Kurt Vile – Bottle It In

Keep on rolling with the flow. You know Kurt Vile will. He’s The Dude for our times, of our times, taking on Big Lebowski’s for all the rest of us. This one doesn’t feel like necessary listening like his last trio of records but then it’s a very different record. Bottle It In has several extended jams, this is Kurt Vile at his loosest and easiest. This is him hanging out, down the street, same old thing that we did last week.

Cat Power – Wanderer

There has never been a bad Cat Power album and there never will be. Wanderer is mature, it’s raw, it’s honest. The label wanted Adele but she blessedly gave them Billie Holliday. Her voice is warm honey and the sparse instrumentation is morphine for the soul. Also included here: the best Rihanna cover you’ll hear for a long time.

Phosphorescent – C’est La Vie

“I wrote all night like the fire of my words could burn a hole up to heaven. I don't write all night burning holes up to heaven no more” … Matthew Houck has written some of the most piercing, haunted folk rock tunes of recent years but since his last album (Muchacho, an all-time classic) he’s chilled down, gotten married, had a kid… his songs still slay you with a turn of phrase or a change of chord but now he almost sounds… happy.

St Vincent – MassEducation

Annie Clark puts on a show. Her excellent 2017 record Masseduction took that to a new extreme, every little detail of the promo/live show/marketing seemed deliberately fluorescent – and her music was as pop-accessible as it’s ever been. The results were fantastic but just in case you thought it was surface over substance, here’s a surprise reimagining of that album featuring just Annie and a pianist, stripping to tune to their simplest levels, naked and vulnerable. A couple tracks don’t work as well, some work even better. Either way, MassEducation is essential if you dug the originals.

Colter Wall – Songs of the Plains

For his second album, Saskatchewan’s resident country-folk troubadour set out to make a cowboy album, a good old fashion gunfighter ballads and songs of the old west cowboy album. And, dagnabbit, he’s only gone and done it. His resonant baritone is the hero with no name, while tracks like Plain to See Plainsman, Thinkin’ on a Woman, Wild Bill Hickok and Wild Dogs would sound stellar over a campfire (in fact for Night Herding Song they recorded by a literal campfire). A Dave Cobb production, for those interested.

Death Valley Girls – Darkness Rains

Glitter and doom, to quote a great man. Fitting that this one would come out in the month of Halloween when Death Valley Girls are able to summon this charging, fiery brand of deliciously witchy rock and roll as they do. Song titles include: Unzip Your Forehead, Disaster (Is What We’re After), and TV in Jail on Mars. Iggy Pop is a fan. Do as Iggy does.

Kikagaku Moyo – Masana Temples

Worship at the shrine of Masana Temples. Encompassing musical notions from all over the globe befitting their nomadic existence, Tokyo’s finest practitioners of psychedelic sonics have released a record which you could meditate to or completely rock out to. The vibrations flow freely and they shimmer between here and the supernatural, yearning for new horizons and different ways of expressing this strange experience which we call life.

Marissa Nadler – For My Crimes

Haunting is a word that springs to mind. Dark is another. Tender seems strangely appropriate, as does Gentle. If you asked for a genre then Gothic Folk would probably be the best answer. But Marissa Nadler isn’t new at this game so you shouldn’t really need that explained. She’s so good she made a heartbreaking ballad about selling an old car. She’s so good she made a song about Gene Clark. She’s so good she’ll make you cry during both.

IDLES - Joy As An Act Of Resistance

See, this is what punk music oughta sound like in 2018. I’ll never fight a man with a perm again.

David Nance Group - Peaced And Slightly Pulverized

David Nance is the real rock and roll deal and this new record is 37 minutes of carnage and salvation. This a dude who came to light making ramshackle bandcamp versions of classic albums (Beatles, Lou Reed, etc.), so you know he knows his stuff and you know he knows how to rip that stuff into little pieces, light the pieces on fire, and dance naked over the flickering flames. This is what that sounds like.

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