While we're all waiting for the warm weather to officially take hold (we've been given an enticingly cruel taste of it here in Northwest), Vampire Weekend has created the perfect summer album to fuel your anticipation. At times wistfully nostalgic, percolatingly peppy and even fiercely energetic, Modern Vampires of the City is undoubtedly one of the best albums of the year so far. KEXP Music Director, Don Yates, calls the NYC band's third album their "most mature and musically adventurous release to date" with its "impressive variety of beautifully crafted, intricately detailed songs with imaginative arrangements [...]
It's funny that while we're getting some of our brightest days right now here in Seattle, some of this week's most exciting new releases are some of the year's darkest. Buzzy new British band Savages tops this week's list with one of the best albums so far of the year. Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls their debut"a powerful set of dark, aggressive post-punk, with a lean, brutally efficient sound combining squalling, wiry guitar lines, taut rhythms, seething vocals and boldly uncompromising lyrics of self-empowerment." Trust us, you'll be hearing a lot of this band in the months [...]
Whether you're feeling moody or in a mood to dance, you'll find what you need among this week's new releases. Topping the list of must-buys in record stores today comes from U.K. trio Daughter , who were a standout during our CMJ broadcast last year with their highly emotive and engaging performance . Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls If You Leave , their anticipated debut of "an often-moving set of dark, goth-tinged folk-pop," for its "haunting, atmospheric sound featuring melancholy reverbed guitars, stark percussion, smoky vocals and lovelorn lyrics." For something a bit more hip-shaking [...]
We hope you had a successful and fruitful Record Store Day this past Saturday and that you've added many cherished discs to your vinyl collection. This growing movement has been a needed boon for ailing record stores as much as it's been a treasure trove for music fans worldwide. We'd love to hear what your highlights of the day were, but we're also eager to remind you that Record Store Day isn't meant to be merely one three-hundred-sixty-fifth of the year. Record Store Day should be any day or every day, and each Tuesday of the week, there are more [...]
I hate to break it to you, but you're gonna be heading toward Record Store Day this Saturday at a deficit. Why? Because there are too many excellent new releases coming out today that you'll want to pick up right now. First and foremost: the latest from Yeah Yeah Yeahs , whose fourth album our Music Director, Don Yates, hails as "their most musically adventurous and stylistically diverse, ranging from playful, unhinged rockers to buzzing, rhythm-driven electro-pop and moody, atmospheric ballads while also incorporating elements from a variety of other styles including hip hop, gospel and roots [...]
To call James Blake 's second LP "greatly anticipated" may be a bit of an overstatement, but only because it's been hardly two months that we've even known that a new album would be available some time this year. Despite the short time to process the news, fans certainly were eager to hear what the angelically voiced young songwriter would do. To their delight, the album's first single, "Retrograde," took a rather forward looking view on sounds of the romantic 802s (do I hear a trace of Talk Talk's "It's My Life"?) and 602s soul, as filtered through electronic [...]
Record Store Day may yet be three weeks away, but you'll find a ton of great new music at your favorite record shop today, including the latest from The Black Angels . KEXP listeners have long been fans of this Austin band, and in fact we even had them perform in-studio before the release of their very first album back in 2006 (they even sent us a lovely cow skull as a thank you, and it still hangs inside our front door!). Now, seven years later, The Black Angels return with their fourth LP, Indigo [...]
This week's short list of new releases sees some old names returning with fresh new sounds. 802s electronic alternative icons Depeche Mode return with their thirteenth studio album, perhaps their strongest effort yet in this post Y2K world. Delta Machine contains the familiar tropes: dark eroticism featuring Dave Gahan's swooningly romantic lyrics amid swirling keys and syncopated if occasionally aggressive electric percussion. Though the band has been stripped down to the trio of Gahan, principle songwriter Martin Gore, and bassist Andy Fletcher, the new album is richly produced by Ben Hillier and adeptly mixed by Flood. [...]
It should be no surprise that several of the artists topping this week's list of new releases were making appearances at SXSW last week, but two of them were also previewing their new songs live on KEXP during our broadcast from Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop. Billy Bragg and Palma Violets both gave memorable performances. Bragg, the veteran songwriter, worked with veteran producer Joe Henry (an accomplished songwriter himself) on his 13th studio album, and first in five years, which our Music Director, Don Yates, says that Tooth and Nail "is steeped in world-weary melancholy [...]
It's a short list of new releases this week, as all eyes and ears are on the SXSW festival, but there are a few key releases you'll want to pick up in stores today. First and foremost, the latest from David Bowie , whose first album in ten years is not only a surprise to all David Bowie listeners and fans alike but is destined to become one of his more memorable ones. In fact, our Music Director, Don Yates says that it "hearkens back to some his classic ‘70s and early ‘80s recordings, and while it’s doesn’t quite [...]
