A stack of recent new vinyl releases to catch up on.

We’ve got 10 new/recent vinyl releases to feature and it’s one of those weeks I just want to crack everything open and take them for a spin. There’s been some great releases coming out recently, so no more time for chit chat today… let’s get right to the new music.

Looking for recent restocks and additions to the new vinyl selection here at Backbeat? You’ve got to scroll way down to the bottom to check that out, but please take a few minutes to check out some fresh tunes from the new releases.

Recent New Vinyl Releases Mar 11


Dirty Projectors – Dirty Projectors

Dirty Projectors have released their long-awaited 7th LP. The new album does everything we want and expect from Dirty Projectors — but in a way we never could have imagined or anticipated. In a career of surprising conceptual gambits, unexpected stylistic evolutions, and continually changing lineups – this is, as DJ Khaled says, “ANOTHER ONE”!

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Froth – Outside (Briefly)

Outside (briefly) is the third album by LA-based band Froth and their first album to be released on Wichita Recordings (First Aid Kit, Girlpool, Los Campesinos!). The record follows their acclaimed album, Bleak, released on Burger Records (Ty Segall, Cherry Glazzer) in 2015. On Outside (briefly) the band continue to hone their own blend of 60s inspired surf rock, psychedelia, indie rock and shoegaze influences to produce their best record yet.

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Minus the Bear – Voids

On their sixth album VOIDS, Minus the Bear started with a blank slate, and inadvertently found themselves applying the same starting-from-scratch strategies that fueled their initial creative process. Album opener “Last Kiss” immediately establishes the band’s renewed fervor. An appropriately dizzying guitar line plunges into a propulsive groove before the chorus unfolds into a multi-tiered pop chorus. From there the album flows into “Give & Take”, a tightly wound exercise in syncopation that recalls the celebratory pulse of early Bear classics like “Fine + 2 Pts” while exploring new textures and timbres. “Invisible” is arguably the catchiest song of the band’s career, with Jake Snider’s vocal melodies and Knudson’s imaginative guitar work battling for the strongest hooks. “What About the Boat?” reminds us of the “math-rock” tag that followed the band in their early years, with understated instrumentation disguising an odd-time beat. “Erase,” recalls the merging of forlorn indie pop and electronica that the band dabbled with on their early EPs, but demonstrates the Bear’s ongoing melodic sophistication and tonal exploration. By the time the band reaches album closer “Lighthouse,” they’ve traversed so much sonic territory that the only appropriate tactic left at their disposal is a climactic crescendo, driven at its peak by Cory Murchy’s thunderous bass. Not since Planet of Ice’s “Lotus” has the Bear achieved such an epic finale. All in all, it’s an album that reminds us of everything that made us fall in love with Minus the Bear in the first place, and a big part of that appeal is the sense that the band is heading into uncharted territories.


Jay Som – Everybody Works

On her first proper album as Jay Som, Melina Duterte, 22, solidifies her rep as a self-made force of sonic splendor and emotional might. If last year’s aptly named Turn Into compilation showcased a fuzz-loving artist in flux—chronicling her mission to master bedroom recording—then the rising Oakland star’s latest, Everybody Works, is the LP equivalent of mission accomplished.
Duterte is as DIY as ever—writing, recording, playing, and producing every sound beyond a few backing vocals—but she takes us places we never could have imagined, wedding lo-fi rock to hi-fi home orchestration, and weaving evocative autobiographical poetry into energetic punk, electrified folk, and dreamy alt-funk.
And while Duterte’s early stuff found her bucking against life’s lows, Everybody Works is about turning that angst into fuel for forging ahead. “Last time I was angry at the world,” she says. “This is a note to myself: everybody’s trying their best on their own set of problems and goals. We’re all working for something.”

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Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me – Soundtrack

Death Waltz Recording Company has released Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me on vinyl for the 25th anniversary of David Lynch’s nightmarish cinematic continuation of the beloved television series. The vinyl features Angelo Badalamenti’s gorgeous, eerie score with audio approved by the composer, and director David Lynch-approved artwork by Sam Smith and packaging by Jay Shaw. The clever design is the perfect complement to Death Waltz’s release of the Twin Peaks score on vinyl from 2016.
“Fire Walk With Me is an altogether more brooding affair than the Twin Peaks series soundtrack. Badalamenti won a grammy for the title track of this LP and it’s not hard to see why- it’s dangerous, and bursting with smokey jazz thanks to Jimmy Scott. We went back to the master tapes in the Warner Archives and had this recut to fit across two LPs as the score clocks in at 51 minutes. It sounds incredible and punchy, but super nuanced too,” said Mondo Record Label Manager Spencer Hickman.

