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…include the newly mixed and mastered tracks, two B-sides and three previously unreleased demo recordings.
Daniel “Soupy” Campbell, the lead singer and lyricist of The Wonder Years, has never been a guy hesitant to wear his heart on his sleeve, which, of course, is part of the point of being in what is generally thought of as an emo band. But while Campbell has always had plenty to say about the stories of fellow kids from Philly trying to make sense of an often unforgiving world, he’s chosen to take on bigger themes on the Wonder Years’ fifth album. Released in 2015, No Closer to Heaven is a song cycle Campbell has written from the perspective of a man struggling to come to terms with the death of a loved one,…

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…Soul Jazz Records delve into the vast vaults of Discos Fuentes, one of the oldest and largest record companies in Latin America, known as ‘the Motown of Colombia’. Discos Fuentes played a major role in spreading Afro-Latin sounds both to Colombia and around the world and this album explores that legacy.
Latin Fire! features legendary Colombian artists such as Fruko, The Latin Brothers, Michi Sarmiento, Afrosound, Pedro Laza, Wganda Kenya and more and showcases the wide-ranging variety of styles that Discos Fuentes made unique to their sound. The album features music from the golden era of Fuentes; from late 50s and 1960s Cumbia through to the emergence of heavyweight and hardcore salsa and Afro-funk in the 1970s…

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Designed in 1962 by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, the concrete dome in Tripoli, Lebanon was intended to be one of 15 structures that housed a permanent International Fair, expected to welcome over two million annual visitors. By the time civil war broke out in 1975, construction had not yet been completed, leading to the suspension and eventual abandonment of the project. The Dome Sessions, conceived by audiovisual artist Firas El Hallak, is a series of recordings that captures musical performances in the space of Niemeyer’s unfinished concrete dome, and also serves as the soundtrack to an upcoming documentary about the dome’s position in Tripoli’s cultural history. Each piece features a different artist, both solo and ensemble,…

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The cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of colonialism should be widely recognized by now. The almost schizoid cultural distortions and developments it led to are impressively illustrated by Zulu Guitar Blues.
This is a truly extraordinary album, a captivating chronicle of the glorious, rousing and defiant music that was created during the horrors of South Africa’s apartheid era – and has remained largely forgotten until now.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens and Juluka’s guitarist Sipho Mchunu may have brought Zulu styles to a global audience, but there was no such fame for the remarkable artists featuring on this 18-track album, lovingly compiled and restored…

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Songwriter Cindy Walker’s name is well-known to country music fans. Her songs have charted more than 400 times, recorded by icons such as Ray Charles, Bob Wills, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley. Willie Nelson released an entire album devoted to Walker’s work: (You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker) back in 2006. She has been celebrated for her ability to capture emotional moments in everyday situations that define our lives, such as meeting an old lover, aging gracefully, and dreaming of a better future.
Grey DeLisle, a longtime admirer of Cindy Walker, is best known for her voice acting work, but she’s also a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. With her own deep roots in music, DeLisle recognizes the significance of Walker’s legacy as…

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Well, unless you are an aficionado, it would not be surprising if you had never heard of Alice di Micele. Reverse the Flow is her 18th album in a career going back nearly 40 years. Di Micele, who lives in Oregon, appears not to have particularly sought commercial success and her touring schedule has hardly touched these shores, yet her fan base has developed over the years based on her fine songwriting and her exceptional voice, a five-octave instrument that adds emotion and variety to many of her songs. She is typically categorised as folk/americana, predicated on her lyrical themes (anti-establishment, nature, the modern world, LGBTQ etc) but her vocal styling is so diverse that it is often wrapped in jazz or blues instrumentation, always empathetically surrounded…

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Without wishing to venture into the dodgy world of American stereotyping, particularly at this moment in its history, it may be fair to say that hanging around in bars is a popular pastime for many. Seattle-based Will Rainier happily adds himself to that number, but for him, a long-established singer-songwriter well known in his locale, this labour of love is also homework —a source of inspiration for his music.
For his third solo album, Smoke ‘Em If You Got ’Em, Rainier taps into this bottomless well of human existence to write about these strange and (sometimes) wonderful creatures. Some are real, others imagined, but Rainier paints these pictures with a sympathetic gaze accompanied by a dizzying range of instrumental…

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Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Weiss began drum lessons when he was only four years old and also plays guitar, bass and piano (being self-taught on these). He began writing songs at seven years old and went on to play in various bands throughout his youth. The band Andrew Weiss and Friends was formed in 2016 and the band’s debut LP, The Honeymoon Suite was released in 2018, followed by 2020’s The Golden Age of Love & Chemistry, 2021’s Highly Fascinated, Sunglass & Ash (2022), in 2023, Beverly Hills, Thanksgiving Day and in 2024, the world’s smallest violin.
So the latest release, The Last of the Outdoor Kids, continues the band’s trend of having interesting album titles (the latest one relating…

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…The nine-track album includes rarities, alternate takes and live cuts, including a blistering performance from their final show outside America. “In 1965, I hoped this band might pay my rent for a decade or so,” John Densmore tells Uncut, “but it’s 60 years and we are still talking about The Doors. I am very grateful and very proud. It’s so kind of Uncut to make this CD.”
…Across nine songs and 44 minutes, we take a trip with Densmore, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison from an alternate take of “Love Me Two Times”, right up to their stunning performance at 1970’s Isle of Wight Festival.
Along the way, there are outtakes from LA Woman, a demo from Waiting for the Sun, a raw Soft Parade track stripped of its orchestration…

