Yes, 2009 has been a flat-out FUGLY year for new music, blah blah blah, whine whine whine, felch felch felch. And yes, I've already belabored this point on the Best Albums of '09 So Far list I posted last month, but fear not: the last quarter of the year is about to swoop in and save all of y'all's heretofore puny Year-End lists from the shitheap. Bring it on, assholes!
----
Built to Spill -
There Is No Enemy [due October 6] -- Personally, I've been listening to a ton of Built to Spill lately, and it's always nice when a band decides to put out an album which so conveniently dovetails with my current listening habits. Thanks guys! For the record, their last one ('06's
You in Reverse) was pretty rad (
#12 on that year's Best Albums list). You can hear one song from the new album
here, and another
here, should such things interest you.
----
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head [due October 6th] -- Big fan of
these guys' live show, and I liked their debut album well enough (
#23 in 2007), but I've heard from a couple reliable sources that the new one is one of '09's finest albums. As such, I eagerly picked up the
In Your Heart teaser EP earlier this month, and I like the album version of the title track (even if the Cereal Spiller Remix is way better), and non-album B-side "Strictly Looks" is great enough to make me think that if this is the shit they're leaving off the album, what's actually on there must be awesome. Right?
----
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control [due Oct 6] -- Face it: the world is a better place with Sune and Sharin dutifully crankin' out a new record every year instead of making us wait for fucking ever like they did after
Pretty in Black. Loved loved loved
Lust Lust Lust (
#2 on last year's Best Albums List) and here's hoping the new record is more of that same patented noisy, melodic, dirty/sexy goodness. Go
here to stream the full album, or go
here to watch excerpts of the recording process with producer Thomas Troelson.
----
Baroness - Blue Record [due October 13th] -- Enjoyed these guys' last one (2007's Red Album was my 15th favorite record of that year) even if I wasn't terribly psyched about the vocals. And I love the live show. And once when I was at a Baroness show I saw the crowd flip a dude's wheelchair. Then, they mocked him as he struggled on the floor. Fucked up shit right there. Still not convinced as to Blue Record's amazingness? Go here to stream some new tracks, you pansy.
----
Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights [due October 13th] -- These guys' first new album since 2005. Not that you asked, but I saw Lightning Bolt last month on the same day when the rest of all you dickholes were chillin' wit Jay Z and Beyonce at the Grizzly Bear thing. Admittedly, no Griz fan I, but y'all missed the fuck out.
----
Atlas Sound - Logos [due October 20th] -- Truth be told, at first I didn't really much care for the first Atlas Sound album. Maybe it was the lack of cohesively strong songwriting. Maybe it was that it was just nowhere near as good as Deerhunter's formidable output. Or maybe I had simply succumbed to Bradford Cox oversaturation, who knows. Long story short, I like Let the Blind... quite a bit now as mood music in the same vein as Earth's excellent The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull.
----
Russian Circles -
Geneva [due October 20th] -- The first two Russian Circles albums both explored different corners of the post-metal genre, with 2006's
Enter characterized by flash-fingered guitar histrionics, and with last year's
Station being more of a pensive/reserved/chill affair. To be sure, said albums were both fucking awesome (
Enter was apparently my 4th favorite album of 2006, and
Station was 2008's #14), so there's no reason to doubt that this one will be anything but. Check
here for an interview with guitarist Mike Sullivan where he discusses each of
Geneva's songs in excruciating detail.
----
BOAT -
Setting the Paces [due October 27th] -- Everyone has a limit for the amount of adorability they can handle before shit starts to feel, you know,
cloying or
insincere. As such, some may find BOAT's heart-on-sleeve, bashful awkwardness to be off-putting. Not me. I, for one, applaud their uncanny ability to pull off some nifty pop hooks, and, what's more,
I like their live show.
----
Pelican - What We All Come to Need (due October 27th) -- I originally ranked City of Echoes fairly high on my Best of '07 end-of-year list, but nearly two years hence I'm of the mind that City of Echoes was the best album of '07, and probably one of the top two or three albums of the aughts overall. Seriously! Which is all the more surprising considering how little I enjoyed the Ephemeral EP from earlier in '09. [In all fairness, I've totally come around on Ephemeral's title track since having written that review.] Well, their forthcoming long-player boasts guest spots from Aaron Turner of Isis, one of the dudes from SUNNO))) and other assorted luminaries. I'm really hoping for big things from this one.
----
Pyramids with Nadja [due October 27th] -- I liked some parts of the first Pyramids record, what with the whole multilayered/ambient/noisy/beauty/terror thing. (Full disclosure: I'd forgotten that this record was coming out soon, which is now making me wish I'd stuck around for Nadja's set last Saturday night at Union Pool after I watched Mick Barr do his thing. Fuck. Anyway, go
here to check out an album track.)
----
Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg [due October 27] -- I predict.... this will be the perfect soundtrack to drainin' brew-dogs and sparkin' bowls, brah. Not afraid to admit that I enjoyed the shit out of their previous one.
----
Guided by Voices - Suitcase 3- Up We Go Now [due November 3rd] -- In a nutshell: loved the first Suitcase box set; was disappointed in the second. Love a lot of Uncle Bob's pre-GbV-breakup material; hate about 85% of the post-breakup stuff. Here's hoping this exercise in archive-mining is a fruitful one.
----
King Khan and BBQ Show -
Invisible Girl [due November 3rd] -- I'm getting sick of linking to my own posts, so let me instead just say that 2008's T
he Supreme Genius of King Khan and His Shrines was amazing, probably the record from last year that was collectively most enjoyed when I'd play it for people. Of course, this album is with Khan's other band, who also know
how to churn out the good stuff.
----
Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough [due November 10th] -- This sure-to-be-a-black-metal-masterpiece comes out on my birthday. In unrelated news, for some reason
this scares the balls off of me.
