It’s another one of those days: There have been so many big album announcements in the past 24 hours that it’s impossible to know which one to highlight here.
Do I lead with my personal favourite: Frank Zappa’s Halloween 81, a six-disc box with more than 70 previously unreleased songs from a trio of New York Palladium shows with his crack band featuring guitarist Steve Vai? Or do I go with Hey Clockface, the 31st studio album from the one and only Elvis Costello, who recorded the disc in New York, Helsinki and Paris, with the latter session featuring an orchestral quintet? Should I talk about Nas’s imminent King’s Disease album dropping next week? Or should I clue you in to James Williamson and Deniz Tek’s Two On One, a collaboration by the legendary guitarists of The Stooges and Radio Birdman? Should I make fun of William Shatner’s upcoming album The Blues, where he teams up with (or at least ponies up for appearances by) guitar heroes from Ritchie Blackmore and Pat Travers to Sonny Landreth and James Burton? Is there even any point in mentioning the new Bahamas album and that upcoming Damned EP? Or should I just throw my hands in the air, wave ’em like I just don’t care, run the latest crop of titles, and remind you to check the Upcoming Releases page for all the titles coming down the line? You know what? That last one makes the most sense to me right now. Let’s go with that.
August 21
Deep Heads | Vibration Exploration EP
Duran Duran feat. Andy Wickett | Dreaming Of Your Cars – 1979 Demos Part 2 EP
Nas | King’s Disease
Aidan O’Rourke | 365 Complete Works 10
August 28
Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti | Poison Fruit Vinyl
Luna’s Call | Void
Milton Nascimento | Último Trem Vinyl
Ra Ra Riot | The Orchard 10th Anniversary Edition
Jaden Smith | Cool Tapes Vol. 3
Mark Tester | Super Hiss
September 4
Naked Roommate | Do The Duvet
September 11
Mickey Guyton | Bridges EP
September 18
Baby Rose | To Myself Deluxe
Keaton Dekker | The Unwelcome Series EP
Shinda Saibo No Katamari 死んだ細胞の塊 | Ostriched Existence
Keith Urban | The Speed Of Now Part 1
James Williamson & Deniz Tek | Two On One
September 25
Riches | Fantasy Chapel
Scorged | Scorged
October 2
William Shatner | The Blues
David Woodward | Love and Optimism
Frank Zappa | Halloween 81
October 9
Alexia Avina | Unearth
Bahamas | Sad Hunk
Inferi | Of Sunless Realms
October 16
The Damned | The Rockfield Files
Spirit Adrift | Enlightened In Eternity
October 23
Flee Lord x 38 Spesh | Loyalty + Trust II
Philip Parfitt | Mental Home Recordings
Wobbler | Dwellers Of The Deep EP
October 30
Elvis Costello | Hey Clockface
Harry Jay-Steele | Boundaries
Emily Kuhn | Sky Stories
November 6
Candy Opera | The Patron Saint Of Heartache
Pole | Fading
November 13
The Cribs | Night Network
Novarupta | Marine Show