Yes, we told you last time about our favourite albums of the year, but there are ever more arriving you know...
Hello, Friends.
Record of the Week is a new edition from the 'Live At Third Man Records' vaults, with the Goliath that is Bill Callahan in rich and commanding form. Suitably stripped back (vocals, acoustic and a wailing electric pretty much) with cuts from his Dream River, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle and Apocalypse albums. Incredible songs and a deliciously loose and vibey delivery. Superb.
Utterly MASSIVE return today for The 1975 with A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. The press is insane on this one, everyone is frothing at the mouth, worth flagging up that we have limited copies on white vinyl... which will not last long at all.
Rebirth is the debut album from Farai, a collaborative project between London based vocalist Farai and artist, musician and producer TONE. Really lush this, the production is murky and tough and Farai is a really charismatic lead.
Wilco's Jeff Tweedy releases a new solo LP called Warm today. Produced and recorded entirely by Jeff at Chicago’s now legendary The Loft, features Spencer Tweedy, Glenn Kotche and Tom Schick. Mellow vibes, same sort of quiet confidence as the Schmilco LP.
As part of our Record of the Year celebrations, we have limited Red and Blue splatter vinyl copies of Snail Mail's Lush LP. We also had a Japanese Picture Disc edition of the Shame LP, but they sold out really hard. Do keep an eye on the preorder section. 4AD have also let us have a few copies of the Tune-Yards / US Girls split 7", Coast To Coast and Velvet For Sale through the mixer. Dead good.
Johnny Flynn's Live at the Roundhouse is due with us shortly and we also have the early lead on the new Megaritual LP, Dreamfeeder, via Dirty Filthy Records. Cosmic and mellow, we've been enjoying this.
Daniel Romano's Finally Free, is his eighth long-playing album in the last eight years. Pressed on split red and green edition vinyl for bricks and mortar indie shops.
Available as a double CD and a triple-LP set, David Bowie Glastonbury 2000 documents Bowie's legendary Sunday night headline performance on 25th June '00. The legendary full performance released for the first time includes hits on top of hits. All formats feature David’s diary, originally written for Time Out, which documents him preparing for the show in his own inimitable manner. A really nice package (much like that handsome Alexander McQueen coat...)
We have an exclusive Record Store Day shop only pressing (on limited heavyweight lurid yellow coloured vinyl) of Misfits Walk Among Us, the game-changing punk record that set the scene for generations of musicians.
New Order return - and return to their roots - with the release of TOTAL from Joy Division to New Order, on vinyl. Originally released in June 2011 on CD only, the album features single versions of tracks from both Joy Division and New Order mastered for vinyl by Frank Arkwright from his 2011 remasters. The iconic album cover was created by Howard Wakefield with art direction from Peter Saville.
The second wave this week of the utterly essential Kate Bush reissues, with the third and fourth parts of the vinyl box sets landing, plus CD editions and stand-alone reissues of Aerial, Directors Cut and 50 Words for Snow. We're trying to keep stock levels up, but these will not last for Christmas... just flagging that up now!
Friday is the last release day of November and it is only now that we realise that we haven't once talked about November's Record of the Month. 5 Klavierstücke is an album of five piano pieces recorded by Irmin Schmidt, composer, musician and founder of Can. In his own words - “the tracks are spontaneous meditations, only played once and recorded simultaneously - no edits or corrections. They are formed from an emotional memory in which Schubert, Cage, Japan (Gagaku) and Can are equally present." Exquisitely minimal with hugely evocative tones and the use of silence is really quite brilliant.
It is December soon and we'll have plenty to talk about.
