New Releases: January 2019

Roundup of the most interesting new releases of January 2019:

Albums

Remind Me Tomorrow

SHARON VAN ETTEN - Remind Me Tomorrow 

DEERHUNTER - Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?

LORELLE MEETS THE OBSOLETE - De Facto
THE FLESH EATERS - I Used To Be Pretty
JULIANA HATFIELD - Weird
STEVE GUNN - The Unseen In Between
STEVE MASON - About The Light
SNEAKS - Highway Hypnosis
BLOOD RED SHOES - Get Tragic
TOY - Happy in the Hollow
TALLIES - Tallies
THE DELINES - The Imperial
TIM PRESLEY'S WHITE FENCE - I Have to Feed Larry's Hawk
THE DANDY WARHOLS - Why You So Crazy
SWERVEDRIVER - Future Ruins
PEDRO THE LION - Phoenix
JAMES BLAKE - Assume Form
NIGHT BEATS - Myth Of A Man
FIDLAR - Almost Free
THE TWILIGHT SAD - It Won't Be Like This All the Time

BETTER OBLIVION COMMUNITY CENTER - Better Oblivion Community Center

JEFFREY LEWIS AND LOS BOLTS - 13 Fall Songs
JULIAN LYNCH - Rat’s Spit
KEUNING - Prismism
PAVO PAVO - Mystery Hour
ANGELO DE AUGUSTINE - Tomb
ALICE MERTON - Mint
LUH - Love Hates What You Become
GUM TAKES TOOTH - Arrow
TORO Y MOI - Outer Peace
FUTURE - Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD
KELE OKEREKE - Leave To Remain
WEEZER - The Teal Album
JOE JACKSON - Fool

Singles & EPs

King of the Dudes

SUNFLOWER BEAN - King of the Dudes EP
SHARON VAN ETTEN - Seventeen
DEERHUNTER - Plains
THE DETROIT COBRAS - What More / I Can't Go Back
ZOLA JESUS - Wiseblood (Johnny Jewel Remixes)
KAREN O AND DANGER MOUSE - Lux Prima
IAN BROWN - First World Problems
PUBLIC SERVICE - I'm Gonna Kill That Man
JUGGS - Super Cool Time / As If
HONKIES - Hold Your Horses / It's All Kicking Off For Honkies Volume 1
DISQ - Communication / Parallel
BLACK RAIN - Computer Soul EP
A>M - A Fascist Can't Dance
NILS FRAHM - Encores 2
MAC DEMARCO AND HARUOMI HOSONO - Honey Moon

Sharon Van Etten - Jupiter 4

January 2019 Highlights #2: Sharon Van Etten, Deerhunter

We had several cool new releases out this weekend and here are the two that we think stood out:

Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow

The fifth album by Sharon Van Etten comes 5 years after her previous effort and if the three singles we've heard from it so far is any indication, it may well be her best one yet. Here's the most recent one, the excellent "Seventeen":

Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen

Deerhunter - Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?

Another welcome return: Deerhunter are back after 4 years with their eighth full-length and here is the video for its opening track "Death in Midsummer":

Deerhunter - Death in Midsummer

January 2019 Highlights #1: Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, Tallies

As 2019 gets underway, here are a couple of new releases that stood out this week:

Lorelle Meets The Obsolete - De Facto

It's been about two and a half years since we last heard from the Guadalajara, Mexico, psych-rockers Lorelle Meets The Obsolete who released their 4th album "Balance" in 2016 and also played their first ever gig in Athens that October. They are back this week with their latest and greatest new record "De Facto", an album accurately described as being somewhere between the electronic experimentation of Low's "Double Negative" and "Tender Buttons"-era Broadcast. Here's the video for new song "Líneas En Hojas", one of the catchiest songs they have ever made:

Lorelle Meets The Obsolete – Líneas En Hojas

Tallies - Tallies

Another release that caught our attention this week is the debut album by Toronto, Ontario indie pop quartet Tallies. Their guitar sound brings to mind the C86 era that regularly makes a comeback every few years while their pop melodies and Sarah Cogan's singing reminded me of The Sundays (remember them?). Here's the video for "Beat the Heart", one of the album's highlights:

Tallies - Beat the Heart

Top 50 Albums of 2018

Happy New Year to all! We begin 2019, our 11th year on Blogger, with the list of our favorite albums of the past year, a well-established tradition of this blog.

