The Albums You Need to Know About Every Week
While the winter tundra continues in New York, or you’re down about the Broncos, or you just want it to be President’s Day already so you can take a giant nap…there’s a lot of great new indie music coming out this week! While other weeks tend to be dominated by indie pop, shoegaze or new releases from older artists, this week we’re excited about all of the new rock that’s coming your way.
First, there’s Broken Bells, the L.A.-based indie rockers made up of Danger Mouse and James Mercer, the lead singer from The Shins, releasing their second studio album After The Disco this week. The way the seemingly disparate two members of the band work so well together is really a delight, and their brand of experimental indie rock is just what you need this week to warm up and get through the winter.
Next up, English indie rockers Bombay Bicycle Club are releasing their fourth studio album So Long, See You Tomorrow this week. I first became introduced to this band while living in London in 2009, and was always surprised why the band never had the same commercial success here that they do in the U.K. Hopefully So Long, See You Tomorrow can change that, with it’s slightly more experimental undertones layered over the signature poppy arrangements.
Also in that indie-pop vein, we’ve got Brooklyn’s own Snowmine releasing their fifth album Dialects this week. We were already super excited for this release, but after recently getting a lot closer to the band, who were one of the artists featured in our On The Mountain series last week, we can truthfully say it’s going to be one of the best albums of the year.
Then we’ve got self-claimed “New Wave” Gardens & Villa‘s second studio album Dunes coming out this week. This band has one of those instantaneously catchy sounds, somewhere between Washed Out and Toro y Moi. I personally have been on a huge 80′s pop kick recently after hearing “Against All Odds” at some cheesy bar in Midtown and am totally content to add Gardens & Villa to my Winter mix.
Taking things in the slightly folkier direction, we’ve got Sun Kil Moon‘s sixth studio album Benji coming out this week. The way Mark Kozelek can create catchy, story-telling songs that sometimes have darker subjects (nearly every song on Benji deals with death) is amazing. There’s an everyday kind of quality to his music that reminds me of Bob Dylan or even Bruce Springsteen, just for the 21st century.
Similarly in the mellow indie rock vein, Mark McGuire (no, not the baseball player or that guy from Sugar Ray) is releasing his album Along The Way this week. Formerly the guitarist in the Cleveland-based band Emeralds, McGuire is now solo and recently signed to Dead Oceans. His sound marries the world, electronic and indie rock genres in a way that makes his largely instrumental work a pleasure to listen to, over and over again.
And then last but not least, we have avant-garde indie rockers Xiu Xiu, fresh of the release of their Nina Simone cover album this past December releasing their thirteenth studio album Angel Guts: Red Classroom. The band has dubbed the album a “mean, tight hearted, blackness of Neubauten vs Suicide vs Nico“. With a review (and album name) like that, I can’t wait to listen.
