New Releases: March 2015

Round-up of the most interesting albums, singles and EPs released in March 2015:

Albums

COURTNEY BARNETT - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
LOWER DENS - Escape From Evil
LONELADY - Hinterland
PURITY RING - Another Eternity
THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION - Freedom Tower: No Wave Dance Party 2015
MODEST MOUSE - Strangers To Ourselves
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE - Kintsugi
MOON DUO - Shadow of the Sun
THE SOFT MOON - Deeper
LAURA MARLING - Short Movie
SUFJAN STEVENS - Carrie & Lowell
MATTHEW E WHITE - Fresh Blood
KENDRICK LAMAR - To Pimp a Butterfly
CANNIBAL OX - Blade of the Ronin
DEATH GRIPS - The Powers That B
THE GO! TEAM - The Scene Between
CHASTITY BELT - Time to Go Home
THE CRIBS - For All My Sisters
SWERVEDRIVER - I Wasn't Born To Lose You
LIGHTNING BOLT - Fantasy Empire
GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress
OF MONTREAL - Aureate Gloom
JANE WEAVER - The Silver Globe
WILL BUTLER - Policy
COLD WAR KIDS - Hold My Home
TWIN SHADOW - Eclipse
THE MONOCHROME SET - Spaces Everywhere
MINI MANSIONS - The Great Pretenders
PILE - You're Better Than This
EULA - Wool Sucking
PEOPLE OF THE NORTH - Era of Manifestations
CHILDREN OF LEIR - Children of Leir
FOLLAKZOID - III
GANG OF FOUR - What Happens Next
NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS - Chasing Yesterday
JLIN - Dark Energy

Singles & EPs

MODEST MOUSE - The Ground Walks, With Time In A Box / The Best Room
CROCODILES - Crybaby Demon
JACK WHITE - That Black Bat Licorice / Blue Light, Red light (Someone's There)
JACCO GARDNER - Find Yourself
PETER DOHERTY - Flags of the Old Regime
BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY - New Black Rich (Tusks)
GIRLPOOL - Chinatown
THE VACANT LOTS - Remixes
JANE WEAVER / TENDER PREY - Don't Take My Soul / Undisputed Heavyweight Champion Of My Heart
MINI MANSIONS - Freakout!
LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT - Insecurity / Water and Wine 
CLARK - Flame Rave EP
LOTIC - Heterocetera EP
MOONLANDINGZ - Moonlandingz EP
CHARLOTTE&MAGON - Egg Dance EP

Jack White - That Black Bat Licorice

New Releases: November - December 2014

We are just a week away from the start of the countdown of our favorite Albums and Tracks of the Year. Meanwhile, let's have a look at some of the latest and most interesting new releases of 2014:

Albums

Seeds

TV ON THE RADIO - Seeds
PARKAY QUARTS - Content Nausea
HOOKWORMS - The Hum
2:54 - The Other I
ARIEL PINK - Pom Pom
DEERHOOF - La Isla Bonita
BO NINGEN AND SAVAGES - Words to the Blind
GIRLPOOL - Girlpool
THE WHARVES - At Bay
VIRGINIA WING - Measures of Joy
CULT OF YOUTH - Final Days
DIRTY BEACHES - Stateless
I LOVE YOU BUT I'VE CHOSEN DARKNESS - Dust
MARIACHI EL BRONX - Mariachi El Bronx 3
FOO FIGHTERS - Sonic Highways
SMASHING PUMPKINS - Monuments to an Elegy
THE SAINTS - King of the Sun / King of the Midnight Sun
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - I'm in Your Mind Fuzz
MAGIC CASTLES - Sky Sounds
SWEARING AT MOTORISTS - While Laughing, The Joker Tells The Truth
THE VOYEURS - Rhubarb Rhubarb
SUPERFOOD - Don't Say That
SMOKE FAIRIES - Wild Winter
THE POPGUNS - Pop Fiction
MY DRUNKEN HAZE - My Drunken Haze
DEAN BLUNT - Black Metal
CLARK - Clark
ARCA - Xen
ROYKSOPP - The Inevitable End
WU-TANG CLAN - A Better Tomorrow

Singles & EPs

Oxygen EP

SWANS - Oxygen EP

50 FOOT WAVE - Night Blooming EP
JACK WHITE - Would You Fight For My Love? / Parallel

SLEATER-KINNEY - Surface Envy

LONELADY - Groove it Out
ST VINCENT - Pieta / Sparrow
THE BLACK ANGELS / SONIC JESUS - Molly Moves My Generation / Lost Reprise

ROYAL BLOOD - Ten Tonne Skeleton

MOGWAI - Music Industry 3 Fitness Industry 1 EP
SEPTEMBER GIRLS - Veneer EP 

SLEAFORD MODS - Tiswas EP
THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - +- EP
THE DECEMBERISTS - Make You Better
SUN KIL MOON - The Possum
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY - Quails and Dumplings
KIM DEAL - Biker Gone
BODY / HEAD - The Show is Over
JOANNA GRUESOME / PERFECT PUSSY - Astonishing Adventures EP
THE COATHANGERS / THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES - Sex Beat / Energy Drink and the Long Walk Home
FUCKED UP - Paper the House
FUCKED UP - Sun Glass
BUZZCOCKS - It's Not You
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - Cellophane
KASABIAN - Stevie
THE CHARLATANS - So Oh
NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS - In the Heat of the Moment
THE VOYEURS - Stunners

