Any week that brings new albums by Billie Eilish, Prince, Bleachers, Los Lobos and more — along with a Beach Boys box set — can’t be all bad. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say it should probably be pretty good. Here’s the skinny:
The Beach Boys
Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In honour of 50 years of The Beach Boys’ timeless and often under-appreciated albums, they are releasing an expansive five-CD and digital box set titled Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 that chronicles and explores in depth this metamorphic and highly influential 1969-1971 period of the band’s legendary career. Assembled by Mark Linett and Alan Boyd, the team behind 2013’s Grammy-winning SMiLE Sessions, the expansive collection features newly remastered versions of Sunflower and Surf’s Up and boasts 135 tracks, including 108 previously unreleased tracks, live recordings, radio promos, alternate versions, alternate mixes, isolated backing tracks and acapella versions, culled from the album sessions. Housed in a book-style package, the set is rounded out with a 48-page book loaded with unreleased and rare photos, lyric sheets, tape box images, recording artifacts, insightful new liner notes by noted radio veteran and Beach Boys afficionado Howie Edelson, and new and archival interviews from Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Mike Love and others.”
Bleachers
Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bleachers are set to release their highly anticipated third album Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night. In late 2020 they offered up the first taste of new music to preview the album with the release of Chinatown (featuring) Bruce Springsteen and 45. This music is the follow up to their critically acclaimed second album Gone Now, which came in 2017. The first single Don’t Take The Money hit #3 at alternative radio. Bleachers, who are known for their incredible live shows, headlined a North American tour in support of the album, which included a number of major festival dates like Sasquatch Festival, Governor’s Ball and Firefly Music Festival. Five-time Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, musician, and producer Jack Antonoff is the creative force behind Bleachers.”
Billie Eilish
Happier Than Ever
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Continuing the tradition established on her Grammy-winning, record-breaking debut album When We All Go To Sleep, Where Do We Go?, Billie Eilish’s highly anticipated sophomore album Happier Than Ever features no outside songwriters or producers, and was written by 19-year-old Billie and her brother Finneas, who produced the album in Los Angeles. Eilish has fast become one of the biggest stars to emerge since the release of her debut single Ocean Eyes, and continues to shatter the ceiling of music with her genre-defying sound.”
Jim Lauderdale
Hope
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Jim Lauderdale’s Hope features songs about hope, courage, and perseverance with wide-open arrangements reminiscent of ’70s California folk-rock, and is a joyous musical tribute to the spirit of overcoming and healing. “I wanted to get a musical message out there during this time of what we’ve all been going through, about the hope for better days ahead,” Lauderdale says. “If we can find any glimmers of hope, that really helps get you through another day.”
Los Lobos
Native Sons
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Native Sons and finds Los Lobos mapping their musical DNA with a kaleidoscopic selection of tribute songs from their homeland, ultimately creating a crucial snapshot of L.A.’s musical heritage. Having formed in 1973 and gotten their start playing spirited renditions of Mexican folk music at parties and in restaurants, Los Lobos are no strangers to reinterpretation (and if you’ve ever been to one of their legendary live shows, you already know that). These brothers have always held a deep appreciation for diverse music, and they love pulling out old gems and making them shine like new. Native Sons essentially serves as a love letter to Los Angeles and the endless possibilities to be found when all boundaries are shattered. “I couldn’t say there’s a common thread for all these artists, but in a way that’s exactly what makes L.A. great,” says Steve Berlin. “You’ve got R&B and punk rock and rock-and-roll and folk, and somehow it exists together in this one weird city that we all call home.”
Prince
Welcome 2 America
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The enigmatic 2010 Prince album Welcome 2 America is a powerful creative statement that documents Prince’s concerns, hopes, and visions for a shifting society, presciently foreshadowing an era of political division, disinformation, and a renewed fight for racial justice. Welcome 2 America features some of Prince’s only studio collaborations with bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, drummer Chris Coleman, and Grammy-nominated engineer Jason Agel, with additional contributions from New Power Generation singers Shelby J., Liv Warfield, and Elisa Fiorillo and keyboardist Morris Hayes, who Prince also recruited to co-produce several tracks on the album.”
Alan Vega
Alan Vega After Dark
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “2021 is shaping up to be the year of Alan Vega. Every year should be but, this year is definitely it. The announcement of the opening of the late Suicide singer’s archives which will be unleashing an untold amount of unreleased material dating back to 1971, the release of Mutator (a lost album from the mid ’90s) which has gained rave reviews — Alan has been celebrated everywhere of late. The celebration with the release of Alan Vega After Dark — an album that captures a late night rock n’ roll session with Alan backed by Ben Vaughn, Barb Dwyer and Palmyra Delran (all members of the incredible Pink Slip Daddy as well as countless other cool projects). This album serves as a reminder that Alan Vega was an incredible rock n’ roll/blues/rockabilly vocalist. He was one of the best.”
Yola
Stand For Myself
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Stand For Myself is the anthemic new album from Yola. Produced by Dan Auerbach, the record is a timeless masterpiece marking an idiosyncratic sonic shift, which will defy all expectation. A sophisticated and diverse sonic mix of symphonic soul and classic pop, tracing an expansive musical thread to Yola’s most eclectic musical inspirations. “It’s a collection of stories of allyship, black feminine strength through vulnerability, and loving connection from the sexual to the social. All celebrating a change in thinking and paradigm shift at their core,” Yola states. “It is an album not blindly positive and it does not simply plead for everyone to come together. It instead explores ways that we need to stand for ourselves throughout our lives, what limits our connection as humans and declares that real change will come when we challenge our thinking and acknowledge our true complexity.”
