Fresh from selling out London’s Royal Albert Hall, Stornoway return with 'Beyonder' — their most ambitious album to date. The record expands the band’s sound while holding onto the melodic warmth and sense of wonder that has long defined their music. The album began in one of the most remote corners of the UK. While volunteering as a National Trust ranger on St Kilda, 100 kilometres west of the Outer Hebrides, frontman Brian Briggs spent weeks living among the island’s towering sea cliffs, seabird colonies and abandoned settlements. The experience — standing on the edge of the Atlantic with nothing between the island and Canada — sparked the first songs that would become 'Beyonder'. A photograph taken there now forms the album cover. “Never have I been anywhere so wild and exposed, and never have I felt more alive,” Briggs says of the experience. The stark landscape and the island’s layered history — where centuries-old blackhouses stand not far from a modern military base — shaped a record that quietly reflects on connection, fragility and the changing world around us. 'Beyonder' is an album for a changing world. It confronts the biodiversity and climate crises, the rise of divisive politics, and the toll these pressures take on our minds and communities. These are songs about journeys and destinations, discovery and choice, and taken together they cultivate a hopeful state of mind in unsettled times. Musically, 'Beyonder' sees Stornoway stepping beyond the folk label often attached to their early work. The songs feel broader in scale, with expansive arrangements that still centre on the band’s distinctive harmonies and clear melodic writing. The album was mixed by multi-Grammy-winning engineer Oli Jacobs (Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, The 1975).

TRACK LISTING

1. River Of Voices
2. Marco Polo
3. Fire And Water
4. Skydiver
5. Hummingbird Feathers
6. The Honeyeater’s Song
7. The Book Of Time
8. Mariana
9. Spirit Walker
10. Wild Geese
11. Leave Your Light On

With chart-defining records, sold-out tours and festival headline slots behind them, Embrace remain one of the defining bands of their generation. 'Avalanche', their ninth studio album, arrives in 2026 as the band celebrate their 30th anniversary. Written and recorded with a renewed sense of perspective, Avalanche sees the band stripping things back emotionally and sonically. Danny McNamara describes the record as the most honest and open work Embrace have made, choosing feel over polish and allowing songs to remain imperfect, unresolved, and human.Remarkably, the band’s line-up has remained unchanged since 1996 — a rare continuity that underpins their longevity. Rather than offering answers, the album sits with the reality that life is fragile, overwhelming, and fleeting — and that meaning often exists in paying attention to what’s already here. Thirty years into their career, Embrace sound less concerned with legacy and more committed to capturing something real, right now. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Stop
2. Road To Nowhere
3. Get Out Of My Own Way
4. Coming Home
5. Emily
6. Up In Your Feelings
7. Pure O
8. Deny
9. Funny
10. The Power

British alt-rock favourites A return with 'PRANG', their first studio album in over 20 years. Sparked by the effervescent lead single 'Hello Sunshine', the album finds the band rediscovering their identity with the carefree spirit and stylish sloppiness that defined their early days.

Written and recorded free from expectation or pressure, 'PRANG' is a vibrant, hook-laden reaffirmation of A’s enduring appeal - balancing punchy, riff-driven anthems with heartfelt, soul-baring moments. Frontman Jason Perry, now a Grammy Award-winning producer known for his work with Don Broco, McFly and Kids In Glass Houses, helms production to preserve the band’s DIY ethos and singular personality.

Lyrically, 'PRANG' is A’s most open and reflective work to date. Drawing on two decades of life experience, Perry explores gratitude, resilience, mental health and friendship with warmth and disarming honesty. The result is an album that feels both nostalgic and strikingly modern - each track its own colourful island, yet unmistakably A.

Twenty years in the making, 'PRANG' is more than a comeback; it’s a rebirth. Cathartic, melodic and life-affirming, it marks a bold new chapter for one of Britain’s most beloved rock bands.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hello Sunshine
2. Walkover
3. Bring On The Likes
4. Shit Summer
5. All In
6. Techno Viking
7. Kings Of Lowestoft
8. Comment Leaver
9. Back To The Shop
10. Lifeline

Cowboy Junkies' 'Open to Beauty' is a collection of songs from their 21st century albums to date. This ‘Best Of’ set revisits selected tracks from albums 'Open', 'One Soul Now', 'Early 21st Century Blues', 'At The End of Paths Taken', 'Renmin Park', 'Demons', 'Sing In My Meadow', 'The Wilderness', 'All That Reckoning', 'Songs of the Recollection', and 'Such Ferocious Beauty'.

Speaking about the new collection, Cowboy Junkies’ Michael Timmins said: “We are now 25 years into this century, the beginning of which saw us leave the world of major labels and return to making music as an independent band. We figured this was as good a time as any to look back, reassess, and reflect on the music that we have recorded over these past two and a half decades and, hence, 'Open to Beauty - The Best of the 21st Century'.” The enduring power of Cowboy Junkies’ music was in evidence recently when their signature performance of Lou Reed's 'Sweet Jane' was featured in the final episode of the Netflix TV series Stranger Things.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dragging Hooks
2. I'm So Open
3. Small Swift Birds
4. He Will Call You Baby
5. Why This One
6. Notes Falling Slow
7. License To Kill
8. Still Lost
9. My Little Basquiat
10. Blue Eyed Saviour
11. Follower 2
12. Renmin Park
13. A Few Bags of Grain
14. Wrong Piano
15. Continental Drift
16. Late Night Radio
17. Angels In The Wilderness
18. Staring Man
19. Fuck, I Hate The Cold
20. All That Reckoning (Part 1)
21. Sing Me A Song
22. The Things We Do To Each Other
23. Missing Children
24. Five Years
25. What I Lost
26. Hard To Build, Easy To Break
27. Circe and Penelope

A. G. Cook’s original score for The Moment pressed on black vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. RESIDUE
2. DEPTH
3. MOMENTISM
4. FRAUD
5. DON’T SLEEP
6. OFFSCREEN
7. BIRD IN THE RAFTERS
8. REMOVAL
9. DEPTH (REPRISE)
10. DREAD

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Recorded during their sold-out acoustic tour of 2019-20, Acoustic Live captures Turin Brakes at their most open and unfiltered (no overdubs or production tricks here..). These performances strip the songs right back, highlighting the band’s outstanding songwriting and harmony vocals. Featuring their top 5 hit “Pain Killer (Summer Rain)” alongside a selection of fan favourites and a few deeper cuts. The album was recorded and mixed by the band's dear departed friend (and long-time sound engineer) Simon Holliday.
Acoustic Live is dedicated to both Simon, and all the amazing audiences who made this one of the band's favourite tours of the last 25 years.

This one off limited edition double coloured vinyl is housed in a gatefold sleeve with exclusive photos from the tour. 500 copies only worldwide.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Tanita Tikaram’s Acoustic Album makes its long-awaited debut on vinyl for Record Store Day 2026. Available on Crystal Clear LP, this intimate collection strips her songs back to their emotional core, highlighting Tikaram’s unmistakable voice and timeless songwriting.

Featuring her signature track, “Twist in My Sobriety”, this release offers a focused and reflective listening experience, set against the backdrop of an artist whose work continues to resonate across generations. Arriving during a period of renewed creative acclaim following her recent studio album LIAR (Love Isn’t A Right) — hailed as a powerful sequel to her multi-million-selling debut Ancient Heart — the Acoustic Album underlines her enduring relevance.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Long awaited vinyl re-press of the The Orb’s 2004 double album ‘Bicycles and Tricycles. Considered the originators of ambient house music and catalysts to the rise of electronic music in the charts, The Orb are now celebrated for a career of deftly free-spirited, good-humoured musical creativity.

The album features Orb long-term collaborators Thomas Fehlmann, Simon Phillips, John Roome and The KLF’s Jimmy Cauty.

This special ltd edition is pressed on red & black smoke double vinyl, housed in a widespine, spot glossed sleeve with printed inners. This re-press also Includes an extra track ‘Now Here’ originally only available on the Japanese release of the album.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

The Green Fields of Foreverland is the first studio album by Isobel Campbell's solo project, the Gentle Waves and was recorded during her time with Belle and Sebastian.

The album features Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, Stevie Jackson, Richard Colburn, Chris Geddes, & Mick Cooke.

‘A warm, soothing treat’ -The Times

Limited Edition gold coloured vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve. 500 copies only.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

On March 30th we gave the first performance of The Great Western Road Trip at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall.

As if opening night anxiety was not enough, we were also playing nine new songs for the very first time with the added fear factor of a request by BBC Scotland to record the concert. Somehow all of these factors combined to focus us into playing, what we now realise, was one of our best performances there or anywhere for some time.

There was one unknown factor. That night was to be the last time we would play in Scotland with our friend and brother James Miller Prime. So, this is a very special recording of six close friends and musicians making music, unaware they were on their last ever run of shows together. We hope the excitement we felt at creating the show comes over and you enjoy this unique recording of very special Edinburgh night.

Dedicated to James Miller Prime
(3 November 1960 – 19 June 2025)

Includes 25 career spanning greatest hits and nine tracks from 2025's Top 3 album The Great Western Road.

This blue smoke triple vinyl set is housed in a trifold sleeve with poster.

1000 copies only, each one Individually numbered.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Available for the first time on vinyl, Weapon of Choice is an earlier take on The Cult’s album Choice of Weapon, produced by Chris Goss, before Bob Rock came on board to help finish the album. Pressed on silver effect vinyl and housed in a mirrorboard sleeve.

Known by fans as the prequel to Choice of Weapon, the collection stands on its own: more immediate, raw, and a rare look into The Cult’s creative process at a pivotal moment. Tracks like “Supreme” (an early take on “Honey From a Knife”), “The Bones” (a precursor to “For the Animals”), and “Gibraltar” (the foundation of “The Wolf”) showcase the band reconnecting with their signature heavy-atmospheric sound while pushing into new territory.

Strictly limited to 3,000 copies worldwide.

This is a 2026 Record Store Day exclusive.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Camper Van Beethoven's gloriously unhinged take on Fleetwood Mac's 1979 magnum opus appears on vinyl for the first time for this RSD Exclusive. Rumoured to have been recorded before the band originally split in the early 90s, this limited edition is pressed on 1LP Purple and 1LP Crystal clear vinyl with an embossed sleeve.

'They took some of the songs to such different places. I thought, "Wow, where did they come up with that?" Just the fact that a group of guys would sit around and want to remake a whole album like that. That was just a trip, I have to say. I loved it.'

Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac

Strictly limited to 2,300 copies Worldwide.

This is a 2026 Record Store Day exclusive.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Shy Girl In Dub! is released on Green Vinyl and includes a sticker sheet, all exclusive to this RSD release.

Following the release of Hollie Cook’s fifth studio album, Shy Girl, and her return to Mr Bongo 15 years after her debut, the album’s producer Ben McKone reconstructs the recordings into a newly cut dubwise release. Made for Record Store Day 2026, Ben strips back the productions in vintage dub reggae style. Crafted on an analogue mixing desk, he weaves in delays, echoes, and reverb to push Hollie’s trademark sound into a hypnotising, rhythm and bass-heavy, electronic realm.

The new record follows Priddy’s sophomore LP 'The Pendulum Swing' which firmly established her as one of the most exciting artists on the contemporary British music scene. Produced by Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi, Bat for Lashes), 'These Frightening Machines' was written over the course of a year as Priddy made the transition from her 20s to her 30s. The most sonically varied of her career, the songs span a full spectrum of emotions from anger and despair to hope, longing and lust, from reclaiming the voices of women silenced by history, to expressing solidarity and love, to confronting illness, disconnection, the vulnerability and importance of relationships, and the general ache of growing older and not always wiser. They explore what it means to keep going when things fall apart, to hold onto connections in a world that sometimes divides, and to figure out where we fit into the machines and systems we find ourselves a part of. “I wanted to end this album on a question mark,” said Priddy “as whilst I’d have hoped to have it all figured out by the third album and my third decade, I’ve come to accept that perhaps part of being human is being a perpetual work in progress. Could this collection of songs be enough? If it strikes a match and casts a little light for anyone who has ever felt their body falter, their love waver, or time slip through their fingers, then that’s enough for me.” Guests include singer/songwriter Torres who duets on ‘Madeleine’ and Richard Walters who duets on ‘I’m Always Willing’. Revered, alt folk multi-instrumentalist Ben Christophers (Natasha Khan, Guy Garvey and many more) features on most of the album’s tracks. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Matches
2. Frightening Machines
3. Sirius
4. Hurricane
5. Madeleine
6. Atlas
7. A Matter Of Time
8. Table Four
9. I'm Always Willing
10. Could This Be Enough?

