This extended album of Wild Beasts new album Boy King features a ‘Boy King Trash’ companion piece, comprised of exclusive material including demos, previously unheard acoustic versions and aural sketches assembled by the band, housed in a card wallet with 12-page lyrics booklet.
Where 2014's Present Tense album found Wild Beasts in reflective mood, absorbing a fascination with online culture and electronic music, Boy King has them, as Tom Fleming puts it, "back to being pissed off". The quartet’s ever-present knack for sensual melody via Hayden Thorpe and Fleming's dueting vocals, Ben Little's sinuous guitar groove and Chris Talbot's potent rhythm section carries in Boy King an aggressive, snarling and priapic beast that delves into the darker side of masculinity and Thorpe's own psyche. As Hayden himself says, "After five records there had to be an element of 'what the fuck?'".
A newfound creative friction between Thorpe and Fleming proved key to unleashing the unique pop sensibility of Boy King - Fleming’s more visceral experimentation unlocking new dimensions in Thorpe’s own writing. After spending a whole year finessing this new found impetus in East London, the band emerged with a collection of songs ready to take to Dallas and producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Swans, The War on Drugs). Both Thorpe and Fleming credit that trip to Dallas with teasing out the raw power of Boy King. In the studio, the band kept up the intensity of the office hour routine they'd employed during writing sessions and, they say, responded well to Congleton's sober discipline. "He made us get in there, get on and do it," Fleming says. "English politeness never featured."
The raw pop of Boy King's songs are the perfect foil to Thorpe's libidinous lyricism: "it became apparent that that guitar almost became the character within the songs, that phallic character, the all-conquering male," he says. "I'm letting my inner Byron fully out, I thought I'd tucked him away, but he came screaming back like the Incredible Hulk." Here lies Boy King's greatest success. Between the slide of prowling aggression and interior darkness, there are glorious, gorgeous moments. It’s yet another incomparable Wild Beasts record; a visceral, sensual and jolting body of work that acts as a remarkable soundtrack to the early 21st century male malaise. Or as Thorpe puts it: "I think Boy King is an apocalyptic record. It's about swimming in the abyss. When you think about sex, you've got to think about death, they're one and the same.

★水星音乐奖得主暌违五年第三张专辑
★荒芜中执拗燃烧的浪漫
★都会喧嚣间最亲密的孤寂
来自伦敦的青年乐队The xx，2009年首张专辑《xx》以初生之犊的姿态，拿下欧洲指标性水星音乐奖，随后几年间，他们纵横各大音乐祭与颁奖典礼，第二张专辑《Coexist》挤下The Script、Bob Dylan、Pet Shop Boys空降英国流行专辑榜冠军，此等天之骄子般的惊人声势，以及身处譁众取宠的当代音乐潮流中，The xx徘徊午夜的极间低迴旋律铺陈起的黑灰色阶，似乎显得格格不入，然而吸纳著Siouxsie and the Banshees、The Cure、New Order、Cocteau Twins以至Aaliyah音乐养分而来的浪漫声响，却敲醒了层层冰雪底层的炙热，写尽了这时代人们藏得最深的孤寂。
2014年乐队灵魂人物Jamie xx首张创作专辑《In Colour》，在The xx失去时空标记的未来场域，投入大量多元声响取洋的缤纷色泽，让人预见了The xx的可能性，亦塑造出暌违五年新专辑《I See You》首支单曲〈On Hold〉的蜕变，与Hall & Oates 1981年冠军曲〈I Can’t Go For That〉交会之际一脚踩进舞池，让好似被时间消磨了的遗憾，不再那麽难以承受，冬阳洒落的和煦蔓延至〈I Dare You〉与〈Say Something Loving〉，依旧浪漫得执拗。
开场曲〈Dangerous〉强悍bassline与管乐驱策下，扬起了The xx至今最果抉、激昂的一回；〈Lips〉取洋自葛莱美提名挪威人声乐队Trio Mediæval的脱俗吟唱乘著Tribal Beat悠缓跃动的宜人风景，以及〈Performance〉凄薄弦乐于一片荒芜中拉扯出的张力，格外令人惊豔；即便〈A Violent Noise〉和〈Brave For You〉回到那个被喧嚣遗忘的街角，遇到我们熟悉的The xx，冰冷得暴戾的梦，也相对辽阔轻盈，美得令人屏息。
末曲〈Test Me〉绝望的最后恳求，在一片极间冰凝的苍白电气中持续坠落，一段Alessi Brothers〈Do You Feel It?〉的琴音乍现，对映著取洋了同一首歌的〈Say Something Loving〉，麻木了心，模糊了时空，即使在阳光洒落的地方，The xx依旧以近乎任性的执著，耽溺于怀疑与悔恨的结，最亲密的疏离，最炙热的冷冽，让人倚著冰牆试图取暖，距离心一步的位置，目光犹疑试探，却怎麽也踩不进去的怅然。

