Rock & Pop

Medicine at Midnight is the new album from Foo Fighters, and packs nine new songs into a tight-ass 37 minutes. This collection includes the smoldering new single, “Shame Shame.” Medicine at Midnight is produced by Greg Kurstin and Foo Fighters, and is the band’s 10^th album.

Foo Fighters are Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear, and Rami Jaffee.

'For the first time' is the highly anticipated, debut album from 'Black Country, New Road' - a new UK based seven-piece, who have gained huge tastemaker press and radio support in the UK, US and internationally including NPR, KEXP, WFUV, The Fader, The Guardian, Loud & Quiet and more, off the back of just two singles releases in 2019. They are the latest stars from the famed Brixton Windmill scene - other acts from this scene include black midi, Squid, Fat White Family and Shame. First single 'Athen's France' was released on tastemaker label Speedy Wunderground, helmed by producer Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Natasha Khan), 'Sunglasses' followed on Thurston Moore affiliated, Blank Editions. Recorded with Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine), the album is the perfect capturing of a new band and all the energy, ferocity and explosive charge that comes with that.

Highly anticipated debut from 2020 breakthrough artist, london-based musician and poet Arlo Parks.

 

"My album is a series of vignettes and intimate portraits surrounding my adolescence and the people that shaped it. It is rooted in storytelling and nostalgia - I want it to feel both universal and hyper specific."

 

Recent press features have seen her grace the cover of  NME and Dork Magazine as well as being included on the 2020 Dazed 100 List. And all whilst performing stand-out shows for the revered COLORS and NPR's Tiny Desk series - plus being one of only three artists to perform at Glastonbury this year.

 

Arlo has also been named an ambassador for the British mental health charity, CALM. Whilst her songwriting has seen her gain new fans in; Billie Eilish, Florence Welch, Michelle Obama, Angel Olsen and Wyclef Jean, among others.

 

"A minor key moonbeam"

NPR

 

“Her songs are the results of an alchemy that combines shiver-inducing highs with sweet, molasses-coated lows”

W Magazine

 

“gritty, visceral storytelling that shines through her songwriting”

Pigeons & Planes

 

"Arlo Parks gives teen angst a human face" 

The FADER

Baio, best known for playing bass in the Grammy Award winning band Vampire Weekend, is releasing his third studio album Dead Hand Control on January 29th, 2021 on Glassnote Records. The album was recorded over 18 months at Damon Albarn's 12 Studios in London and at Baio's personal studio, C+C Music Factory. Dead Hand Control volleys between explorations of the basic notion of caring for one another to themes of a society in upheaval.

Like the great river that flows through Memphis, the music of Lucero keeps rolling on, twisting and turning through the years, the same dark and brooding steadiness always at work.  Since forming in late the ‘90s, this group of Memphis road-dogs has mixed heartfelt lyrics with the sounds of early rock and roll, classic punk, country-folk, and deep-fried Southern soul. It’s a sound that stands on the pillars of American music, born more of feeling than technique, delivered night after night to legions of fans in dive bars and theaters, and on stages as august as Red Rocks Amphitheater and the Ryman. In short, it’s music that is built to last, impervious to trends.  For their tenth studio album, When You Found Me, the band continues its natural evolution, this time tapping into a more atmospheric, widescreen vision (one that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Reagan-era FM dial) while still staying tethered to its roots.  “I wanted a very classic rock sound for this album,” says songwriter and frontman Ben Nichols. “I wanted it to sound like stuff I heard on the radio growing up. I didn’t want to make a retro record at all, but I did want to reference some of those sounds and tones and moods. I think we struck a nice balance between nostalgia and something that still sounds like contemporary Lucero.”

