Written by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney with longtime friends Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Beck, the celebratory, joyful ‘Beautiful People (Stay High)’ is one of several songs on the album that feature collaborations between the band and various additional friends and colleagues, including Noel Gallagher, Greg Kurstin, and others. Speaking on the collaborative nature of the album, Carney shares, “We had this epiphany: ‘We can call our friends to help us make music.’ It’s funny because we both write songs with other people – Dan all the time [as a solo artist and producer], me when I'm producing a record. That’s what we do.”

Auerbach adds, “No matter who we work with, it never feels like we're sacrificing who we are. It only feels like it adds some special flavor. We just expanded that palette with people we wanted to work with. We were there to support them and their ideas, to do whatever we could to see that moment flourish. But when it came time to finish the album, it was just Pat and me. We'd never worked harder to make a record,” he continues. “It's never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.”

“What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun,” Carney says. “And something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.”

While making Ohio Players, a title inspired by the legendary Dayton, OH funk band of the same name, The Black Keys were also DJing dance parties in cities around the world that they called “record hangs”, spinning 45s from their own eclectic and growing collections. Mojo reports, ‘The spirit of those parties infused the album’s DNA. ‘That’s been the fun of it,’ [says] Auerbach. ‘Letting go a little bit.’”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A lovely new one from Blues-rock troubadours The Black Keys including collaborations with some of the biggest names in music today. There are a selection of classic 'Keys outings alongside some more outsider pieces, all perfectly produced with the help of Beck and Noel Gallagher. It's a beautifully produced, perfectly paced new direction for the band.

Nonesuch releases Kronos Quartet’s acclaimed album Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass on vinyl for the first time to coincide with Kronos Quartet: Five Decades, a year-long celebration marking the quartet’s 50th anniversary. Originally released in 1995, the album features David Harrington (violin), John Sherba, (violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and Joan Jeanrenaud (cello) performing Quartet No. 2 (Company) (1983), No. 3 (Mishima) (1985), No. 4 (Buczak) (1990), and No. 5 (1991), the first piece Glass wrote especially for Kronos. Recorded at Skywalker Sound in California, the album was produced by Judith Sherman, Kurt Munkacsi and Philip Glass. The cover art features Francesco Clemente’s painting The Four Corners (1985). At the time of the album’s release, the New York Times said, ‘It contains some of Glass's best music since Koyaanisqatsi. His ear for sumptuous string sonorities is undeniable,’ while the Washington Post called it ‘An ideal combination of composer and performers.’ It was a top 10 hit on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums, and spent 12 weeks on Billboard’s Classical chart.

In his original liner note, critic Mark Swed wrote, ‘Glass’ string quartets may contain his most intimate music. They are works through which a very public composer, perhaps the most important opera reformer of our age and a longstanding collaborator in large-scale music theater, holds up a mirror to himself and his way of composing. “In an odd way,” Glass explains, “string quartets have always functioned like that for composers. I don’t really know why, but it’s almost impossible to get away from it. It’s the way composers of the past have thought and that’s no less true for me. It’s almost as if we say we’re going to write a string quartet, we take a deep breath, and we wade in to try to write the most serious, significant piece that we can.” Glass says that as he sat down to write String Quartet No. 5, he had discovered that perhaps not taking a serious tone might be the most serious way to deal with it. “I was thinking that I had really gone beyond the need to write a serious string quartet and that I could write a quartet that is about musicality, which in a certain way is the most serious subject.”’

Glass’ first numbered quartet was written in 1966; however, he did not return to the string quartet medium until 1983, when he provided incidental music for a dramatization of Samuel Beckett’s prose poem, Company. During those 17 years, Glass had formed an ensemble and developed his style in a series of increasingly elaborate pieces for it. String Quartet No. 3 is also adapted to dramatic music, this time from his score to the 1985 Paul Schrader film, Mishima. It was with the music of Mishima that Kronos became associated with Glass, recording the string quartet sections of the soundtrack and subsequently working extensively with the composer on all five of his numbered quartets. Kronos also gave the first concert performances of Company and Mishima. String Quartet No. 4 was composed in remembrance of the artist Brian Buczak, who died of AIDS in 1988.

