Releases under the ‘preview’ Category:
JACK WHITE
Blunderbuss
Jack White’s legacy is firmly intact with The White Stripes. Now that The White Stripes have declared to the world “this is over” and that Jack White‘s solo album, Blunderbuss, is about to be release, we can’t say that The White Stripes was anything much more than a Jack White project. He was one of only two members, the other being Meg White, who is an infamously bizarre drummer and openly seemed to contribute little to the overall band’s sound outside of rudimentary timing and her red/white color counterpart. With that said, we can almost consider Blunderbuss to be a more stripped down White Stripes record.
ARTIST: Jack White
TITLE: Blunderbuss
LABEL: Columbia / Third Man
RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2012
TIME: 41:58 min.
WEB: http://jackwhiteiii.com/
01. Missing Pieces [03:28]
02. Sixteen Saltines [02:37]
03. Freedom at 21 [02:52]
04. Love Interruption [02:38]
05. Blunderbuss [03:07]
06. Hypocritical Kiss [02:50]
07. Wep Themselves to Sleep [04:19]
08. I’m Shakin’ [03:00]
09. Trash Tongue Talker [03:20]
10. Hip (eponymous) Poor Boy [03:04]
11. I Guess I Should Go to Sleep [02:37]
12. On and On and On [03:56]
13. Take Me with You When You Go [04:10]
Jack White – Love Interruption
get it here.
COUNTING CROWS
Underwater Sunshine (or what we did on our summer vacation)
Underwater Sunshine is a testament of a band geek-obsessed with music. Produced by Counting Crows and Shawn Dealey, it features tracks written by artists such as Big Star, Gram Parsons, Tender Mercies, Kasey Anderson, Teenage Fanclub and The Faces: each rendition offers an entire spectrum of human emotion, delivered with the conviction and intense honesty the band is known for. As their first independent release, it was the right time for the Crows to make this album: they wanted to do it, and they have the creative freedom to do it.
ARTIST: Counting Crows
TITLE: Underwater Sunshine (or what we did on our summer vacation)
LABEL: Collective Sounds
RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2012
TIME: 61:30 min.
WEB: http://www.countingcrows.com/
01. Untitled (love song) [05:06]
02. Start Again [03:33]
03. Hospital [03:09]
04. Mercy [03:31]
05. Meet on the Ledge [03:36]
06. Like Teenage Gravity [05:11]
07. Amie [04:34]
08. Coming Around [02:59]
09. Ooh La La [04:37]
10. All My Failures [04:38]
11. Return of the Grievous Angel [04:23]
12. Four White Stallions [04:01]
13. Jumping Jesus [03:04]
14. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere [04:19]
15. The Ballad of El Godo [04:49]
get it here.
SIGUR RÓS
Valtari
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as heard on radiospin on April 17th, 2012
under album, experimental, post-rock, preview, recommended
In English Valtari translates as “steamroller” and there is something right about the title in terms of the process of its creation. The last three tracks of Valtari are like one long slow gorgeous fade out, as the listener, having been softened up by the slightly more “song-y” start to the album, is left with the subtly shifting, deep introspective beauty of the last 24 minutes. After that, penultimate track, Valtari is like the far heart of the album: eight minutes that feel like being alone in row boat on a chill day. Together with Sigur Rós, of course.
ARTIST: Sigur Rós
TITLE: Valtari
LABEL: XL
RELEASE DATE: May 29, 2012
TIME: 54:28 min.
WEB: http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/
01. Ég Anda [06:15]
02. Ekki Múkk [07:44]
03. Varúð [06:37]
04. Rembihnútur [05:05]
05. Dauðalogn [06:37]
06. Varðeldur [06:01]
07. Valtari [08:19]
08. Fjögur Píanó [07:50]
get it here.
SPIRITUALIZED
Sweet Heart, Sweet Light
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as heard on radiospin on April 16th, 2012
under album, experimental, indie, pop, preview, rock
Over the course of 25 years of making music with Spacemen 3 and later Spiritualized, Jason Pierce (a.k.a. J. Spaceman) has set a sonic template from which he’s never really deviated. Spiritualized albums somehow seem to stand apart from the pop landscape, clad in stone. Pierce’s inimitable brand of psychedelic space-rock is at once minimalist and unashamedly dense, simple structures fuel-injected with reverb-laden guitars, flights of strings and booming choirs. His lyrical preoccupations also orbit around a relatively set core of themes: death, life and the astral middle ground between spirituality and religion, all suffused with bucketloads of redemptive rock‘n’roll. And that’s again for this brand new Sweet Heart, Sweet Light: a Spiritualized album, nothing more. Simply another great one.
