Music Monday (10/20): This Week's New Albums + Videos
This week's new album releases
Each title listed below will go on sale beginning Tuesday, October 21 unless otherwise indicated.
Neil Diamond
Melody Road LISTEN (NPR)
The singer-songwriter's first album of new material in six years, Melody Road is also Diamond's first release for new label Capitol Records. Don Was and Jacknife Lee produced the 12-song set.
Mark Lanegan Band
. Phantom Radio LISTEN (Stereogum)
The former Screaming Trees member and frequent Queens of the Stone Age contributor follows 2012's Blues Funeral with a not-dissimlar album (continuing the prior record's newfound electronics emphasis), again produced by Alain Johannes. The album follows this summer's release of a five-song EP, No Bells On Sunday, which will be included with deluxe CD versions of the new album.
Thurston Moore
. The Best Day LISTEN (NPR)
Since putting Sonic Youth on hold, Thurston Moore has released an album with his new group Chelsea Light Moving while also recording with the metal group Twilight. This week he moves on to his newest project, a solo-ish album with a backing band that features My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, and English guitarist James Sedwards.
Various
Master Mix: Red Hot + Arthur Russell 2xCD LISTEN (NPR)
The latest compilation benefitting the Red Hot Organization, which raises money to fight AIDS/HIV, doubles as a tribute to the late composer/musician Arthur Russell. The rosters of artists covering Russell's work (which spans genres ranging from disco to classical to experimental rock) on this 26-track set includes Hot Chip, Robyn, Blood Orange, Sufjan Stevens, Devendra Banhart, Glen Hansard, The Autumn Defense, and Scissor Sisters.
Scott Walker + Sunn O)))
. Soused
Seattle drone metal specialists Sunn O))) first approached the pop star turned avant garde singer-songwriter Scott Walker (who is now 71, by the way) to ask him to contribute to their acclaimed 2009 release Monoliths & Dimensions, though Walker declined at the time. Instead, four years later, he wrote a whole album's worth of material for them to collaborate on. The result is the five-track, 50-minute Soused.
Jessie Ware
. Tough Love LISTEN (NPR)
[US release] The British R&B singer-songwriter's 2012 debut album Devotion was one of the best albums released that year, collecting praise on both sides of the Atlantic for its sophistication and earning Ware a Mercury Prize nomination. Follow-up Tough Love finds Ware working primarily with the production duo BenZel, while also enlisting Miguel, James Ford (of Simian Mobile Disco, above), and Ed Sheeran, plus some of the producers from her debut.
Additional releases
- Amaranthe Massive Addictive
- Elisa Ambrogio The Immoralist
- Aquarian Aquarian EP
- William Arcane Reckless EP
- Bear's Den Islands LISTEN (NY Times)
- Susan Boyle Hope
- The Budos Band Burnt Offering
- Bush Man on the Run
- Can Out of Reach Reissue of 1978 album
- Cave Release: Singles 2007-13
- Cold War Kids Hold My Home
- Cooly G . Wait 'Til Night
- Alice Cooper Raise the Dead: Live From Wacken
- The Coral The Curse of Love This not-so-new new album features a dozen tracks that were recorded between 2005 and 2007 but never before released
- Gavin DeGraw Finest Hour: The Best Of Gavin DeGraw
- Dope Body Lifer LISTEN (Pitchfork)
- Earth, Wind & Fire Holiday
- Elliott Brood Work And Love
- FF Lord
- Forever Came Calling What Matters Most
- Aretha Franklin Aretha Franklin Sings The Great Diva Classics Covers album finds Franklin performing songs by Barbara Streisand, Adele, Sinéad O'Connor, Etta James, The Supremes, Chaka Khan, and more
- Jerry Garcia Band GarciaLive Volume 5: December 31st 1975 - Keystone Berkeley 2xCD
- Gates Bloom & Breathe
- Goapele Strong As Glass
- Happy Diving Big World
- Heat Leisure III & IV
- Horse Feathers So It Is With Us LISTEN (NPR)
- Ben Howard . I Forget Where We Were
- Huxley Blurred
