Lots and lots and lots and lots of records today. I am going the lazy route — there’s just too much ground to cover — and putting all of them together. Let’s talk about them together, shall we? Jump in in the Comments section and leave your thoughts, which will undoubtedly be more insightful than mine would be anyway.
Akron/Family – Set Em Wild, Set Em Free
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South
Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms
Company Flow – Funcrusher Plus
Cracker – Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey
NOMO – Invisible Cities
British Sea Power – Man of Aran
Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love
Isis – Wavering Radiant
Fischerspooner – Entertainment
Alfred Brendel – Schumann Fantasy in C Minor, Symphonic Studies Op. 13
Crystal Antlers – Tentacles
I left the Death Row stuff out of here because I think Joe wanted to post about it later today. All I’ll say is that the best of those records (All Eyez On Me! The motherfucking Chronic!) have, for better or for worse, pretty much defined the entire genre of hip hop for the last fifteen years or more. It’s pretty crazy and amazing that we have them on eMusic.
The Company Flow, meanwhile, is pretty much the exact polar opposite of those records in every way: denying even the existence of sensual pleasure, coldly cerebral, and grimly ascetic. And, frequently, brilliant.
All right. I cede the floor. Thoughts?
The British Sea Power album is unavailable in the US?
Is St. Vincent coming our way at all? It was on the “coming soon” list at one point, I thought, and it’s supposed to be out today…
New Joe Gibbs here, http://www.emusic.com/album/Joe-Gibbs-The-Evolution-of-Dub-Vol-1-The-Origin-of-the-Sp-MP3-Download/11445243.html
The Smithereens do Tommy!
http://www.emusic.com/album/The-Smithereens-The-Smithereens-Play-Tommy-The-Smithereens-Play-To-MP3-Download/11440025.html
That’s about all I have.
Man, I would have saved some downloads had I realized there was a new NOMO on the way. Akron/Family, too! A number of cool releases today – just in time for me to hit 0.
Somebody tell the Crystal Antlers records is worth it, so I can pick it up.
count me as another wondering about st. vincent. oh, and camera obscura, too. wondering if y’all are on a probable delay with those, or if those are likely no-shows. . .
It’s definitely not everyone’s cup o’ tea, but the brand new Our Brother the Native’s “Sacred Psalms” is freakin’ gorgeous. It’s kinda like freak-folk post-rock speckled with found recordings of creepy children on playgrounds, world beats, and indie near-jazz freak-outs, although this new one is more immediate than the last. “Nonchalantly dropping Javanese Gamelan music into their wide-reaching list of musical penchants bodes well for an authentically off-kilter aural treat.” Check out All Grown and Child Banter (the latter is totally blowing my mind right now).
thought this was quite nice too – http://www.emusic.com/album/Weinland-Breaks-in-the-Sun-MP3-Download/11443583.html
My only thought is, “Why, oh why, do my downloads not refresh till tomorrow.”
I really want to hear that Isis record. And Cracker. And a whole lot more.
Hey:
St. Vincent is a hold-back, probably for about 3 months. Trust me, it’s worth it: it’s one of my faves of the year so far.
zgreen, the crystal antlers is mixed. “andrew” is amazing and you should download that for sure. i’d give it a 6/10 overall.
Two for my geezaz: Moving Targets and Illegal, Immoral and Fattening by Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, aka Flo & Eddie. As with their spawn They Might Be Giants, their funny songs are charming, but their pure pop songs are beyond genius.
Hey, and check the cover on the latter one in particular. HOT.
C’mon, Jayson, you know that the Schumann Fantasy is in C major, even though the eMusic metadata says C minor.
Do we know anything about the provenance of this recording? Given that it’s not on Philips and looking at the cover photo, it seems older. The sound on the samples is a little bangy but basically OK. I dunno if I need another Schumann Fantasy ’cause I have Richter on EMI, though.
In other news, I have never been able to actually enjoy Company Flow, but I respect their music as great at what it does.
good. gives me three months to check out the old st. vincent first. lots of good death row. back when i liked rap. hmm….
I’m torn between really, really, really wanting some Death Row records, and really, really, really never wanting to hear them (maybe except for The Chronic, but even that seems dated).
Everything’s coming up in Australia today! Usually we get robbed of a lot of new release albums which are under license to a major here in Australia. However, just this week i have picked up new St Vincent, Camera Obscura, DOOM, The Horrors, and Nomo. Still considering new ones from Crystal Antlers, Peaches, The Thermals, and Akron/ Family. Yay! Thanks emusic! I’m set for months
So did you have to meet with Suge Knight to get the Death Row stuff? And if not, are you worried about what’s going to happen once he finds out you’re selling his label’s stuff for $0.25 a song? I’d start identifying places to hide just in case…
@Mike,
Nah. Suge and I got together, smoked Cohibas. He started getting salty when I told him about the specifics of the dea eal, but I just reminded him about the time he dangled Vanilla Ice off of a hotel balcony, and he couldn’t stop giggling. So we’re good.
@Lindemann,
Waaaay busted. Def spaced. Thanks for checkin me……I’ll make sure that’s fixed in our metadata too….
Thanks for featuring the Isis track yesterday and the Nomo track today as Free Downloads…nice choices. I will be grabbing both of these albums.
I actually bought an electric kalimba from the guy in Nomo last year. Cool stuff.
Inspiration Information Remixes looks interesting.
I’ll back the Pink Mountaintops recommendation. I always thought I was missing something with Black Mountain, but this side project is right up my alley!