Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow and 10 More New Albums You Can Hear Right Now
Brad Paisley, Love and War
In addition to Mick Jagger, with whom Brad Paisley co-wrote and performs the “Tumbling Dice”-redolent sizzler “Drive of Shame,” John Fogerty, Timbaland and Bill Anderson join the country singer on his 11th studio set, his first since 2014’s Moonshine in the Trunk. “This album really was about collaborations,” says Paisley. Even the late Man in Black contributed: Paisley set to music a gorgeous love poem Johnny Cash wrote for future wife June Carter, “Gold All Over the Ground,” after their only son, John Carter Cash, presented Paisley with his father’s hand-written lyrics.
Read Our Feature: Inside Brad Paisley’s Defiant, All-Star New Album ‘Love and War’
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Ray Davies, Americana
Ray Davies became Sir Ray Davies last month after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, but the Kinks frontman says he’s got far more important matters on his mind. “It’s nice being noticed,” he says. “But that’s not going to make new music for me. I accept it for what it’s worth and it is a great honor, but I want to prove to myself that I can still write and be contented by it. That is what I strive for.”
What’s giving him contentment at the moment is Americana, a collection of new songs he recorded with the Jayhawks. “They’re a good studio band,” he says. “I wanted to use a band rather than [typical] studio players. The interesting thing about bands is they don’t all have to be virtuoso players. We made some amazing tracks together.”
Read Our Feature: The Last Word: Ray Davies on Kinks’ Early Hits, the Perils of Family Bands
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Sheryl Crow, Be Myself
A little over three years ago, Sheryl Crow took her career in a radically different direction with the release of her debut country LP, Feels Like Home. Despite a relentless touring schedule and promotional campaign, the album didn’t make much of an impression with country fans. “It was still a great experience and I learned a lot,” says Crow. “But I gotta say that the country market is commerce at its most fully realized. Right now, I want to have an experience that feels detached from anything in commerce.”
That was her mindset when she recorded her upcoming pop record Be Myself, which was cut with her Nineties collaborators Jeff Trott and Tchad Blake, the team responsible for hits like “My Favorite Mistake” and “Everyday Is a Winding Road.” “I really wanted to get back to how I got started on my second record and third record,” Crow says. “I wanted to revisit that sound and that feeling. It was a complete blast and the most effortless thing I’ve ever done.”
Read Our Feature: Sheryl Crow Talks Return to Nineties Roots on Upcoming LP
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Incubus, 8
Five years ago, the members of Incubus were experiencing one of the darkest phases of their career. Both internal and external forces were making the period around the release of If Not Now, When? An especially brutal one as they saw the end of a 17-year long relationship with their former label and wondered what they could possibly do next. Respective personal issues each member was dealing with made life even more chaotic, leading to an unplanned but much needed hiatus before the band jumped back into a studio space offered to them by friend Hans Zimmer to work on new music. What resulted was a rebuilding of their two-decade-plus creative partnership; Trust Fall (Side A), the 2015 EP that got them back on the road together; and now 8, an energized, pristine rock package featuring some of the band’s finest work in years.
Read Our Feature: Incubus on Creative ‘Recharging,’ Skrillex Team-Up, ‘S.C.I.E.N.C.E.’ at 20
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Various Artists, The Get Down II (Original Soundtrack From The Netflix Original Series)
Baz Luhrmann’s colorful, wildly ambitious hip-hop comic-book/kung-fu/musical/opera/drama The Get Down has returned for another six episodes. This smash-up of circa 1977 sounds and modern artists utilizes the talents of Alessia Cara, 6lack and Lil Yachty, but few tracks will likely compete with “Break the Locks,” a vintage throwdown from the Get Down Brothers themselves, the series cast members boasting and booming in vein of crews like the Cold Crush Brothers, the Furious Five and Treacherous Three.
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Charly Bliss, Guppy
With a smack of bubblegum, New York City’s Charly Bliss revamp the cheeky fuzz rock of the Nineties in their airtight debut – fit for a silver screen prom scene à la Jawbreaker or 10 Things I Hate About You.
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Big Star, Thank You, Friends: Big Star’s Third Live … and More
This concert celebrating the legacy of the Seventies jangle-pop landmark – one of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of all time – features Big Star drummer Jody Stephens and a slew of famous admirers, including members of R.E.M., Wilco, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Yo La Tengo, the dB’s, the Posies, Let’s Active, Semisonic and more.
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Barry Manilow, This Is My Town: Songs of New York
The legendary crooner mixes Big Apple-fueled originals with a handful of standards like “On Broadway” and a “virtual duet” with Mel Tormé.
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The Black Angels, Death Song
Austin psych-rock band the Black Angels make a great, lush version in the drone-centric, hypnotic lineage of bands like the 13th Floor Elevators and Spacemen 3. Vocalist/bassist Alex Maas told Texas Monthly a theme of their fifth album is “open-eyed lack of trust in policy and relationships.”
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Robyn Hitchcock, Robyn Hitchcock
The 21st solo album from the psych-folk-pop original.
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Procol Harum, Novum
Nearly 50 years after the release of “Whiter Shade of Pale,” Procul Harum founder and vocalist Gary Brooker and his crew is back with album 12.
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Coin, How Will You Know If You Never Try
“Talk Too Much,” the first single off the second LP from Nashville’s Coin, recently cracked the Top 10 of the Billboard Alternative Songs chart
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