14 years on, this timeless debut produced by Prince Fatty fuses Hollie's self- coined 'tropical pop' sound with her passion for reggae and lovers rock singers such as Janet Kay and Phyllis Dillon and classic '60s girl groups. An album that radiates with highlights, it features what would become one of Hollie's most popular songs, the super catchy, sun-soaked 'Milk & Honey' that has racked up over 46 million streams on Spotify alone.

Elsewhere, there are distinctive reggae cover versions of the Shangri-Las '(Remember) Walkin' In The Sand', transformed from a dark, emotive cut into one filled with a flavour of hope, alongside a signature new spin on Rachel Sweet's amazing, laidback 'It's So Different Here'. Take to the bass- heavy 'Sugar Water (Look At My Face)' for a dubleaning workout and look to the singles 'That Very Night' and 'Body Beat' to further feel the synergy between Hollie and Prince Fatty, showcasing songs that are inspired and influenced by the past but with a definitive foot in the present. Adding further weight to this iconic debut, there are a talented array of musicians featuring across the record, including Omar, Dennis Bovell, George Decker (The Pioneers), Horseman, Style Scott, Black Steel, Mutant Hi-Fi and more.

Along with Prince Fatty at the controls and Hollie on the mic, together they crafted a classic sound that feels as fresh (but also as vintage) as it did fourteen years ago. A modern masterpiece in its genre, and the start of Hollie's journey to becoming the contemporary queen of the lovers rock sound.

TRACK LISTING

Milk And Honey
That Very Night
Walking In The Sand
Cry (Disco Mix) Ft.Horseman
It's So Different Here
Sugar Water (Look At My Face) Ft. Horseman
Shadow Kissing
Used To Be
Body Beat

After their recent #1 UK Independent Album, The Rifles once again step into Abbey Road Studios for 'Unplugged Album Vol. 2'. Recorded in the iconic Studio 2, the band revisit some of their finest songs in an acoustic setting enriched with delicate piano and a string quartet. Building on the success of 'Unplugged Vol. 1' – whose reworked songs quickly became fan-favourites in their live sets – this follow-up offers a fresh perspective on The Rifles’ catalogue. Across sixteen tracks, including 'Talking', 'Time in Hand', 'When I’m Alone', 'Peace and Quiet' and 'Darling Girl', the band reveal new shades of their melodic indie-rock craft. Rather than relying on studio polish, Vol. 2 thrives on authenticity. The recordings carry the immediacy of a live moment, making the listener feel as though they’re right there in Studio 2 with the band – a room steeped in history. For long-time fans, this album is a chance to reconnect with beloved songs in a fresh way; for newcomers, it’s the perfect entry point into a band whose songwriting continues to resonate deeply.

TRACK LISTING

1. Talking
2. Time In Hand
3. When I'm Alone
4. I'm Alive
5. Up Close
6. All Aboard
7. History
8. Shoot From The Lip
9. Peace And Quiet
10. Toe Rag
11. Winter Calls
12. She's The Only One
13. Robin Hood
14. Mr. Sunflower
15. Fall Apart
16. Darling Girl

'The Pendulum Swing' follows Katherine Priddy's highly acclaimed 2021 debut 'The Eternal Rocks Beneath', which announced Priddy as a singular new talent on the contemporary roots music scene. Speaking about the single, 'First House On The Left', and the wider themes on the album Priddy commented: “Despite its soft and dreamy sound, this song provides the cornerstone around which the album and its themes orbit."

The album title 'The Pendulum Swing' is taken from a line in this song and describes the urge to leave and the even stronger urge to return. It also sums up this second album as a whole nicely - "despite moving forward and feeling the need to do something different with this second release, I still can't help but return to those fundamental, unchanging things at the root of it all: home, family, love." Once again recorded in Birmingham by producer Simon J Weaver, guest musicians comprise John Smith (lead guitar), Harry Fausing Smith (strings), Marcus Hamblett (brass/double bass), George Boomsma (guitar, backing vocals, co-writer on track 'Ready To Go'), Polly Virr (cello) and even a brief appearance from Priddy’s family members right at the end of the album, in keeping with its themes. With 'The Pendulum Swing', Priddy has managed to keep moving forward whilst acknowledging and honouring all that has gone before.

TRACK LISTING

1. Returning
2. Selah
3. First House On The Left
4. These Words Of Mine
5. Does She Hold You Like I Did
6. Northern Sunrise
7. A Boat On The River
8. Father Of Two
9. Anyway, Always
10. Walnut Shell
11. Ready To Go
12. Leaving

In 2012, Prince Fatty produced a signature dub reworking of tracks from Hollie Cook's debut 2012 LP, plus a selection of other choice dub-infused
covers.

Mr Bongo now presents a fresh repress on blue vinyl of this classic album.

In the tradition of vintage reggae albums, renowned producer Prince Fatty took to the controls and dubbed out Hollie Cook's self-titled debut album from 2011. In trademark dub fashion, Prince Fatty strips back Hollie's classic reggae and tropical pop productions, adding in extra bass alongside delays, tape echoes, and reverbs to Hollie's captivating vocals. The resulting versions give the songs space to breathe, whilst adding in a weighty, heads-down element to the productions.

As Prince Fatty mentions, "The dub versions showcase real tape echoes, heavy spring reverbs and alternate instrumental elements such as melodica, percussion or horns that were hidden in the vocal versions. All the dubs are mixed live in my studio in the same Rub a Dub style as was made famous in '70s Jamaica by King Tubby and others, i.e, not with the use of computers for automation and endless digital nonsense but with fingers, late night vibes and re-arranged with a razor blade!".

In addition to the tracks featured from the debut album, this dub release features mixes of Hollie Cook and Prince Fatty's cover version of The Whispers' disco classic 'And The Beat Goes On' and 'For Me You Are Dub', a ska cover of an old Andrews Sisters' classic. Alongside that, there's a delicious adaptation of the Shangri- Las' legendary record 'Walking in the Sand', and 'Baby', a revamp of the heavily requested anthem, in collaboration with French synth-pop outfit, The Shoes. 

Thirteen years on, this superb dub album sounds as quintessential and authentic as ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. Shadow Dub
2. Used To Be Dub
3. That Very Night Dub
4. And The Beat Goes On Dub
5. Crying Dub
6. For Me You Are Dub
7. Milk & Honey Dub
8. Baby Dub
9. Walking In The Sand Dub
10. Sugarwater Dub

Hollie Cook's sensational second album, 'Twice', originally released in 2014, gets a 2025 repress on transparent green vinyl.

Produced by Prince Fatty, 'Twice' is a natural progression from Hollie's self-titled debut. It's an absorbing blend of her trademark reggae and tropical pop sound, enriched with the dubby undertones of Prince Fatty's production. Drawing on a broad range of influences, there's sweeping string arrangements courtesy of the Macedonian Radio Symphonic Orchestra and choir, Brazilian- influenced percussion, and disco touches. At various points across the album, Hollie is joined by legendary musicians Dennis Bovell, Omar, George Dekker, and Winston Francis.

'Twice' is packed with highlights, showcasing a sophisticated evolution in Hollie's sound. The cinematic strings of the Macedonian Radio Symphonic Orchestra lace through and lift tracks such as the rolling 'Desdemona', the rootsy 'Postman' with its bumping bassline and Caribbean steel drum melodies, and the hazy, digi-dub influenced title track. Elsewhere, the dreamy yet melancholic 'Looking For Real Love' sees Hollie's soulful vocals shine atop a blend of lovers rock and dub energy, whilst 'Superfast' has the air of a vintage reggae classic.

A unique and individual contemporary classic from reggae's orator of love, Hollie Cook, ripe to be rediscovered by a new audience.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ari Up
2. 99
3. Desdemona
4. Tiger Balm
5. Postman
6. Looking For Real Love
7. Superfast
8. Twice
9. Win Or Lose

Songwriter and performer Sam Cooke (1931-1964) was one of the most popular and influential singers to emerge in the late '50s. Much like his contemporary Ray Charles, Cooke successfully synthesized a blend of gospel music and secular themes that provided the early foundation of soul music. This excellent LP contains 20 of his finest moments and most celebrated songs.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. (What A) Wonderful World [r&b #2]
2. You Send Me [r&b #1]
3. Bring It On Home To Me [r&b #2]
4. Chain Gang [r&b #2]
5. Win Your Love (For Me) [r&b #4]
6. Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha [r&b #2]
7. That's It, I Quit, I'm Movin' On [r&b #25]
8. No One (Can Ever Take Your Place)
9. Shake [r&b #4]
10. I'll Come Running Back To You [r&b #1]

Side 2
1. Twistin' The Night Away [r&b #1]
2. Another Saturday Night [r&b #1]
3. Good Times
4. Summertime
5. Nothing Can Change This Love [r&b #2]
6. (Ain't That) Good News
7. Love You Most Of All [r&b #12]
8. A Change Is Gonna Come
9. Cupid 2:32
10. Having A Party[r&b #4

Woven with tight grooves, beautiful vocals and catchy melodies, 'Shy Girl' hears singer and songwriter Hollie Cook revel in her contemporary lovers rock sound, more confident and open to vulnerability than ever before.

A sun-drenched exploration of love in all its guises, 'Shy Girl' tells stories of the magical and the melancholy, the heart-lifting and heart-breaking, across 12 luscious, analogue reggae compositions - the culmination of a soft- hued and instantly recognisable "tropical pop" sound that Cook has made her own. Put together across three years and four cities - from LA and NYC, to Vejer de la Frontera in Spain and Cook's hometown London - Shy Girl was written with long-time collaborators, The General Roots Band, and features a contribution from legendary dub MC Horseman, who lends his voice to the album's first single 'Night Night'.

The album opens with the title track 'Shy Girl', a buoyant and elastic slice of lovers rock that was written in a moment of spontaneous intuition, and bubbles with a charisma and positivity that Cook radiates. "I'm not a natural show-off," Cook explains. "The 'Shy Girl' theme is me. It's just about being my most vulnerable self and being as true to the music that I Iove as possible." It is this honesty which shines throughout, from the chugging deep dub of 'Frontline', complete with raking electric guitar lines, to the bittersweet roots ballad 'We Share Love', which closes out the album.

It's clear to see that Cook's songwriting draws on a lifetime of musical influences and inspirations. From her father, Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook's record collection and touring with post-punk icon Ari Up's The Slits, to her love for strong female-led pop music and the bassweight of London's sound system culture. Enamoured with the music of Janet Kay and Phyllis Dillon, 'Shy Girl' represents a homecoming and a coming-of-age for Hollie Cook, distilling and refining a shimmering reggae sound that will capture your heart, as it first captured hers.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A huge sounding suite of cosmic dub, smooth lovers rock and deep grooves, drawing on classic reggae but pushing the boundaries into more experimental dubby cuts. A beautifully balanced affair, and all topped with Cook's wonderfully silky overtones.

