Seems like Nick Cave has had enough of being quiet. The standout track of CARNAGE, his new LP with long-time collaborator Warren Ellis, has to be “White Elephant”. Halfway through the menacing sounding song, the whole thing turns into a full fledged gospel hymn and we’re left wondering whether Jason Pierce is pulling the strings behind the scenes. It was then we knew it would be fairly easy to pick our album of the week.
We should all be listening to the new collection of bangers from Jessie Ware on our favourite dance floor, but well, here we are. Start your summer right with one of the last great releases of the first half of 2020. Plus 28 other new tracks by David Bruno, Gabriel Garzón-Montano, Cut Copy, Silverbacks, The Suffers, Country Westerns, Pottery, Nana Grizol, Mountain Time, Kalen & Aslyn, Mark Fredson, Corb Lund, Luka Kuplowsky, Roy Ayers, Skinshape, Khruangbin, Nadine Shah, Fenne Lily, Native Harrow, H.C. McEntire, Jess Williamson & Hand Habits, Becca Mancari, Lou Canon, Alasdair Roberts, Bill Callahan, Our Man In The Field, Bonny Light Horseman, and Foy Vance.
Is there anything more typical of music publications in the 21st century than waiting for an indie rock band to fail miserably with the release their second record? Don’t let them tell you “Sideways to New Italy” is lacking something important. The new Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever album has all the melodies and hooks you need to survive this festival-less summer so you can pretend everything’s fine. We’re adding a fourth sentence to this paragraph because it seems like it’s mandatory to reference the Go-Betweens and/or the Feelies every single time we talk about this band.
Plus: new tracks by Run The Jewels, DJ Lycox, Pop Dell’Arte, No Age, Lithics, Ohmme, Dougie Poole, Whiskey Wolves of the West, Swampmeat Family Band, Crystal Shipsss, Helvetia, Muzz, The Clientele, LA Priest, Becca Mancari, Sarah Louise, Brigid Mae Power, The World of Dust, Samantha Crain, Camille Delean, Modern Nature, Mt. Joy, Joan Shelley, and Torres.
Katie Von Schleicher’s “Consummation” is not only our album of the week, It’s one of our top albums of the year so far, too. There are 27 other songs on this week’s playlist, but if I were you I’d go explore that treatise on indie rock — and the rest of her discography, while you’re at it. New tracks by Jason Molina, Natalie Jane Hill, Soccer Mommy, Good Dog, A.O. Gerber, Becca Mancari, Matt Berninger, Camille Delean, Roadside Graves, Owen Pallett, TALsounds, Neil Young, Steve Earle, M. Lockwood Porter, Country Westerns, Jeff Rosenstock, IDLES, Shilpa Ray, Combo Qazam, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Angel Bat Dawid, Nidia, Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids, Mulatu Astatke, Purling Hiss‘ Mike Polizze, Woods, and Okey Dokey.
Laura Marling’s spring tour got cancelled and suddenly there was a seemingly unfillable void inside of us. Fortunately, the British songwriter has decided to release her new album earlier than it was supposed to, and we couldn’t be more grateful for that. Besides two songs off “Song for Our Daughter”, we have 26 brand new tracks from Jackie Lynn, OHMME, neubauten.org, Scottibrains, Hoops, Phoebe Bridgers, Tristen, Woods, Alex Nicol, AZITA, James Elkington, Buck Curran, The Orbiting Human Circus & The Music Tapes, Bia Maria, Anna Burch, Jenny O., Camille Delean, Becca Mancari, Kellen of Troy, John Anderson, Steve Earle, Pokey LaFarge, Caleb Caudle, Tommy Alexander, Jaime Wyatt, and Eilen Jewell.