Music Releases 12-02-22

The Beach Boys “Sail On Sailor“ collection celebrates the landmark 1972 albums “Carl And The Passions” and “Holland.” This 5LP set features a 38-page book with extensive liner notes, rare photos and more. The collection includes remastered versions of the original albums as well as a previously unreleased concert from Carnegie Hall recorded in 1972. It has 4 previously unreleased additional tracks and includes the original “Mount Vernon and Fairway” 7inch EP from Holland, unavailable on vinyl since the 1970s.

A Beautiful Noise: The Original Broadway Cast Recording of the Neil Diamond musical includes all the songs from the show produced by the legendary Bob Gaudio, marking his seventh collaboration with Neil's work. An extraordinary story is illuminated by extraordinary songs, including "Sweet Caroline," "America" and "Cracklin' Rosie," delivered by an extraordinary cast featuring Tony nominees Will Swenson, Mark Jacoby and Robyn Hurder. Good times never seemed so good.

Heroes & Villains is the long-awaited sophomore album from Metro Boomin.

On the heels of this February's Single Album, long-running punk outfit NOFX will release the appropriately named Double Album on Dec. 2 through Fat Wreck Chords. The 10-song effort was produced by Descendents leader Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, and is led by the single "Darby Crashing Your Party."

Detroit underground rap staple Quelle Chris will be releasing his new album "Deathfame" on 12/2. It features appearances by Navy Blue, Pink Siifu, Denmark Vessey, Cavalier, J Jig Cicero, and Moruf, and was largely produced by Quelle Chris himself, with contributions from Chris Keys on multiple tracks and Knxwledge on one track. 

It’s been over five years since White Lung released any new material. After their explosive break-out album in 2014, Deep Fantasy, and the critically acclaimed follow-up, Paradise, the punk band have taken a long yet unintentional hiatus. Now, singer Mish Barber-Way, guitarist Kenneth William, and drummer Anne-Marie Vassiliou are back with their latest release, Premonition. The band returned to their long-time producer Jesse Gander (Japandroids, Brutus) to bring out the primal and anthemic punk rock the band built their following on. Chaotic, bold, and hook-driven, Premonition is a whirlwind of driving drums, intricate guitar work, and no-holds-barred lyrics about motherhood, pregnancy, and growth.

In the era of Ganser’s Just Look At That Sky delightfully descended on the world in July of 2020, I do admit that I mostly did find myself looking skyward, though that looking was often colored by an ever-present anxiety. My city was coming apart and maybe your city was coming apart too. Maybe atop the buildings of your downtowns there were guns, and men in fatigues. Maybe in front of the libraries, there were tanks, maybe in front of the food banks, there were army patrols. And yet, maybe you found an album or some tunes that reflected the times, which means both everything and nothing at all now, as time fractures into small, elastic shapes, some jagged, some joyful. An album of a moment must require malleability – songs that hold several songs within them.

Ganser is back with a couple of tunes that will anchor spring through fall, a project called Nothing You Do Matters (produced by Liars' Angus Andrew) and the songs are full, biting, sweet and relentlessly tongue-in-cheek. What propels Ganser as a band, for me, is what shines here: their performance of joyful apathy so often has many other moving parts underneath that suggest that they are a band of deep caring, simply unsatisfied with the hands they’ve been dealt by the world. The dark humor seeped into the apathy is the central and most visual part of the magic trick, but it isn’t the trick itself. It is the disappearing bird or rabbit, that which returns safely to the open palm in order to distract an audience from everything else unfolding during its disappearance.

On July 1, his birthday, Sufjan Stevens is releasing two alternate versions of his song, “Fourth of July”.

Both versions were recorded around 2014: “Fourth of July (April Base Version)” was recorded in Eau Claire, WI at Justin Vernon’s April Base studio, and “Fourth of July (DUMBO Version)” was recorded in Sufjan’s old studio in Brooklyn, NY.

The original version of “Fourth of July” appeared on Sufjan’s 2015 album, Carrie & Lowell. As is (and was) his custom, Sufjan would often rework different versions of his songs while recording an album, and “Fourth of July” was no exception. (Other versions & remixes of the song were released on “The Greatest Gift” mixtape and on the “Exploding Whale” 7” single.)

These two latest versions were recently found on old hard drives. The refrain of the song, “We’re all gonna die,” invokes a meditation on human mortality and fragility, even as it acts as an anchor of stoic hope. Its solemnity invites listeners to feel comfort, connection — even joy — wrought from great pain and loss.

The song has recently had a resurgence with listeners — which may speak to a deep national grief and sense of loss.

This 7-inch in red will ship in December 2022, which marks the 10-year anniversary of Carrie’s death.