- Billy Idol . Kings & Queens of the Underground LISTEN (The Guardian) First album in 8 years
- Inspiral Carpets . Inspiral Carpets First new album in two decades for the Manchester band is actually their first studio album to feature original lead singer Stephen Holt
- Jukebox the Ghost Jukebox the Ghost
- Kiesza Sound of a Woman
- Larkin Poe Kin
- Annie Lennox Nostalgia The former Eurythmics singer's first non-holiday album in seven years finds Lennox tackling standards from the 1930s and '40s
- Little Big Town Pain Killer
- Logic Under Pressure
- Mineral 1994-1998: The Complete Collection 2xCD
- Modern Vices Modern Vices
- New Build Pour It On Hot Chip side project features two members of that group [UK only: 20 Oct; USA release follows on 11 Nov]
- Nude Beach 77
- Oozing Wound . Earth Suck
- Pentatonix That's Christmas to Me
- The Pop Group Cabinet of Curiosities New rarities compilation
- Primus Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble LISTEN (NY Times) Band's first album featuring its "definitive" lineup in 20 years is a drastic reinterpretation of the soundtrack to the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
- Roomrunner Separate
- Sleater-Kinney Start Together 7xLP Limited-edition box set includes remastered versions of all of the band's releases on vinyl; each remastered album will also be released separately today on CD, but only the box set contains the 7-inch single "Bury Our Friends," the band's first new recording in 9 years
- Slipknot . .5: The Gray Chapter
- The Stray Birds Best Medicine
- Tennis System Technicolour Blind
- These New Puritans Expanded (Live at the Barbican) Live album recorded earlier this year finds the group expanded into a 35-piece band
- T.I. . Paperwork The first in a planned trilogy of albums includes contributions from The-Dream, Usher, Rick Ross, and Young Jeezy
- Transit Joyride
- Triathalon Lo-Tide
- Various Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved OST
- Various Men, Women & Children OST
- Wayne Szalinski Black Mirror
- Weyes Blood The Innocents LISTEN (Fader)
- Wrekmeister Harmonies Then It All Came Down CD version includes a copy of the 2013 album You've Always Meant So Much To Me, previously a vinyl-only release
- Young Statues The Flatlands Are Your Friend LISTEN (AV Club)
Stream upcoming albums and new tracks
- …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead ALBUM IX (out 11/11) streaming at 3voor12.
- Baauer TRACK "One Touch" (feat. AlunaGeorge) streaming at SoundCloud.
- Big K.R.I.T. TRACK "Cadillactica" streaming at Spotify.
- Bonobo TRACK "Flashlight" (from the upcoming EP of the same name) streaming at SoundCloud.
- Chance The Rapper & The Social Experiment TRACK "No Better Blues" streaming at SoundCloud.
- The Charlatans TRACK "So Oh" streaming at SoundCloud.
- CHVRCHES TRACK "Get Away" streaming at SoundCloud.
- Hanni El Khatib TRACK "Moonlight" streaming at SoundCloud.
- The Flaming Lips ALBUM With A Little Help From My Fwends streaming until its 10/28 release at NPR.
- Foo Fighters TRACK "Something From Nothing" streaming at YouTube (lyric video).
- Githead TRACK "Bringing The Sea To The City (Radio Edit)" streaming at SoundCloud.
- Ariana Grande feat. The Weeknd TRACK "Love Me Harder" streaming at YouTube (lyric video).
- Calvin Harris TRACK "Outside" (feat. Ellie Goulding) streaming at YouTube.
- His Name Is Alive ALBUM Tecuciztecatl streaming until its 10/28 release at Pitchfork.
- Daniel Lanois ALBUM Flesh And Machine streaming until its 10/28 release at NPR.
- Lily & Madeleine ALBUM Fumes streaming until its 10/28 release at NPR.
- LVL UP TRACK "Big Snow" streaming at SoundCloud.
- Majical Cloudz TRACK "Your Eyes" streaming/downloadable at SoundCloud.
- Medicine ALBUM Home Everywhere streaming until its 10/28 release at NPR.
- Tom Morello TRACK "Marching On Ferguson" (new studio version) streaming at SoundCloud.
- Nick Oliveri's Uncontrollable ALBUM Leave Me Alone (out 10/28) streaming at CoS.