ARTIST: Spiritualized
TITLE: Sweet Heart, Sweet Light
LABEL: Fat Possum
RELEASE DATE: April 17, 2012
TIME: 59:45 min.
WEB: http://www.spiritualized.com/
01. Huh? (intro) [01:01]
02. Hey Jane [08:52]
03. Little Girl [03:40]
04. Get What You Deserve [06:47]
05. Too Late [03:45]
06. Headin’ for the Top Now [08:23]
07. Freedom [04:23]
08. I Am What I Am [04:38]
09. Mary [06:12]
10. Life is a Problem [04:03]
11. So Long You Pretty Thing [07:52]
get it here.
MOTOR
Man Made Machine
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as heard on radiospin on April 13th, 2012
under album, electronic, new wave, preview, recommended
Motor has released a new album called Man Made Machine. Aside from last year’s single of the same name, Man Made Machine will be the first release on CLRX, a new subsidiary of Chris Liebing‘s techno label, CLR. Much like Motor‘s past releases, it has a heavy industrial and synth pop influence, helped in no small part by its vocal appearances: Gary Numan and Depeche Mode member Martin L. Gore both guest on the album, as does German pop singer Billie Ray Martin.
ARTIST: Motor
TITLE: Man Made Machine
LABEL: CLRX
RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2012
TIME: 41:29 min.
WEB: http://www.clr.net/
01. Messed Up [03:31]
02. Hyper Lust [02:48]
03. Man Made Machine [04:32]
04. Control [04:10]
05. Pleasure in Heaven [03:16]
06. Automne [04:33]
07. Autographic [02:47]
08. The Knife [03:11]
09. Hello [03:51]
10. In the Dark [03:37]
11. Between the Night [05:13]
get it here.
WHITE JACKET
Hollows and Rounds
White Jacket is led by former Apples in Stereo keyboardist, Chris McDuffie. Hollows and Rounds is his first solo album: a big slice of power pop and contemporary indie rock, with a dash of 70s psychedelia that would make The Beatles form The Yellow Submarine era smile.
ARTIST: White Jacket
TITLE: Hollows and Rounds
LABEL: Whitejacket
RELEASE DATE: April 3, 2012
TIME: 35:14 min.
WEB: http://www.whitejacketmusic.com/
01. Versus Angel [02:53]
02. Those Are Pearls [01:35]
03. The Modern [02:55]
04. Walkin’ Blues [02:48]
05. Single Seagulls [02:14]
06. River’s Song [02:26]
07. Medinah [03:35]
08. Dregs [01:59]
09. Easy Now [03:05]
10. Inside Out [03:21]
11. Sangfroid [02:58]
12. Missing [01:38]
13. Like It Warm [03:50]
get it here.
LOWER DENS
Nootropics
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as heard on radiospin on April 11th, 2012
under album, experimental, indie, new wave, preview
Nootropics is the second album by the Baltimora-based laid back melody surrealists Lower Dens. The lead singer Jana Hunter‘s vocals are really the centerpiece of this album: she has this earthy alto voice that sounds dark and burdened, exuding the qualities and characteristics that suggest an unfulfilled desire to be set free. What this does is it takes the listener on a dimly lit musical journey, leading to a subtly impactful apex.
ARTIST: Lower Dens
TITLE: Nootropics
LABEL: Ribbon
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2012
TIME: 50:25 min.
WEB: http://lowerdens.com/
01. Alphabet Song [05:28]
02. Brains [05:08]
03. Stem [02:07]
04. Propagation [05:00]
05. Lamb [03:43]
06. Candy [03:20]
07. Lion in Winter (pt.1) [04:16]
08. Lion in Winter (pt.2) [03:37]
09. Nova Anthem [05:28]
10. The End Is the Beginning [12:18]
get it here.
DRINK TO ME
S
No Comments
as heard on radiospin on April 10th, 2012
under album, electronic, experimental, indie, preview, recommended, rock
Second album for the Italian indie-combo Drink to Me: S is the follow-up of the critically acclaimed Brazil. With this release the trio changes suddenly its direction, leaving the noisy solutions that were a trademark of their debut and introducing massive doses of synths and hard electronics. Dancy melodies over a lo-fi substrate mixed with the beating warmth of the classical rock-instrumentations: half Liars and half Klaxons. What else?
ARTIST: Drink to Me
TITLE: S
LABEL: Unhip
RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2012
TIME: 37:23 min.
WEB: http://www.drinktome.net/
01. Henry Miller [05:15]
02. The Elevator [03:27]
03. Picture of the Sun [03:45]
04. Future Days [03:42]
05. Space [03:28]
06. Dig a Hole with a Needle [04:02]
07. L.A. 13 (pt.1) [03:26]
08. L.A. 13 (pt.2) [01:48]
09. Disaster Area [03:39]
10. Airport Song [04:51]
get it here.