The Daisies have started the next chapter welcoming new band member Glenn Hughes. Also known as "The Voice Of Rock", Glenn has taken over lead vocals and bass guitar, joining guitarists Doug Aldrich, David Lowy and drummer Deen Castronovo. With the addition of Glenn Hughes, The Daisies supercharge their front line through his rock solid bass grooves and unmatched vocal intensity. As all fans know, the man is a true original, inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, with a rich history of music that features heavy weights like Deep Purple and Black Country Communion as well as a successful solo career. One might say: "They don't build rockers like him anymore". Followers can expect more High-Voltage Rock songs, indomitable grooves and spellbinding lyrics, all the ingredients that have made this music so timeless, out-living trends of the modern day. The sound of The Dead Daisies is entrenched in the Hard Rock way of life we all love but as a living, breathing rock band, they are constantly evolving & bringing new dynamics to a classic style.

Out on dBpm Records, Love Is The King, a “beautifully honest ode to love and hope,” is the follow-up to 2018’s WARM and 2019’s WARMER, and comes on the heels of Tweedy’s second book, How To Write One Song, out October 13th via Penguin Random House's Dutton. “At the beginning of the lockdown I started writing country songs to console myself. Folk and country type forms being the shapes that come most easily to me in a comforting way. 'Guess Again' is a good example of the success I was having at pushing the world away, counting my blessings — taking stock in my good fortune to have love in my life,” comments Tweedy. “A few weeks later things began to sound like 'Love Is The King' — a little more frayed around the edges with a lot more fear creeping in. Still hopeful but definitely discovering the limits of my own ability to self soothe." –Jeff Tweedy

Eminem is back with "Music To Be Murdered By - Side B" Deluxe Edition. Features 16 new tracks (13 tracks + 3 skits). Executive produced by Eminem and Dr. Dre, the deluxe album features Skylar Grey, DJ Premier, Ty Dolla $ign, Dr. Dre, Sly Pyper, MAJ and White Gold.

Beach Bunny announce their new EP Blame Game out January 15, 2021 via Mom+Pop Music. The new EP follows the band’s 2020 Billboard Top 10 debut album Honeymoon, which received 4 STARS from Rolling Stone - and a print profile - a multi-page critic’s essay from The New Yorker and features with The Cut, i-D, Paper, Nylon and many more. Where Honeymoon centered on the highs and lows of new love, Blame Game takes aim at toxic masculinity, sexism and the emotional labor of unreliable relationships. Blame Game was written in quarantine and recorded in Chicago over a week in August. The four new original songs are produced by Joe Reinhart (Hop Along, Joyce Manor, Modern Baseball, Remo Drive).

Mike Rosenberg, better known as Passenger, is a multi-award winning, platinum-selling singer-songwriter from Brighton, England. Although still known for his busking, he long ago made the journey from street corners to stadiums – most notably with 'Let Her Go', which reached number 1 in 19 countries and which has now notched more than two billion plays on YouTube. For his latest album "Songs For The Drunk and Broken Hearted" Rosenberg explains, “I chose the album title because a lot of the songs are about drinking and the emotions felt around it” he explains. There are personal references Rosenberg adds, “I’ve recently gone through a break-up, which is always a rough time but can actually be very inspiring too. I spent a few months going out and drinking too much which was fun and heartbreaking and awful all at once. Some of the material is personal and some of it is about other people, either people I’ve met or fictional characters. That’s always been a Passenger thing: sad stories about people drenched in disappointment with that sense of what could have been.”

A lifelong bluegrass and country music fan, legendary singer, songwriter and producer Barry Gibb has long dreamed of a project that would bring him together with some of the artists he admires the most. With the help of Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, that dream has become a reality with GREENFIELDS: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1—out January 8th via Capitol Records. Featured artists roster includes Alison Krauss, Brandi Carlile, Dolly Parton, Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow and more.

2020 Deluxe Limited Edition LP of Beck’s 2019 album, Hyperspace, available December 4th! The LA native is partnering up with NASA for visual space missions tied to tracks from the album. Packaged in a holographic jacket; includes new 24-page booklet with AI images and NASA data for each track. The vinyl features two unreleased songs, ‘Dark Places (Soundscape)’ and ‘I Am The Cosmos (42420)’, plus brand-new 2020 mixes of ‘Star’, ‘Hyperspace’, ‘See Through’ and ‘Die Waiting’. 