As Kronos’ anniversary season continues with further concerts around the world, Nonesuch will reissue Black Angels on vinyl on February 16. First released in 1990, the award-winning album includes George Crumb’s title piece, which inspired David Harrington to found the quartet. Called ‘an unusually elevated and searing Vietnam War protest’ by the New York Times, it sets a dark, powerful tone for this collection, which addresses the political/physical/spiritual consequences of war. Also featured are works by Charles Ives, István Márta, Thomas Tallis, and Dmitri Shostakovich. ‘Stylishly packaged, intelligently programmed, superbly recorded and brilliantly performed,’ proclaimed Gramophone. ‘In short, very much the sort of disc we’ve come to expect from the talented and imaginative Kronos Quartet.’ The Evening Standard included it among its ‘100 Definitive Classical Albums of the 20th Century’.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1937, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. By 1974, he had created a large collection of music for The Philip Glass Ensemble. The period culminated in the landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach. Since Einstein, Glass’s repertoire has grown to include music for opera, dance, theatre, orchestra, and film. His scores have received Academy Award nominations (including Kundun and The Hours, as well as Notes on a Scandal) and a Golden Globe (The Truman Show). Recent works include his memoir, Words Without Music, his first Piano Sonata, opera Circus Days and Nights, and Symphony No. 14. Glass received the Praemium Imperiale in 2012, the US National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016, and 41st Kennedy Center Honors in 2018.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. String Quartet No. 5: I
2. String Quartet No. 5: II
3. String Quartet No. 5: III
4. String Quartet No. 5: IV
5. String Quartet No. 5: V
Side B
1. String Quartet No. 4 (Buczak): I
2. String Quartet No. 4 (Buczak): II
3. String Quartet No. 4 (Buczak): III
Side C
1. String Quartet No. 2 (Company): I
2. String Quartet No. 2 (Company): II
3. String Quartet No. 2 (Company): III
4. String Quartet No. 2 (Company): IV
Side D
1. String Quartet No. 3 (Mishima): 1957 – Award Montage
2. String Quartet No. 3 (Mishima): November 25 – Ichigaya
3. String Quartet No. 3 (Mishima): 1934 – Grandmother And Kimitake
4. String Quartet No. 3 (Mishima): 1962 – Body Building
5. String Quartet No. 3 (Mishima): Blood Oath
6. String Quartet No. 3 (Mishima): Mishima/Closing

Rhiannon Giddens’ You’re the One is the Grammy- and MacArthur-winning singer, composer, and instrumentalist’s third solo studio album and her first of all original songs; her last solo album was 2017’s critically acclaimed Freedom Highway. This collection of 12 songs written over the course of Giddens’ career bursts with life-affirming energy, drawing from the folk music that she knows so deeply, as well as its pop descendants. The album was produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Alicia Keys, Valerie June, Tank and the Bangas) and recorded at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami with a band composed of Giddens’s closest musical collaborators from the past decade alongside musicians from Splash’s own Rolodex, topped off with a horn section, making an impressive ten- to twelve-person ensemble.

Giddens made You’re the One with some of her closest musical collaborators from the past decade, including her partner, Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, plus multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, bassist Jason Sypher, and Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu. The album features electric and upright bass, conga, Cajun and Piano accordions, guitars, a Western string section, and Miami horns, among other instruments, capturing the inclusive spirit that channels through all of her work.

"I hope that people just hear American music," Giddens says. "Blues, jazz, Cajun, country, gospel, and rock – it's all there. I like to be where it meets organically. They're fun songs, and I wanted them to have as much of a chance as they could to reach people who might dig them but don't know anything about what I do. If they're introduced to me through this record, they might go listen to other music I've made and make some new discoveries.”

You’re the One opens with ‘Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad’, an R&B blast (complete with background "shoops" and horns) that takes a titan for inspiration. "I listened to a bunch of Aretha Franklin, and then turned to fellow Aretha-nut Dirk Powell and said, ‘Let’s write a song she might have sung!'" Giddens recalls. Her danceable, vivacious tribute to Franklin's sound is a vocal showcase, spotlighting her soaring high notes and nearly-growling low ones. Another highlight, ‘If You Don't Know How Sweet It Is', intentionally puts an edgier spin on the sass of Dolly Parton's early work.

TRACK LISTING

1. Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad
2. You’re The One
3. Yet To Be (feat. Jason Isbell)
4. Wrong Kind Of Right
5. Another Wasted Life
6. You Louisiana Man
7. If You Don’t Know How Sweet It Is
8. Hen In The Foxhouse
9. Who Are You Dreaming Of
10. You Put The Sugar In My Bowl
11. Way Over Yonder
12. Good Ol’ Cider

David Byrne & Fatboy Slim’s acclaimed 2010 album Here Lies Love receives its first-ever vinyl release to coincide with a new production opening on Broadway this summer. Here Lies Love is a double-disc song cycle – improbably poignant, decidedly surreal, surprisingly thought provoking – about the rise and fall of the Philippines' notorious Imelda Marcos. It was conceived by David Byrne; composed by Byrne and DJ/recording artist Fatboy Slim, AKA Norman Cook; and performed by a dream cast drawn from the worlds of indie rock, alt country, R&B and pop. Byrne's taste in collaborators is as imaginative as it is impeccable, including Cyndi Lauper (who recounts, to lighthearted disco beats, Imelda's courtship with Ferdinand Marcos), Steve Earle (as the power-hungry Ferdinand), Dap-Kings vocalist Sharon Jones (recalling Imelda's introduction into New York society) and Natalie Merchant (as spurned Imelda confidante Estrella, anticipating the onset of martial law). Along with vocals turns from such stars as Tori Amos and the B-52's Kate Pierson, Byrne works with rising indie rockers St. Vincent and My Brightest Diamond; New York chanteuses Nellie McKay and Martha Wainwright; and dance-music divas Róisín Murphy and Santigold. Byrne himself appears as the voice of imperialistic America on ‘American Troglodyte’, a send-up that wouldn't have seemed out of places in Talking Heads' True Stories.

