It’s Hinds New Vinyl Thursday at The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven. Check out this week’s list of new vinyl arrivals:
Alice in Chains – Dirt (180 Gram Vinyl)
Brian Eno – Here Come The Warm Jets
Brian Eno – Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
Brian Eno – Before And After Science
Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music For Airports (180 Gram Vinyl)
Buzzcocks – 1991 Demo Album (Black & White Vinyl)
The B-52’s – Cosmic Thing
Ben ‘Cozmo D’ Cenac Presents Cozmic House Ep (Extended Play, White Vinyl)
Camila Cabello – Romance (140 Gram Vinyl)
The Cure – Entreat Plus (180 Gram Vinyl)
The Cure – Pornography (180 Gram Vinyl)
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle
Chicano Batman – Invisible People (Limited Edition, White)
Concrete Blonde – Bloodletting
Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (Deluxe Edition, 180 Gram Vinyl)
Dead Kennedys – Plastic Surgery Disasters
Dead Kennedys – Frankenchrist
Dead Kennedys – Bedtime for Democracy
Dream Syndicate – These Times
Def Leppard – Hysteria (180 Gram Vinyl)
Dr. Dre – Chronic
Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP (180 Gram Vinyl)
Four Tet – Sixteen Oceans
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
Hinds – Prettiest Curse (Gatefold LP Jacket, Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Halsey – Manic
Joe McPhee – Nation Time
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Reunions
Weekly Review:
Jason Isbell’s new album Reunions is an intimate alt-country masterpiece that builds upon the foundations of the genre. Like Lucinda Williams’ self-titled album, Isbell created an album saturated with a sense of reality and emotion. Joined again by The 400 Unit, Reunions delves into familiar themes of sobriety and relationships that have been touchstones of his work since the critically acclaimed, “Southeastern.”
The album opens with an intense 6 minutes and 40 seconds of repentance featuring David Crosby and Jay Buchanan. On “What’ve I Done To Help,” Isbell repeats “what’ve I done to help but not myself?” as he expresses both acceptance and regret for the past. You hear that the tension between the past and present on songs like “Dreamsicle” and “Only Children,” which paint pictures of the trials of being a child and young adult trying to decode the surrounding world.
The quieter but equally thought-provoking track, “St. Peter’s Autograph” feels timely as Isbell sings “we’re all struggling with the world on fire, and the fear we’re taught.” Few albums can prophesize the sentiment of the near future, but Reunions is a timely companion in a world of social distancing. Like the album cover depicts, alone on the horizon, Isbell reunites with his demons on his own terms. One of the best illustrations of his self-awareness comes with “It Gets Easier,” as he gives advice for those who might wonder if his journey with sobriety has been easy. He sings, “It gets easier, but it never gets easy, I can say it’s all worth it.”
While the highlights of Reunions come from the steadily paced ballads, Isbell takes time exercise his love for country rock. Midway through the album comes riff laden changes on “Overseas” and “Running With Our Eyes Closed.” This is not the Nashville sound re-imagined, it is influenced by classic rock with an unapologetic shimmer that conjure up influences from Mark Knopfler to Stevie Ray Vaughn. An album that sounds great whether your a fan of the genre or not, visit the team at the Underground for this and lots of great titles out now. -Albert Schmurr
Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland (180 Gram Vinyl)
Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer (Digital Download Card)
Kiss – Alive
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
The Lumineers – Cleopatra
Lilly Hiatt – Walking Proof (Limited Edition, Colored Vinyl, Blue, 150 Gram Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Leon Bridges – Coming Home (180 Gram Vinyl, Download Insert)
Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels
Weekly Review:
The 14th studio album from Southern singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams couldn’t arrive at a better time. At a time when COVID-19 shutdowns have people feeling frustrated, sad, angry and hopeful (sometimes experiencing each emotion within minutes of each other), Williams channels these states of mind through her lyrics and amplifier.
On “Big Black Train,” Williams confronts her bouts with depression and determination not to get onboard again. “Man Without a Soul” is a hot pellet of rage directed at the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The album ends with “Good Souls,” a hopeful prayer to “Keep me with all of those/who help me stay strong/and guide me along.”