Looking back to 2018, it's easy to find plenty of very good albums, but rather difficult to single out a few that stood out above all else to become the obvious choices for Albums of the Year. As a result, perhaps more than in any other year in recent memory,  we've seen a wide variety of albums claiming this distinction in the numerous year-end lists out there, and quite a few surprises. I mean who would bet a year ago that albums by relatively low profile new artists like Mitski, Idles or Shame would be topping year-end lists or that Low's experimental twelfth album would earn such a wide acclaim?

Inevitably, even our choice for Album of the Year is one that upsets the odds, as I would never have guessed back in February, even as I was selecting U.S. Girls' sixth album "In a Poem Unlimited" as the top new release of the month, that by the end of 2018 it would be our choice for the Number One of the Year.

Meg Remy's experimental pop project has come a long way since the lo-fi solo recordings she was presenting us about a decade ago. With her previous record, U.S. Girls' 4AD debut "Half Free" in 2015, we were presented with her most accomplished collection of songs up to that point. Three years later, Remy widens the musical borders of her project even further by collaborating with members of the funk and jazz instrumental collective The Cosmic Range and the end result, the hauntingly beautiful "In a Poem Unlimited", is an undoubtedly impressive accomplishment: a strong, soulful, forward thinking record where personal politics and fluid dance-pop music combine to create the perfect protest record for our current turbulent times.

Elsewhere near the top of our list, you will also find other strong female voices with Anna Calvi's third and perhaps best album to date, the magnificent "Hunter", and Courtney Barnett's sophomore full-length "Tell Me How You Really Feel", while the jangly guitars of Rolling Blackouts C.F. earn the Australian band the title of Debut Album of the Year with the majestic "Hope Downs".

Without any further ado, check out below Cool Music Central's Top 50 Albums of 2018, based, of course, on what we were able to lend a careful ear to so far. As always, a more complete version of this list will appear here, sometime in 2019.

Top 50 Albums of 2018

1.   In A Poem Unlimited - U.S. GIRLS

 

2.   Hunter - ANNA CALVI 

 

3.   Hope Downs - ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER 

4.   Tell Me How You Really Feel  - COURTNEY BARNETT 

5.   7 - BEACH HOUSE 

6.   Wide Awaaaaake! - PARQUET COURTS 

7.   Freedom's Goblin - TY SEGALL 

8.   All Nerve - THE BREEDERS 

9.   Goat Girl - GOAT GIRL 

10. Songs Of Praise - SHAME 

11. Joy As An Act Of Resistance - IDLES 

12. Endless Scroll - BODEGA 

13. Beyondless - ICEAGE 

14. Snow Bound - THE CHILLS 

15. Wanderer - CAT POWER 

16. Possible Dust Clouds - KRISTIN HERSH 

17. Aviary - JULIA HOLTER 

18. Marauder - INTERPOL 

19. Bottle It In - KURT VILE 

20. Microshift - HOOKWORMS 

21. Snares Like A Haircut - NO AGE 

22. We're Not Talking - THE GOON SAX 

23. Lush - SNAIL MAIL 

24. Vessel - FRANKIE COSMOS 

25. Be The Cowboy - MITSKI 

26. What A Time To Be Alive - SUPERCHUNK 

27. Digital Garbage - MUDHONEY 

28. Jericho Sirens - HOT SNAKES 

29. Kazuashita - GANG GANG DANCE 

30. I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life - TUNE-YARDS 

31. Double Negative - LOW 

32. And Nothing Hurt - SPIRITUALIZED

33. Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino - ARCTIC MONKEYS 

34. Dove - BELLY 

35. Sparkle Hard - STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS 

36. The Church Of Simultaneous Existence - THE AINTS! 

37. Hell-on - NEKO CASE 

38. Clean - SOCCER MOMMY 

39. Rebound - ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER 

40. Twin Fantasy - CAR SEAT HEADREST 

41. Pinned - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS 

42. Twerp Verse - SPEEDY ORTIZ 

43. Twentytwo In Blue - SUNFLOWER BEAN 

44. Little Dark Age - MGMT 

45. Always Ascending - FRANZ FERDINAND 

46. Marble Skies - DJANGO DJANGO 

47. The Official Body - SHOPPING 

48. Felt - SUUNS 

49. There's A Riot Going On - YO LA TENGO 

50. I'll Be Your Girl - THE DECEMBERISTS