Nilüfer Yanya is an English singer, songwriter, composer and musician.

On Antisocialites, Alvvays dive back into the deep-end of reckless romance and altered dates. Ice cream truck jangle collides with prismatic noise pop while Molly Rankin's wit is refracted through crystalline surf counterpoint. Through thoughtful consideration in basement and abroad, the Toronto-based group has renewed its Scot-pop vows with a powerful new collection of manic emotional collage.

Lindsey Jordan’s voice rises and falls with electricity throughout Lush, her debut album as Snail Mail, spinning with bold excitement and new beginnings at every turn.

Throughout Lush, Jordan’s clear and powerful voice, acute sense of pacing, and razor-sharp writing cut through the chaos and messiness of growing up: the passing trends, the awkward house parties, the sick-to-your-stomach crushes and the heart wrenching breakups. Jordan’s most masterful skill is in crafting tension, working with muted melodrama that builds and never quite breaks, stretching out over moody rockers and soft-burning hooks, making for visceral slow-releases that stick under the skin.

Lush feels at times like an emotional rollercoaster, only fitting for Jordan’s explosive, dynamic personality. Growing up in Baltimore suburb Ellicot City, Jordan began her classical guitar training at age five, and a decade later wrote her first audacious songs as Snail Mail. Around that time, Jordan started frequenting local shows in Baltimore, where she formed close friendships within the local scene, the impetus for her to form a band. By the time she was sixteen, she had already released her debut EP, Habit, on local punk label Sister Polygon Records.

In the time that’s elapsed since Habit, Jordan has graduated high school, toured the country, opened for the likes of Girlpool and Waxahatchee as well as selling out her own headline shows, and participated in a round-table discussion for the New York Times about women in punk -- giving her time to reflect and refine her songwriting process by using tempered pacings and alternate tunings to create a jawdropping debut both thoughtful and cathartic. Recorded with producer Jake Aron and engineer Johnny Schenke, with contributions from touring bandmates drummer Ray Brown and bassist Alex Bass as well, Lush sounds cinematic, yet still perfectly homemade.