Byrne originally envisioned this as a musical theatre piece, to be mounted in disco and nightclub settings, reflecting the globe-trotting Marcos' taste for such velvet-roped spots as Studio 54 and Regine's. In 2006, he performed work-in-progress versions to enthusiastic audiences at New York City's Carnegie Hall and the Adelaide Festival in Australia. While plans for a US theatrical production continued to evolve, he delivered this unique recording. The award-winning theatrical production eventually premiered at The Public Theater in New York in 2013, travelled to London’s National Theater for a sold-out run (2014–15), and was remounted at the Seattle Repertory Theater (2017).

Here Lies Love has an effervescent disco feel, redolent of Fatboy Slim's own dance-floor anthems, with warm undercurrents of the Latin rhythms that have percolated through Byrne's recent solo work. The sunny arrangements act in counterpoint to the reality of the Marcos' increasingly repressive regime, reflecting the imagined inner life of the glamour-obsessed Imelda. Explains Byrne, "For me, the darker side of the excesses are, for the most part, a matter of record. A lot of the audience is going to come with that knowledge already. What's more of a challenge is to get inside the head of the person who was behind all of that, and understand what made them tick." Byrne offers no judgment and avoids the obvious – there is no mention of Imelda's infamous shoe collection.

Many of Byrne's lyrics are, astonishingly enough, constructed from actual Imelda quotes, including the project's title, the words that Imelda, now returned to the Philippines from US-assisted exile in Hawaii, would like to have inscribed on her gravestone. In addition to his new liner note, Byrne illustrates the story with archival photos. In a detailed preface, he reveals what drew him to this subject and the bumpy route he took to launch the project and, ultimately, record this album. The booklet is indeed a page-turner, just as Here Lies Love is a wonderfully old-school album that rewards start-to-finish listening. Once again, Byrne – beloved as musician, thinker and bicyclist-about-town – reveals the breadth and singularity of his vision.

The new production of Here Lies Love will premiere at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. Performances begin June 17, ahead of an official opening night on July 20. Tony Award winner Alex Timbers (direction) and Olivier Award nominee Annie-B Parson (choreography) reunite with Byrne (concept, music, and lyrics) and Fatboy Slim (music) to bring Here Lies Love to Broadway, continuing a ten-plus year collaboration on the project. Tom Gandey and J Pardo contribute additional music. Here Lies Love is produced on Broadway by Hal Luftig, Patrick Catullo, Diana DiMenna for Plate Spinner Productions, Clint Ramos, and Jose Antonio Vargas. The staging at the Broadway Theatre will transform the venue’s traditional proscenium floor space into a dance club environment, where audiences will stand and move with the actors. A wide variety of standing and seating options will be available throughout the theatre’s reconstructed space. The producers of Here Lies Love said, “As a team of binational American producers – Filipinos among us – we are thrilled to bring Here Lies Love to Broadway! We welcome everyone to experience this singularly exuberant piece of theatre. The history of the Philippines is inseparable from the history of the United States, and as both evolve, we cannot think of a more appropriate time to stage this show. See you on the dance floor!”

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1: Side A
1. Here Lies Love – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Florence Welch (Florence & The Machine)
2. Every Drop Of Rain – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Candie Payne & St. Vincent
3. You'll Be Taken Care Of – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Tori Amos
4. The Rose Of Tacloban – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Martha Wainwright
5. A Perfect Hand – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Steve Earle
Disc 1: Side B
1. Eleven Days – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Cyndi Lauper
2. When She Passed By – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Allison Moorer
3. Walk Like A Woman – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Charmaine Clamor
4. Don't You Agree? – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Róisín Murphy
5. Pretty Face – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Camille
6. Ladies In Blue – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Theresa Andersson
Disc 2: Side A
1. Dancing Together – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Sharon Jones
2. How Are You? – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Nellie McKay
3. Men Will Do Anything – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Alice Russell
4. The Whole Man – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Kate Pierson
5. Never So Big – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Sia
6. Please Don't – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Santi White [Santigold]
Disc 2: Side B
1. American Troglodyte – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim
2. Solano Avenue – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Nicole Atkins
3. Order 1081 – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Natalie Merchant
4. Seven Years – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond)
5. Why Don't You Love Me? – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Feat. Tori Amos & Cyndi Lauper

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was widely acclaimed as one of 2002’s best albums, appearing in year-end lists of Mojo, NME, Q, Rolling Stone, and Uncut, among many others. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot also was featured in multiple decade-end lists, with Rolling Stone naming it #3 Album of the 2000s, as well as many Greatest Albums of All Time lists, including in the NME.

Among Yankee’s inspirations was a recording Tweedy bought at Tower Records in the late 1990s, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations. As Bob Mehr points out in his new album note, the record got “deep under Tweedy’s skin.” Tweedy said in his 2017 memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), “It was as fascinating to me as anything being made by actual musicians using actual instruments… I wanted to know why it was so hypnotic to me. Why could I listen to hours of this stuff, even though I had no clue what any of them were saying. That question became the foundation for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot… the way people communicated or ultimately failed to communicate.” The album takes its title from a haunting recording of a woman repeating those words that is included in The Conet Project; that recording is sampled in the penultimate song on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, ‘Poor Places’.