 


Ryan Adams – Prisoners (Indie Exclusive Red Vinyl)

Prisoner continues to refine the sound that Ryan Adams first explored with his 2014 self-titled album: a sure-handed mix of Tunnel of Love-era Springsteen, ‘80s college rock, and soft-focus synths. A track like “Anything I Say to You Now” illustrates how perfectly this formula suits him; a Smiths-esque jangle of guitars gives sentimental depth to his plain-spoken refrain, “Anything I say to you now is just a lie.” As he works through the rest of the emotional wreckage, highlights like “Shiver and Shake” prove that Adams’ poignancy as a songwriter can still bring us to our knees.

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Menace Beach – Lemon Memory

Menace Beach, Leeds based Liza Violet and Ryan Needham, have released their new album “Lemon Memory”.
Written in Ibiza and recorded in Sheffield with Ross Orton (MIA, Arctic Monkeys, The Fall) “Lemon Memory” is in part an effort to lift a citrus based curse – trust us, it’s a real thing – Ryan and Liza believe was placed on their house, via the hex-breaking power of music. It’s also the sound of a band finding their own identity, edging closer to some sort of grimy truth.


King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Flying Microtonal Banana

Flying Microtonal Banana is King Gizzard’s first-ever experience in microtonal tuning, which features intervals smaller than a semitone and not found in customary Western tuning octaves. “Earlier this year we started experimenting with a custom microtonal guitar our friend Zak made for (lead singer and guitar player) Stu Mackenzie,” drummer Eric Moore explained. “The guitar was modified to play in 24-TET tuning and could only be played with other microtonal instruments. We ended up giving everyone a budget of $200 to buy instruments and turn them microtonal.”

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The Shins – Heartworms

The Shins have releases their fifth studio album, Heartworms. In contrast to 2012’s Port of Morrow, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 and was nominated for a Best Alternative Album GRAMMY, Heartworms ushers in a return to the handmade. Heartworms is, as always, entirely written by James Mercer, with exception of “So Now What” (produced by band member Richard Swift). Heartworms is the first Shins album to be self-produced by Mercer since Oh, Inverted World in 2001.


Soundgarden – Ultramega OK (Expanded Reissue)

This remixed and expanded reissue of Soundgarden’s Ultramega OK is a long-planned “correction” of the legendary band’s Grammy®-nominated debut full-length. The album was originally recorded and released in 1988 on SST Records. While the band enjoyed working with the original producer, Drew Canulette, they soon realized they weren’t quite happy with the final mix. Thus, shortly after the album’s release, the band decided to remix the album for subsequent pressings. However, success intervened: the band rapidly scored a deal with A&M and began work on their major-label debut, Louder Than Love, and the Ultramega OK remix project fell by the wayside as Soundgarden climbed their way to (ultra)mega-stardom.

 


This weeks restocks and additions:

2 Pac – All Eyez On Me
Alice In Chains – MTV Unplugged
The Band – Music From Big Pink
Beatles – Rubber Soul
David Bowie – Diamond Dogs
John Coltrane – Plays The Blues
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
Black Crowes – Shake Your Money Maker
Black Crowes – The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
Booker T & The MG’s – Green Onions
Cocteau Twins – Heaven or Las Vegas
Cure – World War (Rare Demos)
Willie Dixon – Willie’s Blues
Feist – Reminder
Florence And The Machine – Lungs
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Norah Jones – Come Away With Me
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Joy Division – Closer
B.B. King – Completely Well
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Nonagon Infinity
Bob Marley – Legend
Bob Marley – Legend (30TH Ann. Ed)
Modest Mouse – Moon And Antarctica
Thelonious Monk – Monk’s Music
Nirvana – Nevermind
Angel Olsen – My Woman
Pink Floyd – Animals
The Quintet – Jazz at Massey Hall
Sloan – One Chord to Another
Smiths – Hatful of Hollow
Sufjan Stevens – Michigan
Tragically Hip – Fully Completely
Tragically Hip – Road Apples
Twenty One Pilots – Blurryface
Velvet Underground And Nico
Velvet Underground – Loaded
Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes
Juinor Wells – Hoodoo Man Blues

 

 

That’s it… now where to start? We’ve got a lot of music listening to get to.