TRACK LISTING

1. Shy Girl
2. Ooh Baby
3. Rockaway
4. Night Night
5. Holding On
6. In The Pictures
7. Frontline
8. Take Me In Your Arms
9. Crying Wolf
10. River Runs Deep
11. Hello Operator
12. We Share Love

In 2005, teenage trio The Subways made a phenomenal breakthrough with their Gold certified debut album ‘Young For Eternity’. It set them on the road to an endless succession of highlights, including their iconic ‘Rock & Roll Queen’ becoming a mainstay of rock radio and streaming playlists (with 100 million+ streams to date) extensive global headline tours, particularly in the UK and Germany, where they’ve played more than 500 gigs. They have also played shows as guests to everyone from Oasis to Foo Fighters via AC/DC, and hit seemingly ever major festival around, from Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage and main stage sets at Reading and Leeds in the UK to major international events such as Rock Am Ring / Rock Im Park, Lollapalooza and Sziget. Twenty years on, and now five albums deep into their career, The Subways celebrate their 20th anniversary with the career-spanning collection ‘When I’m With You’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Oh Yeah
2. Black Wax
3. We Don’t Need Money To Have A Good Time
4. Taking All The Blame
5. Mary
6. Alright
7. Kalifornia
8. Popdeath
9. Just Like Jude
10. Uncertain Joys
11. I Need To Feel You Closer
12. With You
13. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
14. At 1 AM
15. Good Times
16. I Won’t Let You Down
17. Passenger’s Side
18. I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say
19. You Kill My Cool
20. My Heart Is Pumping To A Brand New Beat
21. It’s A Party
22. Love Waiting On You
23. Girls & Boys
24. Rock & Roll Queen

'More Acoustic Junk', a new collection celebrating their iconic sound in stripped-down form. This album features five brand-new acoustic recordings alongside five tracks from the original 'Acoustic Junk' album—three of which have been remixed for this compilation. Known for their haunting melodies and introspective songwriting, the band’s acoustic arrangements showcase the raw beauty and emotional depth that have captivated fans for decades.

TRACK LISTING

1. In My Time Of Need
2. Unanswered Letter
3. Angels In The Wilderness
4. Fairytale
5. Tired Eyes
6. He Will Call You Baby
7. Cutting Board Blues
8. Rock And Bird
9. Something More Besides You
10. Cold Evening Wind

'One Soul Now', originally released in 2004, draws together all the wisdom, passion, skill and insight collected during almost 20 years of playing, writing, touring, recording and living together as Cowboy Junkies. Following the group’s acclaimed 2001 release 'Open', the 10 songs that make up 'One Soul Now' marked an ambitious departure for the group; it was the first time Cowboy Junkies had recorded entirely on their own, without the mediation of an outside producer or engineer. 'One Soul Now' was created in the band’s rehearsal space in their hometown of Toronto, which doubled as a recording studio for the project.

On its original release, 'One Soul Now' attracted widespread praise. AllMusic.com proclaimed, “It picks up where Open left off, retaining the tougher sound highlighted by edgy guitar work and a more rhythmic pulse. Margo Timmins' vocals are hypnotically lovely as usual, merging with bluesy guitar riffs and emerging above the morass as the chorus kicks in", whilst Q Magazine dubbed the Cowboy Junkies “The hippest name in alternative circles”.

TRACK LISTING

1. One Soul Now
2. Why This One?
3. My Wild Child
4. From Hunting Ground To City
5. Star Of Our Stars
6. Notes Falling Slow
7. No Long Journey Home
8. He Will Call You Baby
9. Simon Keeper
10. The Slide

“A sketch of an unvarnished, restless band, coolly bashing out its world-domination plan"- Rolling Stone The legendary Purple Tapes- the first ever Pixies recordings from 1987, officially reissued with new artwork and liner notes detailing the early history of the band. Pressed on Limited Edition colour-in-colour purple & black vinyl. Includes the original recordings of ‘Here Comes Your Man’, ‘Broken Face’, ‘Down To The Well’ & ‘Rock A My Soul’. Formed in 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts, Pixies are one of the key acts associated with the late 1980’s American alternative rock scene and were also considered a big influence on acts such as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead. “These songs complete the picture of where the Pixies began, while hinting broadly at where they would end up – as a band very much unto their own”. Joel McIver, 2025

TRACK LISTING

1. Broken Face
2. Build High
3. Rock A My Soul
4. Down To The Well
5. Break My Body
6. Here Comes Your Man
7. I’m Amazed
8. Subbacultcha
9. In Heaven

In a changing, unpredictable and turbulent world, something we can always rely on is a new Orb album, with the next holiday-for-the-head never far away. On what is quite possibly the millionth longplayer helmed by electronic lifer Alex Paterson; partnered with the now firmly-entrenched boy wonder Michael Rendall; the inspirationally productive outfit yet again deliver the goods, with one of their best yet. “I was having a dream, and in this dream was an escalator descending out of the clouds, upon which were Buddhists and hipsters travelling downwards, and beckoning me down from the top, was Roger Eno. When I woke up, I had a text from him, asking if we fancied more collabs, so he’s on the record, amongst other friends. Recording the album and playing recent gigs have been comfortable, happy and therapeutic experiences, largely due to Michael Rendall, who’s a genius that picks up anything he turns his hand to. We have a wonderful, simpatico relationship on record and on stage. Overall, the length, arc and energy of Buddhist Hipsters energy mirrors one our fans’ faves, U.F. Orb.” Alex Paterson The album features Roger Eno, Miquette Giraudy & Steve Hillage (System 7 / Gong), Youth (Killing Joke), Paul Ferguson (Killing Joke), Andy Falconer (The Orb / Sedibus), Trevor Walters, Violetta Vicci, Eric Von Skywalker & Andy Caine

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brand new LP from one of the most influential acts in electronic music history, showcasing the exact reason why they're so well loved. Swirling psychedelic synths and snapping percussion, rich bass grooves and plenty of proggy meandering. Classic Orb.

TRACK LISTING

1. Spontaneously Combust
2. P~1
3. Baraka
4. A Sacred Choice
5. Arabebonics
6. It's Coming Soon
7. Doll's House
8. The Oort Cloud (Too Night)
9. Under The Bed
10. Khàron

37 years after the release of her multi-million selling debut album ‘Ancient Heart’ Tanita Tikaram will release the sequel entitled ‘LIAR (Love Isn’t A Right)’. The long-awaited new album reveals the emotional and societal differences between the woman Tanita was at just 18 when she made ‘Ancient Heart’ to the woman she is today, taking in four decades of life experience. ‘LIAR (Love Isn’t A Right)’ is released on 10 October 2025 via Cooking Vinyl. Her first album in almost a decade, ‘LIAR (Love Isn’t A Right)’ is an album of haunting beauty and exquisite musicianship underplaying her unique voice that tells a masterful story of emotional, political and personal truths. When it was released in 1988, the multi-million selling ‘Ancient Heart’ was the story of an uncertain 18-year-old brown gay woman living in middle England feeling like a stranger in her own home.

Almost 40 years later that same woman, now feeling like a stranger in her own country as politics and society become more divisive. ‘LIAR (Love Is A Right)’ is a full circle moment: a comment on community and its importance for all our futures and the perfect accompaniment to her classic breakthrough. Celebrated as a maverick music icon Tanita Tikaram was recently featured in the Venice Biennale exhibition by Sonia Boyce OBE RA and previously in the National Portrait Gallery captured by David Bennett. She returned to play at Glastonbury Festival in 2024 and as well as her acclaimed musical output over the years, Tanita has also developed a popular voice on social media, capturing the mood and zeitgeist of our times. Tanita Tikaram continued, “You never set out to make a sequel album but this just felt right. I see myself both now and then, frustrated, alienated and in part fearful of the future, they just manifested in different ways.” Tanita Tikaram shot to fame at just 18 years old with a unique string of hit songs that showcased her remarkable voice and reflected the independence of the late 1980’s/early 90’s, defying previous female music stereotypes and defining her in the eyes of music history. Twist In My Sobriety has racked up over 73 million streams.

TRACK LISTING

1. Turn The Lights Down Low
2. Fais Moi La Solitude
3. This Perfect Friend
4. I See A Morning
5. Fear And Chills
6. Love Isn't A Right
7. Lover Don't Come Around
8. Sweet Feather & The Storm
9. Wild Is The Wind
10. Sailboats

A.G. Cook is the founder of the PC Music label and executive producer for Charli XCX.

The worst of A. G. Cook’s debut album: Drum Solo, Note Velocity, Feeling, No Yeah, Green Beauty, The Best Day, Superstar – Live at Secret Sky, Waldhammer, Triptych Demon, Could It Be, Chandelier, Hold On, Unreal, The End Has No End.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Drum Solo
2. Note Velocity
3. Feeling
4. No Yeah
5. Green Beauty
6. The Best Day
7. Superstar – Live At Secret Sky

Side B
8. Waldhammer
9. Triptych Demon
10. Could It Be
11. Chandelier
12. Hold On
13. Unreal
14. The End Has No End

Woven with tight grooves, beautiful vocals and catchy melodies, Hollie's forthcoming album hears her more confident and open to vulnerability than ever before. The title track of the album 'Shy Girl' is a buoyant and elastic slice of lovers rock. It was written in a moment of spontaneous intuition, and bubbles with a charisma and positivity that Cook radiates. "I'm not a natural show-off," Cook explains. "The Shy Girl theme is me. It's just about being my most vulnerable self and being as true to the music that love as possible." Doused in Hollie's signature "tropical pop" sound, 'Shy Girl' is grounded in a vibrant bassline and classic off- beat reggae guitar struts. Hollie's dreamy vocals radiate warmth and tenderness in equal measure, adding to the song's soft- hued embrace.

TRACK LISTING

Shy Girl
Frontline

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Camper Van Beethoven’s groundbreaking debut 'Telephone Free Landslide Victory', this special re-issue features the band’s preferred running order of tracks, with cult classics like ‘Take The Skinheads Bowling’ showcasing Camper Van Beethoven’s unique blend of folk, punk, ska, and absurdist wit. Beloved for its playful, offbeat charm and eclectic instrumentation, 'Telephone Free Landslide Victory' cemented the band’s status as pioneers of alternative music.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting:
1. The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon
2. Border Ska
3. Wasted
4. Yanqui Go Home
5. Oh No!
6. 9 Of Disks
7. Payed Vacation: Greece
8. Where The Hell Is Bill?
9. Vladivostock
10. Skinhead Stomp
11. Tina
12. Take The Skinheads Bowling
13. Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China
14. I Don't See You
15. Balalaika Gap
16. Opi Rides Again - Club Med Sucks
17. Ambiguity Song

CD Tracklisting:
1. The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon
2. Border Ska
3. Wasted
4. Yanqui Go Home
5. Oh No!
6. 9 Of Disks
7. Payed Vacation: Greece
8. Where The Hell Is Bill?
9. Vladivostock
10. Skinhead Stomp
11. Tina
12. Take The Skinheads Bowling
13. Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China
14. I Don't See You
15. Balalaika Gap
16. Opi Rides Again - Club Med Sucks
17. Ambiguity Song
18. Balalaika Gap (1983 Demo)
19. The Day That Lassie Went To The Moon (1983 Demo)
20. Vegetables (1983 Demo)
21. White Riot (1983 Demo)
22. Before I Met You (1983 Demo)
23. Wasted (1983 Demo)
24. Take The Skinheads Bowling (1983 Demo)
25. I Don't See You (1983 Demo)
26. I Can't Take It Anymore (1983 Demo)
27. Border Ska (1983 Demo)
28. Skinhead Stomp (1983 Demo)
29. Wasting All Your Time
30. Epigram #5
31. At Kuda
32. Epigram #2
33. Cowboys From Hollywood (Original)
34. Colonel Enrique Adolfo Bermudez
35. Heart (Remix)

Documenting the early days of The Clash, working with Bob Marley, managing The Slits, colliding genres with Big Audio Dynamite: Don Letts appears to have done it all. But there’s one thing he hasn’t done… until now. That changes as Don Letts releases his debut solo album.

A heady cocktail of dub rhythms, island vibes, spoken word and his own sweetly melodic topline, ‘Outta Sync’ is exactly what you’d anticipate a Don Letts artist project to sound like. It’s also notable as one of a few songs that can introduce such a storied life within a single verse: “Now, because of my duality, raised on pop and bass, didn't really bother me, ’cause it's all about the taste, I’m the vinyl generation, and that’s how I got my start, combining clothes and music, and turn it into art.”

The irony is that Letts hadn’t really intended to make music of his own. But then lockdown hit and his old friend, producer extraordinaire, fellow dub aficionado and Killing Joke bassist Youth encouraged him to give it a go, even sending him some basslines to work from The pair ended up working together for nine months, navigating both lockdown and Letts’ arkestral vision. The result is Letts’ debut solo album, which is set to emerge next year. The guest vocalists.

