Featured New
Releases for
September 10, 2013
Fuse
Capitol / Capitol Nashville / MCA Nashville
Here the artist moves in a bold direction, using the studio as a labratory as he weds contemporary country songs to modern pop sounds.
Long Forgotten Songs: B-Sides & Covers 2000-2013
Rise Against deliver a collection of surprisingly strong B-sides and revealing covers with Long Forgotten Songs.
Tales of Us
Mute
Lavish, heartbroken, and eerie, Goldfrapp's sixth album is among their most consistently satisfying music.
Kiss Land
Republic
Success has had a major effect on druggy balladeer Abel Tesfaye, as illustrated throughout the leaden follow-up to his platinum Trilogy.
![Album cover for B.O.A.T.S. II: #METIME [Clean] by 2 Chainz](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0003998106/front/220/ZeesuRVtSZEbqrd1qZtnXhyhM-OFI8zG4l-qVpXXB1I=.jpg)
B.O.A.T.S. II: #METIME [Clean]
Def Jam
Upping the ambition and losing none of the fun factor, the rapper tops his debut with this excellent sophomore release.
Say That to Say This
Verve
The magnificent third Verve album by this New Orleans sensation, produced by Raphael Saadiq, stays much closer to the R&B and funk.
Sound System
Sony Legacy / Sony Music
The complete recorded works -- and videos -- of the Clash housed in this lavish box set.
Back 2 Life
Beluga Heights / Epic / Sony Music
Inspired by recent rocky times, the R&B-reggae singer refreshes his sound with increased songwriting duties.
Atmosphere
Ultra Records
More soft songs make this a lighter Kaskade album, but the floor fillers are still here, and they're still satisfying.
Coming Apart
Matador
Kim Gordon's first album with guitarist Bill Nace is among the most challenging and compelling music of her career.
Troubadour
Stones Throw
Stones Throw's most versatile live band trades in dusty, psychedelic soul grooves for Yacht Rock.
Tookah
Rough Trade
The Icelandic singer/songwriter's fourth outing is built on a foundation of emotional balance and vintage synths.
Nobody Knows
HXC / XL
A remarkable leap in production values from his lo-fi debut can't mask the unhinged character of this modern-day troubador.
Apar
Matador / True Panther Sounds
After a three-year break, the Spanish electro-poppers return with an album as dreamily danceable as their last.
Factory Floor
DFA
The band takes its droning post-industrial grooves in a sleeker, more danceable direction on its first full-length.
Still Within the Sound of My Voice
Entertainment One
A second album of duets, a bookend to 2010's Just Across the River.
On Oni Pond
Anti- / Epitaph
The Philadelphia indie group tones down the experimentalism another notch on this pop-friendly effort.
![Album cover for Boardwalk Empire, Vol. 2 [Music from the Original HBO Series] by Original Soundtrack](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0004019189/front/220/ZeesuRVtSZEbqrd1qZtnXg4Q1ghY8VaPylnm7PwcKNY=.jpg)
Original Soundtrack
Boardwalk Empire, Vol. 2 [Music from the Original HBO Series]
ABKCO Records / Universal
The second volume of the show's soundtrack features bigger names and a more theatrical flair.
Dynamics
DFA
Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser's first true studio album for DFA offers steady, impeccably constructed synth pop.
Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere
Slumberland
Heavy on fuzzy guitar tones and bilious lyrics, the second album from this Bay Area punk trio also holds buried melodic subtleties.
Jacuzzi Boys
Hardly Art
The Florida trio's third album finds them refining their ramshackle sound and focusing their boundless energy, while making something exciting and electric.
Bed & Bugs
Sub Pop
With their third album, this quartet made up of Hot Snakes and Edsel alumni turn in a stylistically varied but always potent set of tunes.
Grand River Crossings: Motown & Motor City Inspirations
Motéma Music
The third of the pianist's solo-based recordings offers an inventive and exploratory tribute to Detroit.
Live at the Great American Music Hall, San Francisco Aug 31-Sept 1 2011
Nonesuch / Perro Verde
The artist and friends old and new deliver a stellar program of covers, originals, and favorites on his first live album in 35 years.
