4/3 new arrivals

The Twilight Sad, Jarvis Cocker, Ozomatli, Thelonious Monk and others in today’s new arrivals.

Recommended
The Twilight Sad, Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters: A bit of a hit here in the eMusic offices, Fourteen Autumns is very Scottish, singer James Graham doing nothing to hide his brogue. As the AMG review notes, the album is very conventional pop-rock. Not terrifically original, but that’s largely immaterial.

Paper Airplanes, Boyhood: Previously covered on 17 Dots, I really dig the Paper Airplanes, even if the rest of the record can’t live up to that tremendous opener.

Jarvis Cocker, Jarvis: I quite like Joe’s review of this record, but just reading it, I can’t really tell how much he liked it. His short response to me today: “If you liked Pulp, you’ll like this. If not, not so much.” Fair enough.

Ozomatli, Don’t Mess With the Dragon: Two extra eMusic-only live tracks (hurrah!) from the LA fusion folk, and the album — going off the review and the samples I checked — is just as much about song as it is rhythm, definitely a plus for these dudes.

Anthony Braxton, Nine Compositions: Just an overwhelming collection of contemporary jazz. Here’s the background from AllAboutJazz: “On April 3rd, New Haven’s Firehouse 12 Records will release the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet’s 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (FH12-04-01-002), a nine-CD (plus one-DVD) box set documenting what Time Out New York called “last Spring’s epochal run” at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club in March 2006. Described by Braxton as ”THE point of definition in my work thus far,” these concerts featured the world premieres of Compositions 350 through 358, the final works in his Ghost Trance Music series, recorded over the course of this rare four-night stand on an American stage.”

The Seldom Scene, Different Roads: Though down to only one original member since their 1971 inception, the Seldom Scene have not really suffered for it, primarily because bluegrass is a genre that’s as much about song and performance as it is performer, so how much does it really matter who’s on dobro for this next number? There’s also the not-small fact that the rotating cast who have made up the Scene for the past decade can really, really play. Recently they’ve been going the pop-covers route — not a good idea — but Different Roads is a nicely traditional return.

Thelonious Monk: A number of live records to add to our insanely huge Monk catalogue.

A couple of interesting label additions today:
Golden Beams: Rob sent this around this morning:

An fyi – Jack DeJohnette’s label just went live today. He has a compilation of sorts: http://www.emusic.com/album/11022/11022960.html. Great eclectic stuff – jazz world, ambient. DeJohnette is a legendary drummer/percussionist (played with thousands of people Miles in late 60s and late 70s, Keith Jarrett Trio, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, ECM, etc. Absolutely worth checking out – he is one of the more interesting and reaching artists…

Idol Records: 25-album deep catalogue of various rock-type acts, the only one I know being Centro-Matic.