Sharon Van Etten’s Remind Me Tomorrow comes four years after Are We There, and reckons with the life that gets lived when you put off the small and inevitable maintenance in favor of something more present. Throughout Remind Me Tomorrow, Sharon Van Etten veers towards the driving, dark glimmer moods that have illuminated the edges of her music and pursues them full force. With curling low vocals and brave intimacy, Remind Me Tomorrow is an ambitious album that provokes our most sensitive impulses: reckless affections, spirited nurturing, and tender courage.
"I wrote this record while going to school, pregnant, after taking the OA audition,” says Van Etten. "I met Katherine Dieckmann while I was in school and writing for her film. She’s a true New Yorker who has lived in her rent controlled west village apartment for over 30 years. Her husband lives across the hall. They raised two kids this way. When I expressed concern about raising a child as an artist in New York City, she said ‘you're going to be fine. Your kids are going to be fucking fine. If you have the right partner, you’ll figure it out together.'” Van Etten goes on, “I want to be a mom, a singer, an actress, go to school, but yeah, I have a stain on my shirt, oatmeal in my hair and I feel like a mess, but I'm here. Doing it. This record is about pursuing your passions." The reality is Remind Me Tomorrow was written in stolen time: in scraps of hours wedged between myriad endeavors — Van Etten guest-starred in The OA, and brought her music onstage in David Lynch’s revival of Twin Peaks. Off-screen, she wrote her first score for Katherine Dieckmann’s movie Strange Weather and the closing title song for Tig Notaro’s show Tig. She goes on, “The album title makes me giggle. It occurred to me one night when I, on auto-pilot, clicked 'remind me tomorrow' on the update window that pops up all the time on my computer. I hadn't updated in months! And it's the simplest of tasks!”
The songs on Remind Me Tomorrow have been transported from Van Etten’s original demos through John Congleton’s arrangement. Congleton helped flip the signature Sharon Van Etten ratio, making the album more energetic-upbeat than minimal-meditative. “I was feeling overwhelmed. I couldn't let go of my recordings - I needed to step back and work with a producer.” She continues, “I tracked two songs as a trial run with John [Jupiter 4 and Memorial Day]. I gave him Suicide, Portishead, and Nick Cave's Skeleton Tree as references and he got excited. I knew we had to work together. It gave me the perspective I needed. It’s going to be challenging for people in a good way." The songs are as resonating as ever, the themes are still an honest and subtle approach to love and longing, but Congleton has plucked out new idiosyncrasies from Van Etten’s sound.
For Remind Me Tomorrow, Van Etten put down the guitar. When she was writing the score for Strange Weather her reference was Ry Cooder, so she was playing her guitar constantly and getting either bored or getting writer's block. At the time, she was sharing a studio space with someone who had a synthesizer and an organ, and she wrote on piano at home, so she naturally gravitated to keys when not working on the score - to clear her mind. Remind Me Tomorrow shows this magnetism towards new instruments: piano keys that churn, deep drones, distinctive sharp drums. It was “reverb universe” she says of the writing. There are intense synths, a propulsive organ, a distorted harmonium.
The demo version of “Comeback Kid” was originally a piano ballad, but driven by Van Etten’s assertion that she “didn’t want it to be pretty”, it evolved into a menacing anthem. Cavernous drones pull the freight for “Memorial Day,” which fleshes out an introvert in warrior mode. The spangled “Seventeen” began as a Lucinda Williams-esque dirge but wound up more of a nod to Bruce Springsteen, exploring gentrification and generational patience. Van Etten shows the chain reaction, of moving to a city bright-eyed and hearing the elders complain about the city changing, and then being around long enough to know what they were talking about. She wrote the song semi-inter-generationally with Kate Davis, who sang on a demo version when the song was in its infancy.
Since her last album, Van Etten has had a young son, and family life is joyful. Preparing and finishing these songs, she found herself expressing deep doubts about the world around him, and a complicated need to present a bright future for him. “There is a tear welling up in the back of my eye as I’m singing these love songs,” she says, “I am trying to be positive. There is strength to them. It’s— I wouldn’t say it’s a mask, but it’s what the parents have to do to make their kid feel safe.”
Alongside working on Remind Me Tomorrow, Van Etten has been exploring her talents (musical, emotional, otherwise) down other paths. She’s continuing to act, to write scores and soundtrack contributions, and she’s returning to school for psychology. The breadth of these passions, of new careers and projects and lifelong roles, have inflected Remind Me Tomorrow with a wise sense of a warped-time perspective. This is the tension that arches over the album, fusing a pained attentive realism and radiant lightness about new love.