THE FUTURHEADS
Rant
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as heard on radiospin on April 6th, 2012
under album, cover, experimental, indie, pop, preview
Long gone are the days when record labels would bow to their artistes’ every whim. At a time when, more than ever, music=sales=money, artistic egos are worth zilch, and concept albums are worth even less. So who on earth agreed to let The Futureheads release an a cappella album? An idea that sprang from a Radio 1 Live Lounge session, which saw them attempt, with schoolboy clever dick humour, an instrument-free version of Kelis‘s Acapella, was somehow allowed to flourish into an entire album. A silly, novelty album that no one’s going to listen to, right? Not quite. Those who are gunning to dismiss Rant as a novelty record will, at first glance, have plenty of ammunition: the covers, the boring re-workings of their own songs, and the fact that at times it sounds part barbershop quartet and part football crowd. But it’s far from self-indulgent: their song choices and clever arrangements make Rant a real, if unexpected, delight.
ARTIST: The Futurheads
TITLE: Rant
LABEL: Nul
RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2012
TIME: 34:04 min.
WEB: http://www.thefutureheads.co.uk/
01. Meantime [03:17]
02. Meet Me Halfway [03:05]
03. Robot [02:01]
04. Beeswing [04:16]
05. Thursday [04:11]
06. Summer Is Icumen In [01:52]
07. The Keeper [01:40]
08. The No.1 Song in Heaven [04:26]
09. The Old Dun Cow [02:53]
10. Acapella [02:28]
11. Man Ray [04:02]
The Futurheads – Meet Me Halfway
get it here.
ORBITAL
Wonky
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as heard on radiospin on April 5th, 2012
under album, dance, electronic, experimental, preview, recommended
First new album in eight years from the undefeated champions of British electronic music. Recently reunited following a long sabbatical, Paul and Phil Hartnoll are back on fighting-fit form and ready to reclaim their title as lightheaded lords of the dance arena. Both timeless and contemporary, heartwarming and exhilarating, Wonky puts a vividly modern spin on their signature blend of richly melodic, deeply emotive Electronica. Confident, energized and eclectic, Wonky already sounds like the duo’s finest release to date: most of the gleaming, whooshing, shimmering tracks on this album will instantly tap into the warm-blooded rush and restless bounce of classic Orbital.
ARTIST: Orbital
TITLE: Wonky
LABEL: PID
RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2012
TIME: 50:43 min.
WEB: http://orbitalofficial.com/
01. One Big Moment [06:17]
02. Straight Sun [05:29]
03. Never [04:44]
04. New France [04:48]
05. Distractions [07:05]
06. Stringy Acid [05:20]
07. Beelzedub [04:55]
08. Wonky [06:14]
09. Where Is It Going? [05:51]
get it here.
GIARDINI DI MIRÒ
Good Luck
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as heard on radiospin on April 4th, 2012
under album, electronic, indie, post-rock, preview, recommended, rock
Five years of silence lead us to Good Luck, 4th (5th, if we want to consider also Il Fuoco, sonorization of the 1915′s homonymous film by Giovanni Pastrone) album by Italian post-rockers Giardini di Mirò. For this album the band returns to the original line-up of the first one Rise and Fall of Academic Drifting (2001). In ten years Giardini di Mirò have been able to get out of the label of “Italian Mogwai”, carrying on an idea of sound that in time has become a trademark. Good Luck is heading to be a cross-eyed album, made of songs apparently disconnected one from another. But in the end the beauty and the strength of this release is that: shuffling the cards, alternate moments of solid and classic post-rock to more liquid and soft parts. Good Luck is geometry, not mathematics, and melody is always the center (as a proof of that, the presence of Devics‘ Sara Love as guest vocals on the ethereal This Is the Place). Welcome again.
ARTIST: Giardini di Mirò
TITLE: Good Luck
LABEL: Santeria / Audioglobe
RELEASE DATE: March 23, 2012
TIME: 38:54 min.
WEB: http://www.giardinidimiro.com/
01. Memories [02:36]
02. Spurious Love [05:06]
03. Ride [04:01]
04. There Is a Place [03:35]
05. Good Luck [04:21]
06. Rome [06:33]
07. Time On Time [05:49]
08. Flat Heart Society [06:53]
get it here.
LADYHAWKE
Anxiety
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as heard on radiospin on April 3rd, 2012
under album, electronic, indie, pop, preview, recommended, remix, rock
One of the brightest stars to light up the pop firmament this millennium is back. Thanks to her brilliant self-titled 2008 debut, Ladyhawke (a.k.a. Pip Brown), shot to stardom around the world. Her follow-up will surely even exceed those achievements, and establish the wildly talented young tunesmith as one of her generation’s most beloved pop heroines. Eighteen months in the making, Anxiety carries ten instant classics, each brimming over with irresistable hooks, fresh beats and ear-grabbing synth sounds.
