Bad Suns - Apocalypse Whenever - Epitaph
Bad Suns sound - dreamy '80s pastiche flanked by Stratocasters through cranked Vox amps, pulsing synths, and palpable rhythmic energy - that endeared listeners to the band in the first place, and their fourth LP, Apocalypse Whenever, uses that musical foundation as the jumping-off point for their next evolution. Conceived as "the soundtrack to a movie that doesn't yet exist," the 13-track album, helmed by longtime producer Eric Palmquist (MUTEMATH, Thrice) at his Palmquist Studios and the band's North Hollywood rehearsal spot, is more conceptually rigorous than anything they've ever attempted - but no less compelling or accessible. "We also knew we wanted the album to have a through-line, a story from beginning to end," frontman Christo Bowman explains, so the band did what any good directors would: They assembled a mood board, filtering their neo-noir version of Los Angeles through the dreamlike haziness of author Haruki Murakami, the futuristic flair of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Blade Runner, and the lifted cinematography of Spike Jonze's HER. These disparate influences don't just offer APOCALYPSE WHENEVER an expanded palette of sonic choices to color Bad Sun's airtight hooks - they help give the songs an emotional complexity that works on a multitude of levels depending on how listeners choose to receive them.

Eels - Extreme Witchcraft - E Works / PIAS
Eels have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing project of principal singer/songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett), Eels have released thirteen studio albums since their 1996 debut, Beautiful Freak. During the height of the pandemic lockdown in early 2021, E got an out of the blue message from Mark Romanek, director of the first Eels video, "Novocaine For the Soul". It triggered him to reach out to John Parish, who was in between numerous projects and immediately got to work in his HonorSound studio in Bristol and began sending ideas to E. "I'd sneak out of bed at 4 in the morning to hear the latest thing John had sent, and try to add my part to it and get it back to him quickly before my 4 year old son woke up," E says. The resulting album is Extreme Witchcraft.  

  

John Mellencamp - Strictly A One-Eyed Jack - Republic
John Mellencamp's 25th studio album, Strictly A One-Eyed Jack, is released this week on Republic Records. The album was written and produced by Mellencamp, recorded at his Belmont Mall Studios in Indiana, and recorded/mixed by GRAMMY-award winner David Leonard. It features a number of longtime band members including Andy York, Dane Clark, Mike Wanchic, Troye Kinnett, and more. It also features three collaborations with Bruce Springsteen including the landmark duet “Wasted Days.”

Greensky Bluegrass - Stress Dreams - Big Blue Zoo Records
For two decades now, Greensky Bluegrass has been building an empire, brick by brick. Their eighth studio release, Stress Dreams was produced by Dominic Davis (Jack White) and Grammy winning engineer/producer Glenn Brown amidst the 2020 pandemic. It follows their 2019 release, All for Money, which landed on the Top 100 at the Billboard Albums Chart, Top 20 at Independent Albums and Current Country Albums, Top 10 at Americana/Folk Albums Top 5 at Heatseekers, and #1 at Bluegrass Albums. Greensky is widely known for their dazzling live performances and relentless touring schedule. As with traditional bluegrass, the band writes about their own contemporary day-to-day happenings, emotions, and experiences in the modern world. Their die-hard fans pack out venues across the country. They travel in droves and sell out multiple-night show runs at iconic venues like Red Rocks and The Ryman.  

  

Frank Zappa - 200 Motels: 50th Anniversary - UMe
Frank Zappa's "200 Motels" turns 50! In celebration of FZ's famous 1971 "Surrealistic Documentary," Zappa Records, UMe, and MGM are pleased to present the original soundtrack newly remastered by the legendary Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, and featuring all original packaging including the booklet and mini-replica movie poster. Pressed on 180-gram heavy vinyl 2 LP by Optimal Media in Germany.

Kelley Stoltz - Antique Glow: Expanded Edition - Third Man Records.
Third Man Records is proud to release the 20th anniversary expanded edition of Kelley Stoltz's defining album 'Antique Glow.' Originally self-released in miniscule vinyl-only quantities in 2001, 'Antique Glow' has served not only as a template for the length of Kelley Stoltz's twenty-plus year career, but has also served as a compass for other Anglophile, TASCAM 388 home recording acolytes.  Original copies featured Stoltz's clever, wry and fanciful hand-painted adornments overtop reclaimed thrift store LP jackets, Third Man's release here utilizes some of those original unused images for a die-cut sleeve that ultimately gives the listener six different possible album covers. The songs are by and large masterpieces of bedroom pop magic. From the whispering 'Here Comes the Sun'-adjacent acoustic underpinnings of album opener 'Perpetual Night' through the fuzz-threaded leads of 'Are You Electric?' Stoltz's inspirations are impeccable and clear. Sixties Davies British Invasion through 80's British Bunnymen post-punk, with appropriate off-shoots into West Coast American pop-psych, Velvets-indebted hooliganism and Drake/CSNY acoustic attenuations, the end result is pure joy. On the expanded version, standout tracks previously relegated to an Australian tour-only CD (like the breathlessly cinematic 'Old Pictures') see their first-ever vinyl and digital release while there's an additional 8 songs from the 'Antique Glow'-era seeing their first ever release in any format. The cutting room floor quality here is second-to-none, Stoltz clearly gifted with the curse of writing too many indelible songs, so the newly released 'Too Beck' (originally cast off by Kelley because he thought 'it sounded too much like Beck') and 'Umbrella' stand firm as some of the best, most timeless music Stoltz has ever released... a full two decades after he recorded them! With all instruments and vocals performed by Stoltz, the singularity of vision here is impeccably clear and executed.