Everything from gurgling electronic music to buoyant kiddie pop hits the racks at eMusic today — here’s a spin through some of the notable titles!

So to answer the question on everyone’s mind: the new Stephen Malkmus will be here. Hopefully by tomorrow. We had a slight glitch that kept it from being posted today, but all systems should be ‘go’ for tomorrow’s delivery.
In the meantime, here’s a quick roundup of some titles that did arrive today, many of which [...]

Possibly, if I were ever given three wishes, one of them would be to have Dolly Parton installed as my fairy godmother.* It’s easy to imagine; you are sad, alone, nothing to do except backing up your hard drive. You can’t go to the ball because it’s the weekend before payday and cabs after midnight [...]

Constellation, one of Canada’s most respected independent labels hit the site today, and per usual I’m hugely excited. A sampling of the highlights below…

Here’s something that came in a while ago, but is worth lending your ears to. The Marseille Figs first album The Dirty Canon came out last November and has been gathering a slow swell of underground support.

The Everly Brothers, Nellie McKay, John Fahey and others pace an incredibly strong selection of Thursday new arrivals.

Life has been stressful recently and, today, has left me in a slightly old-fashioned gothic mood. I’m hungry for Edgar Allen Poe, musty perfumes, a railway journey to Paris and strange liqueurs from dust covered bottles. Oddly, the eMusic Europe office lacks all of these things. But I did find Blanche.

Just a quick note for those looking to spend those last downloads this month. eMusic received an excellent comp yesterday called Give US Your Poor featuring Natalie Merchant, Bonnie Raitt, Keb Mo, Buffalo Tom, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Jewel, Dan Zanes and many more.

Yancey and I talked this morning about all the great new records on the site today and I even mentioned to him not to overlook the new Picastro. So what does he go and do in his massive, epic, awesome new arrivals post? He forgets the new Picastro.

A great day for new releases, with fantastic new material from Akron/Family, Shout Out Louds, Besnard Lakes, Dirty Projectors and a host of others.

I’m generally pretty averse to singer-songwriters; there’s only so much acoustic guitar I can take, and I try to restrict my weekly intake of sorrow and longing to the hefty spate of emo bands I guiltily enjoy. The one huge exception to this rule is Mark Heard.

Three quick recommendations. Ready. Set. Go.

Photo by Karen Hoffmann
Four days late and thousands short, here’s a look at some of the best titles to hit eMusic this week.

July 14th 11.30am breakfast with My Two Toms, Lake Stage
My camping partner Emma arrived in the middle of the night. Helped put her tent up, which was something of a miracle given that it was inky dark and I was drunk. Gave her some wine, cheese and crackers and spent the rest of the night [...]

I have to admit, I’m not into genealogy all that much. Being a “Burns,” though, I do know that I’m Scottish and that I have a family plaid. As such, I found Colin Irwin’s recent Scottish Folk & Rock Dozen pretty interesting reading.

It’s the biggest release date of the summer, with new ones from Spoon, They Might Be Giants, Bad Religion, M. Ward (sorta), Architecture in Helsinki and others.

Lots of excellent stuff today – let’s jump right in.

The arrival of Was (Not Was)’s Out Come the Freaks should warm any mutant disco fan’s heart. Yes, eMusic will soon see the arrival of one of the weirdest and most fascinating labels in all of ‘80s dance music: ZE.

Now that Joe and Yancey have both weighed in with some of their favorites, I thought I’d take a crack at it as well.

It usually takes me months to put together my year-end best list, so coming up with two half-year bests is no easy feat. I spent much of the weekend deliberating, and decided that while I have a pretty good idea of what records are making my year so far, putting them in order is [...]