It goes without saying that this week’s biggest new music story is the release of “Now and Then,” the long-rumored (and long-bootlegged) final Beatles song. The standalone track is out now, and will formally arrive as part of a revamped edition of the Fab Four’s career-spanning ‘red’ and ‘blue’ albums, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, both of which will be released next week.
Elsewhere, The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst, Siouxsie & the Banshees’ Budgie, and producer Jacknife Lee join forces on the guest-studded Los Angeles, which features vocal contributions from LCD Sounsystem’s James Murphy, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, and others. For their second album of the year, shadow-shrouded post-punks bar italia continue their exploration of the indie rock’s darkest corners on The Twits. For their first album in over 20 years, Dan Wilson and Semisonic recruit Jason Isbell and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James for the glimmering Little Bit of Sun. LA artist IAN SWEET retreated to the New York Catskills to record her fourth album, SUCKER, and its pop-informed sound is expertly crafted.
Coming off the ambitious, multi-part New Age Norms, Cold War Kids’ self-titled tenth album is a soul-inspired return to form. Guitarist Marnie Stern never really left the spotlight after her last album (she spent the last decade as a cornerstone of the 8G Band on Late Night with Seth Meyers); her dizzying technique still mystifies on The Comeback Kid. As co-founder of Sooper Records, Chicago’s Sen Morimoto is at the center of a bustling creative scene; his genre-hopping second album, Diagnosis, is dreamy while remaining grounded. Boston rockers Drop Nineteens make a surprising return with Hard Light, arriving 30 years after their initial run which saw early gigs with Radiohead and The Cranberries as openers.
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