LCD Soundsystem is back! James Murphy and company emerge from early retirement with their fourth studio album (and first in seven years). KEXP Music Director Don Yates declares it “a powerful return to form featuring some of Murphy’s finest, most deeply felt songwriting with anxiety-fueled lyrics revolving around aging and the passage of time on songs ranging from driving, nervy dance-rock to wistful, elegiac ballads.”
Additional highlights this week include the latest from Brooklyn band The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. The group’s fourth full-length is “a well-crafted set of soaring, shoegazer-tinged indie-pop with fuzzy guitars, gleaming synths, energetic rhythms and sparkling pop hooks.” Irish duo Bicep debut with “an emotive, smartly crafted blend of house, techno, electro, Italo disco, jungle and more, combining energetic beats, psychedelic ambient textures, looped vocal fragments and shimmering melodies.” Another excellent debut this week is from British band Inheaven, “a promising, ’90s-steeped blend of riff-heavy grunge and shoegazer dream-pop with fuzzy guitars, pounding rhythms, catchy song hooks, often-sardonic, angst-fueled lyrics and alternating lead vocals from Chloe Little and James Taylor.”
’90s shoegazers Curve release an expanded two CD edition of their 1992 debut Doppelgänger, expanded and packed with the singles and the three EPs (all remastered from the original tapes) plus four rare tracks including the Aphex Twin remix of “Falling Free.” And Nick Cave and Warren Ellis team up again for the soundtrack to the thriller Wind River, a film starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen.
The Babe Rainbow – “Peace Blossom Boogy”
from The Babe Rainbow on 30th Century Records/Columbia
Bicep – “Vale”
from Bicep on Ninja Tune
Carole King – “It’s Too Late”
from Tapestry: Live in Hyde Park on Epic / Legacy / Sony Music
Cloud Control – “Rainbow City”
from Zone on Votiv
Curve – “Fait Accompli”
from Doppelgänger [25th Anniversary Expanded Edition] on 3 Loop Music
Dälek – “Echoes Of…”
from Endangered Philosophies on Ipecac
INHEAVEN – “Baby’s Alright”
from INHEAVEN on PIAS
Fantastic Negrito – “About A Bird”
from The Last Days Of Oakland on Cooking Vinyl
LCD Soundsystem – “call the police”
from American Dream on Columbia / DFA / Sony Music
Madeline Kenney – “Always”
from Night Night at the First Landing on Company Records
Nick Cave
from Wind River: Original Soundtrack on Lakeshore Records
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “The Punishment of Luxury”
from Punishment of Luxury on 100% Records
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “Anymore”
from The Echo of Pleasure on Painbow
The Rails
from Other People on Psychonaut
Sheila E. – “Funky National Anthem: Message 2 America”
from Iconic: Message 4 America on Stiletto Flats Music
Starsailor – “All This Life”
from All This Life on Cooking Vinyl
Tender – “Nadir”
from Modern Addiction on PTKF
Tom Brosseau – “You Win Again”
from Treasures Untold on Crossbill