Two Seattle bands top this week's list of new releases. Since 20112s full-length No Witch , The Cave Singers added Blood Brothers/Past Lives/Fleet Foxes (among others) member Morgan Henderson to their lineup and teamed up with Fleet Foxes producer Phil Ek for their fourth LP Naomi out on Jagjaguwar . Our Music Director Don Yates points to Ek's introduction bringing a "brighter, more easy-flowing sound" to a new batch of "smartly crafted songs that never overstay their welcome." They're joined atop the list by fellow Seattle band Hey Marseilles , whose [...]
Radiohead fans are tweaking for today's release of Thom Yorke's new project, Atoms for Peace . The group - featuring producer Nigel Godrich on keys, Ultraista's Joey Waronker on drums, Flea on bass, and Forro in the Dark founder Mauro Refosco on additional percussion - formed originally as the backing band to tour Yorke's solo album, The Eraser , back in 2009, but they gelled so completely that they returned for a masterful and moody new LP. Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls AMOK "an adventurous set of hypnotic electro-rock with densely textured, intricately constructed songs [...]
It's a big week for new releases, so let's get right into it. First thing on your shopping list: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ' latest, Push The Sky Away . Fifteen albums in and Cave & Co. still create unique stunners. As our Music Director, Don Yates, says, it's "a masterful set of brooding, minimalist rock comprised of mostly slow-burning songs with rumbling guitars, mournful keyboards, eerie violin loops, stately rhythms and dark, evocative lyrics." So not so much the heavy rock of his Grinderman project, but if you're a fan if his ballads (and the [...]
This week's list of new releases may be one of the shortest of the year, but it's also topped by one of the year's most anticipated scorchers. Foals rain Holy Fire with their third release, treating fans to a big new sound to match their big new label. Their third release, but first on Warner Bros., is a surfeit of sound, as the band trades the sharpened elbows for gloved fists. Thankfully, the bigger production can't hide Foals' math rock origins, as you'll hear their familiar cascading guitar fingering on songs like "Milk & Black Spiders" [...]
Damn, 2013, you are looking good! You just keep hitting us week after week with one killer list of new releases after another. This week, there's no way we're not going to run out to pick up the latest from long-time KEXP favorite Frightened Rabbit . As if there was any doubt that this would land high on KEXP's regular rotation, our Music Director, Don Yates, commended it for being "another emotionally stirring set of anthemic folk-pop, with a huge, densely produced sound combining reverberating guitars and urgent rhythms with Scott Hutchinson’s impassioned vocals and dark, brutally honest lyrics." [...]
2013 continues to bolt out of the gate with another solid week of new releases. With the long awaited followup to their well-received 2009 debut, Local Natives top our list of must-buys. Hummingbird finds the Silver Lake, Los Angeles, group pushing into new territories of song structure, challenging listeners while still enticing them the same rich harmonies that made them an initial success. Another anticipated followup out this week is the seventh studio album by Canadian twins Tegan & Sara , whose Heartthrob is an well-produced, achingly romantic collection of indie pop. [...]
Finally! With all of these great new releases, 2013 is coming on with a roar. Well, maybe not The Big Roar this time, but rather Wolf's Law , the new and much anticipated second album from The Joy Formidable . Fans wondering how the Welsh trio could possibly follow up their hard hitting debut after such a meteoric rise can rest assured that the emotive wallop of their sophomore release is just as strong. In fact, the album's title itself refers to a bone's ability to get stronger after it heals from a trauma, a fitting [...]
Things are picking up! In the world of new releases, that is. 2013 has fully arrived, and as you head back to work, school or whatever your day-to-day, it's time to put record shopping back into your regular routine. The shelves of your favorite record shops are now being lined with anticipated new LPs, like the latest from Yo La Tengo , whose 13th LP of beautifully crafted autumnal indie-pop, our Music Director, Don Yates, describes as "warm, low-key and inviting, though also sonically adventurous, seamlessly blending expansive psych-rock, motorik German prog, trippy folk-rock, orchestral pop and more on [...]
2013 may not be starting off with much musical gusto, but that doesn't mean there aren't some interesting new releases to be found in stores this week. Among a small handful is the latest release from Broadcast . No, it's not exactly a new album but rather a soundtrack begun before the untimely death of vocalist Trish Keenan in 2011. Written for the film Berberian Sound Studio , the fictional story of British sound recordist who mentally cracks up while working on an Italian horror flick, Broadcast's soundtrack is full of brief darkly atmospheric instrumental pieces, many less [...]
There are always one or two potentially great albums that get snuck in at the eleventh hour (or twelfth month), just as music critics and fans are putting together their year end lists. ( Did you vote for yours yet, by the way?) Our Music Director, Don Yates, couldn't wait to hear the new Big Boi album in hopes that it might be one of his favorites. If you're a fan of Big Boi's work with Ou OutKast, you'll want to check this out, especially as it features on several tracks contributions by Phantogram, as well as [...]
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