Something great has happened this week. For the first time (that I can remember), Drift internally have failed to agree on this week’s Record of the Week. We have a four-way tie, with new albums from Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Courtney Barnett, Parquet Courts and Ryley Walker that we have absolutely loved listening to over the last few weeks and months. So how about this: let’s all decide together... we want your vote.
Lets break them down.
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks release Sparkle Hard today on Domino. Four years on from Wig Out at Jagbags, Sparkle Hard nails all the best SM&J moments, it's got a super breezy vibe, there are some really nuts chord-changes, Malkmus is funny and engaging, lush guitar tones, some sunshine melancholy and some burning solos... They are in peak form, both laid back but positively vibrating with energy.
+ Deluxe edition includes a 12x12” sticker sheet with 12 individual die-cut designs for each of the songs on the album designed & drawn by Turbo Island.
Tell Me How You Really Feel is the second full studio album from the marvellous Courtney Barnett. It follows the double EP A Sea of Split Peas, her critically acclaimed 2015 debut album Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit, and a recent top 10 collaborative record, Lotta Sea Lice, with Kurt Vile. She has subtly - and with great credibility and originality - become one of the most important voices around. As ever, she is brilliantly funny and her laconic delivery is the most disarming way of saying all sorts, and that is the narrative of this new LP. It's very open, it's very honest and in giving more of herself she's taken a very big step forward. People are going to take a lot from this album, because there is a lot there.
+ Indie vinyl edition in special gatefold mirror board design and pressed on limited red vinyl.
+ Deluxe CD is available in a limited hardback with exclusive24 page photo booklet.
+ We have a few more copies of the RSD 'City Looks Pretty / Sunday Roast' limited 12"
Wide Awake! is the fifth studio album from Parquet Courts and they are absolutely on fire. Over the last couple of years they have flexed their creative muscles with solo albums, collaborative releases (Daniele Luppi) and time spent running labels and exhibiting art, but Wide Awake! is just that, fully woke. It picks up in many ways where Human Performance left off, a brash and really good fun take on party post-punk. Danger Mouse produced it and there are some subtle new timbres to the mix, but this is all about a band clearly having a lot of fun exploring what they do and what they want to do. Loads of ideas and some amazing execution, the tempo change in Total Football is on par with Devo's Gut Feeling and the title track is going to be a 2018 anthem here.
+ Deluxe Collectors Edition LP featuring a 16-page double art and illustration booklet by A. Savage. The custom packaging is really quite something.
Deafman Glance is the fourth full-length release from Chicago's much-wandering son Ryley Walker... and man is it smart. It's a proper jazzy album, soaked in Chicago's much-celebrated experimental scene with complex and dense arrangements interviewing all over the place. The tones are really thrilling too, chopping through a whole songbook of guitar timbres over the orchestral flourishes and the frenetic drums. Ryley also sings it brilliantly, confident and honest. This is his grandest statement yet, he is not a troubadour or a retro balladeer, these aren't jams, this is all very deliberate and quite amazing actually.
For the first time that we can remember, Drift internally have failed to agree on this week’s Record of the Week. We have a four-way tie and we want your votes. We'll announce it on here end of play Saturday.
— D R I F T (@driftrecordshop) May 18, 2018
Get listening, get clicking!
Lets break them down.
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks release Sparkle Hard today on Domino. Four years on from Wig Out at Jagbags, Sparkle Hard nails all the best SM&J moments, it's got a super breezy vibe, there are some really nuts chord-changes, Malkmus is funny and engaging, lush guitar tones, some sunshine melancholy and some burning solos... They are in peak form, both laid back but positively vibrating with energy.
+ Deluxe edition includes a 12x12” sticker sheet with 12 individual die-cut designs for each of the songs on the album designed & drawn by Turbo Island.
Tell Me How You Really Feel is the second full studio album from the marvellous Courtney Barnett. It follows the double EP A Sea of Split Peas, her critically acclaimed 2015 debut album Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit, and a recent top 10 collaborative record, Lotta Sea Lice, with Kurt Vile. She has subtly - and with great credibility and originality - become one of the most important voices around. As ever, she is brilliantly funny and her laconic delivery is the most disarming way of saying all sorts, and that is the narrative of this new LP. It's very open, it's very honest and in giving more of herself she's taken a very big step forward. People are going to take a lot from this album, because there is a lot there.
+ Indie vinyl edition in special gatefold mirror board design and pressed on limited red vinyl.
+ Deluxe CD is available in a limited hardback with exclusive24 page photo booklet.
+ We have a few more copies of the RSD 'City Looks Pretty / Sunday Roast' limited 12"
Wide Awake! is the fifth studio album from Parquet Courts and they are absolutely on fire. Over the last couple of years they have flexed their creative muscles with solo albums, collaborative releases (Daniele Luppi) and time spent running labels and exhibiting art, but Wide Awake! is just that, fully woke. It picks up in many ways where Human Performance left off, a brash and really good fun take on party post-punk. Danger Mouse produced it and there are some subtle new timbres to the mix, but this is all about a band clearly having a lot of fun exploring what they do and what they want to do. Loads of ideas and some amazing execution, the tempo change in Total Football is on par with Devo's Gut Feeling and the title track is going to be a 2018 anthem here.
+ Deluxe Collectors Edition LP featuring a 16-page double art and illustration booklet by A. Savage. The custom packaging is really quite something.
Deafman Glance is the fourth full-length release from Chicago's much-wandering son Ryley Walker... and man is it smart. It's a proper jazzy album, soaked in Chicago's much-celebrated experimental scene with complex and dense arrangements interviewing all over the place. The tones are really thrilling too, chopping through a whole songbook of guitar timbres over the orchestral flourishes and the frenetic drums. Ryley also sings it brilliantly, confident and honest. This is his grandest statement yet, he is not a troubadour or a retro balladeer, these aren't jams, this is all very deliberate and quite amazing actually.
