Featured New Releases for
March 29, 2024

Cowboy CarterEditors' Choice
Columbia / Parkwood Entertainment
The country-influenced second act in the reclamation trilogy brings history, famous friends, and family legacy together for an impressive statement.
Evolution
Valory
A bright, cheerful revival of the poppier aspects of the 2023 inductee to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine
GripEditors' Choice
Secretly Canadian
R&B
The singer/songwriter's breezy, tender third album explores the powerful physical and emotional hold of new love within the gay Black club scene.
- Heather Phares
Heaven :x: HellEditors' Choice
Rise Records
The eighth and final album from the Canadian crew merges their pop-punk and metal-leaning sides onto a sprawling double LP.
- Neil Z. Yeung
Interplay
Wichita / Wichita Recordings
The seventh album from these shoegaze giants (and third since reuniting) explores synth pop, spacy electronics, and other territory new to them.
- Fred Thomas
Hey Panda
Drag City
Adding R&B and pop flourishes while stripping the long-established sound of the group down to the studs, the album is a low-key, late-career triumph.
- Tim Sendra
Switched On, Vols. 1-5Editors' Choice
Duophonic / Warp
A comprehensive box set of the band's singles and rarities collections that completes their fascinating, innovative body of work.
- Heather Phares
Echo Dancing
Yep Roc
One of America's great songwriters re-records 14 songs from his back catalog in radical, lo-fi electronic form.
- Mark Deming
Live Laugh Love
Suicide Squeeze
The fifth album from the Pacific Northwest foursome mixes cool guitars and warm emotions to fine effect.
- Mark Deming
Eros Zeta & the Perfumed GuitarsEditors' Choice
Easy Action Records
A dazzlingly spacy, gothy companion concept album to 2023's The Hypnogogue.
- Matt Collar
What's for Breakfast?
Carpark Records
After perfecting a soft rock-AM Radio-disco hybrid over many years, the singer/songwriter adds gentle power pop guitars to the mix in typically pleasing fashion.
- Tim Sendra
Mind, Man, Medicine
New West
Brimming with warmth and composure hard-won through motherhood and the pandemic, the duo's fifth album is even more stylistically broad.
- Marcy Donelson
Moves in the FieldEditors' Choice
Warp
The experimental composer utilizes a programmable instrument to create an understated yet otherworldly sound environment made up primarily of acoustic piano sounds.
- Fred Thomas
Exotic Birds of Prey
Sub Pop
Rap
This seven-song offering from Ishmael Butler and friends speeds through moments of futuristic sci-fi rap, wobbly formlessness, and electro throwbacks.
- Fred Thomas
Revelations
Abeyance Records
Tough, passionate music and fearlessly honest songs on the fourth album from these alt-country firebrands.
- Mark Deming
The Garden Dream
Secretly Canadian
Ella Smoker's full-length debut was inspired by intimate songwriters like Elliott Smith and Alex G as well as a lush, layered approach to production.
- Marcy Donelson
All Hits: Memories
Drag City
First solo release from the Australian drummer and Dirty Three co-founder, co-produced by Fugazi's Guy Picciotto.
- Paul Simpson
Moving Away from the Pulsebeat: Post Punk Britain 1977-1981
Various Artists
Cherry Red
Another Cherry Red deep dive into the post-punk era, presenting familiar tracks and cult favorites alongside total obscurities.
- Paul Simpson
Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Live recording of The Damnation of Faust captures its full range of operatic scene-making.
- James Manheim
Marc-André Hamelin: Variations on a theme of Paganini; My feelings about chocolate; Suite à la ancienne; Etc.
Hyperion
Virtuoso eclecticism carries the day in this release of compositions by a great virtuoso.
- James Manheim
Thomas Weelkes: Gentleman Extraordinary
Resonus Classics
Distinctive bright vocal ensemble sound is an attraction in this collection of Weelkes' less familiar sacred music.
- James Manheim
Diaries: Schumann
PentaTone Classics
Beautifully controlled performances by a young pianist with a real feel for Schumann.
- James Manheim
Antonín Dvorák: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8
SWR Music
Beautifully shaped, long-lined Dvořák symphonies from a rising conductor.
- James Manheim
We Live the Opposite Daring
New Focus Recordings
Experimental works for vocal ensemble demand and receive the highest level of virtuosity.
- James Manheim
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