It’s National New Vinyl Thursday. Here are all of this week’s new vinyl arrivals:
A.A. Bondy – Enderness
Blind Guardian – Nightfall In Middle Earth (remixed & Remastered)
Com Truise – Persuasion System (Blue)
Childish Gambino – “Awaken, My Love”
David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (180 Gram Vinyl)
The Get Up Kids – Problems (180 Gram Vinyl, Colored Vinyl, Digital Download Card)
Weekly Review:
The Get Up Kids have grown up. It’s inevitable, it happens to the best of us. Songs you wrote at 17 might not elicit the same feeling at 37, so The Get Up Kids were faced with a problem. How do you pull in some of the so called “emo themes” into music relatable for adults? The last full length album, “There Are Rules” was a feeble attempt of branching out and changing their sound. While I am sure on it’s own it would have been a fine album, but when compared to previous Get Up Kid material, it was off putting and experimental. It left many of us wondering how bands like Braid, American Football and Taking Back Sunday could keep making quality music but The Get Up Kids were doing all the could to not be the band they once were. Fortunately they used a Secret Decoder Ring and cracked the code, with the release of the 2018 EP “Kicker” and now their full length LP “Problems.”
“Problems” is what fans have been hoping from since “The Guilt Show” was released in 2004. It works within the framework of previous albums but expands on it in ways that work well. Opening song “Satellite” written about lead singer Matt Pryors son. It explores the feeling of being isolated or alone, even in a crowded room, something Pryor admits to relating to. It starts with a build of an acoustic guitar until the electric guitar kicks in as Pryor croons “Satellite.”
You can’t be a band from Kansas with out singing about town standout Salina… While the song is named after the town, “Salina” is deeply relatable for anyone in a long distance relationship. His lover leaves (presumably to Salina) right as a storm rolls in, prompting pity and longing. The chorus is beautiful, with the line “Sentimental fool, who writes all these words for you, even though it’s just two hours away.”
Sometimes growing up is learning what you are, and sometimes its learning what you are not. Lucky for us they have embraced the sound we know and love. -Brad Simmons
Joy Division / New Order – Total
Jamila Woods – Legacy! Legacy! (Pink)
Jenny Lewis – On the Line (Colored Vinyl, Blue, Indie Exclusive, Poster, Stickers)
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Live From The Ryman (Colored Vinyl, Green, Indie Exclusive)
Jean-Jacques Perrey – Et Son Ondioline
Josh Ritter – Fever Breaks (coke Bottle Clear Vinyl) (Indie Exclusive)
Kelly Finnigan – The Tales People Tell (Red)
Kanye West – 808’s & Heartbreak (With CD, Deluxe Edition, Collector’s Edition, 3LP)
Logg – Logg
Maggie Rogers – Now That The Light Is Fading
Maggie Rogers – Heard It In A Past Life
Mac DeMarco – Here Comes The Cowboys (Colored Vinyl, Green, Black, Indie Exclusive)
Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue (Mono Sound)
The National – I Am Easy To Find (Clear Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon (180 Gram Vinyl)
Pup – Morbid Stuff (Indie Exclusive)
Prince – Rave Un2 To The Joy Fantastic (Purple Colored Vinyl, 150 Gram Vinyl, Download Insert)
Weekly Review:
Probably the most underrated Prince album in his catalog. Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic has been reissued in beautiful purple vinyl and is well worth a spin.
After a decade of endlessly wrestling not only with his personal complexities but with professional ones as well. How could he accomodate other musicians on his records without sacrificing his own sound? How could he reconcille his uncertain relationship to hip-hop? In a lot of ways this is an album that sought,and to a large degree succeeded in putting all of those questions into perspective. Signing with Arista and allowing Clive Davis to endow with a guest star formula that defined Santana’s comeback with appearances by Sheryl Crow,Eve,Ani DiFranko and No Doubt this album was very deliberately conseived as a comeback. With it’s stripped down,rhytmically complex groove the title song of course is again ripped right from the vaults (from his 1986 ‘Dream Factory’ sessions) but it’s a potent reminder of the musical capabilities of Prince during his prime years. And after that……..the album actually maintains a very consistant level from that point on. Chuck D really makes the difference on “Undisputed” and “Hot Wit U” finds Prince at his sexually braggadocio best. Both of these tunes,and to a lesser extent the intricately chorded “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold” are the songs here that owe most to hip-hip,a genre Prince had once though of as nonmusical. Well now he’s changed his tune completely,considering he’d found a way to keep full control while doing it. Another element this album baught back into the aquasion for Prince was his eclecticism on such songs as the folksy grooves of “Tangerine”,”The Sun,The Moon And Stars”,”I Love You But I Don’t Trust You Anymore” as well as classically Prince styled dance rockers such as “Everyday Is A Winding Road”,”So Far So Pleased” and “Strange But True”,the last of which has a slow drum n bass style Beck inspiration,which is interesting since when this album came out I overheard a record store cashier saying Beck’s Midnite Vultures outdid this particular album in terms of funk. I didn’t agree with this of course,since Beck was clearly mining a Prince influence himself on that album. Prince also delivers some wonderful ballads here in the epic “Baby Knows” and the inspiring closer “Wherever U Go,Whatever U Do” and after a very toungue in cheek advertisment for his NPG website cut 18 presents “Pretty Man”,a total james Brown funk homage featuring Maceo Parker. Whereas the other guest stars meant to define this album rather suck into the backround Maceo is given full soloing privilages and the song takes flight as much from him as Prince. This album does have an obvious intention and anything with an intention to it was always in question in the 90’s All the same Prince really gave it up with some of his powerful and celebratory music of the decade and this wound up being just the album for him to bring in the new millenium with. -Albert Schmurr
Robin Trower – Coming Closer To The Day
Southern Avenue – Keep On
Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
Toro y Moi – Outer Peace
Tyler, The Creator – Goblin (MP3 Download)
Townes Van Zandt – Live at the Old Quarter (180 Gram Vinyl)
X – Under The Big Black Sun
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Enjoy the music and we will see you soon. Your loving Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven staff:
Sherman, Gordon, Daniel, Dylan, David, Jonathan, Dionna, and Heather.
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