Fresh Must Haves for February 18
By: the_home_for_wayward_records
Alt-J - The Dream (Click To Order) - Their first new album in four years, The Dream finds the band returning to the guitar driven sound of their past.As opposed to the majority of Relaxer, which toned down the electric guitar riffs, The Dream has the six-string touching almost everything, including the intro’s tremolo-tinged motif and the gain-y lead decorations. It’s a welcome return to a sound that they seemed much more comfortable with and one the fans seemed to like better.
Beach House - Once Twice Melody (Click To Order) - Once Twice Melody is the 8th studio album by Beach House. It is a double album, featuring 18 songs presented in 4 chapters. Across these songs, many types of style and song structures can be heard. Songs without drums, songs centered around acoustic guitar, mostly electronic songs with no guitar, wandering and repetitive melodies, songs built around the string sections. In addition to new sounds, many of the drum machines, organs, keyboards and tones that listeners may associate with previous Beach House records remain present throughout many of the compositions. I love Beach House and can’t get enough of their work. This will be one of the best records of 2022.
Hurray For The Riff Raff - Life on Earth (Click To Order) - The Nonesuch debut of Hurray for the Riff Raff is a departure for the Bronx-born, New Orleans-based singer/songwriter. Its eleven new tracks on the theme of survival are music for a world in flux and include songs about thriving, not just surviving, while disaster is happening.For her eighth full-length album, Segarra (they/she) drew inspiration from The Clash, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Bad Bunny, and the author of Emergent Strategy, Adrienne Maree Brown.
Shovels & Rope - Manticore (Click To Order) - The new album from Shovels & Rope, Manticore was originally planned as a stripped-down acoustic release, but "Domino" springs out of the gate with an energetic, rockabilly sound. After writing the material before the COVID-19 pandemic and then embarking on producing the project throughout it, band members Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst say they suddenly found themselves with extra time in quarantine to re-imagine and reproduce the songs across the album. Shovels & Rope have steadily grown in popularity over the years, so this should be a big hit for them.