Featured New Releases for
October 18, 2024

Tension II
BMG Rights Management
The sequel to her excellent 2023 LP continues the party on a set of irresistible originals and collaborations.
- Neil Z. Yeung
Heavy Lifting
MC5
Ear Music
Billed as the return of Detroit's rabble-rousing heroes, it's really the final statement from their great guitarist, Wayne Kramer.
- Mark Deming
Memory of a DayEditors' Choice
Neon Gold / Virgin
The duo's best album to date finds them adding shoegaze noise and dream pop atmosphere to their predictably emotional and melodic electronic pop sound.
- Tim Sendra
Fate & Alcohol
Anti-
The Canadian duo call it quits with their anthemic, bittersweet fourth and perhaps final album.
- Matt Collar
I Want BloodEditors' Choice
Double J / Universal Music
A bold and bruising nine-song set befitting an architect of grunge and alternative hard rock.
- James Christopher Monger
Lively PremonitionEditors' Choice
Grand Jury / Grand Jury Music
The Maryland singer/songwriter embraces a cozy, soulful '70s Los Angeles pop vibe.
- Matt Collar
Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me
Secretly Canadian
Recorded with Dom Monks (Big Thief), the band's breakup- and burnout-inspired fourth LP finds bandleader Dana Margolin a little down but not out.
- Marcy Donelson
Music for William Eggleston's Stranded in Canton
Fat Possum Records
Members of Spiritualized play a live score to a 1974 film, complementing the movie's intense characters and dialogue with cosmic psychedelic blues vamps.
- Fred Thomas
Little Big IIIEditors' Choice
Blue Note
Parks' quartet returns to Blue Note with a compelling third chapter, reflecting a euphoric approach to adventurous composition and improvisation.
- Thom Jurek
Make It Fit
Numero / Numero Group
On their first album in 20 years, this post-hardcore band drastically changes their sound once again, adding upbeat pub rock energy to their jazz-informed approach.
- Fred Thomas
Like All Before You
Cult Records
The band's third album takes a quieter approach that still allows for volatile experiments.
- Heather Phares
Artistic Vice [Collector's Edition]
Eternal Yip Eye Music
Remastered with an entire second record including outtakes, rehearsals, and unreleased songs left off the original album.
Dreamstate
DH2
The Welsh electronic artist shifts toward progressive house euphoria with collaborators like Bicep and Tom Rowlands (Chemical Brothers).
- Paul Simpson
Mad SometimesEditors' Choice
Fire Records
The sweetly wistful, haunted debut LP of a U.K. singer/songwriter whose influences span French pop, exotica, and Karen Dalton.
- Marcy Donelson
Slipping AwayEditors' Choice
Bloodshot
The noted funnyman shifts gears with a moody, contemplative look at adult life that's intelligent and powerful.
- Mark Deming
The Infotainment Scan
Cherry Red
A remastered set containing singles and demos as well as BBC sessions and three live shows from the era.
Lush Life
Third Man Records
Almost playing like a greatest-hits collection, the Aussie foursome's hooky, frustrated, impulsive-sounding debut landed them on Third Man Records.
- Marcy Donelson
The Neon Gate
Paradise of Bachelors
The Nova Scotians veer from their signature guitar rock to make a freewheeling D.I.Y. art-pop composite.
- Timothy Monger
Paper Jays
ESP-Disk
The debut album from this Rhode Island trio hides an experimental spirit in traditional rural folk structures.
- Fred Thomas
Terrestrial Seethings
Thrill Jockey
This solo excursion from the drummer of Lightning Bolt is a frantic blast of noise and chaos, but somehow also conveys a spirit of curious fun.
- Fred Thomas
I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair [Translucent Clear LP]
True Panther Sounds
The former Girls leader transforms crushing, rock-bottom sadness into expressions of hope and gratitude on some of his best songs to date.
- Fred Thomas
In the Real World
Stony Plain
The expatriate singer/songwriter and bluesman charts the passing of our troubled world as he unveils a new one.
- Thom Jurek
Here and Nowhere Else [10th Anniversary Edition]
Pure Noise
This 10th anniversary edition adds the entire album recorded live between different shows in 2014 & 2015, as well as two remixes.
The Gift of Love
JHUD Productions / Interscope
A full-effort holiday celebration with a handful of new songs co-written by the EGOT-winning singer.
- Andy Kellman
The Vanishing Point
Ba Da Bing Records
An ambitious, dystopic quasi-space opera that finds vocalist and voice-manipulation whiz Eliza Bagg merging elements of hyperpop and the avant-garde.
- Marcy Donelson
The Mighty Several
EMI / EMI Records
Another incisive and tuneful set of (mostly) duets from the U.K. songwriting legend, but with Rianne Downey in for the ailing Jacqui Abbott.
- Marcy Donelson
words from a wishing well
Fire Talk
The debut's gnarled and effective mix of shoegaze, grungy indie rock, airy dream pop, and slowcore underscores yearning dissatisfaction.
- Marcy Donelson
Roots: Telemann, Hindemith, Feldbusch, Lipstein, Cassadó
Oehms Classics
Cello works represent the performer's own roots as well as an improvisatory spirit he finds at the roots of music.
- James Manheim
Steven Mackey: Memoir
Bridge
Spoken words from a memoir by the composer's mother receive lively, multi-functional accompaniment from a percussion duo and string quartet.
- James Manheim
Liszt: Faust-Symphony; Mephisto Waltz No. 1
BIS
An intriguing Faust Symphony that is more refined than heavy.
- James Manheim
Benedict Sheehan: Akathist
Bright Shiny Things
An unusual work using the shapes but not the content of Orthodox church music to aim at a universal message.
- James Manheim
Sarahbanda
Alpha
New Cuban collaborations from an Americo-German hornist lean toward the Cuban side this time.
- James Manheim
Corelli: Violin Sonatas, Op. 5Editors' Choice
Cedille Records
Veteran violinist returns to Baroque music with a possibly definitive reading of the Corelli sonatas.
- James Manheim
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