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…The deluxe album feature acoustic versions of every song from the original release as well as bonus covers of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” and Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun.”
If Winona Fighter had nothing else going for them, they’d still have an all-time great celebrity pun band name.
Their chosen handle is immediately memorable, the right amount of goofy and ties the band to an enduring and endearing public figure. But what really puts the name a cut above the Chet Fakers, Joy Orbisons and Been Stellars of recent music history is that the Winona Fighter moniker also speaks to the abundant, not name-based positives the Nashville trio do have going for them.
My Apologies to the Chef, the band’s debut…

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It’s been three years since Girlpool, the DIY indie-rock duo fronted by Avery Tucker and Harmony Tividad, went their separate ways. Though their breakup was amicable, their disbanding is still deeply felt. The two built a niche yet passionate following since their start, emerging with compellingly lo-fi and small-scale ambitions on 2014’s Before the World Was Big and 2017’s Powerplant before evolving into more serious and exploratory territory on 2019’s What Chaos Is Imaginary and 2022’s Forgiveness. Keeping everything glued together was Tucker and Tividad’s ironclad bond as vocalists, songwriters, and friends. Even when Tucker transitioned in 2017 and his voice subsequently dropped, such a change managed to give even greater…

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Prewn’s Izzy Hagerup follows up to 2023’s Through the Window with a noisy, nasty, powerful slice of feedback-addled rock, a primal wail that sits alongside howling classics like PJ Harvey’s To Bring You My Love and the Throwing Muses Limbo.  Like Hersh, she makes disruptive use of bowed strings; the discordant cello in the title track goes about as far into rock anarchy as an orchestral instrument can do.
As the title implies, Hagerup has social ills, not personal ones, on her mind for this sophomore disc.  In a ragged voice that vibrates with angst, she nails an exploitive industry in one quatrain:  “Just give your life away/Turn on your lights baby/Give them a show/It won’t be long you say/But it’s a system and/All that you know.”

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There is something stark about Relative Pitch releases, something immediate and bristling about the sounds they contain. Of course, this is a gross generalization, and there’s a world of beauty underpinning each sonic gesture, certainly true on Conversation No. 1, this series of bass clarinet miniatures from Katie Porter.
Here, we are far from the relativelytame world of Pierre Boulez’s Dialogue de l’ombre double (1984), but a wonderful recording ensures that Porter’s is a language of nuance and controlled freedom in delicious fragments.
There are times when the sense of dialogue nearly disappears, as in the first piece’s opening of octave displacements and dynamic contrast. True, certain simultaneities could only occur…

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Following North (2020), his well-received first album with his Nordic ensemble, Swedish flutist and saxophonist Anders Hagberg returns with a strong sequel, With Hope.
There’s a bit of an ECM vibe to the album, what with its atmospheric textures and meditative character, but setting Hagberg’s music apart is the warmth his alto, bass, contrabass, and concert flutes gives the performances. Whenever they’re present, there’s little of the reverb-heavy aura that sometimes chills an ECM production. That his compositions exude a folk-jazz character that’s generally lyrical and evocative also makes With Hope an appealing proposition.
It helps too that Hagberg’s surrounded by players wholly sympathetic to his music and its tone.

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Maybe you thought you knew what you were getting from a Pulse Emitter album called Tide Pools. Limpid ambient miniatures lapping against the speakers, right?
Turns out Daryl Groetsch got all that out of his system with his 2022 album Dusk and the run of synth albums he’s put out under his own name since then; now, he’s ready to play in spikier territory. More challenging than Dusk or Swirlings, his 2020 debut for the trippy Chicago label Hausu Mountain, Tide Pools suggests not so much the shimmering surface of its namesake as the strange denizens that might be found within, pulsating and flexing their spines for whatever beachcomber is lucky enough to find them.
Still drawing from the array of vintage synths…

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Marta Forsberg’s new record Archaeology of Intimacy is something of a surprise. Things are kept short and simple, and sometimes ever so slightly sharp. Forsberg’s languorous, quietly investigative style is now attuned to a trickier yet still seductive line of attack.
The listener’s relationship with Archaeology of Intimacy soon becomes very clear: we are here to be still, and actively listen to these quiet but often surprising songs. This injunction is not a bad thing – a lot of what makes this album so moreish is only revealed with patience and attention. Archaeology of Intimacy is not demanding your opinion. But neither should it be consumed piecemeal or in passing.
The opening two tracks are there to call us to…

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What happens after the spotlight is directed towards another target? In the case of Liverpool and the Merseybeat boom – which, in terms of chart success, peaked in 1963 – the question is addressed by Liverpool Sunset: The City After Merseybeat 1964–1969. The city’s musicians carried on, despite record labels looking elsewhere for the next big thing, and despite the Liverpool tag no longer ensuring an automatic interest.
The final (identifiably) Merseybeat bands to debut on the charts were The Escorts, with “The One to Cry” in July 1964, The Undertakers, with “Just a Little Bit” in April 1964, and The Mojos, with “Everything’s Alright” in March 1964. None of these were debut singles, but that was it for burgeoning Merseybeat contenders and…

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Prolific multi-diamond artist and producer SYML invites listeners into an intimate space with his new live album, Paris Unplugged.
Recorded while in Paris, France, this past summer at Le Consulat, the album distills his emotional songwriting into an unfiltered performance that feels deeply personal and universally moving.
Accompanied by Brian Eichelberger, Zawadi Morrow, and Kyle Moore, the songs are stripped of excess production, revealing the fragile heart at the center of his music and offering fans a chance to experience the closeness of his live shows-where silence, melody, and emotion intertwine. This is SYML at his most human: present, unguarded, and profoundly connected to those listening.
Brian Fennell adds, “I was on the roof three…

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