Terry Hall appears on two tracks, and the final track is sung by Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. They’re also joined by Hollie Cook, who Letts knows via her time in The Slits and her dad, Paul, the ex-Pistols drummer. Zoe Devlin Love, the co-vocalist with whom he wrote Situationist – a song Letts describes appreciatively “as a lifesaver on the record, delivering that oomph when it needs it”.

Last but not least is Honor Letts, aka Letts’ second youngest daughter.

So concluded (sort of) Don Letts at the end (nearly) of last year’s best selling autobiography, There and Black Again. The musician (Big Audio Dynamite kind) DJ (party kind), film director (Grammy winning kind), radio broadcaster (BBC 6Music kind) is finally getting round to the one creative endeavour he’s not yet pursued.

TRACK LISTING

1. Outta Sync
2. ‘Something Coming Off’ (feat. Hollie Cook)
3. ‘The Universe Knows What You've Done’ (ft. John Cusack)
4. ‘Touch’ (ft GAUDI)
5. ‘Crooked Face’
6. ‘Yes’
7. ‘Situationist’ (ft. Zoe Devlin Love)
8. ‘The Doorman’
9. ‘No Fooling Me’ (ft. Hollie Cook)
10. ‘Wrong’
11. ‘Civilization’ (ft. Honor Letts)
12. ‘Present Dilemmas’ (ft. Wayne Coyne)

Hollie Cook, one of reggae's most exciting voices, makes a return to the label that released her cherished debut album in 2011

Landing back on Mr Bongo, 'Night Night' is a stand-alone aperitif and taster of what to expect from the next era in Hollie's musical journey.

Revisiting her roots, this latest single embraces the trademark reggae / tropical pop sound Hollie found fame with on her first two albums. With a career that has gone from strength to strength since those formative days, the buoyance, charisma, and confidence gained in those subsequent years are on show for all to see.

Recorded at Crosstown Studios in London with the General Roots band and produced, mixed and dubbed by Ben McKone, 'Night Night' documents the longing of a lonely lover. Grounded in a sound system rattling bass line, strutting guitars and shimmering keys provide a sunshine- infused contrast. Hollie's smooth sultry tones radiate throughout, backed by the legendary Horseman on toasting duties - a collaboration that hasn't been heard since Hollie's first album. Trading verses, the warmth of Hollie's velvety vocals balances Horseman's raw explosive energy in an absorbing harmony.

In true reggae style, the 7" single is backed with a classic dub mix, adding spacey reverb and delays, whilst giving Hollie and Horseman a more spacious streamlined flow in the mix.

TRACK LISTING

Night Night
Night Night (Dub)

With seven top 40 singles, six top 40 albums and over a million record sales worldwide, Turin Brakes return with a brand-new record - 'Spacehopper'.

Produced by the band alongside Grammy-winning Guy Massey (with credits such as Kylie Minogue, Ed Sheeran and Spiritualized), 'Spacehopper' is their first new music in over three years and marks the 10th studio album from Turin Brakes, a big milestone for a band who released their debut album over 24 years ago - The Mercury Prize nominated 'The Optimist' LP which catapulted them into the mainstream and achieved Gold status in the UK. They are a band that understands the art of longevity and Spacehopper promises to be a worthy edition to a rich and sonically diverse catalogue of albums, finding the South London 4-piece in a reflective mood...

“We deliberately went back to Konk Studios where we made 'The Optimist' LP, having stayed away for 25 years,” says Olly Knights. “In some ways to connect to the source but also to be who we are now in that amazing room. It felt like some deep invisible forces were being moved around. The new record is totally its own thing; there are little nods to the debut, but it’s a different beast. It can never be as simple and perfect as the debut, so we didn’t try; we backed ourselves.”

“We honestly don’t normally get self-reflective but the whole album 10 thing definitely made us want to play with everything that throws up. The dreams, what worked out, what didn’t, the regrets, the nice surprises... It just seemed like a good moment to admit we’re in on our own legacy in a way.”

TRACK LISTING

1. The Message
2. Pays To Be Paranoid
3. Spacehopper
4. Almost
5. Lullaby
6. Today
7. Horizon
8. Old Habits
9. Silence And Sirens
10. Lazy Bones
11. What's Underneath

Miles Davis' quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones was formed in 1955 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest combos in jazz history. Like its followers Steamin', Workin' and Relaxin', Cookin' is the product of two massively productive recording sessions during May and October of 1956, which ended his obligations with Prestige Records.

"Miles' peculiar blend of pure melody and acidulous accents never has sounded better. This is one of the best LPs of the year."- ***** Ralph J. Gleason, DownBeat

TRACK LISTING

My Funny Valentine
Blues By Five
When Lights Are Low (Bonus Track - Quartet Version]
Airegin
Tune Up
When Lights Are Low

Celebrate a decade of The Rifles’ classic album 'None The Wiser' in style, this anniversary release dives deeper into the record that cemented the band’s reputation as torchbearers of sharp, modern indie rock. The 10th Anniversary Edition includes 11 bonus tracks, featuring unreleased studio cuts, raw demos, and stripped-back acoustic versions, giving fans a new angle on fan favourites like “Heebie Jeebies” and “Minute Mile.” Praised on release by the likes of UNCUT and Rocksound, None The Wiser still holds up as one of the standout records of its era. From the anthemic swagger of “Go Lucky” to the heartfelt storytelling of “You Win Some,” it’s an album that deserves to be heard on vinyl. Reconnect with a modern indie classic, reimagined with fans in mind. With only a limited run of this collector’s item, snap up your copy before it’s gone. Pre-order now and celebrate 10 years of None The Wiser in style.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. Minute Mile
2. Heebie Jeebies
3. Go Lucky
4. All I Need
5. You Win Some
6. Catch Her In The Rye
7. The Hardest Place To Find Me
8. Shoot From The Lip
9. Eclectic Eccentric
10. Under And Over
11. On Top Of The World (2014 Bonus Track)

Disc: 2
1. Carry Me Home (Unreleased Studio Recording)
2. Drown My Fear (Unreleased Studio Recording)
3. Minute Mile (desk Mix)
4. Hardest Place To Find Me (desk Mix)
5. Young Hearts (unreleased Demo)
6. Go Lucky (Acoustic)
7. All I Need (Acoustic)
8. Eclectic Eccentric (Demo)
9. Under And Over (Demo)
10. You Win Some (Demo)

In the Fall of 2022, Phil Cook found himself living alone in a small home at the edge of field and forest in North Carolina’s Piedmont. For most of Cook’s life he lived near the hearts of the towns he had called home, near the groan of traffic and hubbub of coffee shops. Such close quarters helped make the gregarious Cook a prolific collaborator, from co-founding Megafaun to working with The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bon Iver, Hiss Golden Messenger, and endless others. But Cook’s closest neighbor now was a trailhead, so he went and listened, enraptured first by the stillness and then by the manifold birds. He began leaving his windowsill slightly cracked each night, so that the dawn chorus greeted him. Cook began recording these tangled bird songs, and he slowly joined them. With the sun finally high, Cook would listen to the day’s recordings and improvise in real time on the instrument that remains the first and most steadfast love of his musical life, the piano.

When Cook left that cabin after a year, he moved into a home of his own in Durham, with plenty of space for his two boys to play and for something he’d never actually owned—a proper piano. Over the next several months, Cook spent untold hours drilling down on these pieces. During lessons with the Southern gospel great Chuckey Robinson, the pianist had challenged Cook to sustain fewer notes, to stop clouding and crowding his melodies by using the instrument’s pedals as crutches. His music suddenly had more clarity, with the sounds and the feelings they ferried given more room to function. Cook dug into the danger and delight, into the idea that we twist our bodies into knots trying to understand what is best for our hearts.

In April 2024 Cook returned to Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley where he was raised. His lifelong friend and bandmate, Justin Vernon, had just finished an overhaul of April Base, the studio compound where Cook has worked on more than a dozen records during the last 15 years. Cook asked Vernon to produce Appalachia Borealis as simply as possible—merely to listen and offer feedback in two extended afternoon sessions, to talk about the right takes and make sure that they’d captured the heart. It, of course, got more complicated, as they experimented with the process. Vernon would add or subtract the bird songs to Cook’s headphones, seeing how they impacted his playing. Or they would route his notes through a massive reverb chamber, Cook responding in gossamer improvisations. Appalachia Borealis is a deeply poignant and personal set of 11 piano meditations, built with the emotional range of a full and open existence. Inspired by those windowsill improvisations, it reflects not only the turmoil and sadness of a fraught time for Cook but also the hope, light, and joy of looking for the other side. You can sometimes still hear the birds whose tune and time helped to inspire so many of these songs. Even when they’re not within earshot, their essence remains.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rise
2. Running
3. Two Hands In My Pocket
4. Wescott
5. Thrush Song
6. I Made A Lovers Prayer
7. Dawn Birds
8. Buffalo
9. Reliever
10. Ambassador Cathedral
11. Appalachia Borealis

Though many of the track titles are familiar, this EP sees new versions of previously-released tracks plus unreleased interludes for Complot-enthusiasts to enjoy. It starts with Beaver Deceiver which unfolds over five minutes of boundary pushing post and math rock. A quiet, introspective intro quickly gives way to a looping, driving rhythm that has plenty of jangle in among its electronic overtones. It’s a bright opening.

Cicadas keeps things lively with an echoing arrangement and dance beat before Villabajo slows things down with some reflective guitar noodling. Birds Are A Lie completes the first half of the EP with a soaring math rock arrangement that rises and falls with a sense of paranoid adventure.

Tilidin Zidane opens the EP’s second half with a simmering number that mixes melodic verses with hard-rock punctuation. Pigeon Slayer is a gentle and laidback vignette before Bats, Bringer Of The Night gives us the EP’s final full-length track. It represents The Cookie Jar Complot sound at its heaviest while also giving us lighter textured moments. LLTAOS then rounds things off with a quiet coda.

TRACK LISTING

1 Beaver Deceiver
2 Cicadas
3 Villabajo
4 Birds Are A Lie
5 Tilidin Zidane
6 Pigeon Slayer
7 Bats, Bringers Of The Night
8 Lltaos

Waters says ‘when we recorded the stripped down songs for the Lockdown Sessions, the 50th anniversary of the release of The Dark Side Of The Moon was looming on the horizon. It occurred to to me that The Dark Side Of The Moon could well be a suitable candidate for a similar re-working, partly as a tribute to the original work, but also to re-address the political and emotional message of the whole album. I discussed it with Gus and Sean, and when we’d stopped giggling and shouting ‘You must be ****ing mad’ at one another we decided to take it on. It’s turned out really great and I’m excited for everyone to hear it. It’s not a replacement for the original which, obviously, is irreplaceable. But it is a way for the seventy nine year old man to look back across the intervening fifty years into the eyes of the twenty nine year old and say, to quote a poem of mine about my Father, “We did our best, we kept his trust, our Dad would have been proud of us”. And also it is a way for me to honor a recording that Nick and Rick and Dave and I have every right to be very proud of.’

As founding member, lyricist, and principal composer of Pink Floyd during the band’s most influential and creative period, Roger Waters has achieved global success and global renown.

Waters co-founded Pink Floyd in the mid-1960s. Under Waters’ guidance, Pink Floyd made a series of best-selling albums during the 1970s, of which the most successful and iconic were The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall. Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and is now one of the most successful solo artists in the world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Speak To Me
2. Breathe
3. On The Run
4. Time
5. Great Gig In The Sky
6. Money
7. Us And Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse

Razorlight were at the forefront of the indie-rock resurgence of the early 2000s, their biggest moments - ‘Golden Touch’, ‘Somewhere Else’, ‘In The Morning’, ‘America’ and ‘Wire To Wire’ - driving three Top 5 albums, nine Platinum album certifications, an NME Award, and live highlights including headlining the Reading Festival and performing at Live 8.

After reuniting for live shows in 2021, the classic line-up - Johnny Borrell (vocals/guitar), Björn Ågren (guitar), Carl Dalemo (bass) and Andy Burrows (drums) - will release the new album ‘Planet Nowhere’, their first together since 2008. Since reuniting, Razorlight have sold-out a headline tour which included a London show at the Eventim Apollo, and played shows as guests to Muse, Kaiser Chiefs and James. But as the ever ambitious Johnny challenged himself, “Who wants to be a greatest hits band?” So he hatched a plan, and late in 2023 booked a five-day session with the legendary producer Youth (The Verve, James) at his Space Mountain studio in Spain.