50 years following the release of his self-titled first solo album McCartney, featuring Paul playing every instrument and writing and recording every song, Paul McCartney will release McCartney III on December 11th. Paul hadn’t planned to release an album in 2020, but in the isolation of “Rockdown,” he soon found himself fleshing out some existing musical sketches and creating even more new ones. Before long an eclectic collection of spontaneous songs would become McCartney III: a stripped back, self-produced and, quite literally, solo work marking the opening of a new decade, in the tradition of 1970’s McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II. Recorded earlier this year in Sussex, McCartney III is mostly built from live takes of Paul on vocals and guitar or piano, overdubbing his bass playing, drumming, etc. atop that foundation. McCartney III spans a vast and intimate range of modes and moods, from soul searching to wistful, from playful to raucous and all points between — captured with some of the same gear from Paul’s Rude Studio used as far back as 1971 Wings sessions. And Paul's array of vintage instruments he played on the new album have an even more storied history, including Bill Black of Elvis Presley's original trio's double bass alongside Paul's own iconic Hofner violin bass, and a mellotron from Abbey Road Studios used on Beatles recordings, to name but a few. Just as McCartney’s 1970 release marked Paul’s return to basics in the wake of the biggest band break-up in musical history, and the 1980 avant-garde masterpiece McCartney II rose from the ashes of Wings, McCartney III finds Paul back on his own, turning unexpected circumstances into a personal snapshot of a timeless artist at a unique point in history.

Taylor Swift has announced her ninth studio album, evermore; folklore's sister record. These songs were created with Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, WB and Justin Vernon. The deluxe physical edition will include two bonus tracks.

The desire for change stirs from the inside. We either listen to it-or not. Aluna chose to listen. After widespread critical acclaim as one-half of multi-platinum duo AlunaGeorge, the singer, songwriter, and producer established an unpredictable and undeniable signature sound on her 2020 solo debut, Renaissance.

Mac Miller's family announces a double-disc vinyl box set of his albums Swimming and Circles. Swimming In Circles collects Miller's two final studio albums, which were conceived by the late artist as companion albums, into one deluxe presentation. Now, fans will be able to listen to both releases on vinyl side by side for the first time, experiencing the full narrative arc expressed across the two albums. The new box set will be available on November 20, 2020 through Warner Records.

Circles was released in January 2020 and was the most pre-added album in Apple Music history upon its release. It also debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 Chart, marking Miller's sixth consecutive Top 5 debut on the chart. The album was completed with the assistance of producer Jon Brion, with whom Miller worked on Swimming and had been working together on Circles at the time of his passing.

GRAMMY-winning artist James Blake releases a Limited-Edition Indie 12” Vinyl of his Before EP on December 18th. Paying homage to his London club days, BEFORE sees Blake return to his roots whilst showcasing the evolution of his music. For James, this EP is the expression of “a yearning for the dancefloor elation”, and a statement of “finally having confidence to put his own voice on dancefloor rhythms”.

Every December, Christchurch, NZ  enjoys the start of summer as Saskatoon, SK  begins to freeze over. For as far apart as these places may seem, you would never know it from the sound of  Plastic Bouquet, the debut collaborative album between Saskatoon duo Kacy & Clayton and Christchurch singer and songwriter Marlon Williams.

While on tour across Europe in 2017, Kacy & Clayton quite literally stopped Marlon in his tracks. As if playing by divine design through the radio, the pair’s “Springtime of the Year” immediately enchanted him.  Soon thereafter, Marlon hopped a flight to Saskatoon and they wrote and recorded the bulk of what would become Plastic Bouquet. They unlocked undeniable chemistry.

