Supposedly, Duke Ellington once quipped that there are only two kinds of music: Good and bad. Well, maybe. But at this time of year, there are two different kinds of music: New and old. And there’s no shortage of either coming this week. Here’s the best of both worlds:
Bahamas
Sad Hunk
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bahamas’ sound defies genre categorization, yet it incorporates many — pop, R&B, rock, folk, soul, alternative, Caribbean, blues and more. Sad Hunk contains 11 songs that encapsulate all that legions of Bahamas fans have grown to love — great songs, insightful lyrics, infectious hooks, exceptional musicianship, distinctive arrangements and sharp wit. Bahamas is the moniker for singer/songwriter/guitar virtuoso, Afie Jurvanen. Jurvanen, along with Christine Bougie (guitar), Don Kerr (drums), Mike O’Brien (bass), Felicity Williams (vocals), and longtime producer, multi-Grammy nominee Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Jack Johnson, Robbie Robertson) have elevated Bahamas’ music to new heights. Sad Hunk is an album inspired by domestic life and embodies an undaunted self-awareness. The album title and artwork finds Jurvanen’s self-deprecating humor out front as the result of a nickname given to him by his wife in reaction to an overdramatic photo shoot a while back.”
Black Sabbath
Paranoid: Super Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Paranoid: Super Deluxe Edition includes the original album, in addition to a rare 1974 quad mix of the album folded down to stereo, plus two concerts from 1970, from Montreux and Brussels, that are pressed on vinyl for the first time. The five-LP set comes with a hardbound book with extensive liner notes featuring interviews with all four band members, rare photos, and memorabilia, a poster, as well as a replica of the tour book sold during the Paranoid tour. Paranoid: Super Deluxe Edition’s first two LPs feature the original album plus a quadraphonic mix of the album. Originally released on vinyl and 8-track cartridge in 1974, but subsequently long out of print, the quad mix has now been made available as a fold-down to stereo mix on vinyl for this set. The collection’s final three LPs mark the official vinyl debut of two 1970 live performances. The first was recorded on Aug. 31 in Montreux, Switzerland shortly before the release of Paranoid. It captures the band, already a tight musical unit, thundering through new songs like Hand Of Doom and Iron Man while mixing in N.I.B. and Behind The Wall Of Sleep from their debut album. The second concert was recorded a few months later in Brussels during the band’s performance for Belgian television. Unofficial versions of this classic show have circulated in the past, but they’ve never sounded this good.”
Brothers Osborne
Skeletons
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Brothers Osborne will release their third studio album, Skeletons. John and TJ Osborne teamed up with longtime producer Jay Joyce for Skeletons and co-wrote every track on the project along with frequent collaborators Lee Miller, Craig Wiseman, Natalie Hemby, Casey Beathard and more. “If Pawn Shop was our introduction, and Port Saint Joe was like the first conversation we had with someone over a beer, then Skeletons is the moment where you start getting down to the real stuff and showing who you really are,” says John. “If you really want to get to know us, this is the record to do it.”
The Budos Band
Long in the Tooth
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Celebrating 15 years from the release of their debut album, Daptone’s Royal Court from Staten Island delivers a truly epic collection of new material that finds the group further bridging the gap between the farfisa-fueled Ethio-Funk stylings of their early recordings, with the psychedelic, Sabbath-inspired hellfire of late. “In some ways, it’s reminiscent of our first two albums The Budos Band and Budos II,” says Tom Brenneck. “We branched off on Burnt Offering and V. Now, we’re still moving forward. You can play these songs on the dance-floor. We knew the horns had to stand out too. Thinking about hip-hop allowed us to put the bounce back into The Budos.” This is evident from needle drop to final rotation. Heavy drum breaks, reminiscent of the B-Boy-approved grooves of their early output reign supreme, setting the stage for the pulsating, hallucinatory wall of organ, menacing horns, and rugged guitar riffs to permeate your soul — leaving the listener in a rhythmic wash of Budonian rapture. Long in the Tooth represents the culmination of a 15-year journey by a band that has consistently carved its own distinct path through the grooves of history.”
