Adam Hardy did an excellent job filling in for me while I was away, hipping folks to new releases that dropped March 17 and 24, respectively. I have returned to give you my usual curated breakdown of albums for the week of March 31, with hyperlinks, audio, video and info for your media consumption pleasure; a more comprehensive list at the bottom of the post. Listen, watch, enjoy...Death Cab for Cutie, Kintsugi (Atlantic)
The first new outing from Death Cab since 2011 but last album with founding member Chris Walla, who is leaving the beloved Washington indie rock band after 17 years.
Death Grips, The Powers That B (Third Worlds/Harvest Records)
The swan song from the controversial experimental hip hop group is actually a 'double' album featuring niggas on the moon (disc one) and Jenny Death (disc two).
Hannah Cohen, Pleasure Boy (Bella Union)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress (Constellation)
Hollywood Undead, Day Of The Dead (Interscope)
Jodeci, The Past, The Present, The Future (Epic)
The super influential R&B quartet best known for '90s era odes like "Come and Talk to Me" have reunited and deliver their first new studio album in a decade.
Simon Joyner, Grass, Branch & Bone (Woodsist)
There is something very Bob Dylan-esque about the vocal quality of Omaha-bred Americana singer-songwriter Simon Joyner, a twangy, nasal-brassy scratchiness that is damn comforting and warm. Take a listen to the lovely "You Got Under My Skin" below.
Lost Boy?, Canned (Papercup Music)
Full album stream here.
Lower Dens, Escape From Evil (Ribbon Records)
Marching Church, This World Is Not Enough (Sacred Bones)
The side project of Iceage's Elias Bender Rønnenfelt.
The Prodigy, The Day Is My Enemy (Warner Bros.)
The UK's righteous electronic music group isn't breaking any new sonic ground with their sixth and latest studio LP, and first new outing since 2009. At least latest single "Wild Frontier" has a pretty rad video. Love me some stop motion animation...
Ringo Starr, Postcards From Paradise (UMe)
The prolific former Beatle presents his 18th solo studio LP, though the first to feature a song written and recorded by Ringo Starr and his current All Starr Band (Steve Lukather, Todd Rundgren, Gregg Rolie, Richard Page, Wally Palmer and Gregg Bissonette). Among the special guests are Joe Walsh, Richard Marx, Amy Keys, Peter Frampton and Glen Ballard.
Boz Scaggs, A Fool To Care (429 Records)
Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty)
The Staves, If I Was (Nonesuch)
Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) produced this record by The Staves, a folk rock trio originally from Englad made up of Staveley-Taylor sisters Emily (vocals), Jessica (vocals, guitar), and Camilla (vocals, ukulele). The album was recorded in Vernon's Wisconsin studios when he recorded 2012 self-titled Bon Iver album. This is their second album, but debut on Nonesuch. Video for "Black and White" below...
Three Days Grace, Human (RCA)
Tree Machines, Tree Machines EP (self-relase)
Underworld vs Heller & Farley, Baby Wants to Ride (Junior Boy's Own)
A tribute to Frankie Knucks on the one-year anniversary of his death; this is a single, not a full album...
Wale, The Album About Nothing (Atlantic Urban)
Ryley Walker, Primrose Green (Dead Oceans)
Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts, Blaster (Softdrive Records)
Not sure how I feel about a huge name artist running a Pledge Music campaign to put out his solo record, no matter how it is framed as a fan appreciation/interaction thing. But at least he's doing it indie, on his own label, and I hope for his sake Blaster — produced by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Rick Parker — is awesome and that he makes a boatload of cash on it and that he doesn't stick that boatload of cash into a syringe. Weiland described first single “White Lightening” as “a musical homage to the film Lawless (starring Tom Hardy)… It's got a sludgy, bluesy stomp from start to finish yet there are ethereal elements that take you on a journey.” Clip below.
William Elliott Whitmore, Radium Death (Anti-)
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
AVAN LAVA, Make It Real EP
Bohannon, Black Cross. Black Shield
Bouquet, In a Dream EP
Boxed In, Boxed In
Clip Art, Culler
Dead Sara, Pleasure to Meet You
Föllakzoid, III
Katatonia, Sanctitude
Jesse Malin, New York Before The War
Missy Mazzoli, Vespers For A New Dark Age
Sarah Gayle Meech, Tennessee Love Song
Nightwish, Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Jerry Paper, Carousel
Plain White T's, American Nights
Darius Rucker, Southern Style
Ron Sexsmith, Carousel One
The Sonics, This Is The Sonics
The Soft Moon, Deeper
Speak Low If You Speak, Love Everything But What You Need
Temple Invisible, Enter_ EP
UFOmammut, Ecate