GET WELL SOON - The Lufthansa Heist EP
GET WELL SOON - Henry - The Infinite Desire of Henrich Zeppelin Alfred Von Nullmeyer EP
GET WELL SOON - The Greatest Hits EP
DRACULA LEGS - Sand to the Beach / Death of Age
WOLF GIRL - Mama's Boy

LAWRENCE LINDELL - Baobab

Jack White - Would You Fight For My Love?

The Best Albums of 2014 so far - Part 2

Our A to Z of the 40 best album we've listened to in the first half of the year continues: sample tracks from Hospitality, HTRK, Jack White, Kevin Drew, La Sera, Liars, Marissa Nadler, Metronomy, Parquet Courts and Pixies below and make sure to check out their albums in full.

The A-Z of the first half of 2014 (pt.2):

• HOSPITALITY - Trouble

• HTRK - Psychic 9-5 Club

• JACK WHITE - Lazaretto

• KEVIN DREW - Darlings

• LA SERA - Hour of the Dawn

• LIARS - Mess

• MARISSA NADLER - July

• METRONOMY - Love Letters

• PARQUET COURTS - Sunbathing Animal

• PIXIES - Indie Cindy

Go to Part 1 of our A-Z of the first half of 2014.

Listening Habits 05-06.12

Half-time for 2012 and just before we make up our mind and add our two cents on the trending subject of the best albums and singles of the year so far, here are the lists with our favorites for May and June 2012:

 

No surprises at the top of our albums list as the top two positions are taken up by perhaps the two most anticipated rock releases of the first half of the year that both manage to live up to the high expectations.

Beach House have admirably taken up the challenge of following up "Teen Dream", one of 2010's highlights, by delivering the glowing "Bloom", a majestic record that may prove to be the duo's finest hour yet.

Jack White finally made the decision to go solo with "Blunderbuss" (perhaps as a way of getting closure from The White Stripes?) and offers a record that musically may be a little more laid back than his previous work but is no less striking, exhibiting once again his admirable skill of making music firmly rooted in rock tradition that sounds fresh and forward-thinking.

El-P once again delivers the goods with "Cancer 4 Cure", one of hip hop's best releases of the year, while Londoners 2:54, one of the names in our shortlist of 2012's most promising new acts, make their spectacular debut with their self-titled album (Friends from the same shortlist also made it in the Top 10 although their "Manifest!" does not offer another track as catchy as "I'm his Girl", one of last year's best singles). The Top 5 is completed with "Kill For Love", Chromatics' cinematic synth pop epic, while we also highly recommend Poliça's debut "Give You The Ghost", a record that masterfully combines R'n'B, dub, electronica and indie rock.

Top 20 Albums

1.   Bloom - BEACH HOUSE
2.   Blunderbuss - JACK WHITE
3.   Cancer 4 Cure - EL-P
4.   2:54 - 2:54
5.   Kill For Love - CHROMATICS
6.   Give You The Ghost - POLIÇA
7.   Between The Times And The Tides - LEE RANALDO
8.   Sweet Heart, Sweet Light - SPIRITUALIZED
9.   Europe - ALLO DARLIN'
10. Manifest! - FRIENDS
11. The Only Place - BEST COAST
12. Nootropics - LOWER DENS
13. Interstellar - FRANKIE ROSE
14. Sees the Light - LA SERA
15. Master Of My Make - Believe - SANTIGOLD
16. Quarantine - LAUREL HALO
17. The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends - THE FLAMING LIPS
18. EP's 1988 - 1991 - MY BLOODY VALENTINE
19. Tally Ho! Flying Nun's Greatest Bits - VARIOUS ARTISTS
20. Experimental Imagination - LAw

Top 20 Tracks

1.   Ruin - CAT POWER
2.   Fineshrine - PURITY RING
3.   Creeping - 2:54
4.   Wild - BEACH HOUSE
5.   Love Interruption - JACK WHITE
6.   Drones Over Bklyn - EL-P
7.   Night Swim - FRANKIE ROSE
8.   Youth Without Youth - METRIC
9.   Mind Control - FRIENDS
10. The Only Place - BEST COAST
11. Capricornia - ALLO DARLIN'
12. I Am What I Am - SPIRITUALIZED
13. Angles - LEE RANALDO
14.  Into The Black - CHROMATICS
15. I See My Mother - POLIÇA
16. Disparate Youth - SANTIGOLD
17. Drive On - LA SERA
18. Groundhog Day - CORIN TUCKER BAND
19. Candy - LOWER DENS
20. Class Clown Spots a UFO - GUIDED BY VOICES

Cat Power, sitting pretty at the top of our Top 20 Tracks list with comeback single "Ruin"

(mp3s via Stereogum and Consequence Of Sound)