Last week, we got the seventh solo album from Conor Oberst. This week, we've got a box set from his old project, Bright Eyes. You get six remastered, reissued vinyl copies of Fevers and Mirrors (2000), LIFTED or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (2002), I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005), Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (2005), Cassadaga (2007), and a bonus, The People’s Key (2011). Oberst fans will have plenty to listen to this fall.
Other highlights this week include the long-awaited LP from Swedish duo The Radio Dept., their first in six years. KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes it as a "potent set of brooding, politically charged electro-pop with moody synths, atmospheric guitars, gently propulsive rhythms, gauzy vocals, wistful melodies and barbed lyrics attacking racism, police brutality and the thriving Swedish gun industry." If you think six years is a long time, we've also got a new album from American Football, their first in seventeen years. A project of Illinois-bred Mike Kinsilla (Cap'n Jazz, Owls, Joan Of Arc, Owen, etc.), the LP is "a fine set of moody, emotive rock with dreamy interlocking guitar lines, occasional electric piano and trumpet, intricate rhythms and melancholy lyrics."
Making their debut is Savoy Motel, featuring members of Cheap Time and Heavy Cream. Yates calls the album, "a potent blend of '70s boogie-rock, slinky glam and gritty funk-rock with distorted wah wah guitars and falsetto vocals." The Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson shares his third solo album, "a fine set of mostly dark folk-rock combining a spare sound with smartly crafted lyrics revolving around community, his native Winnipeg and addictions both personal and societal." And, finally, this week sees the release of the fourteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, a meditation on life and death.
Agnes Obel - "Grasshopper"
from Citizen of Glass on PIAS
American Football - "Desire Gets in the Way"
from American Football on Polyvinyl
Bette Midler - "Friends"
from The Divine Miss M reissue on Atlantic / Rhino
The Blind Shake - "Broken Racehorse"
from Celebrate Your Worth on Goner Records
Bright Eyes - "At the Bottom of Everything"
from The Studio Albums 2000-2011 on Loud-N-Proud Records / Saddle Creek Records
The Courteeners - "No One Will Ever Replace Us"
from Mapping the Rendezvous on Ignition
Crocodiles - "Telepathic Lover"
from Dreamless on Zoo Music
David Crosby - "Things We Do For Love"
from Lighthouse on Groundup Music / Verve
Dr. John
from The Musical Mojo of Dr. John: Celebrating Mac & His Music on Concord
Dusky - "Runny Nose"
from Outer on Polydor
Frankie Valli - "The Christmas Song"
from 'Tis the Seasons on Rhino
Hooton Tennis Club - "Katy-Anne Bellis"
from Big Box of Chocolates on Heavenly
Jacuzzi Boys - "Boys Like Blood"
from Ping Pong on Mag Mag
Jane's Addiction - "Up the Beach"
from Sterling Spoon box set on Rhino
Jimmy Eat World - "Let It Happen"
from Integrity Blues on Dine Alone
Joan As Police Woman & Benjamin Lazar Davis - "Magic Lamp"
from Let It Be You on Reveal
John K. Samson - "Postdoc Blues"
from Winter Wheat on Anti
Jubilee - "Spring Break"
from After Hours on Mixpak
Kadhja Bonet - "Honeycomb"
from The Visitor on Fat Possum
Kelly Lee Owens - "CBM"
from Oleic on Smalltown Supersound
Korn - "Insane (Chopped & Screwed)"
from The Serenity of Suffering on Roadrunner Records / WEA
Lady Gaga - "A-YO"
from Joanne on Interscope / Polydor
Leonard Cohen - "You Want It Darker"
from You Want It Darker on Columbia / Sony Music
Michael Bublé - "Nobody But Me"
from Nobody But Me on Reprise / Warner Bros.
Nico Muhly / Teitur - "Describe You"
from Confessions on Nonesuch
NxWorries (w/ Anderson Paak & Knxwledge) - "Get Bigger"
from Yes Lawd! on Stones Throw
The Pattern Forms - "Man And Machine"
from Peel Away the Ivy on Ghost Box
Piers Faccini - "Cloak Of Blue"
from I Dreamed an Island on Beating Drum / Six Degrees
Planes Mistaken For Stars - "Fucking Tenderness"
from Prey on Deathwish
Pretenders - "Holy Commotion"
from Alone on BMG
The Pretty Reckless - "Take Me Down"
from Who You Selling For on Razor & Tie / Virgin EMI
The Radio Dept. - "We Got Game"
from Running Out of Love on Labrador
Roy Montgomery - "If and Only If"
from R M H Q: Headquarters on Grapefruit
Saint Motel - "Move"
from Saintmotelevision on Atlantic / Elektra
Sarah McLachlan - "Winter Wonderland"
from Wonderland on Verve
Savoy Motel - "Sorry People"
from Savoy Motel on What's Yr Rupture?
St. Lenox - "Conspiracy Theories"
from Ten Hymns from My American Gothic on Anyway
Sun Angle - "Drink the Moon"
from Skullflower on XRAY
Syd Arthur - "Apricity"
from Apricity on Harvest
Tanya Tagaq - "Centre"
from Retribution on Six Shooter
Tim Buckley - "Lady, Give Me Your Key"
from Lady, Give Me Your Key: The Unissued 1967 Solo Acoustic Sessions on Future Days / Light in the Attic
It may be Halloween, but this week's batch of new releases is pretty heavy on the Christmas theme, with collections out from She & Him, Jennifer Nettles, Kacey Musgraves, and Neil Diamond. I'm sure there will be more to come. For non-holiday albums, KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the lates…
Veteran LA-based artist Moby debuts his new project, Moby & The Void Pacific Choir, and KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes their first LP is "a potent set of noisy, goth-tinged post-punk with loud, distorted synths, rumbling guitars, pounding industrial rhythms, dour vocals, soaring song hooks…
