Out This Week 8/28

Divine Fits top this week’s list of new releases. The much anticipated project featuring Dan Boeckner (ex-Handsome Furs, Wolf Parade), Spoon frontman Britt Daniel and New Bomb Turks drummer Sam Brown, finally debuts with A Thing Called Divine Fits, which our Music Director, Don Yates, calls “a rock-solid set of concise, sharply crafted pop-rock with a crisp, ‘80s-influenced sound driven by buzzing synths, lean guitar lines and propulsive rhythms, with Boeckner and Daniel alternating on lead vocals.” Not quite as quirky as Boeckner’s Wolf Parade partnership, nor sultry as Daniel’s Spoon, Divine Fits will nevertheless create catchy songs that will appeal to fans of both musicians.

Other highlights this week come from Virginia’s Jack Tatum, who rises from the ashes of so-called chillwave to return with the sophomore effort of Wild Nothing, this time delivering “a bit more polished and streamlined take on his ’80s-influenced dream-pop, featuring an atmospheric blend of jangly, reverbed guitars, ethereal synths, soft vocals, melancholy lyrics and wistful melodies;” as well as Baltimore oddball experimenter/electro wizard Dan Deacon, whose new, and possibly most accessible album yet “finds him continuing to incorporate more acoustic instrumentation into his euphoric trance-pop sound while exploring ideas of America, from its vast expanses, scenic beauty and decaying cities to providing encouragement for modern-day counter-culture movements to fight oppressive governments and corporate greed. While his densely packed songs are still filled with loud, buzzing synths, they’re fleshed out with a variety of woodwinds, brass, horns, guitars and thundering percussion.”

You’ll also want to pick up the seventh LP from veteran British crooner Richard Hawley, who trades “the lush orchestration of his previous solo releases in favor of a brooding, muscular psych-rock sound with loud, rumbling guitars, bass and drums... on dark, occasionally politically charged songs lamenting a world falling apart.” Fans of Mark Lanegan will dig this phase of Hawley’s career. Meanwhile, New York-based electronic artist Matthew Dear combines “some of his brightest pop melodies to date with deeply personal lyrics” on his fourth full-length as he “continues his evolution towards more pop-oriented songwriting while still delivering plenty of adventurous beats and synth textures on smartly crafted electro-pop songs.”

More new releases to add to your shopping cart come from Seattle’s Poor Moon, featuring Christian Wargo and Casey Wescott of Fleet Foxes, among others in their debut LP of “psych-tinged folk-pop combining a range of colorful, acoustic-oriented instrumentation with soft vocals and gentle melodies”; Louisville, KY, band Houndmouth, who debut “with a fine EP of stately roots-rock reminiscent of The Band, featuring well-crafted songs fleshed out with fiery guitar leads, warm, soulful harmonies and anthemic song hooks”; another Seattle group, Minus The Bear, whose “fifth album finds them returning to a more aggressive, guitar-driven sound, though the album is also fairly diverse, ranging from hard-edged prog-rock to spacious pop ballads”; a compilation of newly discovered, previously unreleased demo recordings of Lubbock, TX, band The Flatlanders, featuring three great songwriting talents in Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock; the second album of new material by Swans, since they reformed after a 14-year hiatus (and their 12th overall); and the soundtrack to the Nick Cave-written new movie, Lawless, compiled by Cave himself and his Bad Seeds partner in crime (and Dirty Three violinist) Warren Ellis, and featuring vocals by Cave, Mark Lanegan, Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley, Willie Nelson and more!

After all that, if you’ve still saved up more money, don’t hesitate to grab the 10-disc set by Roxy Music of The Complete Studio Recordings 1972 - 1982. It will be your library’s centerpiece for sure. Check out samples of all of these and more below before heading out to your favorite record store.