Youth knew what they had to achieve, telling the band, “Razorlight’s quite simple isn’t it? Just a driving bassline, driving drums and a story.” For whatever reason, things weren’t that simple. After four days they had a stack of ideas, but nothing really worth pursuing. And then, as Johnny recalls, something remarkable emerged from out of nowhere. “I’d been down in the barranca, and came back up to find the studio empty. So I picked up this weird six-string bass/guitar hybrid I'd never seen before and wrote this thing. On our last night, I started playing it with the guys. The drums came in hard, the bass pounded. It sounded like shit. Absolute shit. But Youth was there, saying 'Can, Velvets, see where it takes you’ and 'Why don’t you try it like that?' But still the track just wouldn't budge, locked in its own inertia. Youth says, 'You're getting there, just one more' and almost instantly the song came out, from nothing to something, like a statue coming up out of marble.” That song was ‘Scared of Nothing’ and listening back to the finished track, it’s easy to see why it resparked Razorlight’s mojo. Exuding taut, spiky post-punk energy in a way that’s instantly infectious - the very traits that attracted highfalutin praise from NME back when they started out (“More tunes than Franz, more spirit than The Strokes, and more balls than nearly every band out there”). And as ever, Johnny demonstrates the swaggering, high intensity charisma that took him from being a figurehead of the Camden scene to rise to become a Vogue cover star. It was also the track which unlocked Razorlight’s creativity, leading the band to return to Spain with Youth for a second session earlier this year, during which they crafted an extensive catalogue of songs for the upcoming album. Other titles vying for inclusion include ‘Zombie Love’, ‘U Can Call Me’, ‘Dirty Luck’ and ‘Cool People’.

Since returning, Razorlight have also looked back on their initial achievements, first releasing ‘Razorwhat? The Best of Razorlight’ (complete with the new song ‘You Are Entering The Human Heart’) and then last month issuing the 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of their breakthrough debut album ‘Up All Night’. Never a dull moment. Writing a new ending for themselves, Razorlight are back to cast out the boring in your life.

TRACK LISTING

1. Zombie Love
2. U Can Call Me
3. Taylor Swift = US Soft Propaganda
4. Dirty Luck
5. Scared Of Nothing
6. F.O.B.F.
7. Empire Service
8. Cyclops
9. Cool People
10. April Ends

The Subways' Money & Celebrity, is now available in a limited edition red and white split vinyl. Originally released in 2011, the third studio album by the powerhouse trio is packed with adrenaline-pumping anthems that cemented their place in the UK indie rock scene. The album showcases the band’s ability to blend infectious melodies with biting social commentary, capturing the spirit of a generation. Recorded and produced by Stephen Street (The Smiths, BLUR, Kaiser Chiefs) in London, Money & Celebrity is The Subways at their most dynamic, featuring hit singles like "We Don’t Need Money to Have a Good Time," which received widespread radio support, including heavy rotation on BBC Radio 1, and "It's a Party," which became a fan favourite after the band released it out of the blue via their website with no prior warning, crashing their server. The album stormed into the charts, peaking at #16 on the UK Albums Chart. The lead single "We Don’t Need Money to Have a Good Time" was a radio favourite, climbing to #12 on the UK Indie Chart and #1 on the UK Physical Singles Chart. The album also enjoyed chart success across Europe, reaching the Top 20 in Germany and Austria.

TRACK LISTING

1. It's A Party
2. We Don't Need Money To Have A Good Time
3. Celebrity
4. I Wanna Dance With You
5. Popdeath
6. Like I Love You
7. Money
8. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
9. Down Our Street
10. Rumour
11. Friday
12. Leave My Side

Introducing Shed Seven's latest offering for 2024: Liquid Gold. A loving tribute to their 30- year journey as recording artists. This special album revisits iconic tracks from their past, reimagined with the addition of an orchestra, promising a nostalgic yet fresh sonic experience. Liquid Gold is completed by a brand new song which was written specifically for this project in the shape of ‘All Roads Lead To You’, adding to the band’s storied discography.

TRACK LISTING

1. Getting Better (Liquid Gold Version)
2. Speakeasy (Liquid Gold Version)
3. Devil In Your Shoes (Liquid Gold Version)
4. On Standby (Liquid Gold Version)
5. Going For Gold (Liquid Gold Version)
6. Waiting For The Catch (ft. Issy Ferris) (Liquid Gold Version)
7. Better Days (Liquid Gold Version)
8. Parallel Lines (Liquid Gold Version)
9. Disco Down (Liquid Gold Version)
10. Ocean Pie (Liquid Gold Version)
11. All Roads Lead To You
12. Chasing Rainbows (Liquid Gold Version)

It’s been over seven years since The Rifles released their previous record, but now the east Londoners are set to return with their new album ‘Love Your Neighbour’ on April 26 which they today preview with the new single ‘The Kids Won’t Stop’. Their previous two albums - ‘Big Life’ and ‘None The Wiser’ - achieved the highest chart positions of their career to date, while their cult-like popularity has continued in the intervening years with countless sold-out London shows at venues including the Roundhouse, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, O2 Kentish Forum, KOKO, Electric Ballroom and Electric Brixton. The triumphant reaction and electrifying energy of those shows inspired The Rifles as they sent about writing ‘Love Your Neighbour’. It’s a record which bursts with the traits that have inspired such devotion amongst fans: songs as gritty as they are anthemic, and full of lyrics which capture broadly relatable experiences and provide evocative snapshots of modern British life. The overriding message of the album is a plea to embrace the power of your local community

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though their sound is often cited as rock & roll, it reminds me pretty strongly of the early 00's ska-punk / skate punk scene, with bright melodies and crisply produced distorted guitars sitting beautifully behind the rousing vocals.

Remastered version of ‘Home Cooking’, the album that cemented Yoda as a versatile producer and not just a deejay. It now serves as a snapshot of the jazz and soul scene at the time with artists like Nubya Garcia, Eva Lazarus and Theon Cross going on to break out. Recorded between his own studio and the world-famous Abbey Road, ‘Home Cooking’ keeps one foot in the Hip-Hop old school with collaborations and the return from Jungle Brothers and Boston bastion Edo. G. Two key singles have been remixed for a bonus 7”. ‘Roxbury’ featuring Nubya Garcia and Edo. G has been given the golden treatment by the legendary Double Dee & Steinski while ‘London Fields’ featuring Joel Culpepper is reworked by label mates The Still Brothers. 

TRACK LISTING

London Fields Feat. Joel Culpepper
Thornton Heath Feat. Omar
Rising Brook Feat. Eva Lazarus
Kingswood Feat. Andrew Ashong
Abbey Road Feat. Nubya Garcia Theon Cross & Henry Wu
Roxbury Feat. Edo G & Nubya Garcia
Soweto Feat. Scarface Manolo
Hither Green Feat. Joel Culpepper & Baby Bam
Afrika Feat. Jungle Brothers
Croxley Green
Eastville Feat. Eva Lazarus
Boundary Gardens Feat. Andrew Ashong….
Roxbury Double Dee & Steinski Remix
London Fields Still Brothers Remix

When The View reconvened last year after five years apart, the three old-friends realised just how much they have missed… well, everything about being in a band: the rush of seeing an audience react to their performances, the camaraderie of being together, a simple jam idea evolving into a fully-fledged song. A run of comeback gigs at Glasgow’s O2 Academy saw all 10,000 tickets sold in advance, the fan reaction was overwhelming and they were even joined on-stage by an old friend in the shape of ‘Line of Duty’ actor Martin Compston. After all that, how could you resist wanting more? Especially as their rehearsals for the shows saw the band conjure up a wealth of new song ideas just like they did back when they first started out. 

Frontman Kyle Falconer says, “Working with Youth on our third album 'Bread and Circuses' was one of the best experiences of my career so we jumped at the chance to revisit the opportunity with him in Spain. To be able to go into the studio again as a band with added experience was just magical."

Kyle and bandmates Kieran Webster (bass/vocals) and Pete Reilly (guitar) departed their homes in Scotland to record the record in the inspiring surroundings of Granada, Spain, with the assistance of a top tier producer in the shape of the Grammy Award winner Youth (The Verve, Jesus & Mary Chain, The Charlatans). They returned with ‘Exorcism of Youth’ in the bag, a record which combines the raucous energy of The View’s early work with some poignant slowburners drawn from personal experience, and Kyle’s gift for lyricism which is equal parts observational, witty and insightful.

The View launch the album by sharing its lead single ‘Feels Like’. The band’s fiery energy ignites the song in a blaze of melody before hitting the kind of instantly irresistible hook with which they’ve made their name. It’s a track perfectly built for upcoming shows too, with its breakdown sure to be an immensely atmospheric moment when they hit summer festivals.

Kyle adds, “This one felt anthemic from the get go. Even though under the surface it’s about somewhere everyone’s been in their life before: regret of losing someone amazing due to your inner demons and seeing them moving on with their life, when you’re stuck in a ‘nightmare not a dream.’ When I first sat down to write it I had Holden Caulfield from ‘Catcher in the Rye’ in mind. It’s playing out in his mind and it’s his own paranoia destroying him from the inside out when in reality she’s the perfect woman."

Elsewhere, the album darts from highlight-to-highlight, taking in a cocktail of ‘60s pop and punky punch on ‘The Wonder Of It All’, strutting and swaggering on ‘Neon Nights’, and channelling driving, anthemic rock like a trio of Scottish Springsteens on ‘Woman of the Year’. At times, though, it represents an evolution for the band too, with the sweeping strings of ‘Black Mirror’ and the darker alt-pop production of ‘Footprints In The Sand’. Ultimately ‘Exorcism of Youth’ is where The View should be at this stage in their lives: still burning with the passion of youth, but with the confidence and control that comes from having been around the block and, in the process, learned from the experience.

TRACK LISTING

1. ‘Exorcism Of Youth’
2. ‘Feels Like’
3. ‘The Wonder Of It All’
4. ‘Arctic Sun’
5. ‘Shovel In His Hands’
6. ‘Allergic To Mornings’
7. ‘Black Mirror’
8. ‘Neon Nights’
9. ‘Dixie’
10. ‘Woman Of The Year’
11. ‘Footprints In The Sand’
12. ‘Tangled’

Merge Records release Happy Hour in Dub, a heavenly set of dub versions to pair with Hollie Cook’s critically acclaimed 2022 album Happy Hour. Her first full dub record since 2012, Happy Hour in Dub was coaxed into being by close listening of the original album’s modern lover’s rock.

Cook and Mckone explain:“The reason and inspiration for wanting to make the dub record is because Happy Hour, in its original form, has so many intricate musical details running throughout the songs from the backing vocal and string arrangements to some far more subtle details. And during the mixing process, hearing some of these parts on their own over the drum and bass foundation, we felt there was so much left to explore and expose in the songs and take them to outer space.”

At the controls rejoining Hollie in exploring the space is Happy Hour producer Ben Mckone, who takes her soulful creations and stretches them to their sonic limits, with new vocal features by Josh Skints and Kiko Bun.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Blissful dubbed-out version of Hollie Cook's original LP, Happy Hour. Where the original was rich in light, airy groove and sunshine, these versions show how the rich instrumentation is as flexible as it is effective. A great listen, and an even better companion to the original LP.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Praying Dub
2. Dub My Way
3. Dub In The Dark
4. Golden Dub Feat. Rosie Turton
SIDE B
5. Unkind Dub
6. Kush Dub Feat. Josh Skints & Jah9
7. Full Moon Dub
8. Dubbing On Feat. Kiko Bun
9. Happy Dub

Rowntree came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur, one of the most successful British bands of the last two decades. The drummer's first solo single, London Bridge was produced with Leo Abrahams (Wild Beasts/Brian Eno/Ghostpoet). It heralds the start of an exciting new project for Rowntree, over three decades since Blur formed back in 1989. London Bridge is an enticing opening statement. Deceptively bright and upbeat, with its staccato ‘la-la-la-la’ hook line, the music belies a lyrical sense of dread. As proficient with a synth or guitar as he is behind the drum-kit, Rowntree’s innate ear for a melody is given free-reign on this scuzzy but impactful, lo-fi number.

