New Vinyl This Week: June 30, 2015
The Fourth of July is coming up this weekend and I can't wait to see all the patriotic songs and fireworks dragged out for a yearly review. Oh, and I love parades. Must be all my years in marching band; it gets in your blood!
Of Monsters and Men - Beneath the Skin
According to Sputnikmusic, this new album is "home to a rather dramatic shift in Of Monsters and Men’s instrumental stylings. Whereas the focus used to be on acoustic guitars, synths, and even woodwinds, everything now sounds denser and more purposeful – thus matching the tone." And fans of the previous album may be in for a bit of a surprise. "A lot of the band’s appeal as a fun-loving, insanely catchy indie-folk band will have to go temporarily by the wayside. This isn’t a feel good record; in fact, it delves into some pretty hefty topics that don’t make for casually light listening." Metacritic has it listed at a 59.
Failure - The Heart is a Monster
Back after 19 years! As Stereogum put it, "For those who kneel at the altar of alt-rock’s blackened underbelly, this is a pretty big deal." No doubt following up Fantastic Planet is a daunting task and only time will tell how the new album is received. Here's the first single "Hot Traveler":
Lots of Cream Reissues
Polydor is reissuing the Cream catalog on vinyl this week. There's four studio albums and two live albums to choose from. Or, get them all.
We've got:
Joy Williams - Venus
Joy Williams was half of the duo The Civil Wars. The band broke up acrimoniously in 2014 and there's a lot of emotion in the lyrics of this solo album. In an interview with The Independent, Ms. Williams said:
“I wanted it to be a healing process and to write in a way that I found the glimmers and flickers of hope and fight, and letting go, and accepting and forgiving, and finding that there actually is another side once you move through the darkness, sometimes even more vivid and colourful than any place you were before.”