“Conceptually, Tweedy had decided to focus on a big idea for the next album: the state of America. His lyrics – often distilled from scribbled pages of free verse or poetry – became a form of inquiry,” Mehr continues. Tweedy said, in 2004, “I wanted to write about the stuff right in front of my eyes, microscopically looking at America and asking questions about each little thing… How can there be all these good things and things that I love about America, alongside all of these things that I’m ashamed of? And that was an internal question, too; I think I felt that way about myself.”

Mehr says, “Exploring those questions, while weaving in strands of Eastern philosophy and bits of autobiography – Yankee lyrics would be loaded with the pained imagery of someone suffering from migraines and mental health issues – Tweedy would conjure a deep examination of both country and self.”

Describing the uncanny, strangely prescient feeling of the album, which Wilco began offering as a free stream on its website in 2001, Mehr notes: “In the wake of 9/11, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot would be burdened with unintended meaning. The disc had originally been scheduled for a September 11 release. Its cover – a Sam Jones-shot image of Chicago’s twin Marina Towers angled in looming fashion – bore an eerie resemblance to the felled World Trade Center towers. And the songs – with titles like ‘Ashes of American Flags’ and ‘War on War,’ and lyrics about how ‘tall buildings shake, sad voices escape’ – took on a terrible new resonance.”

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the first Wilco release on Nonesuch Records following the band’s infamous split with Reprise (both labels are part of Warner Music Group). It was also the first release featuring the line-up of drummer Glenn Kotche and multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach joining founding members Jeff Tweedy and John Stirratt. The 2002 Sam Jones film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart documented the fraught recording and mixing process, personnel changes, and label issues.

The relationship with Nonesuch would last nearly a decade and include three more studio albums – the Grammy Award-winning A ghost is born, Sky Blue Sky, and Wilco (the album) – along with a live album and a live DVD, plus reissues of earlier records, before Wilco began its own label, dBpm. The band’s current lineup of Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, Patrick Sansone, and Nels Cline has been together for nearly twenty years.

After 10 albums, the last five of which have gone top 10 or better, six Grammy awards, and sold-out tours around the world, The Black Keys are back: the duo, called ‘America’s Most Trusted Band’ by Stephen Colbert, and ‘One of the best rock’n’roll bands on the planet’ by Uncut, releases its eleventh studio album, Dropout Boogie, via Nonesuch Records. Dropout Boogie features collaborations with Billy F. Gibbons (ZZ Top), Greg Cartwright (Reigning Sound), and Angelo Petraglia (Kings of Leon).

Dropout Boogie is released one day before the twentieth anniversary of The Black Keys’ first album, The Big Come Up. As they have done their entire career, the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney wrote all of the material in the studio, and the new album captures a number of first takes that hark back to the stripped-down blues rock of their early days making music together in Akron, Ohio basements.

“That’s always been the beauty of the thing Pat and I do. It’s instant,” Auerbach says. “We’ve never really had to work at it. Whenever we’d get together, we’d just make music, you know? We didn’t know what we were going to do, but we’d just do it and it would sound cool. It’s the natural chemistry Pat and I have. Being in a band this long is a testament to that. It was a real gift that we were given. I mean, the odds of being plopped down a block-and-a-half from each other in Akron, Ohio – it just seems crazy.”

After hashing out initial ideas as a duo at Auerbach’s Nashville-based Easy Eye Sound studio, Auerbach and Carney welcomed new collaborators Billy F. Gibbons, Greg Cartwright, and Angelo Petraglia to the Dropout Boogie sessions. Although The Black Keys previously co-wrote songs with frequent producer/collaborator Danger Mouse, this is the first time they have invited multiple new contributors to work simultaneously on one of their own albums. Both Cartwright and Petraglia can be heard on the new album’s first single, ‘Wild Child’.

“Living in Nashville and making records here has opened both of our minds to that experience a little bit more,” said Auerbach. “I knew Pat would love working with both of these guys, so we decided we’d give it a shot. It was the first time we’d ever really done that. It was fun as hell. We just sat around a table with acoustic guitars and worked out a song ahead of time.” “The cool thing with Greg is that he wants to approach stuff with a story in mind – there’s a plot, almost,” added Carney.

The Black Keys had previously jammed with ZZ Top guitar legend Billy F. Gibbons more than a decade ago in Los Angeles, while ZZ Top was working on an album with producer Rick Rubin. “We never even really wrote one song – we just had some ideas we put down,” Carney said. “We really just wanted to hang out with him. We stayed in touch, and Dan invited him to the studio once we started working on this album.”

Between the duo’s albums, Auerbach, through his Easy Eye Sound studio and label, has produced and co-written with artists including Yola, Marcus King, Robert Finley, Ceramic Animal, and the Velveteers.

