plaintive vocals and lyrics that range from wry and bittersweet to acidic”; Australian artist Jarrod Quarrell, whose new solo project Lost Animal debuts with “a promising set of moody indie-pop combining icy synths, piano, xylophone, atmospheric guitars and occasional tropical touches (including marimba and steel drum sounds) with bouncy rhythms, sneering vocals and dark lyrics”; Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile who through his own side project, Ducktails, is releasing a fourth album blending “jangly guitars, twinkling keyboards, occasional sax, gentle rhythms, understated vocals and wistful pop melodies”; and Copenhagen-based artist Soren Lokke Juul, whose debut as Indians, “is a fine set of ethereal twee-pop with a hazy sound combining atmospheric synths and guitars with delicate lead vocals, multi-tracked vocal harmonies and twinkling pop melodies.”

Also, Seattle band St. Paul de Vence officially releases their debut full-length, “an often-stirring set of campfire folk-pop that’s reminiscent at times of a more French-influenced The Head and The Heart,” and the Spanish loving duo of Amor de Días, a.k.a. Clientele frontman Alasdair MacLean and his songwriting partner Lupe Núñez-Fernández (of the duo Pipas), are releasing their second LP, which they happened to premiere on the KEXP blog last week! Check out all of these, as well as the expanded 3-CD edition of Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours, in record stores today.