What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with a heart-shaped box of newly released albums! Bartees Strange exorcises demons and confronts everyday terrors on his genre-blurring third album, Horror. Working again with Brightside producer David Baron, The Lumineers’ Automatic coincides with the 20th anniversary of Wesley Schultz’s and Jeremiah Fraites’s creative partnership. Horsegirl refine their laid-back indie sound on the Cate Le Bon-produced Phonetics On and On; the Chicago trio was inspired by the Velvet Underground and Young Marble Giants. As he approaches his 101st birthday, Sun Ra Arkestra bandleader Marshall Allen presents New Dawn, his first solo album, featuring appearances by Neneh Cherry and his Arkestra compatriots.
Denison Witmer’s Anything at All furthers the Lancaster-rooted songwriter’s ongoing collaboration with Sufjan Stevens, who produced and performs on the album. Michael and Tanya Trotter’s fourth album as The War and Treaty, Plus Ones, is a generous collection country- and gospel-inspired material recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Serene Demon is the fifth album from Ottowa’s premiere musical shapeshifter, Art d’Ecco; this time around, a sinister malice is creeping into the artist’s signature glam style. Los Angeles combo The Altons bring Latin-inspired soul to Heartache in Room 14, their full-length debut for Daptone Records.
Listen for spotlights on new records like these (and more) every week on the XPN Morning Show and Indie Rock Hit Parade.
PRESS PLAY on these new releases
Bartees Strange – Horror
CHECK OUT: “Sober” “Lie 95”
The Lumineers – Automatic
CHECK OUT: “You’re All I Got” “Same Old Song”
Horsegirl – Phonetics On and On
CHECK OUT: “Switch Over” “2468”
Marshall Allen – New Dawn
CHECK OUT: “New Dawn (feat. Neneh Cherry)” “African Sunset”
Denison Witmer – Anything at All
CHECK OUT: “Focus Ring (feat. Sufjan Stevens)” “A House With”
The War and Treaty – Plus One
CHECK OUT: “Carried Away” “Save Me”
Art d’Ecco – Serene Demon
CHECK OUT: “The Traveller” “True Believer”
The Altons – Heartache in Room 14
CHECK OUT: “Waiting” “Del Cielo Te Cuido”