Thirty years in the making, the Backstreet Boys are back with their first ever holiday album “A Very Backstreet Christmas”! Features classics like “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, “Last Christmas”, “Silent Night” and new future holiday mainstays like “Christmas In New York,” “Together,” and “Happy Days.”

Celebrating 30 years of global hits, High Times: The Singles 1992-2006 will be made available on vinyl for the first time including the single ‘You Give Me Something’ omitted from the CD release. The “standard” vinyl format includes a double heavyweight 180g black vinyl, a gatefold sleeve and printed inner sleeves.

On it's original release in 1972, Cat Stevens' fourth LP on Island/A&M, Catch Bull At Four, spent three weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, making it his biggest album of all time. To celebrate it's 50th anniversary, Island Records/UMe will reissue a newly remastered version of Catch Bull At Four. Presented on 180-gram vinyl LP in a gatefold jacket.

This numbered limited-edition collection of 80 x 7” singles personally supervised by Paul McCartney contains:
• Recreations of 65 singles/promos using restored original artwork from 11 different countries.
• 15 singles never-before released on 7” vinyl, including 2 previously unheard demos, 1 previously unheard 7” single edit, and 1 EP.
• 1 exclusive test pressing randomly selected from the manufacturing process.
• 148-page book containing foreword from Paul, essay by Rob Sheffield, recording notes, release dates and chart information on each of the singles –
each single included is shown on the attached onsert which will be packed into each box.
All housed in a 2-piece, 4-walled, FSC-approved, redwood pine and birch plywood art crate manufactured in the United Kingdom.
81 discs in total.

BTS member Jin Is releasing a brand-new single titled “The Astronaut.” As a follow up to his Billboard-charting song “Moon,” Jin partnered with Coldplay for the song production. This release will be available in two versions. Contents include a CD, Outcover, Booklet (84 pages), Lyric Card, Folded Poster, Postcard, Seal Sticker (random 2 of 8), Graphic Sticker, and Photo Card (random 1 of 2). Product Dimensions: 150 x 150 x 20 mm.

F. S. Blumm and Nils Frahm have confirmed details of their fourth collaborative album, 2X1=4, which will be released on September 3, 2021, by LEITER, the new label formed by Frahm and his manager, Felix Grimm in cooperation with BMG. The seven-track album finds the duo unexpectedly exploring a dub-influenced universe, though in truth it's one already familiar to both. F. S. Blumm, for instance, is cofounder of Quasi Dub Development, whose 2014 album, Little-Twister vs Stiff-Neck, featured Lady Ann and Lee Scratch Perry, while Frahm's music - not least 2018's All Melody - has occasionally betrayed a fondness for the form's associated studio techniques, though he concedes wryly that his approach has always been "a little bit more German" than his influences.

Year of the Dark Horse is the eighth studio album from White Buffalo (aka singer/songwriter Jake Smith). The Oregon-born, Southern California-bred artist completed the record with GRAMMY-winning producer Jay Joyce at his Neon Cross studio in Nashville. From highlights "Kingdom for a Fool," "52 Card Pickup," and "Donna," the album offers an invigorating and wonderfully unpredictable listen. Gray LP.

20th Anniversary Edition of the Grammy Award Winning album by the King of Rock ‘n’ Soul - the great Solomon Burke. Newly mastered and includes the bonus track “I Need A Holiday”. The newly packaged booklet includes exclusive photos from the recording session and new liner notes.

Recorded live in the studio in a raw, organic style by Joe Henry, the album features new compositions by writers and artists including Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Nick Lowe, Brian Wilson, Joe Henry and Dan Penn, all of whom credit Solomon with deeply influencing their work. None of these songs have ever been released commercially before now, and Solomon makes each of them his own with his dynamic delivery.

Jorma Kaukonen (later of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna) met a singer named Janis Joplin at a hootenanny in San Jose, California, in the fall of 1962. Over the following years, Janis would call on Jorma to accompany her at gigs. As they continued to play together, the Bay Area was changing musically and developing into the legendary San Francisco scene to which both Janis and Jorma would be integral. During a rehearsal for a show in North Beach, Jorma started his reel-to-reel machine to capture what they were working on. For decades, this recording was the stuff of legend, with inferior, multi-generational transfers making their way through select collector's circles. Now, for the very first time, it is available officially, with the blessing and cooperation of both the Janis Joplin Estate and Jorma Kaukonen. The Legendary Typewriter Tape: 6/25/64 Jorma's House contains this legendary recording, featuring Restoration and Mastering from acclaimed, Grammy®-winner Michael Graves. The tracks include Joplin on vocals, Kaukonen on guitar, and Jorma's wife Margareta typing away intermittently in the background. This may have just been a rehearsal, but it is so much more. Featuring Joplin originals, as well as blues classics, The Legendary Typewriter Tape is an intimate glimpse into two major artists at the beginnings of what would become highly influential careers. As Jorma says in his liner notes: "This is indeed a window into a simpler time when the music truly was everything."