The Doors
Morrison Hotel: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Doors returned to their roots and were reborn a rock ’n’ roll band on Morrison Hotel, the group’s fifth studio album and fifth consecutive gold-certified record. Completed in only a few weeks and released in February 1970, the hard-charging album took its name from the Skid Row hotel in downtown Los Angeles that’s featured in the iconic cover photo taken by Henry Diltz. Morrison Hotel: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition includes the original album newly remastered by The Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick, plus a bonus disc of unreleased studio outtakes, and the original album on 180-gram virgin vinyl. For this new collection, the original album has been expanded with more than an hour of unreleased recordings taken from the sessions for Morrison Hotel. These 19 outtakes transport listeners into the studio with Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, and Ray Manzarek for an unprecedented perspective on the making of the album.”
Dizzee Rascal
E3 AF
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “East London-born music legend and all-round boundary-breaking innovator Dizzee Rascal releases his seventh studio album, entitled E3 AF. This new release marks the genesis of a new era for Dizzee and is his first album wholly written, recorded and produced in the U.K. in over a decade. E3 AF is a 10-track layered, purposeful statement of intent, rooted in Dizzee’s inedible ties to both east London and Black British music’s legacy. He sound is sharper, stronger and more self-assured than ever, and it is obvious that he has poured the creative energy of the past few years into E3 AF as a body of work. E3 AF confirms Dizzee’s status as an artist still very much in his prime, sonically it draws on the infectious pace of grime and resolutely forward-thinking UK rap. From one song to the next, you are taken on a journey through Black British musical excellence.”
Future Islands
As Long As You Are
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “As Long As You Are looks to the past as well as the future, confronting old ghosts and embracing a new hope. It is an album about trust, full of honesty, redemption and “letting go,” allowing old wounds to heal and bringing painful chapters to a close. As Long As You Are also signals a new era for Future Islands. Drummer Mike Lowry officially joins as a fully-fledged member and songwriter, bolstering the founding trio of William Cashion, Samuel T Herring and Gerrit Whelmers. Together, the four-piece took on official production duties for the first time, co-producing As Long As You Are with engineer Steve Wright at his Wrightway Studios in Baltimore. Musically, their brand of new wave synth-pop full of bright melodies and heavenly choruses is as euphoric and uninhibitedly joyful as anything the band has done in their 14-year career.”
John Lennon
Gimme Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In everything he did, John Lennon spoke his truth and questioned the truth. An incomparable and uncompromising artist who strove for honesty and directness in his music, he laid bare his heart, mind and soul in his songs, seeing them as snapshots of his current emotions, thoughts and world view. Believing the one quality demanded of himself as an artist was to be completely honest, he did not disguise what he had to say or conform his messages to be more in line with what he felt others thought they should be. Love, heartbreak, peace, politics, truth, lies, the media, racism, feminism, religion, mental well-being, marriage, fatherhood — he sang about it all, and one just needs to listen to the songs of John Lennon to know how he felt, what he cherished, what he believed in, and what he stood for. On Oct. 9, Lennon’s 80th birthday, in celebration of his remarkable life, a collection of some of the most vital and best loved songs from his solo career will be released as a suite of beautifully presented collections, titled Gimme Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes. Executive produced by Yoko Ono Lennon and produced by Sean Ono Lennon, these 36 songs, handpicked by Yoko and Sean, have all been completely remixed from scratch, radically upgrading their sonic quality and presenting them as a never-before-heard experience. Mixed and engineered by Grammy-winning engineer Paul Hicks, who also helmed the mixes for 2018’s universally acclaimed Imagine – The Ultimate Collection series, with assistance by engineer Sam Gannon, who also worked on that release, the songs were completely remixed from scratch, using brand new transfers of the original multi-tracks, cleaned up to the highest possible sonic quality.”
