New Release Round-Up 07-20-18

Kanye West - Ye - Def Jam
The seven-track release from Kanye West was streamed live from Wyoming and featured guest appearances from 070 Shake, DeJ Loaf, Jeremih, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Nicki Minaj, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Ty Dolla $ign, Valee and Charlie Wilson. Vinyl to follow next week.

Ty Segall & White Fence - Joy - Drag City
Ty Segall & White Fence are AS ONE again. Six years after their fun favorite "Hair" collaboration, and jeez, almost four years after Ty produced the last White Fence record "For the Recently Found Innocent", they're back at it. But the second time around, it's no Hair 2 - Joy is its own reward. Tim Presley and Ty take it up a notch, with fifteen wild tracks that share space in an effortless fashion, dispersing doses of the fabled vintage obsessions, but threading them together instead with their own sound of today. Joy, indeed!

Lori Mckenna - The Tree - CN Records
Home and the people who make it have captivated Lori Mckenna for years. Over the last three decades, as she became a wife and mother of five, she has also emerged as one of the most respected, prolific singer-songwriters in popular music. Her 2016 release The Bird and the Rifle netted three Grammy nominations, along with Americana Music Association nods all firsts for McKenna as an artist. Then, she made history: In 2016, she became the first woman ever to win the Country Music Association's Song of the Year two years in a row thanks to co-writing Little Big Town's Girl Crush and penning Tim McGraw's no. 1 Humble and Kind solo. Both songs also clinched back-to-back Grammy wins for Best Country Song. In 2017, she became the Academy of Country Music's first female Songwriter of the Year. The Tree is her much-anticipated eleventh studio album. Produced by Dave Cobb, The Tree takes one of McKenna's signature themes family and builds a tapestry of experiences she has lived and overheard, been told and dreamed up, to create a stunning ode to life's defining relationships.

The Internet - Hive Mind - Sony
Hive Mind is the new album from The Internet, and is the follow up to 2015's critically acclaimed and Grammy nominated album Ego Death. With this new album, THE INTERNET present enormous growth in their creative chemistry and prove they are a five-person force whose singular talents created one phenomenal whole. The album is written and produced entirely by THE INTERNET - Syd (vocalist/songwriter), Matt Martians (producer), Steve Lacy (guitarist/vocalist/songwriter), Patrick Paige II (songwriter/bassist), and Christopher Smith (songwriter/drummer). And it is with a sense of togetherness - not just for them, but for everyone - that the band chose to highlight as a major theme for Hive Mind. "After making a few songs we realized that we really want to use this album to live by example and promote camaraderie amongst young black people," Syd reveals. "We realized that we're the only band of our kind. And we want to really solidify ourselves as that, as the best." With the chaos of the current world considered, all of THE INTERNET wanted to champion good feelings and the joy of following your heart and passions, in addition to using their own positive relationships and experiences to inspire their community. The band unearthed an even deeper purpose as they collaborated on HIVE MIND. The result is not just one of the greatest records in the band's already phenomenal catalogue, but is easily one of the best albums of 2018, from five amazing people already leaving an indelible mark on pop music.

For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section and don't forget that many of these titles are also available on vinyl.

New Release Round-Up 07-13-18

Drake - Scorpion - Republic
The 25-track fifth studio release for the Canadian hip-hop artist Drake features guest appearances from Jay-Z and Ty Dollar $ign as well as vocals from Michael Jackson and Static Major.

Dirty Projectors - Lamp Lit Prose - Domino
‘Lamp Lit Prose’ arrives just over a year after 2017’s self-titled ‘Dirty Projectors.’ Here David Longstreth’s band returns with a new album that is the yang to the yin of the 2017 effort. The songs signal a page turned for Longstreth: hope instead of heartbreak, a restorative balance. Guitars have returned to the Dirty Projectors’ world, intricate and gorgeous vocal harmony too. The album begins with “Right Now,” David singing, “there was silence in my heart, but now I’m striking up the band.” In addition to the core musicians and guests, LA string group the Calder Quartet, and The Brass Players of Los Angeles both appear on several songs. ‘Lamp Lit Prose’ is a recommitment to the sounds and ideals of Dirty Projectors, embracing the band’s trademarks while pushing forward the sonic envelope. Lamp Lit Prose will be the ninth release for Dirty Projectors and comes with collaborations from HAIM, Syd, Robin Pecknold, Rostam Batmanglij, Amber Mark, Empress Of and Dear Nora. Lamp Lit Prose was recorded at Ivo Shandor in Los Angeles.