Carney has also been busy as a producer at his Nashville-by-way-of-Akron studio Audio Eagle, where he has worked with Michelle Branch, Tennis, Jessy Wilson, Calvin Johnson, and The Sheepdogs, among others.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The inimitable Black Keys return for their sleekest and most groove-filled outing yet. Funky af, swimming with the spirit of southern rock and hazy rock and/or roll.

El Camino was produced by Danger Mouse and The Black Keys and was recorded in the band’s then-new hometown of Nashville during the spring of 2011. The Black Keys won three awards at the 55th annual GRAMMY Awards for El Camino – Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Album – among other worldwide accolades. In the UK, the band was nominated for a BRIT Award (Best International Group) and an NME Award (Best International Band). The week of release, the band performed on Saturday Night Live, The Colbert Report, and the Late Show with David Letterman, and later that year, went on to perform their first Madison Square Garden show.

Rolling Stone, which featured the band on their cover around the release, hailed El Camino for bringing ‘raw, riffed-out power back to pop’s lexicon,’ and called it ‘the Keys’ grandest pop gesture yet, augmenting dark-hearted fuzz blasts with sleekly sexy choruses and Seventies-glam flair.’ The Guardian said, ‘They sound like a band who think they've made the year's best rock'n'roll album, probably because that's exactly what they've done.’

In the newly written liner notes for El Camino (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), David Fricke says:
The story of the Black Keys' seventh album, named after an automobile, long out of fashion and featured nowhere in the artwork, begins on a sidewalk in the middle of a blizzard. On the afternoon of January 9, 2011, singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney stood on the pavement outside the Bowery Hotel in New York City, saw the weather turning vicious, looked at each other and came to the same decision: They had to get off the road.

The night before, the duo scored another first in a season getting crowded with them: The Black Keys' debut appearance on Saturday Night Live, performing ‘Howlin' for You’ and ‘Tighten Up’, the breakout singles from their latest release, Brothers. Two days earlier, Brothers – the Keys' first Top 5 album, released in May 2010 – became their first Gold record, passing a half-million in sales thanks to heavy FM rotation and a near-year of gigging, now set to run deep into 2011 including a prestige slot at Coachella and victory laps in Europe and Australia.

The Keys "tried to settle down" after cancelling the tour, Carney says. But that didn't last. "I said, 'We should just make another record.' And I asked Dan if we should get Danger Mouse" – the hip-hop and modern-rock producer, real name Brian Burton, who worked on the Keys' 2008 record, Attack & Release, and co-produced ‘Tighten Up’. Auerbach and Carney did not have any new songs, but as the drummer notes, "Most of our records – we don't have material when we start. Brothers was made up in the studio."

In the UK, the record gave the band their first top 10 hit, and in the US it debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200. The band was also the #1 most played artist at Alternative and AAA radio formats for 2012 in the US. The album’s first single, ‘Lonely Boy’: reached #1 on the Alternative and AAA charts; it also entered the top 10 at Rock radio. The second single, ‘Gold on the Ceiling’, also reached #1 on Alternative radio and the third single, ‘Little Black Submarines’, reached the top 3 at Alternative radio.

El Camino has been certified Double Platinum in the US; Platinum in the UK, Belgium, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands; Triple Platinum in Australia and New Zealand; Quadruple Platinum in Canada; and Gold in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland. Of the album’s singles, ‘Lonely Boy’ was certified Double Platinum in the US, nine-times Platinum in Canada, Triple Platinum in Australia, Platinum in New Zealand, and Gold in Denmark and the UK. ‘Gold on the Ceiling’ was certified Platinum in the United States, Australia, and Canada. ‘Little Black Submarines’ was certified Platinum in the United States. The Black Keys also were nominated for an MTV European Music Award in 2012.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1: EL CAMINO (2021 REMASTER)
Side A
1. Lonely Boy
2. Dead And Gone
3. Gold On The Ceiling
4. Little Black Submarines
5. Money Maker
Side B
1. Run Right Back
2. Sister
3. Hell Of A Season
4. Stop Stop
5. Nova Baby
6. Mind Eraser

DISC 2: LIVE IN PORTLAND, ME.
(PART 1)
Side C
1. Howlin’ For You
2. Next Girl
3. Run Right Back
4. Same Old Thing
5. Dead And Gone
Side D
1. Gold On The Ceiling
2. Thickfreakness
3. Girl Is On My Mind
4. I'll Be Your Man / Your Touch
5. Little Black Submarines

DISC 3: LIVE IN PORTLAND, ME.
(PART 2)
Side E
1. Money Maker
2. Strange Times
3. Chop And Change
4. Nova Baby
5. Ten Cent Pistol
Side F
1. Tighten Up
2. Lonely Boy
3. Everlasting Light
4. She’s Long Gone
5. I Got Mine

DISC 4: BBC SESSION
Side A
1. Howlin’ For You *
2. Next Girl *
3. Gold On The Ceiling *
4. Thickfreakness *
5. I’ll Be Your Man *
6. Your Touch *
Side B
1. Little Black Submarines *
2. Dead And Gone *
3. Tighten Up *
4. Lonely Boy *
5. I Got Mine *

DISC 5: ELECTRO-VOX SESSION
Side A
1. Dead And Gone *
2. Gold On The Ceiling *
3. Howlin’ For You *
4. Lonely Boy *
Side B
1. Money Maker *
2. Next Girl *
3. Run Right Back *
4. Sister *
5. Tighten Up *

* Super Deluxe Editions Only.