With Plastic Bouquet, these three musicians find common ground in dusty country spun through a kaleidoscope of psychedelic soul and dreamy fifties delivery.  They created an ethnosphere that is more than the sum of its parts. It’s also the beginning of something very exciting.

The Avalanches’ new album, We Will Always Love You, will be released by Astralwerks on December 11. An exploration of the vibrational relationship between light, sound and spirit, The Avalanches have moved beyond the party-up exuberance of their youthful music to a tender, reflective sound infused with hard-earned life wisdom. Building  on  the  sample-based  approach  of  their  classic  albums Since I Left  You and Wildflower, We Will Always Love You is their most song-oriented album yet, made with an array of guest singers and writers.

Arctic Monkeys and War Child UK are proud to announce the release of Arctic Monkeys - Live At The Royal Albert Hall. All proceeds from the album will go to War Child UK to help fill what could be up to a £2 million deficit they are facing in 2021 caused by the devastating impact of Covid-19 on their fundraising. These funds are urgently needed to support those who are worst hit by the virus. 

Recorded at the start of the band’s Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino tour, Arctic Monkeys - Live At The Royal Albert Hall, features 20 of the band’s finest moments to date.

“On June 7, 2018 we played a very special show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. All the proceeds from that memorable night were donated to War Child UK in support of the vital work they do protecting, educating and rehabilitating children who have experienced the trauma of conflict and the horror of war. The situation that was bad in 2018 is now desperate and those children and their families need our help more than ever. To enable War Child UK to reduce their funding deficit and continue their valuable work, we are happy to be able to release a live album, recorded that evening at The Royal Albert Hall. All proceeds will go direct to the charity. We thank all our fans in advance for their support of this release and in turn for their support of War Child UK” - Arctic Monkeys.

2020 release. Grandson's debut EP trilogy of Modern Tragedy 1, 2, and 3, which turned Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and musician Jordan Edward Benjamin into a vocal spokesperson on some of today's most pressing political and social issues, Death of an Optimist continues grandson's dynamic search for meaningful change with some of his most clear-eyed and assertive songwriting yet.

In 2018, Margo Price claimed her rock star status at the Mother Church of Country Music. She was headlining the Ryman Auditorium for the first time ever, in a sold-out run of three nights that she had admittedly spent more time planning than her wedding. Now, Margo revisits the career-changing residency with the release of a new live album, Perfectly Imperfect at The Ryman. With special guest appearances from Jack White, Emmylou Harris and Sturgill Simpson! Limited Pressing Double LP

Grammy nominated Shawn Mendes returns with his fourth studio album Wonder, the follow up to 2018’s platinum Shawn Mendes.  Includes the first single, also entitled “Wonder” and 13 other tracks recorded over the course of 2020.  “Wrote an album. It’s called “Wonder”.  it really feels like a piece of me has been write down on paper and recorded into song. I tried to be as real and as honest as I’ve ever been.  It’s a world and a journey and a dream and an album I’ve been wanting to make for a really long time.”

The New Abnormal is the long awaited new album from The Strokes, and the band’s first album in seven years. The album was announced with the first track and video, “At The Door.”

The New Abnormal is The Strokes’ sixth studio album and was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California, with producer Rick Rubin. The album’s cover artwork is a painting called ‘Bird on Money,’ by famed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The Strokes are singer Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr, bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti.

