New Release Album Cycle For March 14th

Includes this weeks Apple Music and Spotify playlists

Happy Sunday! Here’s this week’s new album list, along with Apple Music and Spotify playlists, and my thoughts on some of them.

Some of the artists and songs on the playlist that I won't go into depth about include the fifth album from Bambara. This post-punk band from Athens, Georgia, has a modern post-punk sound that occasionally leans heavily on Nick Cave influences. There’s quite a bit of good stuff here, especially the single “Letters from Sing Sing.”

There’s also an ambitious album from Circuit des Yeux represented. The second album from Clepatrick features a slacker indie pop sound and shows some potential. UK band Courting brings some funky swagger rock to the mix, while Fredrik Svabo offers a very appealing jazzy indie album. Kronos Quartet is featured, and Neal Francis has released a disco funk album that's a lot of fun. Say She She makes multiple appearances on the playlist.

Nels Cline of Wilco has an excellent forward-thinking jazz album out, and he also appears on the clipping. album I discuss below. Kristen Hersh is back with Throwing Muses, delivering classic Throwing Muses sound that fans will not be disappointed by. Edwyn Collins is here (remember him?) with a new album, and UK band The Loft has somehow returned with a new release.

Steven Wilson has an ambitious new album out, and terraplana delivers this week’s shoegaze track. People seem more open to music from other cultures and countries right now, thanks to the success of Mdou Moctar, LA Lom, and Hermanos Gutiérrez. Maybe Derya Yıldırım is next? We also have some nice Kurt Vile-like slacker indie from Weaving, along with ambient glitch artist Whatever The Weather.

HERE IS THE APPLE MUSIC PLAYLIST

clipping. - *Dead Channel Sky

Ugh… that was a long wait for a new album, but “horrorcore” hip-hop band clipping. is finally back, and this one goes right to the top of my best-of list for the year alongside Sharon Van Etten. I’m not sure if the “horrorcore” tag still fits, as, while this is not mainstream by any stretch of the imagination, it’s much more accessible than their past work. This is a hip-hop masterpiece, with the group exploring techno, some old soul, a bit of OutKast, and more, alongside their signature abrasive and glitchy sound.

“Keep Pushing On” blends an old soul vibe with strings, creating a surprisingly pleasant and encouraging track. “Dominator” samples the 1991 hard house cult classic of the same name by Human Resource. I used to dance to that song on stages around town in the early '90s! “Change the Channel” features Prodigy-like big beats. The album also includes old-school hip-hop rhythms, glitch elements, and contributions from Nels Cline of Wilco, along with sounds reminiscent of OutKast’s ATLiens era.

They slow down their flow to collaborate with Aesop Rock on “Welcome Home.” Throughout the album, it still sounds like clipping., but in a more accessible and perhaps even more musically evolved. This is an absolute must for hip-hop fans.

Charley Crockett - Lonesome Drifter

Charley puts out a lot of albums, and we all know this by now. He has been on one hell of a run for the past five years, creating a catalog of music that he could already play live for the rest of his life. When I go see him live, the thought of his future setlist stresses me out—he has too many good songs! He keeps doing pretty much the same thing, and aside from the somewhat throwaway “Visions of Dallas,” it always delivers.

Many country artists release tons of music without straying from their sound, from Buck Owens to George Strait and beyond. It’s the damn good songs and writing that make his albums so appealing, along with Charley’s delivery and personality. As he says in the song “Life of a Country Singer,” “I ain't the first one, or the best, but I'm different.”

For some reason, he included the song “Jamestown Ferry” again on this album. Originally done by Tanya Tucker and written by Bobby Borchers and Mack Vickery, it was featured on his 2017 album Lil G.L.’s Honky Tonk Jubilee, which was all cover songs. It’s a live favorite, so maybe he felt it deserved a spot on an album that his newer fans might actually buy.

He closes out the album with a cover of “Amarillo by Morning,” and I hope he doesn’t regret that, as people may want to hear him perform it live for much longer than he intends. When his band member Kullen Fox pulls out that horn during live performances, it’s sure to cement it as a favorite. Lonesome Drifter is another solid album in Charley’s catalog and deserves a place in your permanent collection.

Here is the album list

Anoushka Shankar – Chapter III: We Return To Light

Bambara – Birthmarks

Carly Pearce – hummingbird: no rain, no flowers

Charley Crockett – Lonesome Drifter

Circuit des Yeux – Halo on the Inside

cleopatrick – FAKE MOON

clipping. – Dead Channel Sky

Coheed and Cambria – The Father of Make Believe

Courting – Lust for Life, Or: ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’

Dead Bandit – Dead Bandit

Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa

Dorothy – The Way

Edwyn Collins-Nation Shall Speak

Envy of None – Stygian Wavz

Fredrik Svabø – Kingo’s Treat

Giovannie and The Hired Guns –Quitter

Hekla – Turnar

Intensive Care + The Body – Was I Good Enough?

Kronos Quartet and Mary Kouyoumdjian – WITNESS

LE SSERAFIM – HOT

The Loft-Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same

Museum of Light – Diviner

Neal Francis – Return to Zero

Nels Cline – Consentrik Quartet

NITE – Cult of the Serpent Sun

PARTYOF2 (fka groupthearpy.) – we owe you an explanation

Purified In Blood-Primal Pulse Thunder

Red Fang – Deep Cuts

Riki Lindhome – No Worries If Not

Rose Cousins – Conditions of Love – Vol 1

Ruby Haun-Blinking in the Wind

Ruston Kelly – Dirt Emo, Vol. 2

RWAKE – The Return Of Magik

Ricky Warwic-Blood Ties

Slow Readers Club – Out of a Dream

SOM – Let the Light In

Steve Reich – Steve Reich Collected Works

Steven Wilson – The Overview

Telepathy – Transmissions

terraplana-Natural

Throwing Muses – Moonlight Concessions

Thurnin-Harmr

tibia – See what heaven looks like now

Twin Shadow – Georgie

Warbringer – Wrath and Ruin

Warren Zeiders – Relapse, Lies, & Betrayal

Weaving – Webs

Whatever The Weather – Whatever The Weather II

Womb – One Is Always Heading Somewhere

Vokodlok-The Egregious Being

ZZ Ward – Liberation