New Release Album Cycle For 11-8-2024
List of albums released, my thoughts on some and this weeks playlist.
Here is this weeks list of albums and you can check out the playlist HERE. Follow it as it updates every Sunday. I added a few songs to the playlist from albums that I did not write about. They are things I don’t have a lot of thoughts on, but I think some of you might find them interesting. We are starting to wind down for the year. There may be another big week or two coming up, and certainly a few big releases, but it will get sparse as we get into December. There may be a couple of weeks coming up next month that we will not post on Sunday. So, just an FYI. If there is even a half dozen decent things we will though.
Bad Plus-Complex Emotions-The Bad Plus kind of allowed me to veer further into jazz when I was younger. Sure, I listened to Miles, Coltrane, Monk and such, but never much beyond that. Their unique jazz covers that came out on 2003’s These Are The Vistas showed exposed me to current and new possibilities with jazz. They were doing Nirvana and Radiohead and it was pretty cool. I have listened to them off and on over the years, but never really followed them. It seems as if they have lost a member and gained a couple members and expanded their sound. They sound more like an average traditional jazz band all fleshed out and not as sparse as they once felt. This album is a perfectly nice listen, and pretty good, but it sure doesn’t make me excited as they once did.
Capitol-Sounds Like A Place-I think this is the Canadian bands second album and I like it a lot, but I like each song individually more than as an album. It’s kind of mess and all over the place as an album. Sometimes they swing for a The Cure homerun, and sometimes maybe more Red House Painters or a dark ambient experimental project, or a current dark wave band. Sometimes they just really hit it out of the park like on the song “Your Heart Is Everywhere”, which is a mess in itself, but it got inside me.
GLOK/Timothy Clerkin-Alliance-So GLOK is Andy Bell from Ride who puts out these wonderful electronic albums under that name. They are for the most part very pleasant, very listenable and there are some interesting experiments and collabs along the way. He also does remixes under this name. This is an album with Timothy Clerkin who I am unfamiliar with, but it seems he is an electronic producer and may have a label. Not sure what extra he brings to this as it sounds like something that Andy Bell would do under this name. They bring in Du Blonde for vocals on “Nothing Ever” which is the least interesting song on here. This project works better without vocals. The album is a great listen in the Broadcast vein. Check it out.
Lazy Day-Open The Door-debut album from London singer-songwriter. They have put out a very solid album of straight forward indie-pop songs. Not reinventing the wheel here, not trying to be different, just writing appealing songwriter pop songs that are mostly upbeats and it works. Songs like “Getting Good” and “Bright Yellow” will hold up on any best of 2024 playlist that you come back and revisit a decade from now. On songs like “Concrete” they flex their musical and compositional muscles a bit and show what could be coming down the pike from them as an artist, and honestly I would not be opposed to more of that.
Primal Scream-Come Ahead-I am a huge Primal Scream fan. Their output from 1991 through 2002 was as good as anyone at that time, and way more head turning. The amount of extreme style changes they went through in that decade are mind blowing. After that they put out albums that were fine, with moments. This is the first album in eight years, and a little bit of the “fine” albums but maybe a little better than most of the last two decades of material. They are going for a funk thing, and some of this will throw you back to some of the bands earlier material, especially Don’t Give Up, but it never becomes as vital as that album. Primal Scream fans will find plenty to listen to here.
Ab-Soul – Soul Burger
A$AP Ferg – Darold
Aziya – BAMBI
BabyTron – Tronicles
Bad Astronaut – Untethered
Bananagun – Why is the Colour of the Sky?
The Bad Plus – Complex Emotions
The Body – The Crying Out of Things
BoyWithUke – Burnout
Capitol – Sounds Like a Place
The Cowsills – Global
Denise Julia – Sweet Nothings (Chapter 2)
FINNEAS – Disclaimer (Apple TV+ Original Series Soundtrack)
Freak Slug – I Blow Out Big Candles
GLOK (Ride’s Andy Bell) & Timothy Clerkin – Alliance
Lazy Day – Open the Door
Leifur James – Magic Seeds
The Magician – Voyage
Neal Morse & The Resonance – No Hill For A Climber
Our Girl – The Good Kind
Primal Scream – Come Ahead
Shordie Shordie – Breath of Fresh Air
Skillet – Revolution
The Slaps – Mudglimmer
SoftSun – Daylight in the Dark
SÓLSTAFIR – Hin helga kvöl
Spyro Gyra – Jubilee
State Champs – State Champs
Steve Perry – The Season 3
Will Clarke – Midnight Mass
XG – AWE
Yonder Mountain String Band – Nowhere Next
Yoo Doo Right – From The Heights Of Our Pastureland