'The man singing these songs isn't exactly the same man who wrote them,' says Pokey LaFarge of Rock Bottom Rhapsody, his eighth and latest studio release. 'This album is about the story of who I used to be.' In early 2018, LaFarge ' searching for the sort of artistic freedom and inspiration he wasn't finding in the Midwest ' relocated from his longtime home base of St. Louis, Missouri, to Los Angeles, California. New songs came quickly to LaFarge in his new environment, but new temptations soon found him, as well. Though he declines to get into specifics, LaFarge admits that he experienced a significant 'fall from grace' during the last months of 2018. 'Things sort of started to unravel in my mind,' Shortly before the recording of Rock Bottom Rhapsody began, LaFarge experienced a spiritual awakening ' and the faith he re-embraced in his hour of darkness helped to buoy him through the making of the album. Though he was struggling for spiritual equilibrium at the time, LaFarge at least had some rock-solid musical support to lean on. Recorded primarily at Reliable Recorders on Chicago's Northwest side, Rock Bottom Rhapsody was produced by LaFarge's friend and collaborator Chris Seefried (who also co-wrote several of the album's tracks), and features the considerable talents of guitarist Joel Paterson, keyboardist Scott Ligon, upright/electric bassist Jimmy Sutton, and drummer Alex Hall. Musically, LaFarge continues to mix and match a wide variety of styles and traditions, while never losing track of his own vision This record is kind of like Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan hanging out with chanson singers and French jazz bands in like the forties, but I was never trying to make it sound like a particular person. Despite the trying period that preceded its recording, Rock Bottom Rhapsody is ultimately far more uplifting and life-affirming than its title would suggest. 'That desperation, that struggle,' LaFarge ponders, 'Did it add something to the record? It certainly did. I mean, I don't know if it made it better; it just is what it is. It's not up to me to decide if people are going to feel that'

"It was in winter 18/19 - I flew to Montreal to meet with Tim Kingsbury, Richard Reed Parry, Craig Silvey and Teddy Impakt at Le Studio Du Arcade Fire. It was a fine time with a dream team in a city I love. Winter in beautiful Quebec. Les semaines les plus froides de ma vie. I had a bunch of demos that were inspired by migration stories I had heard from friends or read in newspapers while on tour in Europe and North America. I remember being struck by the similarities of the stories I heard from both continents and how really only the names of the powerful and the powerless had changed - thinking, "Is this the future? Is this our future?"Some time went by, the stories wove together and I remember them now closer to characters in a dream of how people could treat each other than any kind of front-page news realism. I think music subconsciously - whether writing or listening - is a filter for me - helping to process all the bad news into something new to build from - some records to me are like self-fulfilling prophecies - visualizing change to wish something into being - those records inspired this one." - M. Ward

2020 live release. Produced by The Monkees' archivist Andrew Sandoval and mixed by Christian Nesmith, The Monkees - The Mike & Micky Show Live was recorded live in March 2019. The collection includes performances of all three of the band's #1 hits: "Last Train To Clarksville," "I'm A Believer" and "Daydream Believer." In addition to those hits, the live album also spotlights many of Nesmith's finest compositions, including several songs that were never performed live during the Monkees' heyday, like "St. Matthew" and "Auntie's Municipal Court." Other Nesmith-penned tunes on the collection include live versions of "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," "Listen To The Band," "Papa Gene's Blues," "You Just May Be The One" and "You Told Me." Dolenz takes the spotlight singing hits like "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Randy Scouse Git," "Mary, Mary," "Goin' Down," "For Pete's Sake," and "Porpoise Song." The collection also features live versions of "Me & Magdelena" and "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" from The Monkees' most-recent studio album, Good Times (2016).

2LP – Double Vinyl w/ 3-sides audio and 1-side etched; includes 32-page booklet

Pearl Jam will release their much-anticipated eleventh studio album, Gigaton, on March 27th. It marks the band's first studio album since 2013. "Making this record was a long journey," explains Mike McCready. "It was emotionally dark and confusing at times, but also an exciting and experimental road map to musical redemption." 2020 officially marks 30 years of Pearl Jam performing live, with over 85 million albums sold worldwide and a 2017 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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The lead singer of beloved heartland-punk band The Gaslight Anthem, Brian Fallon steps away from that sound and into a stripped-down Americana space on his third solo album, Local Honey. Produced by Grammy-award winning producer Peter Katis (The National, Frightened Rabbit, Death Cab for Cutie), the album showcases Fallon's songwriting in small vignettes, from a loving devotional for his daughter to a vengeful murder ballad.

