Album of the Week – 03/02/22

Some great new sounds this week, so rejoice! Ok, maybe that’s a little over the top, but you can certainly check them all out below.

First up, there’s a great new Greatest Hits collection (Charmed Life – The Best of The Divine Comedy) from the one and only Divine Comedy! it’s a good way of remembering just how many great songs the man has.

For actual new albums, there is a new release from Bastille (Give Me The Future), Black Country, New Road (Ants From Up There) and Animal Collective (Time Skiffs) that are all pretty tasty. We’d also recommend checking out Whozyerman? with his new album called Blink. It’s from Paul Savage of O Emperor fame, in case you’re wondering.

The prize very nearly went to Black Country… but in the end, it was all to resist the allures of Ms Le Bon. She’s a huge talent and this latest collection of songs is something a bit special.

Album of the Week – Pompeii by Cate Le Bon

Pompeii, Cate Le Bon’s sixth full-length studio album and the follow up to 2019’s Mercury-nominated Reward, bears a storied title summoning apocalypse, but the metaphor eclipses any “dissection of immediacy,” says Le Bon. Not to downplay her nod to disorientation induced by double catastrophe — global pandemic plus climate emergency’s colliding eco-traumas resonate all too eerily. “What would be your last gesture?” she asks. But just as Vesuvius remains active, Pompeii reaches past the current crises to tap into what Le Bon calls “an economy of time warp” where life roils, bubbles, wrinkles, melts, hardens, and reconfigures unpredictably, like lava—or sound, rather. Like she says in the opener, “Dirt on the Bed,” Sound doesn’t go away / In habitual silence / It reinvents the surface / Of everything you touch.

Albums of Note:

— A Place to Bury Strangers – See Through You

— Animal Collective – Time Skiffs

— Marissa Nadler – The Wrath of the Clouds EP

— Bastille – Give Me The Future

— Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There

— The Divine Comedy – Charmed Life – The Best of The Divine Comedy

Whozyerman? – Blink

— Mitski – Laurel Hell

February 4th:

— 2 Chainz – Dope Don’t Sell Itself

— A Place to Bury Strangers – See Through You

— Abhoria – Abhoria

— Abysmal Dawn – Nightmare Frontier

— Adekunle Gold – Catch Me If You Can

— Alai K – Kila Mara

— Amy Jay – Awake Sleeper

— Animal Collective – Time Skiffs

— As It Is – I Went to Hell and Back

— ATALHOS – A Tentação do Fracasso

— Azar Lawrence – New Sky

— B.J. Thomas – In Remembrance: Love Songs & Lost Treasures

— Bastille – Give Me The Future

— BEAM – ALIEN

— Big Kill – Big Kill Future

— Big Mama Thorton – Sassy Mama (Reissue)

— Bitch – Bitchcraft

— Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There

— Carl Schilde – Europop

— Carlie Hanson – Tough Boy

— Cate Le Bon – Pompeii

— Clyde Guevara x DJ Drama – 486 Columbia St.

— Cold Night For Alligators – The Hindsight Notes

— Curtis Mayfield – The Very Best of Curtis Mayfield (Vinyl Reissue)

— Disorientations – Memory Lanes

— The Districts – Great American Painting

— Divided Heaven – Oblivion

— The Divine Comedy – Charmed Life – The Best of The Divine Comedy

— Dylan Dunlap – Stranger In My Head EP

— Eric Krasno – Always

— Erin Rae – Lighten Up

— EXEK – Advertise Here

— Fellsius – Mesa EP

— The Final Sleep – Vessels Of Grief

— Gonora Sounds – Hard Times Never Kill

— Good Morning Bedlam – Lulu

— Gracie Gray – anna

— Great Lakes – Contenders

— Gustave Storsve Trio – Einar

— Haiku Hands – Haiku Hands (Vinyl Release)

— Hembree – It’s A Dream!

— The High Water Marks – Proclaimer of Things

— Hippo Campus – LP3

— Hollis Brown – In the Aftermath

— Jeris Johnson – I WANT BLOOD / i want love

— Jolly Joker – Loud & Proud

— Josienne Clarke – I Promised You Light EP

— Korn – Requiem

— Kristine Leschper (fka Mothers) – The Opening, Or Closing of a Door

— KRVVLA – X

— Los Bitchos – Let the Festivities Begin!

— Love, Burns – It Should Have Been Tomorrow

— Mac Gollehon – The End Is The Beginning EP

— Manuel the Band – Things That Can’t Be Seen

— Marissa Nadler – The Wrath of the Clouds EP

— Marshall Crenshaw – #447 (Reissue)

— Mason Jennings – Real Heart

— Mass Worship – Portal Tombs

— ME REX – Pterodactyl EP

— Michael Romeo (of Symphony X) – War of the Worlds, Part II

— Mikayla McVey – Time Turns Everything

— Mitski – Laurel Hell

— MYMK – Crack a Light

— Mystic Circle – Letters From the Devil

— Natalie Cole – Unforgettable…With Love (30th Anniversary Reissue)

— Nate Scheible – Fairfax

— Native Sun – Joy Theft EP

— NiftySax – Spheres

— No Signal – venus EP

— Obsidian Sea – Pathos

— Old Spirit – Old Spirit

— Olovson – Storytelling

— Omnibael – Rain Soaks The Earth Where They Lie

— OvDeth – Saturn Devoured EP

— Partner Look – By the Book

— Paul McCartney and Wings – Wild Life (50th Anniversary Edition)

— Perel – Real EP

— Persefone – metanoia

— Plàsi – Foreign Sea EP

— The Reds, Pinks & Purples – Summer at Land’s End

— Rolo Tomassi – Where Myth Becomes Memory

— Ross Gentry – Apparitional

— Saba – Few Good Things

— Sam Weber – Get Free

— Silent Skies – Nectar

— The Slow Show – Still Life

— Smrtdeath – It’s fine

— Sole & DJ Pain 1 – Post American Studies

— Still Insane – Black Sheep EP

— Stro Elliot – Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined by Stro Elliot

— Sun Cutter – Sun Cutter

— Sweat – Gotta Give It Up

— Thank – Thoughtless Cruelty

— Venom Prison – Erebos

— Wild Rivers – Sidelines

— WizTheMC – Where Silence Feels Good EP

— yeule – Glitch Princess

— Whales Don’t Fly – The Golden Sea