Fall 2021 New Music Playlist

 Listen on Spotify, enjoy!

1. "The Hardest Cut"  –  Spoon
2. "Walking at a Downtown Pace" – Parquet Courts
3. "I Was a Tunnel" – Generationals
4. "In the Gloaming" – trentemøller, Lisbet Fritze

5. "Lost in the Weight" – Deserta

6. "Six Words" – Elbow

7. "Once Twice Melody" – Beach House

8. "Crutch" – Band of Horses

9. "Harmonia's Dream" – The War on Drugs

10. "Always Together with You" – Spiritualized

11. "Love Love Love" – My Morning Jacket

12. "All Inclusive" – Pool Boy, Cyril Hahn

13. "C'mon America" –  Jeff Tweedy

14. "Simple Like Us" – Teleman

15. "Frankie" – Barrie

16. "Prester John" – Animal Collective

17. "Glisten" – The Album Leaf

18. "Elsewhere" – Hammock

Top 20+ Songs of 2018 with Spotify Playlist

Another round up with my fave songs of 2018 listed not by preference but how best to order them for the optimal listening experience – although I have to admit that David Byrne's "Everybody's Coming To My House" has to be my #1(along with the euphoric concert experience of seeing him in non-stop motion with band members at Forest Hills in September during his American Utopia tour.) Here's to the year that was and the one that will be!  Listen as a Spotify playlist here.

1. "Everybody's Coming To My House" – David Byrne
2. "Humility (featuring George Benson)" – Gorillaz
3. "Magnetism" – Vacationer
4. "Wide Awake" – Parquet Courts
5. "Once In My Life" – The Decemberists
6. "It's Late" – A Beacon School
7. "Buzzing In the Light" – Dr. Dog
8. "A Perfect Miracle" – Spiritualized
9. "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs" – Wye Oak
10. "Don't Move Back To LA" – Okkervil River
11. "Wait By the River" – Lord Huron
12. "The Ceremony of Innocence" – Moby
13. "Forgive" – Roosevelt, Washed Out
14. "Gotta Run" – Lea Porcelain
15. "Hand It Over" – MGMT
16. "Music Snob" – De Lux
17. "Echo" – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
18. "Where Your Mind Wants to Go (featuring Ludovico Einaudi)" – Blonde Redhead
19. "Lemon Glow" – Beach House
20. "The One To Wait" – CCFX
21. "The Deconstruction" – Eels
22. "More" – Jamison Isaak

Late Summer 2018 New Music Playlist

Listen on Spotify or as a YouTube Playlist, enjoy!

1. "Letting Go" – Wild Nothing
2. "Humility (featuring George Benson)" – Gorillaz
3. "Someday" – Phantogram
4. "Saturday" – Phantogram
5. "Losing You" – boy pablo
6. "New Birth in New England" – Phosphorescent
7. "Heaven Only Knows" – Bob Moses
8. "Being Here" – Vacationer
9. "A Perfect Miracle" – Spiritualized
10. "Gold Rush" – Death Cab for Cutie
11. "Lucy" – Still Woozy, ODIE
12. "A Trick of the Light" – Villagers
13. "Happiness Reigns" – Cullen Omori
14. "Straight Shot" – DeVotchKa
15. "Where Your Mind Wants to Go (featuring Ludocio Einaudi)" – Blonde Redhead
16. "Floating World" – Hammock

Here's to 2017 -- New Releases Ahead by Favorite Bands

Out with the old and in with the new please! I'm getting another playlist ready for publication while drooling over this list of anticipated releases by some of my very favorite bands. Strange how only two announce a solid drop date: The Flaming Lips', Oczy Mlody, set to arrive next week on January 13 (just in time for my birthday weekend) and Elbow's Little Fictions is due February 3. Add in TBD albums from Spoon, Arcade Fire, Beck, Gorillaz, The National plus LCD Soundsystem, and that's more than half of "My Essential Music – Fave Band Playlists" post, an awesome lineup to be sure.

So here's to the clean slate of a new year with all the promise it holds and the days ahead complimented by a great soundtrack of new tunes – music from bands I love along with songs by ones I've yet to discover.  Follow me as newmusicmatters on Spotify as I add these albums to a dedicated playlist and more.

UPCOMING NEW RELEASES IN 2017:
January 13 – The Flaming Lips, Oczy Mlody (Warner Brothers)
February 3 – Elbow, Little Fiction (Universal Music)
Spoon, TBD
Arcade Fire, TBD
Beck, TBD
Gorillaz, TBD
LCD Soundsystem, TBD
The National, TBD
Grizzly Bear, TBD
Father John Misty, TBD
The Shins, TBD
Real Estate, TBD
The War on Drugs, TBD
Vampire Weekend, TBD
Wolf Parade, TBD
The xx, TBD
Phosphorescent, TBD
My Morning Jacket, TBD
Spiritualized, TBD
Broken Social Scene, TBD
Strand of Oaks, TBD

Top Ten Releases of 2012 With Video Highlights

This week PopMatters posted The 75 Best Albums of 2012 from compiling top ten lists from staff writers.  I also contributed a write up for Passion Pit's excellent entry, Gossamer (#66). Reviewing this article is another opportunity to discover bands not already on your radar, so I highly recommend taking the time to dive in. 