Tell the Ones I Love
Rounder
Recorded mostly live at Levon Helm's studio in Woodstock, New York, Tell the Ones I Love has a wonderfully open, warm, and breathy sound to it.
From Beer to Eternity
AFM Records
It's another "final" album from the veteran industrial-metal group, but it's wide-reaching, thunderous, and satisfying.
Lunch. Drunk. Love
Brando Records
Bowling for Soup bring a sense of confidence to the uncertain world of pop-punk on their 12th album.
Rattle Their Chains
Sugar Hill / Welk Music Group
Wright's songs are the stars here, full of sharp turns of phrase, and memorable situations and characters; each is a tightly written gem.
Trios
ECM
On her first recording with another producer, the pianist/composer/arranger radically revisits five works from her catalog.
We Ain't Leavin' Till You're Bleedin'
Bullet Tooth / Universal Distribution
Members of Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, Cannae, and Overcast make their debut as Death Ray Vision with an homage to Boston hardcore.
Savor Flamenco
Knitting Factory Records
After seven long years, this group returns with a fine new recording that weds their modern brand of flamenco to Brazilian rhythms.
Screens
FatCat Records
The band reins in its eclecticism, delivering songs with one foot in classic New York cool and the other in the synthy pop of the 2010s.
Lux
Warner Bros.
Debut album from L.A.-based mainstream metal quintet is bursting with potential Michael Bay trailer music.
Essential Tremors
ATO / MapleMusic Recordings
A rocking and varied affair, full of sturdy riffs, thundering drums, smart lyrics, and surprising harmonies.
Second Chances
Shanachie
The Latin- and R&B-inflected fifth studio album from the smooth jazz saxophonist.
A Gourd of Gold
Latitudes
This heavy Maryland unit's four-track, 26-minute EP of Gordon Lightfoot covers delivers in tense, post-pysch spades.
Weird Sister
Slumberland
The Welsh noise pop quintet's debut album is brilliantly influenced by Riot Grrrl, C-86, shoegaze, Veronica Falls, and punk.
Metalander-Z
Chicken Ranch
Ridiculous sendup of ‘80s metal from the punky Japanese band beats the pants off Steel Panther.
Between Dogs & Wolves
The Orchard / Six Degrees
Stately and melancholy, the fifth outing from the British-born singer/songwriter invokes names like Martin Carthy and Nick Drake.
Irons in the Fire
Hollywood
Redlight King debut a heavier, more traditional sound on their second album, Irons in the Fire.
Long Forgotten Songs: B-Sides & Covers 2000-2013
DGC / Geffen / Interscope
Rise Against deliver a collection of surprisingly strong B-sides and revealing covers with Long Forgotten Songs.
Kaani
Fat Cat / FatCat Records
One of the hardest working groups in West African guitar music present their clearest, most widely available album to date.
Dangerous Anything
Ernest Jenning
Spacy, Twin Peaks-imbued, Krautrock-inspired third long-player from this Vancouver-based quartet.
The Starfolk
Korda Records
Thoughtful and comforting adult-oriented indie pop debut from band formed by Brian and Allison from the Owls.
Golden Tickets
Joyful Noise
This brief EP offers seven "theme songs" written by the band in their elastic pop style for super fans they gathered information about online.
Verdi
Deutsche Grammophon
Celebrating the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi's birth, Anna Netrebko explores five heroines from his operas on this Deutsche Grammophon release.
Haydn & Myslivecek: Cello Concertos
Cedille Records
This is a recommended recording for those who like Classical-era concertos done in the old concert-hall-sized way.
Oscillations: Piano Music by Beethoven & Stravinsky
Challenge Classics
These interpretations are unusual enough, but the connections they draw are equally original. An offbeat program that really works.
Morgenlicht: Kirchenlieder & Choräle
Deutsche Grammophon
Fans of Rutter might give this a try, for it has a more serious tone than would the equivalent British item.
Sommernachtskonzert 2013
Sony Classical
Maazel and the Vienna Philharmonic celebrate the bicentennial year of Verdi and Wagner with this open air concert of their music.
Brahms: Violin Sonatas
Naïve
The breathtakingly lyrical opening of the Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78, gets your attention and never quite lets go.