New Releases
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December 18, 2020The Black Keys mark ten years of their four-time Grammy Award–winning album Brothers with a deluxe, remastered 10th anniversary edition, available in a limited-edition 7" vinyl box set, featuring the remastered original album plus three previously unavailable songs on nine 7" singles, a 60-page book with a new liner note by David Fricke and photos from the archives, a poster, and a cover printed with special heat-sensitive ink. Also available in a two-LP 12" set and on CD, both with the extra tracks and updated booklet. The album, recorded primarily at Alabama's legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, is "a masterpiece," exclaimed Rolling Stone; Uncut said it proves The Black Keys to be "one of the best rock 'n' roll bands on the planet." Available outside the US and Canada from January 1, 2021.
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The Magnetic Fields’ Quickies five 7" vinyl box set is twenty-eight new short songs by Stephin Merritt, ranging in length from thirteen seconds to two minutes and thirty-five seconds, performed by Merritt and band members Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms, and John Woo, along with longtime friends and collaborators Chris Ewen, Daniel Handler, and Pinky Weitzman. "Miniature gems," says the Guardian. "Extraordinary."
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I Still Play is eleven new solo piano compositions by artists who have recorded for Nonesuch Records, written in honor of the label’s longtime President Bob Hurwitz on the occasion of his 2017 shift into the Chairman Emeritus role. The album features works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Timo Andres, Louis Andriessen, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, and Randy Newman, performed by Andres, Mehldau, Newman, and Jeremy Denk.
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“We made this song in a very un-socially distanced time, a few years ago," Rhiannon Giddens says of her take on Bill Withers' "Just the Two of Us" featuring Sxip Shirey. "When Bill Withers passed, we suddenly remembered we had made this and thought it would serve as the perfect backdrop to the reality of where we are now—staying inside so that our healthcare workers have the best chance to fight this virus that cares nothing for the artificial divisions we have put up between us." Proceeds go to Global Giving’s Coronavirus Relief Fund.
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On Mountain Man Sings Kacey Musgraves, the trio performs “Slow Burn” from Musgraves’ 2018 album, Golden Hour. "We are all huge fans of Kacey Musgraves,” says the band. "'Slow Burn' embodies the magic of the unfolding of life, the power of being present and patient and knowing that sometimes things just take time. Like following a thread—it requires attention and curiosity.”
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Randy Newman's "Stay Away" is a call for social distancing in the fight against COVID-19. Proceeds support the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music's efforts to broaden opportunities for underserved children and young musicians in New Orleans' Ninth Ward.
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Early James's debut album, Singing for My Supper (Easy Eye Sound/Nonesuch Records), spans hard-charging blues, wistful folk, and ages-old pop crooning, anchored by the singer's voice that oscillates from gravel-gruff shout to a honey-smooth whisper. James' inspirations run from Fiona Apple and Tom Waits to the Southern gothic poets, as heard in the album's darker themes and in the wry humor with which he writes about them. He "dazzles on his luminous debut," says Mojo, "this astonishingly assured album."
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Sam Gendel's Nonesuch debut album, Satin Doll, is a futuristic homage to historical jazz. Three musicians—Gendel on saxophone and other things, Gabe Noel on electric bass, and Philippe Melanson on electronic percussion—engage in simultaneous synchronized sonic construction/deconstruction of well-known jazz standards, including Miles Davis's "Freddie Freeloader," Charles Mingus's "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," and Duke Ellington's "Satin Doll." "A woozy, blissfully twisted album," says the Los Angeles Times.
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This single includes two alternate versions of songs from Vagabon's critically praised 2019 self-titled album: "In A Bind (Strings Version)" and "Wits About You (Saxophone Version)." "When recording 'In a Bind' for the album," she says, "I struggled with what arrangement was best for the song. Originally, I thought it should include soaring strings and be very theatrical and dramatic ... I'm glad this string version gets to see the light of day."