- Parkay Quarts [aka Parquet Courts] TRACK "Uncast Shadow Of A Southern Myth" streaming at SoundCloud.
- Ariel Pink TRACK "Black Ballerina" streaming at YouTube.
- Rancid TRACK "Already Dead" streaming at YouTube.
- Restorations ALBUM LP3 streaming until its 10/28 release at NPR.
- Smashing Pumpkins TRACK "Being Beige" streaming at Rolling Stone.
- Gwen Stefani TRACK "Baby Don't Lie" streaming at YouTube.
- Andy Stott TRACK "Faith In Strangers" streaming at SoundCloud.
- These New Puritans TRACK "Spitting Stars" (Live at The Barbican) streaming at SoundCloud.
- Yusuf [Cat Stevens] ALBUM Tell 'Em I'm Gone streaming until its 10/27 release at NPR.
On TV this week (new episodes only)
Monday: Bush (Kimmel), Pentatonix (Conan)
Wednesday: Milky Chance (Kimmel) Tenacious D (Conan)
Thursday: Kiesza (Conan), Taylor Swift (Kimmel)
Saturday: Iggy Azalea (Saturday Night Live), Tweedy (Austin City Limits)
Recent artist and industry news
2014 could be the first year in which no single artist has a platinum album. One LP has actually surpassed the million-sales mark this year, but it is last year's soundtrack to the Disney film Frozen. - Forbes
Tom Petty, Cyndi Lauper, and Elvis Costello are among this year's candidates for entry into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. - Billboard
Watch a trailer for an upcoming documentary about the Roland TR-808 drum machine.
Browse a list of releases for the Black Friday Record Store Day event, which will take place at independent record shops on November 28, 2014.
The latest music videos
Sleater-Kinney, "Bury Our Friends" (feat. Miranda July):
Interpol, "My Desire":
Foxygen, "Coulda Been My Love":
Shabazz Palaces, "Motion Sickness":
Thurston Moore, "Speak To The Wild":
Archie Bronson Outfit, "Two Doves On A Lake":
Pissed Jeans, "Boring Girls":
Bonnie "Prince" Billy, "Quail and Dumplings":
Nude Beach, "For You":
In the studio / coming soon
Sleater-Kinney have reunited to record their first new album in a decade. No Cities to Love will be out on January 20, 2015, via Sub Pop, and reunites the band with longtime producer John Goodmanson. Lead single "Bury Our Friends" is included as a bonus in this week's vinyl box set Start Together.
Damon Albarn is working on a new Gorillaz album, as well as one from his The Good, the Bad & the Queen project. Don't expect anything to show up before 2016, however. - Billboard
Parquet Courts will release their second album of 2014, Content Nausea, on November 11th. However, this one will see the band billed as "Parkay Quarts."
Big K.R.I.T.'s sophomore studio album, Cadillactica, has been given a November 11 release date.
A new Smashing Pumpkins album, Monuments To An Elegy, will be out on December 9th.
Music and/or cat fans have successfully funded Run the Jewels' Meow the Jewels project, which will be a remake of the duo's upcoming second album using nothing but cat sounds. Watch a suitably bizarre new trailer for MTJ.
Wire offshoot Githead will release a fourth album, Waiting For A Sign, on December 8th.
With Guided By Voices now gone (again), Robert Pollard has started yet another band, Ricked Wicky. Their debut album I Sell The Circus will be out on February 2, 2015. - Stereogum
Visit Metacritic's Album Release Calendar for a full listing of upcoming release dates, updated daily.
Tours and festivals
Next year's Bonnaroo festival will be held June 11-14. Expect ticket sales and lineup announcements in February.
Eric Church has booked the second leg of his world tour. - Rolling Stone
Future Islands have expanded their current world tour into 2015. - Pitchfork
Jay Electronica will tour with Common this fall. - CoS
Nick Lowe will bring his "Quality Holiday Revue" to U.S. cities this December. - Pollstar
Sleater-Kinney will also tour in early 2015 in support of their reunion album. - CoS
Sam Smith's first arena tour kicks off in January. - Pollstar
The Vaselines will tour North America in January. - Pitchfork