TRACK LISTING

1. Devil's Island
2. Downtown
3. London Bridge
4. 1000 Miles
5. HK
6. Tape Measure, Feat Juliyah
7. Machines Like Me
8. Black Sheep
9. Volcano
10. Who's Asking

“Mistook Play for Play is me exploring and having fun, predominantly using chaos and feedback. Watching my kids play and be fascinated with my machines inspired me to do the same; they didn't have a purpose or a goal in mind, they just do - play is a creative act” - Stuart Cook

Mistook Play for Play is a rephrase/rework of a line from a poem by David Harsent. The poem is called A Dream Book. The album itself is all about play and the track titles are all 'forms of play', taken from the 1961 book Man, Play and Games by the French sociologist Roger Cailkois.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: While 'Mistook Play For Play' is conceptually lighthearted, it presents a rich palette of electronica, from full-spectrum drone to shimmering wooze. Stuart Cooke has managed to pull all sorts of emotional heft and driven, industrial weight from his instruments resulting in a playful but seriously enjoyable electronic feast

TRACK LISTING

1 Mimesis 18:57
2. Agon 05:09
3. Ilinx 07:04
4. Alea 06:10

Rumer returns with her second collection of B Sides and Rarities, released 22nd April on Cooking Vinyl. The album features previously unheard and unreleased gems like 'Roses', as well as various cover versions, including Elton John's 'Mona Losas Mad Hatters'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Roses
2. You’re The One
3. Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters
4. Anyone Who Had A Heart
5. I Wanna Roo You
6. The Windows Of The World
7. Never Arrive
8. Old-Fashioned Girl
9. How Deep Is Your Love
10. My Lover Lies Under
11. Wives And Lovers
12. The Folks Who Live On The Hill
13. Where’ve You Been?

With Happy Hour, her ravishing new LP, Hollie Cook matures into the queen of modern day “lovers rock”—the lush girly harmony reggae style beloved in Britain since the 1970s. Evolution rings from the bittersweet opening title track; tender yet assertive, Hollie’s voice caresses evocative lyrics through the arrangement’s tumbling changes.

Hollie dares to invite listeners into her true personality through these alluring songs, which she co-produced with her General Roots band members Ben Mckone and Luke Allwood, and executive producer Youth.

“Particularly with the songwriting, I was trying to really push myself and be open, to not be restricted in any way. I have always been a fan of theatrical pop music and wanted to experiment more with the song form.” Indeed, the dizzying arrangement of “Gold Girl” shows Hollie as boldly orchestrated, cinematic. “Now I don’t shy away from it when I want to be dramatic,” she declares.

The record itself is a product of great drama: the pandemic. After eight years of touring together, General Roots—keyboards man Luke Allwood, drummer Ben Mckone, guitarist Joe Price, and bassist James Mckone—have truly become Hollie’s band. They all spent quarantine together, honing songs they had started writing pre-COVID. “I used to definitely lean on my producers (Prince Fatty and Youth), but my vision was always to write and produce with my band,” she explains. “We are a circle of trust.”

Full of emotion, leaning into healing and understanding, Hollie’s lyrics on Happy Hour speak directly to our pain and confusion and steer us towards resolution on tracks like “Moving On,” “Unkind Love,” and “Love in the Dark.” The album’s closer, “Praying,” is inspired by a trauma in her close friendship circle. “I was feeling raw and had to figure out how to find strength and express myself in a time of crisis, where to turn if you are not of a particular faith,” she says. Though spiritual, Hollie is no saint, inviting us to rave on “Move My Way,” which she describes as “a party song inspired by the Notting Hill Carnival.” Hollie is also a wise woman—literally the “Full Moon Baby” she summons so seductively. And like any good witch, Hollie understands the power of medicinal herbs on “Kush Kween,” her collaboration with Jamaican singer Jah9. These are love incantations that would be wrong to resist. “It’s about finding a space where you can reach for moments of light, love, and self-care,” she explains.

Touring as a teenager with punk legends The Slits encouraged the fierceness within her sweetness. Hollie’s mentor was Ari Up, the band’s lead singer and a lifelong friend of Cook’s parents (Sex Pistols drummer Paul and her singer mother Jeni). “My father always said I would be a singer. But I discovered lovers rock on my own. I heard it on pirate radio and at friends’, and I was bewildered, enchanted,” she recalls. “The Slits are the reason I have pursued this career. I was surrounded by powerful women at a young age, and when my time came, I was never fazed by male dominance. They were my wall of courage.”

From those feisty roots, Hollie has only grown. Her soulful directness on Happy Hour is relatable and authentic. “I can’t get away from it,” she says. “Making this music that I love, I do turn deep inside myself. It makes me explore a lot of human truths and feelings that we should not shy away from, and it feels like a release to turn them into songs.” — Vivien Goldman.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hollie Cook's new LP has all the swooning beauty of her previous outing, Vessel Of Love but this time leans even more heavily into traditional pop structures, leaving the sound both wilfully pristine and undeniably catchy. The perfect summer album.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Happy Hour
2. Moving On
3. Full Moon Baby
4. Kush Kween (featuring Jah9)
5. Unkind Love
SIDE B
6. Gold Girl
7. Love In The Dark
8. Move My Way
9. Praying

Included in Craig Charles’ Funk and Soul ‘Ones to Watch 2022’ list. From London via Lagos, charismatic chanteuse Sister Cookie will take you on an eclectic excursion into the roots & fruits of black music. Old sounds, new tricks. Sensuous, seductive and moody. As well as possessing a distinctive voice that's tender and sweet when it needs to be, she’s a composer and self-taught pianist who writes honest and raw songs about pain, heartbreak, suffering - all that bad (meaning-good) stuff. 

Craig Charles is a big supporter on BBC 6 Music and has played current single ‘Ain’t No Good (But It’s Good Enough For Me)’ several times. Steve Lamacq and Lauren Laverne have also given the track multiple plays. The track has also been playlisted at Jazz FM. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Can’t Get It When You Want It
2. (You’re Never More Than) Seven Feet Away
3. Crucify
4. Nothing Left To Do But Cry
5. Night After Night
6. It Don’t Come Cheap Side Two
7. You Know I Do
8. Ain’t No Good (But It’s Good Enough For Me)
9. You’re Bad For Me (But I’m Worse For You)
10. Long Time No See
11. The Sins Of The Father

Being in a band is like being in a marriage: sometimes it’s magical, sometimes it’s unbearably challenging. To reinvigorate that marriage, Deap Vally have made their third album a genrebending experiment with new collaborators and instrumentation that push the limits of what has previously defined the duo - Marriage is their musical Rumspringa, if you will.

The album sees Julie and Lindsey break free of the rigid creative constraints within which they previously existed (two members, two instruments, two voices) and invite in collaborators such as KT Tunstall, Peaches, Jennie Vee and jennylee, as well as a range of producers including Allen Salmon, Josiah Mazzaschi and Harvey Mason Jr.

TRACK LISTING

Perfuction
Billions
Magic Medicine
I Like Crime (ft Jennie Vee)
Phoenix
Give Me A Sign
Better Run
I’m The Master
High Horse (ft. Kt Tunstall, Peaches)
Where Do We Go
Tsunami
Look Away (ft. Jennylee)

LA-based rockers The Bronx return for their sixth studio album 'Bronx VI'.

Bronx VI builds on the legacy The Bronx has established in its near two-decade existence, but which definitely proves the door to what’s next has not just been kicked down, but chopped up and burned to a cinder.

Yes, the first four tracks – “White Shadow”, “Superbloom”, “Watering The Well” and “Curb Feelers” – bristles with the wild and untamed energy that’s defined the band from the off, but then – all of a sudden, as “Peace Pipe” kicks in – the pace and mood shifts to something a little less aggressive. Elsewhere, “Mexican Summer” and its (relatively) chilled-out mariachi vibes serve as an homage to the band’s alter-ego, Mariachi El Bronx (and was written while that incarnation of the band was on tour), while fatalistic closer “Participation Trophy” masks the Caughthran’s existential dread behind searing riffs and a catchy, defiant and exuberant melody. “The feelings I got when writing for this sixth record is the same type of feeling I got writing “Heart Attack American”.

It all comes from the same place and it’s all still 100% genuine and real. Believe me – I’m still feeling the raw emotion that I felt when this band first started. That’s just who I am, that’s who we are as people. You can’t fake stuff like that when it comes to music or art. You have to stay connected. You’ve just got to be real” - Matt Caughthran, vocalist. Bronx VI was produced by Joe Baressi (Melvins, Tool, Bad Religion).

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A

1. White Shadow
2. Superbloom
3. Watering The Well
4. Curb Feelers
5. Peace Pipe
6. High Five

SIDE B

1. Mexican Summer
2. New Lows
3. Breaking News
4. Jack Of All Trades
5. Participation Trophy

Magic, miracles, ghosts, world leaders; these days it seems there is little left to believe in. Lies outweigh truth and even truth can be dangerous. Raising everyone’s spirits Already Dead – the fourth album and the first for nine years from Willy Mason - explores honesty and deception, anonymity in the digital age, good intentions with unexpected consequences, freedom, colonialism, love, god, and purpose because, its storyteller says, now is the time to restore some much-needed faith.

“Already Dead is a spiritual state to aspire to; it is freedom from the trappings and inhibitions of one’s ego, culture, and mythology. It is freedom and love and freedom to love in the face of death,” tells Willy of the philosophy behind the writing. “It’s about the necessary destruction of one’s mythology; mythology of species, sex, race, nation, self. It’s about the pain and tragedy that comes with such destruction, but also about the freedom, possibility and opportunity for reconciliation; reconciliation with the natural world and with each other.”

Already Dead arrives at a time when certain words must be said. It is a quest for love in a society which fears and discourages it; for truth and justice in a society which prioritises convenience and profit. “I ended up diving so deeply into this record because it felt at the time, like the only way I could hope to do some good for somebody,” Willy says. “All the concern and care I have for people, fear, frustration and sadness, all came pouring out."

Sparkling opener ‘Youth On A Spit’ is one of Willy’s heaviest tracks to date; “I feel no pain I’ve already bled / You can’t kill me I’m already dead,” he taunts, through double-sided declaration of invincibility before embarking upon a biting, bold, and caring tour through the purgatory of life in 21st century North America; reaching for Heaven “The Truth is Love/The Truth is Life/The Truth is Sowing Paradise'', whilst preparing for Hell, “Things we’d do to each other/I’m worried to discover” (Gilded Lie). All the while pleading and appealing to one’s nation as if to a wayward lover; “oh my country/you were born/as a branch from a tree of thorns/of poison apple poison tree/you’ve fallen far but roots run deep” (Oh My Country). Even those considering themselves above suspicion cannot hide: “Wilfully ignorant/a false equivalence/smitten with shame/a pawn in the game” (One Of The Good Ones).

Voyaging across the cracks of a bleak and crumbling landscape, beauty begins to blossom as Already Dead casts new shades of meaning when applied to a society and culture teetering on the edge between reinvention and dissolution. Hope, without promise, develops into its own suspended resolution with ripping album closer ‘Worth It’ and looks towards reaching a definitive destination after the soldiering on of early LPs Carry On (2012) and If the Ocean Gets Rough (2007); “The seed and the sowing/the need and the growing/the hope and the hatred/the faith and the sacred/the thief and the servant/the fazed and the fervent/I Know It’s Worth It”.

After seeing the world on countless tours and supporting independent music communities, Willy’s next move looks to be even greater. “Already Dead captures the feeling of these times and I’m trying to give people encouragement, whatever that may be or look like,” he says. Here lies unquestionable truth; life might be uncertain, but to be Already Dead is just the beginning.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's been a long wait since the last Willy Mason LP but 'Already Dead' perfectly epitomises what we've come to know and love from Willy. Brimming with folky restraint, but imbued with a cinematic intensity, these are cleverly written and brilliantly played earworms.

