It’s Friday.

It’s Friday, it’s late, it’s still time for some new tunes!

As much as we’d love for you to come down to Backbeat this weekend and grab some great new music to spin, we aren’t able to be open. We did get one final delivery last week with some of the releases for today. I know everyone was stoked to pickup the latest Pearl Jam, but that will have to wait. Delivery for those won’t be until things get back to normal. Please send us an email or message us on Facebook to be added to our pre-order list for that one so you won’t miss out once it’s here.

Let’s get right to the new releases!

Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud – (indie shop version/coke bottle) – $20.95

What do we hold on to from our past? What must we let go of to truly move forward? Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield spent much of 2018 reckoning with these questions and revisiting her roots for answers. The result is Saint Cloud, an intimate journey through the places she’s been, filled with the people she’s loved. Written immediately in the period following her decision to get sober, the album is an unflinching self-examination. This raw, exposed narrative terrain is aided by a shift in sonic arrangements as well. While her last two records featured the kind of big guitars, well-honed noise, and battering sounds that characterized her Philadelphia scene and strongly influenced a burgeoning new class of singer-songwriters, Saint Cloud strips back those layers to create space for Crutchfield’s voice and lyrics. The result is a classic Americana sound with modern touches befitting an artist who has emerged as one of the signature storytellers of her time. Over the course of Saint Cloud, which was recorded the summer of 2019 and produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver), Crutchfield peels back the distortion of electric guitars to create a wider sonic palette than on any previous Waxahatchee album. It is a record filled with nods to classic country, folk-inspired tones, and distinctly modern touches. To bolster her vision, Crutchfield enlisted Bobby Colombo and Bill Lennox, both of the Detroit band Bonny Doon, to serve as backing band on the record, along with Josh Kaufman (Hiss Golden Messenger, Bon Iver) on guitar and keyboards and Nick Kinsey (Kevin Morby) on drums and percussion. Saint Cloud marks the beginning of a journey for Crutchfield, one that sees her leaving behind past vices and the comfortable environs of her Philadelphia scene to head south in search of something new. If on her previous work Crutchfield was out in the storm, she’s now firmly in the eye of it, taking stock of her past with a clear perspective and gathering the strength to carry onward.

Sorry – 925 – $26.95

Having already caught the eye of a host of tastemaker publications, Sorry are now releasing their hotly-anticipated debut record titled 925.
Centered around Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen, two 22-year-old childhood best friends, Sorry were signed by Domino after developing a reputation as the most thrilling new band on London’s underground circuit. Sorry’s lineup is completed by Lincoln Barrett on drums and bassist Campbell Baum. Not only have Sorry grown into a must-see live outfit in recent years; their attention to detail across a slew of groundbreaking visual accompaniments for their early mixtapes Home Demos Vol I& II and singles like “Wished”, “Showgirl”, and “Starstruck” has earned them their status as true originals and cross-genre innovators.
With 925 (co-produced by Lorenz, O’Bryen and Gorillaz, Blur & Nilüfer Yanya collaborator, James Dring), Sorry take another giant leap forward. New tracks such as ‘Right Round The Clock’, shimmer with typical glowering lyricism, alluring instrumentation and punchy choruses. Other highlights, the haunting ‘Rosie’ and ‘As The Sun Sets’, glisten alongside fan favorites, the singalong ‘Lies’ and raucous ‘Starstruck’.
925 is a record which will undoubtedly cement their status as true originals and cross-genreinnovators in 2020 and beyond.

Daniel Romano – Okay Wow – $19.95

In a shocking turn of events, Daniel Romano has decided to give you exactly what you asked for–– He and his unparalleled live band, The Outfit, have decided that you deserved it, that it is in fact already yours––and they want to say “you’re welcome.” Band attributes of note: They all wear the same size clothing. They take the same vitamins and they love with the same warmth and tenderness. They are an outfit, united in song and banded in vitality. If you have seen them, you know all of this as it is evident. If you haven’t, then close your eyes and set the dial to ten, turn the heat up in your sparse, stuff-less, undersaturated, air-plant filled apartment and drop the needle into The Outfit. The record is called “OKAY WOW”. Which is probably what you’ll say when you listen to it. It’s all your favourite songs except superior in every way to the versions you’ve exhausted. “OKAY WOW” also features several rarities previously heard only on two albums which received brief, momentary release via Bandcamp before being deleted forever. “OKAY WOW” was RECORDED LIVE by Kenneth Roy Meehan the 1st while on tour across Scandinavia.

Bon Iver – Blood Bank EP (10th anniversary edition – red vinyl) – $22.95

Limited translucent red vinyl edition. Bon Iver’s “Blood Bank” EP was originally released in early 2009, hot on the heels of the beloved album “For Emma, Forever Ago”. The EP was a harbinger of a new sound for Bon Iver: a movement away from the acoustic guitar-led instrumentation of the debut and the beginning of an exploration into the experimental sounds that have evolved but defined Bon Iver ever since. The reissue of this seminal EP is coupled with brand new live renditions of all the EP tracks, all recorded at various venues in 2018.

Pearl Jam – Gigaton – $46.95 (not in stock yet but get on our reserve list today!)

Pearl Jam have released their anxiously awaited new album, Gigaton today.

Earlier this week, the band previewed the record on a special dial-in hotline: 585-20-PEARL (585-207-3275). Phoning the line allowed fans to listen to tracks in full before Gigaton’s official arrival. Following singles “Dance of the Clairvoyants” and “Superblood Wolfmoon,” they also shared “Quick Escape” as the final instant grat on Wednesday.

Gigaton represents Pearl Jam at the peak of progression. From moments of guitar-fueled catharsis such as “Who Ever Said” through the icy absolution of “River Cross,” the lyrics, riffs, and rhythms transmit a message of hope, culminating on Eddie Vedder’s final words, “Here and now…won’t hold us down…share the light…won’t hold us down.”

Produced by Josh Evans and Pearl Jam, Gigaton marks the band’s first studio album since GRAMMY® award-winning, Lightning Bolt, which was released on October 15, 2013.

Go wash your hands. Thanks.