My personal top ten is listed here with video highlights -- chosen on the basis of how excited I was about the album before it came out (sometimes months before the release date) to how much I visited the songs once it did. Together it represents over seven hours of happy listening. And I must say, 2012 was a fine year for new music!  

1. Grizzly Bear, Shields
The Brooklyn indie band Grizzly Bear built upon the success of their third album in 2009, Veckatimest, with a confident collection in Shields.  Featuring the songwriting skills of Edward Droste and Daniel Rossen as produced by band member Chris Taylor, the songs are varied and rewarding in a multi-layered, thoughtful presentation.

2. The Shins, Port of Morrow

James Mercer returned with a revamped line up for his fourth album as The Shins, after the acclaimed Broken Bells side project with producer Danger Mouse.  For fans waiting five years since 2007's Wincing the Night Away, Port of Morrow continues on that secure path of indie indulgence.  Mercer's warm tenor leads the way, through new subjects of fatherhood and adult responsibilities plucked straight from his domestic life.  

3. Passion Pit, Gossamer
Gossamer was released as the sophomore album from Boston area based group Passion Pit, but it was really the solo project of frontman Michael Angelokos (which is actually how the band began).  Angelokos wrote and produced the songs, with vague references of his own mental strife as he continued a battle with bi-polar disorder.  Yet the music remains as strong as ever, a full frontal indie electropop that reads well on stage as evidenced when Angelokos appeared on SNL earlier in the fall.

4. Beach House, Bloom

Baltimore's dream pop duo Beach House released their fourth album, Bloom, with more gauzy soundscapes.  Victoria LeGrand's expansive yet earthy vocals keep things grounded as a counterpoint to Alex Scally's haunting guitar and the layered synths.

5. Spiritualized, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light

Jason Pierce (a.k.a. Spaceman) released his seventh album as the frontman of U.K. alt rock band Spiritualized, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light.  The songs pour out from Pierce's harrowing experiences with chemotherapy for liver disease, with swells of musical transcendence and uplifting choruses.  (The Huh? on cover art refers to the original working title, in case you're wondering!)

6. The Walkmen, Heaven

The Walkmen released their seventh album over a decade, Heaven, and celebrated time together as a indie rock band plus the years since high school in the Washington, D.C. area.  While the group's early days were spent in New York City, members have moved to Philly and New Orleans as they began another stage into family life. Their devotion to each other is seen and heard in the video for the title track here, with solid songwriting that favors vintage instruments and persistent guitar work. 

7. Vacationer, Gone
New band Vacationer put New York City's synth duo Body Language together with Philadelphia area's Kenny Vasoli, formerly of post punk outfit A Starting Line. (Interview and concert review from last spring here.) The result is a breezy collabo of electronic beats and swatches of lush samples, with Vasoli's laid back but eager vocal delivery finding another fitting musical home.

8. Miike Snow, Happy To You

Miike Snow is a Swedish indie pop band with the producing team Bloodshy & Avant (Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg) and American vocalist Andrew Wyatt.  Their sophomore album, Happy To You, finds the trio flaunting their self-made studio ways, utilizing all the tools to achieve hooks galore.  This video could use some explanation, however!

9. Tame Impala, Lonerism
Australian psych rock quintet Tame Impala, the musical project of Kevin Parker, released their sophomore album Lonerism.  It's full of trippy grooves and explosions of sound, with buried vocals that somehow burst from this busy foundation.

10. Andrew Bird, Break It Yourself
Chicago area native Andrew Bird has released nine plus albums of music as composer and muli-instrumentalist.  Break It Yourself features fourteen complex compositions with Bird on guitar, violin and vocals (including lots of whistling!)

Early Summer 2012 New Music Playlist

To most people, the Memorial Day weekend is the start of summer so why not explore some new music for your own personal soundtrack.  With a mix of recent arrivals and established artists, releases abound for the listening to heat things up.  Notes are provided with background info for further discovery. Link to listen here, enjoy! 

1. “Disparate Youth” – Santigold

This solid single is off Santigold’s second album, Master of My Make Believe.  With a mix of reggae, jazz and new wave influences, she continues to forge her own distinctive pop path.

2. “Happy Home” – Onuinu

Onuinu is the musical project of Portland multi-instrumentalist Dorian Duvall, combining an electro pop past into a new genre he likes to call “Disco-Hop.”  This shimmering romp of a song is off his upcoming full-length debut, Mirror Gazer.