TRACK LISTING

1. Youth On A Spit
2. You’d Like To Be Free
3. Gilded Lie
4. Reservation
5. Oh My Country
6. Slowslide
7. One Of The Good Ones
8. Outwit The Devil
9. If There’s A Heart
10. Worth It

“It's about the in-between moments.” - Hattie Cooke “Bliss Land” is the new LP from Brighton born artist Hattie Cooke. Her third album and debut release for Castles In Space opens up her sound by managing to find a balance between the introspective and the communal. It is an album that looks forward whilst acknowledging the creators past creating a work full of a nostalgia that also feels vitally current. Initially conceived as a soundtrack album, during its creation, “Bliss Land” morphed into a beautiful set of personal songs born out of anticipation, excitement and anxiety.

Speaking about the themes of the albums, Hattie says: "It wasn’t until the album was finished that I realised what it was about. I had recently graduated from university and people were beginning to take more notice of my music. I was excited about the possibilities of the future, but at the same time the immediate future had been put on hold due to the pandemic, so I was frustrated and anxious. And then whenever I think about the future, I can’t help but think about the past and where I’ve come from and what I’ve been through to get to that point. So in some ways it’s a reflective record and in other ways it’s a record full of anticipation. “One Foot Out The Door” is a track that really resonates with me - it’s about that liminal space between the past and the future when you’re on the threshold of something. I think that’s what the album is about, it’s about the in-between moments. "I grew up on a small council estate on the outskirts of Brighton in a house that was full of music. Both my parents played guitar and my dad also bought and sold records for a living. I taught myself the guitar when I was twelve and made plenty of music throughout my teens. At 17, I won a scholarship to study at the British Institute Of Modern Music and continued writing and playing local shows. I also started to learn how to record and produce my own music on GarageBand as a necessary alternative to going into an expensive recording studio. GarageBand has some fantastic synth and electronic drum sounds and that’s when I became more interested in electronic music and music production. In 2015, Third Kind Records approached me after hearing my songs on a homemade demo CD that a friend had passed on. We released my debut album in 2016 and I’ve been making and releasing music ever since.”

Hattie writes, records and produces all her own albums, however she is keen to express how others have helped shaped parts of Bliss Land: “The record isn’t a completely solo effort, I had people along the way to help shape this album into what it became, although I had complete artistic freedom to let the album grow into what it wanted to be. I had invaluable help from Dom Keen who helped me mix the album. We spent a good number of nights in his studio drinking gin and trying to get everything just right. He did things to the music that I would never have even considered doing. I had no idea what compression really was until the making of this record, which probably sounds mad considering I’ve produced three records but when you’re self-taught you can miss out learning about so much! Antony Ryan’s mastering added a whole new dimension to the record as well.”

“Bliss Land” is an album soaked in the outer edges of pop music making it a cohesive and beautiful album full of dense textures held together by Hattie's unique voice. It’s an album that will undoubtedly chime with a cross section of audiences. So where does Hattie see her music in the landscape of the current UK electronic scene? "There’s a lot of instrumental/soundtrack music coming out of the scene, a lot of synthwave music which seems to be a real throwback to the 70s and early 80s. I think that’s because so much of the music coming out of the scene is made by those who grew up during those decades. So I think I’m a bit of an outlier when it comes to the UK electronic scene for two reasons. Firstly, I’m at the lower end of the age range and secondly, I’m a woman in an extremely male dominated scene. “Bliss Land” is intentionally quite poppy, which seems to be less in fashion at the moment whereas my other instrumental stuff is more inspired by classical music than by IDM or ambient music, so I think I’m coming at writing and producing from a slightly different angle. However, I still definitely feel part of the scene. There’s a particularly strong sense of community within the UK electronic scene on Twitter and I’ve been nothing but welcomed and supported by the artists, fans and labels. It’s like being part of a strange and wonderful family.”

You’ve made a video for the track “Youth” with Chris Standley from Rogue Robot which is both funny and shot through with real melancholy. “Youth" is about reflecting on the past. I turned thirty this year and sometimes (more than I'd like to admit) I worry that I've gotten more boring as I've gotten older. I was pretty wild and unhinged when I was younger and sometimes I miss those mad nights out where it felt like absolutely anything could happen - although saying that I just don't have the energy to stay up for three days or the stomach to cope with the hangovers anymore. Still, there are days when I miss the way that everything feels new and exciting when you're in your late teens/early twenties - everything is more intense when you're younger and the world around you seems bright and buzzing with life. I've been thinking about it a lot this past year. I've not had much to do for the last twelve months besides walk around on my own and reflect on the past, since the future has basically been put on indefinite hold, so that has almost certainly fed into some of the lyrics and maybe even the feel of the music.”

The album is already garnering a lot of attention and praise. What’s next for Hattie after the album is released? "Who knows what’s next! I have plans to tour the album when the world opens up again. I’d also love to have the chance to score a film or to work with some other artists doing guest vocals or some remixes. And I’d like to get back to doing some music-related charity work again as my family were supported by a number of charities when I was growing up and think it’s important to give back when you can."

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Having formed one of the most enduringly superb 'pseud-ost' releases of the past few years in 'The Sleepers' for the excellent Spun Out Sounds, Cooke hits electronic stalwarts Castles In Space for her excellent new LP 'Bliss Land'. Brilliantly toeing the line between electronic and acoustic, there are moments of pure Broadcast-y bliss and echoes of the soundtrack moments from the previous LP too. Do not sleep on this one.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. I Get By
2. Mistaken
3. Cars
4. One Foot Out The Door
5. Youth

Side B
6. Don’t Wanna Talk
7. Invisible Lines
8. Fantasies
9. Lovers Game
10. Summer Time

Dinked Edition Bonus 7”
1. One Foot Out The Door (Acoustic Version)
2. Above My Bed

Fine Young Cannibals' worldwide smash ‘The Raw & The Cooked’ has been remastered from analogue tapes and repressed for the first time since its original release. Originally released in 1989 the album that spawned the hits ‘She Drives Me Crazy’, ‘Good Thing’ & ‘Ever Fallen In Love’ took the band to No.1 in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and won the band two Brit Awards.

TRACK LISTING

LP

01 She Drives Me Crazy
02 Good Thing
03 I'm Not The Man I Used To Be
04 I'm Not Satisfied
05 Tell Me What
06 Don't Look Back
07 It's OK (It's Alright)
08 Don't Let It Get You Down
09 As Hard As It Is
10 Ever Fallen In Love?

CD

CD1
01 She Drives Me Crazy
02 Good Thing
03 I'm Not The Man I Used To Be
04 I'm Not Satisfied
05 Tell Me What
06 Don't Look Back
07 It's OK (It's Alright)
08 Don't Let It Get You Down
09 As Hard As It Is
10 Ever Fallen In Love?
11 You Never Know ("Don't Look Back" B-Side)
12 Social Security ("Good Thing" B-Side)
13 She Me Crazy (David Z 12" Remix)
14 Good Thing (Nothing Like The Single Mix)
15 Ever Fallen In Love (Extended Version)
16 I’m Not The Man I Used To Be (12” Version)
17 Don't Look Back (12" Version)
18 It's Ok (It's Alright) (Ploeg Club Mix)

CD2
01 She Drives Me Crazy (Dimitri From Paris Remix)
02 I'm Not Satisfied (New York Singing Mix II)
03 She Drives Me Crazy (Seth Troxler Remix)
04 Ever Fallen In Love? (The Rare Groove Bootleg)
05 Good Thing (Prince Paul Vocal Percussapella)
06 She Drives Me Crazy (Percusapella)
07 I’m Not The Man I Used To Be (Demo Version)
08 Don't Look Back (Youth Remix)
09 As Hard As It Is (Demo Version)
10 Tell Me What (Demo Version)
11 Hold Me (Demo)
12 I'm Not Satisfied (Demo Version)
13 Ever Fallen In Love? (Club Senseless Arthur Baker Remix)
14 Race Track Instrumental

Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has written and recorded numerous songs that have become part of the contemporary music vernacular, including “Luka”, certainly the only hit song ever written from the perspective of an abused boy, “Marlene on the Wall”, a surprise hit in the UK and “Tom’s Diner”, a strange little a cappella piece that was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo “DNA” and became a major club hit. Her albums, including her self-titled debut, the follow up, Solitude Standing and 99.9F have sold millions of copies. WHAT IS THIS ALBUM ? Produced by Gerry Leonard (Guitar player with David Bowie, played with Roger Waters, Laurie Anderson) mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Kevin Killen and mastered by Grammy Award winner, Bob Ludwig. On An Evening of New York Songs and Stories, Vega revisits some of her most New York-centric repertoire in a stunning live recording on which she is backed by longtime guitarist, Gerry Leonard, bassist Jeff Allen and keyboardist Jamie Edwards. Recorded at New York City’s famed Café Carlyle in early 2019, the album includes both familiar songs like “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” and deep cuts from her catalog like “Frank and Ava” and “Ludlow Street”. The mix of repertoire also features “New York Is My Destination” from Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers, Vega’s one-woman play about the Southern gothic novelist Carson McCullers, and a cover of her late friend Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.

TRACK LISTING

1. Marlene On The Wall
2. Luka
3. 'So How Many People Are Here From Out Of Town?'
4. New York Is A Woman
5. 'This Next Song Takes Place On 59th Street...'
6. Frank And Eva
7. 'So I Myself Came To New York City When I Was 2 ½ Years Old'
8. Gypsy
9. Freeze Tag
10. Pornographer's Dream
11. 'This Next Song Is Called New York Is My Destination'
12. New York Is My Destination
13. 'The First Time I Saw Lou Reed...'
14. Walk On The Wild Side
15. Ludlow Street
16. Cracking
17. 'And Now We've Got A Song About Those Times...'
18. Some Journey
19. 'I'm Gonna Close With This Song...'
20. Tom's Diner
21. 'Would You Like Another One?'
22. Anniversary
23. Tombstone
24. Thin Man

The Go! Team return with new single “Cookie Scene’” - a warped Daisy Age jam to melt pavements. A bouncing flute pattern, finger clicks and firing ray guns make the ground for guest rapper IndigoYaj to skip on. Team main man Ian Parton met Indigo in Detroit recording the last Go! Team record “Semicircle” and she brings the Shante tone on “Cookie Scene”.

With the flute in a locked groove it makes way for junkshop percussion to go front and centre - built from a marching drum, a 50p against a glass bottle, rimshots and the maple on maple of drumsticks hit together. Says Ian: “The stripped back swinging percussion of ‘Iko Iko’ by the Dixie Cups and the loud crunchy shaker in Salt-n-Pepa’s ‘Push It’ were both inspirations and I’ve always loved the way Bollywood or William Onyeabor songs would have random laser beams and electro toms popping up. I wanted to mix the street corner with the intergalactic, to take Detroit to outer space.”

TRACK LISTING

A. Cookie Scene
B. Free Breakfast Program

A soul and jazz spreading of wings, with the help of scene headliners Nubya Garcia, Theon Cross and Henry Wu. ‘Home Cooking’ is the new, mature sound of DJ Yoda. Maximising the experience and enjoyment gained from recording live instruments and prioritising songs over beats for his previous two albums ‘Breakfast of Champions’ and ‘Chop Suey’, this is a big step for the cut-and-paster as a producer, having wowed the world over for over two decades with his celebrated turntable tomfoolery. Recorded between his own studio and the world famous Abbey Road, ‘Home Cooking’ keeps one foot in the hip-hop old school with collaborations with the returning Jungle Brothers (the party-starting ‘Afrika’) and Boston bastion Edo. G (a peaceful route from London to ‘Roxbury’), and spreads to a melodic vibe scoring chilled Sunday mornings.

“I titled this one ‘Home Cooking’ because the music is so close to my heart, in terms of what I grew up on, and what really speaks to me on a personal level”. Imbued with the spirit of Guru’s ‘Jazzmatazz’, the output of Acid Jazz and 90s vitals from the Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, Yoda admits that it's a happy accident that, whilst drawing on jazzy, soulful hip-hop from 25 years ago, the sound of ‘Home Cooking’ is very much of-the-moment. With British jazz currently in the rudest of health, vigorously championed by Gilles Peterson and with the likes of Sons of Kemet receiving Mercury Prize recognition to show such an upsurge has not gone unnoticed, Yoda lines up some of the best musicians the scene has to offer.