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love - Epitaph
Deafheaven was formed in 2010 by vocalist George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy. They released their debut studio album Roads To Judah in 2011 . They added drummer Daniel Tracy to the group and released their breakthrough album Sunbather in 2013. After rounding out their line up with guitarist Shiv Mehra and bassist Stephen Clark—each subsequent live set felt like a religious experience for the bigger (and bigger) shows that followed. Their third album, and first for ANTI-, 2015’s New Bermuda, was heavier, sturdier, and more grounded in the dirt than Sunbather. They toured extensively to support New Bermuda playing tours and festivals with Lamb Of God, Anthrax, Danzig, and Gojira. Deafheaven’s new album, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, finds them working with old friends again. The Jack Shirley-produced and Nick Steinhardt-art directed (of Touché Amoré) collection gets its title from Graham Greene’s novel The End of the Affair, referencing a moment when someone is looking for love, in all of its imperfection and simple beauty. This sentiment is carried throughout the hazy, yearning romanticism of the record with song titles and words as sumptuous as the sounds around them. Clarke describes the composition of Ordinary Corrupt Human Love beginning with “small seeds of healing, repair, and rebirth,” and like each subsequent Deafheaven album, this record is, in fact, a revelation. Defeat has inspired some of our best art. If you survive something terrible, you surface on the other side, walk toward the light, and come back to life. If you’re an artist, this kind of new self-knowledge can lead to creating something universal and remembered, something that can live longer than you do. While Deafheaven have managed to cross over this road in the past, they’ve nailed the feeling wholly with Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, a feeling that comes with experience and wisdom. Yes, everybody deals with hurt, everybody’s been the cause of their own implosions, and everybody has the capacity to overcome and love again. Deafheaven have found a way to externalize all of this, and in making their most complete record to date, they turn it into a balm and a cathartic exorcism.

Between The Buried And Me - Automata II - Sumerian Records
This is PART TWO of Between The Buried And Me’s two-part eighth album and introductory offering for Sumerian Records, Automata. The North Carolina quintet—Tommy Giles Rogers, Jr. [lead vocals, keyboards], Paul Waggoner [lead and rhythm guitar, backing and lead vocals], Dustie Waring [rhythm and lead guitar], Blake Richardson [drums], and Dan Briggs [bass, keyboards]—explore these themes by personally smashing boundaries once again. Automata marks the band’s first proper double LP-spanning concept. They continue to expand their ever-evolving style, upholding a tradition of progression in the process.

AHI - In Our Time - Thirty Tigers
Leading with his heart as much as with his head, AHI is an emotional yet discerning lyricist who would rather demonstrate love than use the word itself. He allows his light to shine inward but only to a degree, admitting to some autobiography on In Our Time but as glimpsed through an imaginative lens. While his music possesses a quality of timelessness, the sounds here reveal a broad spectrum of influence and also toe the line between retro and revelatory. None of that is by accident: the album, like its 2016 predecessor, We Made It Through the Wreckage, was recorded in Nashville -- a place AHI finds attractive for its sound and skilled studio hands rather than its glitzy polish -- and this time on analog-to-tape with flourishes of digital technology.

 

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Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again [Soundtrack] - Capitol
Ten years after Mamma Mia! The Movie grossed more than $600 million around the world, fans are invited to return to the magical Greek island of Kalokairi in an all-new original musical based on the songs of ABBA. With the film’s original cast returning and new additions including Lilly James and Academy Award® winner Cher, the musical comedy will open on July 20, 2018. Original ABBA member Benny Andersson produced and arranged the upcoming Soundtrack.

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For more information on these and other releases out this week, check out our New Releases charts by week section and don't forget that many of these titles are also available on vinyl.