3. “Heaven” – The Walkmen

The Walkmen are ready to release album number seven after a decade together – this title track highlights their unique sound, featuring Hamilton Leithauser’s passionate vocals over a steadfast foundation. The band members are now living in New York City, Philadelphia and New Orleans, but still present an unwavering united front for indie rock fans.

4. “Bad for Me” – Brendan Benson

This tuneful song is the single off Benson’s sixth album, What Kind of World, which was recorded entirely in analog. In the middle of a busy career as a musician, songwriter and band member of The Racounteurs, he now also has his own record label called Readymade Records.

5. “Good as New” – Vacationer

6. “Trip” – Vacationer

These groove-based songs bring a feel good summer attitude via the new chill wave band Vacationer, embracing all things sunny and cool in the debut release, Gone. Listeners may recognize Kenny Valosi’s fun time vocals from his punk pop band, The Starting Line. 

7.  “Warbeth” – The Magnetic North

This U.K. band is an alt music collaboration between Simon Tong (Gorillaz, The Verve), folk artist Erland Cooper and prolific Irish songstress Hannah Peel.  “Warbeth” is a mesmerizing multi-part composition off their debut album, Orkney: Symphony of The Magnetic North.

8. “Act On Impulse” – We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks is a quartet from Edinburgh, Scotland, generating buzz with their take on indie rock.  This building jam is off their second release, In the Pit of the Stomach.

9. “Alpine” – Hands

This single from Australian band Hands will be featured on their upcoming full-length release.  Six band members combine to create quirky songs with Scandinavian sounding indie pop sensibilities.

10. “Heart” – Oberhofer

Founder and frontman Brad Oberhofer moved East from Tacoma, Washington to study music at New York University and now his band is based in Brooklyn.  He writes and records all the music himself, gathering a tour band to support this second release, Time Capsule II.

11. “Montauk” – Rufus Wainwright

American-Canadian singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright recently released another album of intensely personal songs featuring his signature tenor and virtuosic piano playing. (He has seven albums of original music, ten if you count compilations and other contributions). This one, called Out of the Game, focuses on his new stage of life finding the wonder in marriage and fatherhood.

12. “Higher Palms” – My Best Fiend

This Brooklyn based quintet embraces the psychedelic ways of fuzzy indie pop.  Singer Fred Coldwell provides spaced out renditions of melodic vocals for this single and lead track on their second release, In Ghostlike Fading.

13.  “Hey Jane” – Spiritualized

14. “So Long You Pretty Thing” – Spiritualized

Jason Pierce (a.k.a. J. Spaceman) has had a tough seven years battling health problems such as double pneumonia and going through chemo for liver disease. So it’s no surprise that the new release for his U.K. band, So Long You Pretty Thing, is full of soul searching songs contemplating the highs and lows of human existence.

15. “Saint Nothing” – Daniel Rossen

This quiet, solemn song is off Daniel Rossen’s solo EP, Silent Hour. Rossen is originally from Los Angeles, traveling east to study at New York University and then becoming part of the indie bands Department of Eagles and Grizzly Bear.

Spiritualized "Live In Concert" via NPR Music

NPR Music has posted a recent concert of Spiritualized as an entire listening session along with six "featured videos." The concert was recorded last week at the Washington D.C. venue 9:30 club (named for its original address of 930 F Street NW during the 80s, now located at 815 V Street NW). In my book it’s a perfect mid-sized space to see a show, with a standing only capacity of 1200.  Sure it's not the same as being there, but I welcome these fly on the wall opportunities to check out a band's performance style.  Looking at the footage, you not only witness the nuances in the songs presented and how they vary from the produced tracks, but also the interactions of various band members, even if it's just on your computer screen.  The audio stream provides the entire show, over two hours of live music to indulge in right at home or work if such things are allowed.

Here the theatrics of a psychedelic light show cut across the blackened stage with frontman Jason Pierce (a.k.a. J. Spaceman) and his back up singers all dressed in white. Pierce’s voice is raw and gravely, as he plays guitar while standing behind a mike stand in black sunglasses. While there may not be much movement by those on stage, waves of emotion pour out in the music.  Most of the set list are from Pierce’s latest release, Sweet Heart Sweet Light, a personal collection of alt rock anthems full of triumph as well as serious songs revealing doubts about our limited time on earth.  I have two tracks already picked out for my next playlist... stay tuned.

Link to NPR Music’s “Live in Concert” page here.

SET LIST:

• "Hey Jane"
• "Lord Let It Rain On Me"
• "Headin' for the Top Now"
• "Walkin' with Jesus"
• "Oh Baby"
• "Rated X"
• "Born Never Asked"
• "Electric Mainline"
• "Soul on Fire"
• "I Am What I Am" *
• "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" *
• "Mary"
• "Stay with Me" *
• "So Long You Pretty Thing" *
• "She Kissed Me (And It Felt Like a Hit)" *
• "Come Together" *
• "Cop Shoot Cop"

* featured video