New Music Friday - November 4, 2016

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

Essential Full-Length Releases

Common - Black America Again 2016 has been a crazy year, politically and culturally. The landscape has inspired many musicians to use their music to respond; including Common, who felt the need to response to this year's presidential election. The album takes an honest look at the history of racism against blacks in this country. It's saddening, but something that feels wholly necessary right now. Watch: "Black America Again" (featuring Stevie Wonder) Listen: "Home" (featuring Bilal)

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Until the Hunter In the time since their last collaborative album, 2009's Through the Devil Softly, Hope Sandoval and Colm Ó Cíosóig both returned to their previous bands for reunion projects; 2013's m b v from My Bloody Valentine (Cíosóig) and Seasons of of Your Day from Mazzy Star (Sandoval). They started work on this album just the next year and worked with Michael Masley and Kurt Vile to bring it to fruition. Watch: "Let Me Get There" (featuring Kurt Vile) Listen: "A Wonderful Seed"

Jess Williamson - Heart Song Jess Williamson comes from Texas and released her debut album, Native State, in 2014. Her sophomore album was recorded in her home state, as was her first, but she does not seek to simply recreate the record. She tackles her feelings of vulnerability, and doubts the comfort that home is supposed to bring. Watch: "See You in a Dream"

Sasha Siem - Bird Burning On her sophomore album, Siem uses birds to represent the phases of the soul; birth to death, and rebirth. On the record, she continues to use her considerable composition pedigree (she has written for the London Symphony Orchestra and many other venerated institutions) to create beautiful, but more pop-oriented, songs. Watch: "Crow" Watch: "Bird Burning"

Tinashe - Nightride Tinashe has been teasing her sophomore album, Joyride, since September of last year. She's posted teaser videos, released tracks and videos from the album, and even embarked on a Joyride tour. This isn't Joyride (as you can probably tell from the title). Nightride has been in the works alongside the one she's been teasing and is intended to be the first half of the Joyride project to be completed next year. Watch: "Nightride" Listen: "Soul Glitch"

Other Full-Length Releases

Alicia Keys - HERE Watch: "Blended Family (What You Do for Love)" Listen: "The Gospel"

American Wrestlers - Goodbye Terrible Youth Listen: "Give Up" Listen: "Amazing Grace"

Efterklang & Fundal - Leaves: The Colour of Falling Watch: "Cities of Glass" Watch: "The Colour Not of Love"

Jim James - Eternally Even Watch: "Same Old Lie" Watch: "Here in Spirit"

Lambchop - FLOTUS Watch: "NIV" Listen: "The Hustle"

Nick Hook - Relationships Listen: "Gucci’s" (featuring 24hrs) Listen: "The Infinite Loop" (featuring DJ Rashad, Chino Moreno & Nasty Nigel)

Tkay - Tkay Watch: "Carry On" (featuring Killer Mike) Watch: "Simulation"

Tyvek - Origin of What Listen: "Girl on a Bicycle" Listen: "Tip to Tail"

Singles, EPs, Soundtracks, etc.

#savefabric Watch: Clams Casino - "Time" Listen: Champion & Four Tet - "Flip Side"

A$AP Mob - Cozy Tapes Vol. 1: Friends Watch: "Money Man”/“Put That on My Set" Listen: A$AP Ant - "Runner" (featuring Lil Uzi Vert)

Cameron AG - Homeward Bound EP Listen: "Walk Your Line" Listen: "Heroes"

Dante DeCaro - Kill Your Boyfriend Listen: "Love Like Thieves" Listen: "Kill Your Boyfriend"

Ex Reyes - DO SOMETHING Watch: "Only You" Listen: "If You Come Running"

Queen - Queen on Air Watch: "We Will Rock You" (Fast) Watch: "My Fairy King"

Sporting Life - Slam Dunk Vol. III Listen: "Nothing to Hide" (featuring Dev Hynes & Wiki)

Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna Reissue Listen: "Bella Donna" (Demo) Listen: "Kind of Woman"

Stevie Nicks - The Wild Heart Reissue Listen: "Wild Heart"

Toothless - "The Sirens" Watch: "The Sirens" (featuring The Staves)

New Music Tuesday - March 10, 2015

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

New Full-Length Releases

Aero Flynn - Aero Flynn Strangely, despite the intentionally off spelling, searching for this band always returns a lot of results for the actor Errol Flynn. The band is the project of Josh Scott, the latest member of the Bon Iver family tree to release new music. He hails from the same Wisconsin music scene and has played with members of DeYarmond Edison (a former project of Justin Vernon) in his former band Amateur Love. Listen: "Dk/Pi" Listen: "Twist"