Metz
Atlas Vending
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Change is inevitable if you’re lucky,” says guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins while talking about Atlas Vending, the fourth full-length album by Toronto’s Metz. “Our goal is to remain in flux, to grow in a natural and gradual way. We’ve always been wary to not overthink or intellectualize the music we love but also not satisfied until we’ve accomplished something that pushes us forward.” The music made by Edkins and his compatriots Hayden Menzies (drums) and Chris Slorach (bass) has always been a little difficult to pin down. Their earliest recordings contained nods to the teeming energy of early ’90s DIY hardcore, the aggravated angularities of This Heat, and the noisy riffing of AmRep’s quintessential guitar manglers, but there was never a moment where Metz sounded like they were paying tribute to the heroes of their youth. If anything, the sonic trajectory of their albums captured the journey of a band shedding influences and digging deeper into their fundamental core — steady propulsive drums, chest-thumping bass lines, bloody-fingered guitar riffs, the howling angst of our fading innocence. With Atlas Vending, Metz not only continues to push their music into new territories of dynamics, crooked melodies, and sweat-drenched rhythms, they explore the theme of growing up and maturing within a format typically suspended in youth.”
The Replacements
Pleased To Meet Me Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Pleased To Meet Me is the critically acclaimed fifth studio album by the American rock band The Replacements. Released in 1987, Pleased To Meet Me is the only album recorded by the band as a trio, after original guitarist Bob Stinson acrimoniously left the band. Following last year’s widely acclaimed Dead Man’s Pop release, Pleased To Meet Me will be receiving a similar ‘deep dive’ treatment with a 3-CD/1-LP deluxe boxed set, which will tell the story of the album in ways not previously possible, with more than 50% of the content previously unreleased. The making of Pleased To Meet Me was a transformative journey for The Replacements, one that began with the combustible Minneapolis combo on the brink of collapse and culminated in one of the definitive albums of the band’s career. That transformation is chronicled in-depth on the group’s latest boxed set, Pleased To Meet Me Deluxe Edition. More than half of the music (29 tracks) on this Deluxe Edition set has never been released, including demos, rough mixes, and outtakes as well as Bob Stinson’s last recordings with The Replacements from 1986.”
Travis
10 Songs
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Beloved Scottish band Travis are back with the first new music from their stunning ninth studio album 10 Songs. The first single from 10 Songs is A Ghost, which arrives with an impressively animated video directed and drawn by frontman Fran Healy, with his 14-year-old son Clay leading the beautiful cinematography work — all done in Covid-19 isolation. Co-produced by both Fran and Robin Baynton (Coldplay, Florence & The Machine), and recorded at RAK Studios as 2019 turned into 2020, 10 Songs is an album about the way life comes at love and what love does to weather those challenges. It’s grown-up. There’s sizzling synergy in abundance, and many of it’s songs benefit from the almost psychic sense of mutual attunement that comes from being in a band whose line-up hasn’t changed in its entire collective lifetime. There’s also inspired cameos to be found, including synth work from Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, lap steel from Greg Leisz and vocals from Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles that came about from a chance exchange on Twitter.”
Loudon Wainwright III
I’d Rather Lead a Band
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Irving Berlin once said the greatest singer of his songs was Fred Astaire, “not necessarily because of his voice, but by his conception of projecting a song. He sang it the way you wrote it.” Listening to I’d Rather Lead A Band, the delightful new album collaboration between Loudon Wainwright III and Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks on songs from the 1920s and ’30s, one could imagine that Berlin would have equal admiration for Wainwright. And not just because the legendary composer wrote the record’s title track. As vocal interpreters of the Great American Songbook go, Wainwright shares Astaire’s nimble phrasing and unaffected approach, always letting the song lead the way like a dance partner. “On this album, I just tried to sing the words and capture the feeling,” Wainwright says. “It occurred to me that it’s almost like an acting job. The song becomes a kind of a script. And without thinking about it too much, just using your intuition and experience, you do it. I’ve been singing for a long time — in front of people, in front of microphones, in recording studios. That’s part of it too. Although I don’t sing other people’s songs that much, it feels very natural to me.”