Lilly Hiatt felt lost. She’d just returned home from the better part of a year on tour in support of her acclaimed third album, Trinity Lane, and, stripped of the daily rituals and direction of life on the road, she found herself alone with her thoughts for the first time in what felt like ages.

So Hiatt did what’s always come most natural to her in times of questioning and uncertainty: she picked up a guitar. Over the course of the ensuing winter, she wrote new music that grappled with her sense of self and place in the world, reckoning with issues that had been bubbling beneath the surface of her subconscious in some cases for years. The result is Walking Proof, Hiatt’s fourth and most probing collection to date. The record walks the line between Hiatt’s rough, rock and roll exterior and her tender, country roots. Lilly Hiatt’s not feeling so lost these days, and with Walking Proof, she’s crafted a roadmap to share with the rest of us.

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Tesla visited the iconic Abbey Road Studios for a one-night musical event, performing songs from their legendary arsenal including "Love Song" and "What You Give" along with their classic covers of "Signs" and "We Can Work It Out." Additionally, for the first time ever, the band performed the track "California Love Song," from their latest studio album, Shock. The performance was recorded and filmed in 4K HD, bringing forth Tesla's upcoming live album, Five Man London Jam. Available on 2LP.

Cavetown’s major-label debut album, SLEEPYHEAD, due out March 27, 2020, on Sire Records. Recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Skinner himself in the bedroom of his new London apartment (some things never change), the 11-song collection is set to prove to the world why he’s become not just a cornerstone of the bedroom pop community, but a torchbearer for the next generation of his genre.

By focusing less on the more imperceptible aspects of his productions, Skinner’s distilled his energy on Sleepyhead into what really moves fans: the songs themselves, occasionally lighthearted, largely poignant – but always authentically him. The album is awash in ambient indie-rock nuance, creaking acoustic guitars and Skinner’s poetic lyricism, all steadied by his tranquil melodies and reassuring timbre.

Some 250 million Spotify plays and 1.15 million YouTube subscribers after launching Cavetown, he’s a radically different person than he was just a few years ago. “Basically every aspect of my life has changed since putting out Lemon Boy,” he admits. “Often when change happens, it’s so slow that you don’t notice it. The speed at which it’s happened has made me appreciate everything.”

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Half Waif Nandi Rose is on her own again, and three songs into her forthcoming album The Caretaker, the singer, songwriter and producer declares her fearlessness: "Baby don't worry about me, I don't worry about you." Here, on "Ordinary Talk," Rose meditates on the heaviness of ordinary moments, the constellation of tears and chores and self-doubt and small talk that comprise being a person, accompanied by her most cinematic, pulsing arrangements to date. It's an apt introduction to The Caretaker, an ax-lbum that negotiates the space between working alone and with others, between isolation and connection. The result is her boldest work yet. Over the course of eleven songs, Rose creates the lush world of a humid summer night, dreaming of and reaching for a season in which she is her "best self."

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The film, 'Viva The Underdogs' features over a decade of behind the scenes personal footage, coupled with unprecedented access to the bands most explosive live tours and world's biggest music festivals. The film gives an incredibly honest and candid look at Parkway Drive's journey; the good-times, battles, triumphs, and sacrifices. "Viva The Underdogs" the album features 14 tracks; 11 of their biggest songs recorded live at the Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany, as well as three of their most popular tracks re-imagined, recorded in German and one with a feature from German Rap artist, Casper.

Devotion, the second album from Margaret Glaspy, is a collection of twelve love songs, reflecting the phases of romance –appreciation and frustration, doubt and adoration. While Glaspy has become known as a skilled guitarist; on Devotion she shifted her songwriting process, building these tracks on computer-based tools like MIDI and Ableton before opening them up on guitar. The result is a new sonic terrain that highlights her vulnerable lyrics and unique emotive vocals.