Dick Diver - Melbourne, Florida Dick Diver is an indie pop band hailing from Melbourne, Australia; not Florida as the album title may imply (though that is a real place). Though their name sounds dirty on first pass, it is taken from a character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. This is their third album, though the first to be released in the States. Listen: "Waste the Alphabet" Listen: "Tearing the Posters Down"

Heems - Eat, Pray, Thug Heems, Himanshu Suri, was a member of the now-defunct trio Das Racist. He released two mixtapes in 2012, the same year that the band broke up, but this is first his solo album. On the record, he goes in a much more serious direction than he was known for in Das Racist; he has said that the album was recorded during one of the darkest periods of his life. Listen: "Home" (featuring Dev Hynes) Listen: "Sometimes"

Laura Welsh - Soft Control Laura Welsh is a young British singer and a member of a new class of young, female, British singers, which includes Florence Welch and Jessie Ware. With her lush vocals, she's already been garnering comparisons to those two ladies. Soft Control is her debut record. Watch: "Ghosts" Listen: "Hardest Part" (featuring John Legend)

Matthew E. White - Fresh Blood Matthew E. White had a big year in 2012 with the release of his debut album, Big Inner, which saw him named eMusic's breakout artist of the year and was included in numerous best-of lists. 2015 is another big year for him, but he's sharing the love. He co-produced Natalie Prass' well-received debut album and is looking to recreate the magic of his debut a second time around. Watch: "Rock & Roll Is Cold" Listen: "Golden Robes"

Sasha Siem - Most of the Boys Siem is another young British singer, but with a less conventional style. Also on her debut album, she built up her career working as a composer, writing music for the London Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Opera House, and Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, among many other. She's also received awards for her work. She applies that same compositional eye to her own music, which has seen her getting comparisons to a broad group of musicians, including: Björk, Tom Waits, Joanna Newsom, and Leonard Cohen. Watch: "So Polite" Watch: "My Friend"

Will Butler - Policy Arcade Fire released their fourth album, Reflektor, in October of 2013. Since then, we've gotten one solo album from a member, Richard Reed Parry, who released Music for Heart and Breath last year. Will Butler is the first to follow suit with this debut album. Watch: "Anna" Listen: "Take My Side"

Young Guv - Ripe 4 Luv Another member of a prominent Canadian indie band is breaking out on his own! Ben Cook is best known as the drummer for Fucked Up. With his debut album as Young Guv, he separates himself considerably from the hardcore punk sound of his main project, creating a lighter pop sound. Watch: "Crushing Sensation" Watch: "Ripe 4 Luv"

Other New Releases

The Band - Palladium Circles In 1976, The Band played a show at New York's Palladium, just two months before their farewell concert, The Last Waltz. The concert was broadcast live by WNEW; that broadcast is being released here. Purchase: Amazon

Caribou - Our Love Expanded Edition Dan Snaith released his fourth album under the Caribou name in October of last year. This year, it is getting the reissue treatment, with seven remixed versions added to the album's original tracklist. Listen: "Second Chance" (Cyril Hahn Edit) Listen: "Mars" (Head High’s Core Remix)

Charlie Cunningham - Breather EP This talented singer-songwriter released his debut EP, Outside Things, in November of last year. He's following that up with another short collection of tracks. Listen: "Less Leg" (Live)

Head Wound City - Head Wound City EP Reissue Head Wound City was a supergroup, of sorts, made up of The Locust, Holy Molar, The Blood Brothers, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They formed in 2004 and one self-titled EP in 2005. They continue to perform together occasionally, but have released no other music under the name. This year, that one EP is getting a reissue. Listen: "Street College"

Jimmy Napes - The Making of Me EP Jimmy Napes is the writer and producer behind recent hits from Disclosure, Sam Smith, and even Mary J. Blige (he worked on her latest album). He had a big 2014 with releases from both Blige and Smith, but is making 2015 his own, with the release of his debut EP. Watch: "Give It Up" Listen: "Making of Me"

MusicNow - 10 Years MusicNow is a Cincinnati-based music festival, curated by Aaron Dessner of The National, which has been going strong for ten years. In that time, the festival has attracted artists like Owen Pallett, Richard Reed Parry, Sharon Van Etten, and Bon Iver. To celebrate its tenth year, many of those artists have come together to collect festival highlights onto this new compilation. Listen: Sounds of the South - "Trials, Troubles, Tribulations"