The Black Keys release their tenth studio album, Delta Kream, via Nonesuch Records. The record celebrates the band’s roots, featuring eleven Mississippi hill country blues standards that they have loved since they were teenagers, before they were a band, including songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded Delta Kream at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville; they were joined by musicians Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, long-time members of the bands of blues legends including R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. The album takes its name from William Eggleston’s iconic Mississippi photograph that is on its cover.

Auerbach says of the album, “We made this record to honor the Mississippi hill country blues tradition that influenced us starting out. These songs are still as important to us today as they were the first day Pat and I started playing together and picked up our instruments. It was a very inspiring session with Pat and me along with Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton in a circle, playing these songs. It felt so natural.”

Auerbach says of Delta Kream’s first single ‘Crawling Kingsnake’: “I first heard [John Lee] Hooker’s version in high school. My uncle Tim would have given me that record. But our version is definitely Junior Kimbrough’s take on it. It’s almost a disco riff!” Carney adds, "We fell into this drum intro; it's kind of accidental. The ultimate goal was to highlight the interplay between the guitars. My role with Eric was to create a deeper groove."

The music from northern Mississippi, which came to life in juke joints, has long left an imprint on the band’s music, from their cover of R.L. Burnide’s ‘Busted’ and Junior Kimbrough’s ‘Do The Romp’ on their debut album, The Big Come Up; to their subsequent signing to Fat Possum Records, home to many of their musical heroes; and to their EP of Junior Kimbrough covers, Chulahoma.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crawling Kingsnake
2. Louise
3. Poor Boy A Long Way From Home
4. Stay All Night
5. Going Down South
6. Coal Black Mattie
7. Do The Romp
8. Sad Days, Lonely Nights
9. Walk With Me
10. Mellow Peaches
11. Come On And Go With Me

The Black Keys release Brothers (Deluxe Remastered Anniversary Edition), an expanded version of their watershed 2010 multi-platinum, Grammy-winning sixth studio album via Nonesuch Records, on which the record is newly available throughout the world. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Brothers will be re-released with three added bonus songs: ‘Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth’, ‘Black Mud Part II’, and ‘Chop and Change’. It will be available in three formats: a 7” box set, a 2-LP set, and a CD. This will be the first in an annual series of archival releases from the band.

Brothers, originally released on May 18, 2010, was largely recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. It was a career breakthrough for The Black Keys, receiving critical praise and earning three Grammy Awards, for Best Alternative Album, Best Rock Performance, and Best Recording Packaging for Michael Carney’s design. Upon release, Rolling Stone hailed the album ‘a masterpiece’, and Uncut named them ‘one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet’.

TRACK LISTING

Everlasting Light
Next Girl
Tighten Up
Howlin' For You
She's Long Gone
Black Mud
The Only One
Too Afraid To Love You
Ten Cent Pistol
Sinister Kid
The Go Getter
I'm Not The One
Unknown Brother
Never Gonna Give You Up
These Days
Chop And Change*
Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth**
Black Mud Part Ii**

* Previously Released On The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

** Previously Unreleased

Sonny Smith, of Sonny And The Sunsets, will release his tenth studio album, Rod For Your Love via Dan Auerbach's new label, Easy Eye Sound. The record, produced by Black Keys front man Dan Auerbach at his Nashville studio, roots itself in old-school, guitar-driven rock & roll, and is equally built for the garage and the dance floor, with big-hearted melodies and thick harmonies. "I think a lot of albums are made in reaction to the one that came directly before," says Smith, whose earlier recordings were released by labels like Fat Possum and Polyvinyl. "By the time we got to Nashville and began working with Dan, I was thinking 'let's just make a fun, guitar-driven record. I don't want to have any extracurricular stuff here. I just want it to be really pure.’” The album’s first single is ‘Pictures of You’.

Rod For Your Love was recorded at the end of a cross-country tour, and features Smith and his band firing on all cylinders, their rough edges sanded down by weeks of nightly shows. Hearing that The Arcs, Auerbach's side-project, had covered one of his own songs during their own tour, Smith reached out to the Black Keys singer. From there studio time was booked, and when Smith wound up finishing his countrywide tour in Nashville, he and his road band tracked the album at Auerbach's studio. The result is a deeply personal album, filled with heart-of-sleeve songwriting, which shines a light on the songs and the band, without many overdubs or assorted clutter.

Crack-Up is Fleet Foxes’ long awaited and highly anticipated third album. It comes six years after the 2011 release of Helplessness Blues and nearly a decade since the band’s 2008 self-titled debut. 

