Album of the Week – 04/09/23

There are new sounds from the likes of Speedy Ortiz (Rabbit Rabbit) and The Paper Kites (At the Roadhouse). Could we possibly ignore a former bad seed? Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo have just released an album called Phantasmagoria in Blue.  If you want to see him live, I suggest you keep the 16th of September free.

It was impossible to ignore this gem of an album, with their fifth album overall. Yes, shoegaze is alive and well…

Album of the Week – Slowdive – Everything Is Alive

“The fifth album from shoegaze giants Slowdive contains the duality of a familiar internal language mixed with the exaltation of new beginnings. everything is alive is transportive, searching and aglow, the work of a classic band continuing to pitch its unmistakable voice to the future. Six years after the group’s monumental self-titled album, everything is alive finds Slowdive—vocalists and guitarists Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead, guitarist Christian Savill, bassist Nick Chaplin, and drummer Simon Scott—locating evermore contours of its immersive, elemental sound.

The new record began with Halstead in the role of writer and producer, working on demos at home. Experimenting with modular synths, Halstead originally conceived of everything is alive as a “more minimal electronic record.” Slowdive’s collective decision-making ultimately drew the group back towards their signature reverb-drenched guitars, but that first concept seeped into the compositions. “As a band, when we’re all happy with it, that tends to be the stronger material,” Halstead says. “We’ve always come from slightly different directions, and the best bits are where we all meet in the middle.” The convergence of five unique characters has made the sound. “Slowdive is very much the sum of its parts,” Goswell adds. “Something unquantifiable happens when the five of us come together in a room.”

Albums of Note:

— Speedy Ortiz – Rabbit Rabbit

— Grandaddy – Sumday Twunny

— Joel Stoker (of The Rifles) – The Undertow

— mssv (feat. Mike Watt) – Human Reaction

— Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo – Phantasmagoria in Blue

— The Paper Kites – At the Roadhouse

September 1st:

— The 1975 – The 1975 (10th Anniversary Edition)

— Aesop Rock – Skelethon (10th Anniversary Edition)

— Augustus Muller (of Boy Harsher) – Cellulosed Bodies (Original Score)

— Bakar – Halo

— Blu & Real Bad Man – Bad News

— Blxst & Bino Rideaux – Sixtape 3

— The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps (Reissue)

— The Cinematic Orchestra – Man With a Movie Camera (20th Anniversary Edition)

— dadá Joãozinho – tds bem Global

— Dope Lemon (Angus Stone) – Kimosabè

— Elliott Fullman – End of Ways

— Empire State Bastard (feat. members of Biffy Clyro and Dave Lombardo) – Rivers of Heresy

— Enola Gay – Casement EP

— Essential Forever – Essential Forever

— Fake Fever – Inside the Well

— Field Medic – light is gone 2

— Firewind – Still Raging

— Frankie and the Witch Fingers – Data Doom

— Ghost of Vroom (feat. Mike Doughty) – Ghost of Vroom 3

— Grandaddy – Sumday Twunny

— GWAR – Battle Maximus (10th Anniversary Edition)

— Hella – Hold Your Horse Is (Deluxe Reissue)

— Hey Colossus – In Blood

— Jeff Rosenstock – HELLMODE

— Jethro Tull – Broadsword And The Beast (40th Anniversary Edition)

— Joel Stoker (of The Rifles) – The Undertow

— Icona Pop – Club Romantech

— Illa J – No Traffic

— Larry Fleet – Earned It

— Lathe of Heaven – Bound By Naked Skies

— Lauren Calve – Shift

— Laya – Bet That EP

— Love Tractor – Around the Bend (40th Anniversary Edition)

— Marem Ladson – Baby Light EP

— MAY-A – Analysis Paralysis EP

— Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo – Phantasmagoria in Blue

— midwxst – E3

— Mike Doughty’s Ghost of Vroom – Ghost of Vroom 3

— mssv (feat. Mike Watt) – Human Reaction

— The Natvral – Summer of No Light

— Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Odeon Budokan (Vinyl Reissue)

— P.G. Six – Murmurs & Whispers

— The Paper Kites – At the Roadhouse

— Perennial – The Leaves of Autumn Symmetry EP

— Peter Frampton – At Royal Albert Hall

— Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons – Kings of the Asylum

— Philip Seth Campbell (of The Temperance Movement) – City Lights

— Polaris – Fatalism

— The Pretenders – Relentless

— Precocious Neophyte – My Electronic Idol

— Primal Fear – Code Red

— Puma Blue – Holy Waters

— Rae Fitzgerald – Say I Look Happy

— Sigur Rós – ÁTTA (Physical Release)

— Silent Skies – Dormant

— Slowdive – everything is alive

— Small Million – Passenger

— Soen – Memorial

— Speedy Ortiz – Rabbit Rabbit

— Spirit of the Beehive – i’m so lucky EP

— Sprain – The Lamb As Effigy or Three Hundred And Fifty XOXOXOS For A Spark Union With My Darling Divine

— Taking Meds – Dial M For Meds

— Tekno – The More, The Better

— Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years (Reissue)

— Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (Reissue)

— Tom Waits – Swordfishtrombones (Reissue)

— Various Artists – Yellowjackets Season 2 Official Soundtrack: Music from the Original Series