Out This Week 3/18

It's an excellent week for new releases, led by the latest from Philly-based psychrockers The War on Drugs. KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes their third album, Lost In The Dream, as "another expansive blend of psych-tinged guitars, atmospheric keyboards, occasional horns and other instrumentation, hypnotic, often-motorik rhythms, folk-rock melodies and Dylanesque vocal phrasing." They'll be LIVE on KEXP on Friday, March 28th at 1:00 PM PT.

Another highlight this week comes from Southern garage-rockers Black Lips, whose new album, Underneath The Rainbow, adds "stronger shades of blues, country and vintage rock ‘n’ roll, while continuing to sharpen their songwriting on a variety of mostly dark, hook-filled songs."Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux returns with "another excellent set of ‘90s-steeped hip hop inflected at times with reggae, samba and other styles, combining a mostly organic sound with prominent horns, flute, acoustic guitars and strings with a variety of banging beats and her slinky vocals." The second solo album from Broken Social Scene founding member Kevin Drew is a "beautifully crafted set of atmospheric indie-pop with a dreamy, easy-flowing blend of acoustic and electric guitars, ethereal synths, propulsive rhythms, intimate vocals and lyrics about sex, love and emotional intimacy."

In reissues, Merge Records presents a remaster of Richard Buckner's 1994 debut album, Bloomed, complete with bonus tracks. And Numero Group release the Unwound box set, Rat Conspiracy, which collects their albums Fake Train and New Plastic Ideas along with a third album of 7” singles, radio sessions, compilation appearances, and unreleased tracks from 1993 and 1994.