All eleven of the songs on Crack-Up were written by Robin Pecknold. The album was co-produced by Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset, his longtime bandmate, collaborator, and childhood friend. Crack-Up was recorded at various locations across the United States between July 2016 and January 2017: at Electric Lady Studios, Sear Sound, The Void, Rare Book Room, Avast, and The Unknown. Phil Ek mixed the album, at Sear Sound, and it was mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound. Fleet Foxes is Robin Pecknold (vocals, multi-instrumentalist), Skyler Skjelset (multi-instrumentalist, vocals), Casey Wescott (multi-instrumentalist, vocals), Christian Wargo (multi-instrumentalist, vocals), and Morgan Henderson (multi-instrumentalist).

Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut made a profound impact on the international musical landscape, earning them Uncut’s first ever Music Award Prize, and topping numerous ‘Best of’ lists, including Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Albums of the 2000’s and Pitchfork’s 50 Best Albums of 2008. Fleet Foxes is certified Gold in North America and Platinum in both the UK and Australia. The follow-up album Helplessness Blues was met with the same critical praise as its predecessor (Mojo five stars, Rolling Stone four stars, Pitchfork Best New Music); that album debuted at No.4 on the Billboard Top 200, went Gold in the UK, and earned the band a GRAMMY nomination.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar
2. Cassius, -
3. Naiads, Cassadies
4. Kept Woman
5. Third Of May / Ōdaigahara
6. If You Need To, Keep Time On Me
7. Mearcstapa
8. On Another Ocean (January / June)
9. Fool's Errand
10. I Should See Memphis
11. Crack-Up

Devendra Banhart was born in Houston, Texas, and moved with his mother to her native Caracas, Venezuela, when his parents separated. The family relocated to Los Angeles during his teenage years; it was there that he learned to speak English, skateboard, and play music. Banhart first began to perform in public while attending the San Francisco Art Institute. He has since lived in New York City, Paris, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, where he currently resides.

Banhart first attracted international notice with his 2002 debut album, Oh Me Oh My… The Way the Day Goes By the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit – a collection of recordings he had made for himself. Subsequent albums include Rejoicing in the Hands (2004), Niño Rojo (2004), Cripple Crow (2005), and Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (2007), and What Will We Be (2009). Mala, his Nonesuch debut, was described by Q as a ‘career-best’ and by the Wall Street Journal as his ‘most concise, hushed and winsome effort to date’. Banhart has collaborated with fellow musicians including Anohni (formerly known as Antony) and the Johnsons, Beck, Vashti Bunyan, Os Mutantes, and Vetiver. He also has performed with both Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, and was part of a David Byrne–curated concert at Carnegie Hall.

An accomplished visual artist, Banhart’s distinctive, minutely inked, often enigmatic drawings have appeared in galleries all over the world, including the Art Basel Contemporary Art Fair in Miami; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels; and Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2015 Prestel published I Left My Noodle on Ramen Street, a collection of his of drawings, paintings, and mixed media pieces. He has created the cover art for most of his records, and in 2010 his artwork and packaging for What Will We Be was nominated for a Grammy.

Ape in Pink Marble, Devendra Banhart’s ninth album, was written, produced, arranged, and recorded in Los Angeles by the singer/songwriter/guitarist with his longtime collaborators Noah Georgeson and Josiah Steinbrick, both of whom also worked on Banhart’s most recent album, Mala (2013). 

TRACK LISTING

1. Middle Names
2. Good Time Charlie
3. Jon Lends A Hand
4. Mara
5. Fancy Man
6. Fig In Leather
7. Theme For A Taiwanese Woman In Lime Green
8. Souvenirs
9. Mourner’s Dance
10. Saturday Night
11. Linda
12. Lucky
13. Celebration

"Here Lies Love" is a double-disc song cycle, improbably poignant, decidedly surreal, surprisingly thought provoking - about the rise and fall of the Philippines' notorious Imelda Marcos. It was conceived by David Byrne; composed by Byrne and Fatboy Slim, AKA Norman Cook; and performed by a dream cast drawn from the worlds of indie rock, alt country, R&B and pop. Byrne's taste in collaborators is as imaginative as it is impeccable, including Cyndi Lauper (who recounts, to light-hearted disco beats, Imelda's courtship with Ferdinand Marcos), Steve Earle (as the power-hungry Ferdinand), Dap-Kings vocalist Sharon Jones (recalling Imelda's introduction into New York society) and Natalie Merchant (as spurned Imelda confidante Estrella, anticipating the onset of martial law). Along with vocals turns from such stars as Tori Amos and the B-52's Kate Pierson, Byrne works with rising indie rockers St Vincent and My Brightest Diamond; New York chanteuses Nellie McKay and Martha Wainwright; and dance-music divas Roisin Murphy and Santigold. Byrne himself appears as the voice of imperialistic America on "American Troglodyte", a send-up that wouldn't have seemed out of places in Talking Heads' "True Stories".

