Stream! Stream! Stream! New Flaming Lips, Monsters Of Folk and more…
Autumn is coming, and with it the usual landslide of music heavyweights will bring their newest efforts on time for the lucrative Christmas market. These days, in such a clogged market, it’s becoming common practice to preview albums in full a few days before their release. And this week there’s been a number of long awaited records available to stream. We’ve chosen a selection of the most interesting ones for your own listening pleasure, after the jump
Fresh from curating this year’s edition of the ATP festival in New York and keeping busy preparing their yearly Death March event; The Flaming Lips are releasing their 12th Studio album ‘Embryonic’. Preceded by a three-track tour EP - which was saluted as a return to form for Wayne Coyne and co - and with Dave Fridmann once more on production duties; it balances The Lips most rocking and accessible side with a darker experimental edge. The band appeared this week on the Colbert show to kick start the promotion for the record, which is currently being previewed at the show’s website.
Next is the league of alternative songwriters’ called Monsters Of Folk, a collaboration between M. Ward, Bright Eyes’ Connor Oberst, My Morning Jacket’s Yim Yames and Mike Mogis. Together they’ve spawned a jaunty collection of songs with a more traditional vibe than their respective solo projects. Already drawing comparisons with The Travelling Wilburys, their self-titled debut shares with the legendary band that uplifting classy American sound. It can be heard on MOF’s MySpace page.
In another surprising collaboration, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver fame teams up with his mates from Colonies of Bees and forms Volcano Choir, while giving himself a break from the titanic task of following up his acclaimed debut. The result is ‘Unmap’, adding a more challenging shift to Vernon’s trademark cosy intimacy that courts with electronic arrangements and psychedelic touches - somehow anticipated in Bon Iver’s recent EP ‘Blood Bank’. You can listen to the full album at NPR’s site.
And last but not least, Matador records is previewing two of the season’s most awaited indie offerings : Ohio’s Times New Viking lower than lo-fi fuzz-feast ‘Born Again Revisited’ and California’s Girls much hyped debut, simply called ‘Album’, drenched in 60’s psychedelia and showing strong anglophile tendencies.
Happy listening!