In 2018, Low will turn twenty-five. Since 1993, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker—the married couple whose heaven-and-earth harmonies have always held the band’s center—have pioneered a subgenre, shrugged off its strictures, recorded a Christmas classic, become a magnetic onstage force, and emerged as one of music’s most steadfast and vital vehicles for pulling light from our darkest emotional recesses. But Low will not commemorate its first quarter-century with mawkish nostalgia or safe runs through songbook favorites. Instead, in faithfully defiant fashion, Low will release its most brazen, abrasive (and, paradoxically, most empowering) album ever: Double Negative, an unflinching eleven-song quest through snarling static and shattering beats that somehow culminates in the brightest pop song of Low’s career.
To make Double Negative, Low reenlisted B.J. Burton, the quietly energetic and adventurous producer who has made records with James Blake, Sylvan Esso, and The Tallest Man on Earth in recent years while working as one of the go-to figures at Bon Iver’s home studio, April Base. Burton recorded Low’s last album, 2015’s Ones and Sixes, at April Base, adding might to many of its beats and squelch and frisson beneath many of its melodies.
This time, though, Sparhawk, Parker, and bassist Steve Garrington knew they wanted to go further with Burton and his palette of sounds, to see what someone who is, as Sparhawk puts it, “a hip-hop guy” could truly do to their music. Rather than obsessively write and rehearse at home in Duluth, Minnesota, they would often head southeast to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, arriving with sketches and ideas that they would work on for days with Burton. Band and producer became collaborative cowriters, building the pieces up and breaking them down and building them again until their purpose and force felt clear. As the world outside seemed to slide deeper into instability, Low repeated this process for the better part of two years, pondering the results during tours and breaks at home. They considered not only how the fragments fit together but also how, in the United States of 2018, they functioned as statements and salves.
Double Negative is, indeed, a record perfectly and painfully suited for our time. Loud and contentious and commanding, Low fights for the world by fighting against it. It begins in pure bedlam, with a beat built from a loop of ruptured noise waging war against the paired voices of Sparhawk and Parker the moment they begin to sing during the massive “Quorum.” For forty minutes, they indulge the battle, trying to be heard amid the noisy grain, sometimes winning and sometimes being tossed toward oblivion. In spite of the mounting noise, Sparhawk and Parker still sing. Or maybe they sing because of the noise. For Low, has there ever really been a difference?

Kero Kero Bonito are a British indie pop band. Formed in London in 2011, the band consists of vocalist Sarah Midori Perry and producers and multi-instrumentalists Gus Lobban and Jamie Bulled.

Kero Kero Bonito are a British indie pop band. Formed in London in 2011, the band consists of vocalist Sarah Midori Perry and producers and multi-instrumentalists Gus Lobban and Jamie Bulled.

Kero Kero Bonito are a British indie pop band. Formed in London in 2011, the band consists of vocalist Sarah Midori Perry and producers and multi-instrumentalists Gus Lobban and Jamie Bulled.

Already heralded as one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year, 25-year old singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has confirmed details of her sophomore solo album, Punisher.
+ Limited Edition LP is a UK exclusive on Blue Green Swirl vinyl.
Bridgers is a singular talent, and also the rare artist with enough humour to deconstruct the tired heuristics of a meteoric rise. Punisher, written and recorded between the summer of 2018 and the fall of 2019, cements her as one of the most irresistibly clever and tenderly prolific songwriters of our era. Returning to work with her 'Stranger In The Alps' collaborators Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska, Bridgers - who co-produced the 'Boygenius' EP and Better Oblivion Community Center album - stepped into the role of co-producer for Punisher and has drawn from the same tight-knit group of musicians who appeared on her debut as well as those she has worked with since. The album includes Bridgers’ band of Marshall Vore (drums), Harrison Whitford (guitar), Emily Restas (bass) and Nick White (piano) as well as performances from Conor Oberst ('Halloween', 'I Know The End'), Lucy Dacus ('Graceland Too', 'I Know The End'), Julien Baker ('Graceland Too', 'I Know The End'), Blake Mills ('Halloween', 'Savior Complex' and 'I Know The End'), Jenny Lee Lindberg ('Kyoto', 'ICU'), Christian Lee Hutson ('Garden Song', 'Halloween', 'Savior Complex', 'I Know The End'), Nick Zinner ('I Know The End'), legendary drummer Jim Keltner ('Halloween' and 'Savior Complex') and Bright Eyes’ Nathaniel Walcott on horns ('Kyoto' and 'I Know The End'). Punisher was mixed by Mike Mogis, who also mixed Stranger In The Alps.