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
1. Here Lies Love - Feat. Florence Welch (Florence & The Machine)
2. Every Drop Of Rain - Feat. Candie Payne & St. Vincent
3. You'll Be Taken Care Of - Feat. Tori Amos
4. The Rose Of Tacloban - Feat. Martha Wainwright
5. How Are You? - Feat. Nellie McKay
6. A Perfect Hand - Feat. Steve Earle
7. Eleven Days - Feat. Cyndi Lauper
8. When She Passed By - Feat. Allison Moorer
9. Walk Like A Woman - Feat. Charmaine Clamor
10. Don't You Agree? - Feat. Roisin Murphy
11. Pretty Face - Feat. Camille
12. Ladies In Blue - Theresa Andersson

Disc 2
1. Dancing Together - Feat. Sharon Jones
2. Men Will Do Anything - Feat. Alice Russell
3. The Whole Man - Feat. Kate Pierson
4. Never So Big - Feat. Sia
5. Please Don't - Feat. Santi White (Santigold)
6. American Troglodyte
7. Solano Avenue - Feat. Nicole Atkins
8. Order 1081 - Natalie Merchant
9. Seven Years - Feat. Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond)
10. Why Don't You Love Me? - Feat. Tori Amos & Cyndi Lauper

DVD
1. Eleven Days - Feat. Cyndi Lauper
2. When She Passed By - Feat. Allison Moorer
3. Don't You Agree? - Feat. Roisin Murphy
4. Dancing Together - Feat. Sharon Jones
5. Please Don't - Feat. Santi White (Santigold)
6. Order 1081 - Feat Natalie Merchant

Another uber-hyped album from a band that deserve all the impressive praise they've rapidly garnered, this beguiling record remains unrelenting in its sheer beauty. Appetites whetted by the absolutely stunning five-track EP "Sun Giant" (which, thank the lord, is included on the second record of the lovely double-vinyl package) this soon became a nailed-on Piccadilly album of the year, happily uniting all staff with its assured accessibility. Whilst many have been swift to dismiss their sound as too derivative – doubly accusing the Foxes of committing flagrant musical theft and lacking authenticity due to the tender age of lead singer Robin Pecknold - this record can be much better understood as a group of very talented music fans/singer-songwriters crafting effortlessly stellar tracks that, yes, borrow heavily from country-rock, gospel, baroque pop and the soft A.O.R of America, Dan Fogelberg and CSNY, yet make these influences sound utterly fresh and relevant today.

TRACK LISTING

1 Sun It Rises
2 White Winter Hymnal
3 Ragged Wood
4 Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
5 Quiet Houses
6 He Doesn't Know Why
7 Heard Them Stirring
8 Your Protector
9 Meadowlarks
10 Blue Ridge Mountains
11 Oliver James

Listening to Laura Veirs is like looking up into the night sky and suddenly witnessing a meteor shower: there's something startling and magical, both intimate and awesome, about her songs. The nature-obsessed images Veirs conjures up and the mesmerising sound she creates are as indelible as the blaze of shooting stars. "Saltbreakers", her third album release in three years, is her most beautifully realised band-oriented disc yet. Produced by Tucker Martine (Decemberists, Built To Spill), it is by turns haunting, playful, tender and fierce, embracing everything from machine-driven beats, to angelic gospel choirs, to fuzzed-out guitars and driving alt-rock rhythms. "To The Country", was recorded in the Nashville cabin once occupied by June Carter and Johnny Cash, with Veirs backed by an eight-member Baptist choir, some of whom had previously performed on the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou? With its gorgeous shape notes singing, it is the stunning centrepiece of an album that is as entrancing as staring at the sea or gazing at the stars, waiting for the next one to fall.

"A Boot And A Shoe" is produced by T Bone Burnett, and includes Phillips' distinct vocals and vintage guitar sound, plus piano vamps and string arrangements by Patrick Warren, electric bass by T Bone Burnett, and drums by Jim Keltner, Jay Belarose, and Carla Azar (Autolux). The New York Times said of Phillips that she possesses 'touches of Kurt Weill via Tom Waits, and of the Beatles via Elvis Costello, all turned inward,' and that she sings 'torch songs banked down to a low but persistent simmer, evading melodrama by keeping quiet.'

Robin Holcomb is a genre-defying singer/songwriter similar in many ways to Jane Siberry, who mixes folk and classical elements in her songs and layers a jazz sheen over them. Clever, literate lyrics and vituoso piano work makes "The Big Time" another intelligent and at times daring collection featuring contributions from artists of the calibre of Bill Frisell, Kate and Anna McGarrigle and husband Wayne Horowitz. Two traditional folk songs "A Lazy Farmer Boy" and "Engine 143" are included in the twelve tracks on display here but their treatment is anything but traditional and as with most of her own compositions they feature arrangements that have an edge and intelligence about them that makes this album rather special.

To hear a major artist of the stature of Joni Mitchell reinterpret 22 of her greatest works is a true revelation. In these new orchestral arrangements her lyrics shine like diamonds and her voice, aged like a fine wine, brings out new nuances in the words. There is a symphonic dimension to the arrangements, they are both sympathetic and melodious, and this acts as the perfect foil for Joni's new look at her tremendous body of work.

Sam Phillips (aka Mrs T Bone Burnett) has made a darkly atmospheric Americana album that owes much to Gillian Welch (who sings and plays on the album) and Lucinda Williams. M Burnett and Marc Ribot play on it too, the album is always interesting as she explores the darker side of the American dream like a female Tom Waits or Johnny Dowd.