Sons of Kemet member and tuba sharp shooter Theon Cross, fast-rising saxophonist and boundary breaker Nubya Garcia, and award-winning jazz alchemist Henry Wu on keys, put ‘Home Cooking’ in the safest, most nimble of hands. “I feel so lucky to have been able to work with musicians of this calibre”. Add in the vocals of Brit-soul legend and MBE Omar, BBC Introducing star/“the UK's answer to Frank Ocean" Joel Culpepper, (‘London Fields’, played as a live six-piece session for BBC Radio London) and big gun for hire Eva Lazarus (a prominent feature on Swindle’s ‘No More Normal’, an album that runs parallel to ‘Home Cooking’), and the timing of Yoda’s sound expansion, plotted across London and beyond, has been impeccable. “It’s just lucky that right now is such a great moment for UK jazz, and that coinciding with me making this album - it certainly wasn’t by design. I didn’t set out to necessarily make something with such a strong jazz and soul influence, but at one point I took a step back and listened to everything I’d made, and it had accidentally, or subconsciously, turned out like that”. 

TRACK LISTING

1. London Fields
2. Thornton Heath
3. Rising Brook
4. Gospel Oak (CD Only Track)
5. Kingswood
6. Abbey Road
7. Roxbury
8. Soweto
9. Hither Green
10. Afrika
11. Croxley Green
12. Eastville
13. Boundary Gardens

Maximo Park release this live album spanning their six albums to date. "Get High (No, I Don’t)" and "What Equals Love?" appear from latest album "Risk To Exist", as does Top 20 single "Books From Boxes", and the beloved "Going Missing" B-Side "A19". Much-loved on record, the band are famed for reaching new levels of dynamism, energy and excitement in a live environment. Many fan-favourites are given such life in this new release. Mixed by Adrian Bushby, he captures the band at the peak of their powers, showcasing what has made them such a popular live act over the last 14 years.

TRACK LISTING

1. Get High (No, I Don’t)(Recorded Live At Vada Studios)
2. I Want You To Stay (Recorded Live At Vada Studios)
3. Girls Who Play Guitars (Recorded Live At Vada Studios)
4. Questing, Not Coasting (Recorded Live At Vada Studios)
5. The National Health (Recorded Live At Vada Studios)
6. A19 (Recorded Live At Vada Studios)
7. What Equals Love? (Recorded Live At Vada Studios)
8. Limassol (Recorded Live At Vada Studios)
9. Midnight On The Hill (Recorded Live At Vada Studios)
10. Books From Boxes (Recorded Live At Vada Studios) 

Reverend & The Makers release their sixth album, ‘The Death Of A King’, through Cooking Vinyl. Reverend & The Makers played a storming set at Wirral Live (May 20th) where Jon McClure proudly welcomed Jeremy Corbyn to the stage, to make what many commentators agree his most impassioned speech of the 2017 campaign to date. 

Starsailor burst onto the scene in 2001 when their single Fever earned them the title of "Britain's best new band". The band was formed at Wigan and Leigh Music College by music students James Walsh (vocals/guitar), James Stelfox (bass), and Ben Byrne (drums). Later saw the arrival of keyboardist Barry Westhead, who cemented their sound. In April 2000, after seeing their first London show (at the Heavenly Social) the NME wrote: "One live encounter was enough to convince many sceptics that here was a band who were genuinely special, blessed with a singer whose voice thrummed like an emotional telegraph wire, that swerved the pitfalls of indie melancholia and were clearly in love with rock 'n' roll and all its possibilities." Their debut album Love Is Here featuring the Top 10 single Alcoholic, reached Number Two in the UK Album Charts in October 2001, after receiving great critical acclaim and went on to sell over half a million copies in the UK alone.

Phil Spector was originally appointed to produce the band's second album, Silence Is Easy. The resulting recording sessions at London's Abbey Road were short-lived. Their collaboration proved to be frustrating, with Spector and the band butting heads on several issues. Only two tracks that Spector produced made the album, Silence Is Easy (another Top 10 single for the band) and White Dove. Starsailor co-produced seven of the other tracks with former Elbow and Doves producer, Danton Supple. John Leckie (The Stone Roses & Radiohead) also produced Shark Food. Silence Is Easy reached Number Two in the UK Album Chart and soon went Gold. The band have enjoyed more than their fair share of prestigious gigs, supporting the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Police, The Killers, and U2, and have sold over 3 million albums worldwide. They decided to take a break in 2009 to explore other projects and now return in 2017 sounding re-energised and with an outstanding new studio album - their fifth ‘All This Life’. The band played a packed Big Top at this year’s Isle Of Wight Festival to an ecstatic crowd and debuted a new track from the forthcoming album. They are also confirmed shows at British Summer Time at Hyde Park alongside Phil Collins, Blondie, New Power Generation and more as well as Hope & Glory Festival in Liverpool.

TRACK LISTING

1. Listen To Your Heart
2. All This Life
3. Take A Little Time
4. Caught In The Middle
5. Sunday Best
6. Blood
7. Best Of Me
8. Break The Cycle
9. Fallout
10. FIA (Fuck It All)
11. No One Else

Deap Vally, the Los Angeles duo comprising of Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards, return with their new album 'Femejism' Produced by Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, it features tracks ranging from experimental prog and kraut-rock to good old- fashioned heart-melters and ball-busters.

Deap Vally recently completed major North American tours with Peaches and with Wolfmother during which they aired a number of new songs from the upcoming album live for the first time. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Riding the same line as one of shop favourites Courtney Barnett, Deap Vally form raucous but anthemic rock anthems. Huge raging drum lines and snarling vocals, distorted walls of pummeling riffage and shout-along anthems are the order of the day. That's not to say there isn't a softer side, 'Critic' could easily be Hole's best ever single, had they written it instead. A fantastic return to the fore by Deap Vally, and one that will no doubt keep on giving.

TRACK LISTING

1: Royal Jelly
2: Julian
3: Gonnawanna
4: Little Baby Beauty Queen
5: Smile More
6: Critic
7: Post Funk
8: Two Seat Bike
9: Bubble Baby
10: Teenage Queen
11: Grunge Bond
12: Turn It Off
13: Heart Is An Animal

Carl Barât & his new band The Jackals announce the release of their debut album Let It Reign through Cooking Vinyl Records on Monday 16th February.

Let It Reign was recorded in LA and London and was produced by Joby J. Ford (The Bronx) and features guest musicians, such as Beastie Boys percussionist Alfredo Ortiz on Glory Days. "I actually started making this record solo, but the long and short of it is I just didn’t like my own company," says Carl, adding that he soon realised that he wanted to get a new band together.

Rather than call up some old mates to recruit for The Jackals, Carl decided to post a few ads online asking if there were any likeminded souls out there who wanted to try their luck at playing with him. The response was overwhelming, with thousands of people replying. Carl adds "I was lucky, because I found a bunch of people who genuinely fit together as a gang."


TRACK LISTING

1: Glory Days
2: Victory Gin
3: Summer In The Trenches
4: A Storm Is Coming
5: Beginning To See
6: March Of The Idle
7: We Want More
8: War Of The Roses
9: The Gears
10: Let It Rain

Following on from the bands last studio release – "Money And Celebrity" – in September 2011, this new album is set to be big in sound and energy. Released on YFE Records/Cooking Vinyl, this album is a full on rock record with hooks The Subways have become famous for. The album also marks a new phase for the band. Having previously worked with legendary producers on their first three albums (Stephen Street, Butch Vig and Ian Broudie), lead singer, Billy Lunn has taken on full engineering, production and mixing responsibility for the upcoming album. The album will not be over-thought or over produced… just direct and exciting to listen to, capturing the essence of the bands live shows.

Billy, Charlotte & Josh reach their 4th album firing on all cylinders. Still only in their twenties they have built a hardcore international following. Massive facebook stats and far reaching touring schedules a testament to how far they have come and the amount of work they have put in over the last 10 years.

The album is the follow-up to her fantastic eponymous debut album which was released to huge acclaim in 2011, with Q calling it "gorgeous late '70's style reggae pop" whilst the BBC named it as "one of the most enjoyable reggae albums of 2011". In 2012 a dub version of the debut album was released – "Prince Fatty Presents Hollie Cook In Dub". That same year Ian Brown asked Hollie to support The Stone Roses on one of their hugely anticipated reunion shows at Manchester's Heaton Park.

The new album "Twice" sees Hollie's obvious love of reggae joined by other influences including Bond-like strings, Brazilian percussion, dark disco and shades of Giorgio Moroder. She is joined on the album by Dennis Bovell, Omar, George Dekker and Winston Francis. The strings on the album are the Macedonian Radio Symphonic Orchestra and Choir. The album was produced by Prince Fatty.

Tooth & Nail was recorded over a whirlwind five-day session with Grammy Award winning producer Joe Henry (whose impeccable production credits include Solomon Burke, Aimee Mann, Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint) in his South Pasadena studio. Working with a small band of musicians whose talents had recently appeared on records by the likes of Bon Iver, Lana del Rey and Regina Spektor, the performances have a wonderfully spontaneous feel. The results are, according to Billy, a return to the rootsy sound of 1998’s Mermaid Avenue sessions he recorded with Wilco - drawing on soul, country and folk music influences to explore the ups and downs of relationships that have stood the test of time.

"In 2011, I took a long, hard look at who I am and what I do. This album is the result." Billy Bragg January 2013

TRACK LISTING

1. January Song
2. No One Knows Nothing Any More
3. Handyman Blues
4. I Ain’t Got No Home
5. Swallow My Pride
6. Do Unto Others
7. Over You
8. Goodbye, Goodbye
9. There Will Be A Reckoning
10. Chasing Rainbows
11. Your Name On My Tongue
12. Tomorrow’s Going To Be A Better Day

The latest full-length platter by The Sandwitches. San Francisco's Sandwitches have been plugging away at their craft for a couple magical years now, sprinkling their barbed, alluring electric folk briars across unsuspecting gardens in the Bay Area and beyond. Previous releases, such as the swampy ecstasy of "How To Make Ambient Sadcake" and last year's oceanic ouija board of an EP, "Duck Duck Goose!", captured distinct sides of the trio.

"Mrs. Jones Cookies" is here now to unify their uniquely whimsical and creepy vision. "Mrs. Jones' Cookies" pours Sadcake's plaintive bounce into Duck Duck's celestial, mysterious drift, spiking the mix with a side they've previously only hinted at: a playfulness, a comfort. It's the sound of a band at ease with unease. Even when they're plumbing the most desperate depths, there's an unforced confidence in the lonely plucking of guitarists Heidi Alexander and Grace Cooper. The shared vocal duties are where these ladies truly and finally let loose. On "Lightfoot" and single "Summer Of Love", drummer Roxy Brodeur punches out lively, soul-flecked trots, as Grace and Heidi tickle the end of their high and low ranges, returning later to those highs and lows with extra force and bluster, shooting out the lights with aplomb.

It makes sense that the new album from The Lemonheads sounds like a mix tape slipped to you by a music-obsessed friend anxious to turn you on to something new. In fact, the idea for the band's new covers record was inspired by Gibby Haynes, ringmaster of the Butthole Surfers, who for years has made mixes for his longtime friend Evan Dando. 'Making a good mix is an art, and Gibby has it down,' says Dando. 'I thought it would be fun to share these songs with other people like he shared them with me. So I picked the 'greatest hits' from his mixes and covered them, along with a few other songs I always wanted to play.'

TRACK LISTING

1. "I Just Can't Take It Anymore" (Gram Parsons) 
2. "Fragile" (Wire) 
3. "Layin' Up With Linda" (G.G. Allin) 
4. "Waiting Around To Die" (Townes Van Zandt) 
5. "Green Fuz" (Randy Alvey & Green Fuz) 
6. "Yesterlove" (Sam Gopal) 
7. "Dirty Robot" V/ Kate Moss (Arling & Cameron) 
8. "Dandelion Seeds" (July) 
9."Mexico" (Fuckemos) 
10."Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye" F/ Liv Tyler (Leonard Cohen) 
11. "Beautiful" (Linda Perry)

A fat-basslined hip hop-soul gem with an introspective feel. Includes the ace tracks "Pocketbook" (inc. Missy Elliott remix), "Hot Night" and "Earth". Thoughtful, political, poetic.