Following on from the success of 2020's deluxe reissue of 'Vienna', Chrysalis Records are proud to release a 40th Anniversary of the bands second album with Midge Ure, 'Rage In Eden'. Originally released in October 1981 and like the bands previous two albums, 'Rage In Eden' was produced by Conny Plank (Kraftwerk, Can, Neu!), this time recorded at Conny's studio in Cologne over a 3-month period during the summer of '81. The album features hit singles The Thin Wall and The Voice. The album reached number 4 in the UK charts.

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Esperanza Spalding’s GRAMMY Award winning 4th album, Radio Music Society comes this 180-gram Gatefold 2-LP edition. Featuring the singles “Black Gold” and “Radio Song”, Radio Music Society earned Spalding her second GRAMMY Award, for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and is a companion to her album Chamber Music Society. The album features guests including Q Tip, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano, Lionel Loueke, Lalah Hathaway, Gretchen Parlato and more.

Supercell’s Live Vol. 1 encapsulates the adventurous spirit of the trio, letting the music develop naturally. Original compositions sit comfortably alongside standards and modern pop tunes, a mixture of intricate arrangements and spontaneous explorations. Playing for a supportive audience at an artist-friendly space, Adam Meckler, Brian Courage and Andrew Green dig into a wide dynamic range, reaching a quiet vulnerability that one might not expect to hear from a chordless trumpet trio.

This is Archeology, the astounding debut album from Montparnasse Musique is wrapped in striking visuals and finds the live rhythms of traditional and urban Africa meeting the programmed beats of modern Johannesburg. It features Congolese musicians including singer/multi-instrumentalist Cubain Kabeya, singers Muambuyi, and Mengu Waku, and guitarist Mopero Mupemba, variously from Congotronics acts such as Mbongwana Star, Konono No1, and the Kasai Allstars. (Real World Records)

First ever vinyl version of the final Queensr˙che release to feature founding vocalist Geoff Tate! This album features the heaviest R˙che ever, including original vocalist Geoff Tate, bassist Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot) and drummer Simon Wright (AC/DC) PLUS guest appearances by K.K. Downing (Judas Priest), Chris Poland (Megadeth), Ty Tabor (King's X), Paul Bostaph (Slayer), Brad Gillis (Night Ranger), Dave Meniketti (Y&T) and more! This deluxe version includes 4 re-cut classics as well as highlights from the remix and rearrangement done by producer Billy Sherwood!

Revered indie trio The Staves' debut album 'Dead & Born & Grown' is celebrating its 10th Anniversary and to celebrate the album will be released on recycled coloured vinyl.

Produced with Glyn and Ethan Johns, who have worked with a plethora of artists from past and present between them, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to The Vaccines and Kings of Leon, 'Dead & Born & Grown' saw the Staveley-Taylor sisters receive huge critical acclaim and set them on the way to becoming on of the UK’s most celebrated indie exports finding huge acclaim throughout the world.

This special-edition recycled vinyl is made from 100% PVC recycled material, using waste material and clippings from previous record pressings. The result is that each vinyl is unique with its own colour combination.

Dawn of a new sound -  AMBERIAN DAWN shine with a metal tribute to ABBA! Continuing their legacy from the previous album, Looking For You (2020), AMBERIAN DAWN have assembled to follow their passion and take a chance at being the dawn of a new era for the metal genre with Take A Chance – A Metal Tribute to ABBA, to be released December 2, 2022 via Napalm Records. Introducing ABBA-Metal, the band does not shy away from experimenting with genres while still staying true to their metal origins. Earworms combined with characteristic AMBERIAN DAWN elements truly metallicize the ABBA legacy and transform it into a metal experience like never heard before. With skillfully implemented synthesizers to create vintage sounding keys, guitar riffs and vocalist Capri’s angelic voice, the original lines immerse perfectly with rocking instrumentals. Dashing drums ensure a high-paced experience that expresses their band identity without losing the catchy ABBA-reminiscent keyboards, renowned lyrics and nostalgic feeling of the original. Including evergreens like “Mamma Mia” and “Super Trouper”, AMBERIAN DAWN enchants with a variety of tracks. Representing a wide array of ABBA songs from high energy to moving metal ballads like “Like An Angel Walking Through My Room”, the band delivers astounding ABBA-Metal to a broad audience. So Take A Chance on AMBERIAN DAWN’s new album and get lost anew in the glorious new metal world of ABBA.