Women in Music Pt. III is the third studio album by American band Haim. It was released through Columbia Records on June 26, 2020. The album was originally set for release on April 24, 2020 but was delayed due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and "the changing nature of travel policies and quarantines across the world." The album's release was later moved to June 26. It was produced by Danielle Haim, Rostam Batmanglij and Ariel Rechtshaid, and was preceded by the singles "Summer Girl", "Now I'm in It" and "Hallelujah". The song "The Steps" was released alongside the album pre-order.

The Portland trio's first album for Sub Pop. A much more riff-heavy affair, this album finds the band pushing their sonic/compositional boundaries, while maintaining their identity. The limited edition version (25,000) comes with a bonus DVD featuring five performances of new songs recorded live in Portland.

★身拥11座朱诺奖与4次葛莱美提名肯定之加拿大创作才女，睽违六年全新大碟登场
★AMG、卫报四星评鑑、Pitchfork 7.7分一致肯定，生涯最具突破性之音乐作品
★收录同名主打歌"Pleasure"、英摇天团Pulp主唱Jarvis Cocker献声之"Century"等11首最新力作
美国重量级时尚文化杂志Vanity Fair曾这样形容她：「难得一见的好嗓音，让人联想起Astrud Gilberto歌声中的冷艳性感与Billie Holiday慵懒恬静的颤音…」；全球知名的New Yorker杂志曾经如此讚赏她：「嗓音温柔而有质感、充满丰富的情感」；没有错，那位融合Indie Pop、Folk、Baroque Pop，嗓音清新脱俗又无比动人的加拿大女声Feist，终于回来了！
本名Leslie Feist的Feist，出道26年的音乐生涯中，已荣获了包含「年度最佳新人」、「年度最佳艺人」、「年度最佳专辑」等共11座朱诺音乐奖，并且4次被葛莱美奖提名，也被全英音乐奖以「最佳国际女艺人」的奖项两度提名肯定；除此之外，她更靠著独步球的优雅歌喉与充满灵动感的声线，陆续透过【Monarch】、【Let It Die】、【The Reminder】、【Metals】等专辑，累积了加拿大的四白金唱片认证，可以说是90年代至今，加拿大乐坛中最历久不衰的音乐恒星。在经历过种种的荣耀加持、各方乐评与粉丝的极力推崇，Feist感到生活中有股无形的压力让她喘不过气，因此她暂时地别离了乐坛；然而，心裡对于音乐的热爱，让她于2016年的冬天时节，再次重新拾起了乐器创作，「去年冬天，我与两位最亲密的友人Mocky与Renaud LeTang一起录製了这张作品，我们的理念很简单，就是要摆脱掉世俗的一切，用音乐直接触碰人的心与身体」。以这样近乎反璞归真的概念，Feist进行了生涯有史以来最美妙的音乐创作，并于极短的时间内，将所有思绪全部幻化为音符与节奏，带给众人这张最单纯却也是最美好的音乐作品－【Pleasure】。
虽然专辑名称为【Pleasure】，却是一张以“喜”来包装“悲”的专辑，这张专辑Feist探索了情感的极限，无论是孤单、脱离、压力、羞愧、脆弱等很私密的情绪都放进了【Pleasure】，专辑除了由Feist亲自参与製作外，更邀请了Mocky与Renaud LeTang这两位挚友兼音乐人的伙伴一同锻造专辑；开场的同名歌曲"Pleasure"，充满了难以言喻的音乐灵气，并且兼具了Indei Pop的柔美与Rock的力道，氛围虽然带著些许感伤，歌词内容是呼吁世人要以最积极的态度面对万事万物，并且永保对于身边种种的高度兴趣；跳动的音讯符号、满载著悠扬旋律的"Any Party"，展现出了Feist独一无二、游戏人间的态度，并且以各种乐器的堆叠拼凑，型塑了一曲杰作；与英摇天团Pulp主唱Jarvis Cocker合作的"Century"，将加拿大气息浓厚的Baroque Pop结合英伦风气的Art Rock，打造出Feist出道以来最具实验性与突破性的歌曲，同时也让所有人听见她能够跨越各种风格的高超歌喉。AMG、一项毒舌的乐评Pitchfork、英国卫报等音乐媒体都纷纷给予将近满分的评价，Feist的【Pleasure】，是2017年乐界最不该错过的专辑。