For the Record
David Coverdale - Northwinds
David Coverdale - "North Winds" - On his second solo album with his vocals soaring and his confidence, too, David created a hard-rockin' gem with this 1978 LP, which came out in Europe (and not America) just as his new band Whitesnake were playing their first shows. Produced by Deep Purple's Roger Glover. Now available in the US for the first time on limited edition white
Sunny War - Simple Syrup
As Sunny War's newest masterpiece, Simple Syrup has a vibrant, loose feel, more focused on the interplay with the musicians than ever before. Sunny's new songs touch on everything from romance to politics, jumping easily between larger concepts like the expectations for famous Black women in American art ("Like Nina") and smaller ideas like "Kiss A Loser", her ode to her own drunken self in relationships. Surrounded by relentless pressures from societal change, Sunny worked more closely with her community and embarked on a nearly year-long recording spree that brought two EPs (one of which, Can I Sit With You?, made a number of Best of 2020 lists) and now Simple Syrup. The pandemic has been a crucible for Sunny, burning away the parts of the old world that didn't truly matter and leaving her with a new purpose.
Fruit Bats - The Pet Parade
"The Pet Parade," the title track to Fruit Bats' ninth album, might be a surprising opening track for longtime fans of Eric D. Johnson's beloved indie folk-rock project. The six-and-a-half-minute tone poem smolders and drones over just two chords, inspired by the strange and silly community events that he saw growing up outside of Chicago, in La Grange, Illinois, in which people dressed up and showed off their pets. Decades later, The Pet Parade emerges in troubled times, living within what Johnson refers to as the beauty and absurdity of existence. At times upbeat and reassuring ("Eagles Below Us") and at times quietly contemplative ("On the Avalon Stairs"), The Pet Parade marks a milestone for Johnson, who celebrates 20 years of Fruit Bats in 2021. In some ways still a cult band, in other ways a time-tested act, Fruit Bats has consistently earned enough small victories to carve out a career in a notoriously fickle scene.
Aaron Lee Tasjan - Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!
Every now and then an artist comes along who makes you remember why you started listening to albums in the first place: Aaron Lee Tasjan is that artist. With his wrecked cool, off-center charm, and restless creative dazzle, he makes music with conviction that has it's roots in rock's murky past, armed with an arsenal of songs that spill over with humor, intelligence, irony, personal vision and at times prophecy. An obsessive creative, Tasjan writes pop songs with a twist, a little overdriven, far too honest at times. He updates the idea of androgyny but dispels the emotional and social ambiguity with lyrics that reflect his own geographic and artistic wanderings. You get the sense over Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!'s 11 songs that the man who began the album is not the same man who completed it, transformed both by the experiences that inspired the songs and crafting them. This is not anxious music for anxious times, but rather music as an antidote for anxious times. It is the sound of the future arriving.
The Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker
Shake Your Money Maker is the debut studio album by The Black Crowes. It is the only album by the band to feature guitarist Jeff Cease. Shake Your Money Maker peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200, and two of it's singles, "Hard to Handle" and "She Talks to Angels", reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. "Jealous Again", "Twice As Hard" and "Seeing Things" were also charting singles in the United States. Shake Your Money Maker is the Black Crowes' best selling album, having sold more than 5 million copies.
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Rendention Was In)
Throughout their career, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings remained in high demand both publicly and privately to recreate and often re-imagine songs by other artists. More often than not, these covers were recorded by request, commissioned for placement in movies, television programs, tribute albums, or for samples. This album compiles some of their most popular as well as never-before-heard renditions. Though the band has mostly built their career on a prolific catalog of originals, these forays into other artists' compositions lay bare their gift for arrangement and the unmatched studio prowess that earned them their reputation as The Baddest Band in the Land.
Kings of Leon - When You See Yourself
The eighth studio album from the American rockers. Kings of Leon are brothers Caleb (guitar/vocals), Nathan (drums) and Jared (bass) Followill, along with their cousin Matthew Followill (guitar). Since their debut in 2003, Kings of Leon have sold over 20 million albums and nearly 40 million singles worldwide, and have toured all over the world, playing at top venues and headlining major festivals such as Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, and Glastonbury.
Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights
On Wild Pink's third album and first for Royal Mountain Records, A Billion Little Lights, frontman John Ross explores the dichotomy of finally achieving emotional security - of accepting the love and peace he deprived himself of in his twenties - while also feeling existentially smaller and more directionless than ever before. The record is a two-pronged triumph: an extraordinary reflection on the human condition presented through the sharpest, grandest, and most captivating songs Wild Pink have ever composed.