ARTIST: Ladyhawke
TITLE: Anxiety
LABEL: Island
RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2012
TIME: 36:10 min.
WEB: http://www.ladyhawkemusic.com/
01. Girl Like Me [02:56]
02. Sunday Drive [04:05]
03. Black, White & Blue [03:55]
04. Vaccine [03:34]
05. Blue Eyes [03:17]
06. Vanity [03:01]
07. The Quick & the Dead [03:49]
08. Anxiety [03:24]
09. Cellophane [04:15]
10. Gone Gone Gone [03:54]
Ladyhawke – Black, White & Blue (treasure fingers remix)
get it here.
TANLINES
Mixed Emotions
Mixed Emotions is the debut album from Brooklyn’s Tanlines, the duo of Eric Emm (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Jesse Cohen (drums, keyboards, bass). Initially a production project, Tanlines have evolved through two acclaimed EPs into a deeply personal, electronic pop group. The album was recorded in a series of locations after the band were evicted from their own studio, which in turn pushed Emm to focus on his lyrics and songwriting: in the process, he discovered a beautiful baritone vocal style. The lyrics poured out of him, and their maturity and honesty form the core of this release.
ARTIST: Tanlines
TITLE: Mixed Emotions
LABEL: True Panther Sounds
RELEASE DATE: March 20, 2012
TIME: 39:26 min.
WEB: http://tanlinesinternet.com/
01. Brothers [04:13]
02. All of Me [03:55]
03. Green Grass [03:28]
04. Abby [03:36]
05. Yes Way [03:08]
06. Not the Same [04:34]
07. Lost Somewhere [03:32]
08. Real Life [04:44]
09. Rain Delay [03:36]
10. Cactus [03:40]
11. Nonesuch [03:31]
get it here.
ELIAS
Fossils
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as heard on radiospin on March 31st, 2012
under album, indie, preview, RBR, recommended, rock, submitted
Vancouver-based trio Elias, made by Brian Healy (keyboards, lead vocals), Rob Tornroos (guitar, backing vocals) and Stefan Tavares (drums), release their brand new album Fossils, on Wax Records. On Fossils, the band’s sound covers a lot of ground, moving from dark to light, from moody to anthemic, from rock hardness to melody sweetness, without resulting foregone. After a lengthy search, Jeff Dawson (Marcy Playground, Hey Ocean!) was brought onboard to produce the record and Grammy winner John O’Mahony (Coldplay, Metric) accepted to mix the sounds. Their dedication to the project was glue that allowed for the record’s emotional momentum to carry forward.
ARTIST: Elias
TITLE: Fossils
LABEL: Wax
RELEASE DATE: February 14, 2012
TIME: 44:18 min.
WEB: http://www.eliasband.com/
01. Fossils [05:00]
02. Enough [04:06]
03. Knockdown Dance [04:00]
04. Tunnel Lights [05:07]
05. Hands and Knees [04:25]
06. Lake Louise [04:49]
07. Rising Tide [03:37]
08. Catapults [04:43]
09. Glass [04:58]
10. Hold the Line [03:33]
removed by request
CHROMATICS
Kill For Love
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as heard on radiospin on March 30th, 2012
under album, electronic, indie, pop, preview, recommended
The new Chromatics album, Kill for Love, was just released on iTunes: surprisingly they were not able to find a label. Now, two months later, everything goes in its right place, and Kill For Love sees the light physically thanks to Italians Do It Better. This is the first album since 2007′s Night Drive from this dark-dance-pop aesthetes and it’s filled with mystery, intrigue and several interesting twists and turns.
ARTIST: Chromatics
TITLE: Kill for Love
LABEL: Italians Do It Better
RELEASE DATE: January 24, 2012
TIME: 1:32:04 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/chromatics
01. Into the Black [05:23]
02. Kill for Love [03:58]
03. Back from the Grave [03:43]
04. The Page [03:36]
05. Lady [05:08]
06. These Streets Will Never Look the Same [08:37]
07. Broken Mirrors [07:04]
08. Candy [02:30]
09. The Eleventh Hour [03:28]
10. Running From the Sun [07:07]
11. Dust to Dust [02:41]
12. Birds of Paradise [04:26]
13. A Matter of Time [05:06]
14. At Your Door [03:53]
15. There’s A Light Out On the Horizon [04:44]
16. The River [06:09]
17. No Escape [14:01]
Chromatics – Back from the Grave
get it here.