Williams’ band expertly augments her emotions throughout the album, often working in a swampy blues or Rolling Stones rock form. After an hour of searing, electrified full-band arrangements, the vinyl version of Good Souls Better Angels includes five acoustic demo bonus tracks. They are the perfect palate cleanser. Having shared this emotional catharsis, we are renewed to defeat the next challenge. -Joel Francis
Morphine – Good (180 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket, Expanded Version)
Metallica – Metallica
Metallica – Ride the Lightning (180 Gram Vinyl)
Modest Mouse – Modest Mouse : Lonesome Crowded West
Mac Miller – Watching Movies With The Sounds Off (Gatefold LP Jacket, Limited Edition)
Misfits – Die Die My Darling
Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
Prince – One Nite Alone…(Solo Piano And Voice By Prince) (Purple Colored Vinyl, 150 Gram Vinyl, Download Insert)
Weekly Review:
Prince’s final shows were billed as the Piano and a Microphone tour, but One Nite Alone shows this context was not a new one. Recorded in 2002, this 35-minute collection finds Prince exploring his jazzier side. The recordings are gorgeous, elegant and intimate, putting the listener in the room with Prince. But like a decadent desert, these songs work best in small doses. Although some tracks, like “Here on Earth,” feature touches of synthesizer and percussion, they all work in the same stately mood, blunting the effect across the course of the album.
One Nite Alone is the album to play when you finally open that bottle of wine you’ve been saving, want to impress a certain someone or just want to curl up in the dark and escape with a gifted artist. Finally having it on vinyl will make the experience seem even more immediate. It won’t be played as much as Purple Rain, but One Nite Alone will be perfect when time comes. -Joel Francis
Prince – One Nite Alone… Live! (Purple Colored Vinyl, 150 Gram Vinyl)
Prince & New Power Generation – One Nite Alone… The Aftershow: It Ain’t Over! (Purple Colored Vinyl, 150 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket, Download Insert)
Prince & the Revolution – The Rainbow Children (Clear Vinyl, 150 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket, Download Insert)
Weekly Review:
Once freed from the shackles of a major label, Prince was able to indulge all of his impulses, for better or worse. His 2001 album The Rainbow Children is a jazz concept album about … who knows. I’ve never quite been able to figure it out. The looser arrangements and nearly 70-minute running time allow Prince more space to jam and solo. Whether or not it works depends on your taste in jazz and self-indulgence.
The Rainbow Children is a long way from Prince’s groundbreaking, hit-filled albums of the ‘80s. That said, there are some stand-out tracks. The James Brown funk workout “The Work, Part 1” could have been an R&B hit in an alternate world. Closing songs, “The Everlasting Now” and “Last December” also number among the album’s strongest moments.
Long out of print, Prince completists will be delighted they no longer have to shell out exorbitant figures to own The Rainbow Children on vinyl. Less devoted fans may want to sample the album digitally before deciding if they want to take custody of The Rainbow Children. -Joel Francis
Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet
Pink Floyd – A Saucerful Of Secrets (180 Gram Vinyl)
Pink Floyd – Obscured By Clouds (180 Gram Vinyl)
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon (180 Gram Vinyl)
Pink Floyd – Relics (180 Gram Vinyl)
Pink Floyd – The Later Years (1987-2019) Highlights (Gatefold LP Jacket, 180 Gram Vinyl)
Panic! At the Disco – Pray For The Wicked (Black, Digital Download Card)
Panic! At the Disco – Death of a Bachelor
Panic! At the Disco – Too Weird to Live Too Rare to Die
The Residents – Meet the Residents
Steve Earle – Ghosts of West Virginia
Weekly Review:
Ostensibly a song cycle about coal miners, Ghosts of West Virginia, the newest album by singer/songwriter Steve Earle, also works as a metaphor for blue collar work. Although the songs were written years ago for a theater production, they seem particularly timely right now, in the midst of a pandemic when sectors of the workforce are literally labeled essential.
The album opens with an a capella song that sounds like an old Appalachian hymn. From there, Earle unearths the heritage and history of the coal mining profession and covers the folk song “John Henry” for further context.
The emotional tour de force “It’s About Blood” opens the second side. As the guitars build, Earle names all 29 miners killed in the 2010 Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion. A climax this intense would conclude most albums. Instead, Earle pivots into the tender ballad “If I Could See Your Face” sung by Elanor Whitmore. This ability to empathetically explores different facets of a coal miner’s life, is not only what makes Earle a cut better than many other songwriters, but also makes Ghosts of West Virginia stand out in his own vast catalog. -Joel Francis
Shabaka & The Ancestors – We Are Sent Here By History
Snoop Doggy Dogg – Doggystyle
Teskey Brothers – Live At The Forum (Opaque Blue Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket)
Thee Oh Sees – Face Stabber
Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak (180 Gram Vinyl)
Thundercat – It Is What It Is (Colored Vinyl, Cream, 140 Gram Vinyl, Indie Exclusive, Photos)
Tom Petty & Heartbreakers – Damn The Torpedoes (180 Gram Vinyl)
Tom Petty – Greatest Hits
Trixie Mattel – Barbara (Colored Vinyl, Yellow, Poster)
X___X – Albert Ayler’s Ghosts Live at the Yellow Ghetto (Red, Digital Download Card)
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