Limited edition silver vinyl anniversary reissue of the Magnetic Fields’ classic 1999 rumination on, of course, love. Funny, smart, dark, memorable, and a lifetime’s worth of listening. Stephin Merritt solidifies his songwriting genius on his “most ambitious and fully realized work.” (AMG)

This vinyl reissue is remastered for vinyl and beautifully packaged in a 10” slipcase box with three double gatefold sleeves and a 24 page booklet!

TRACK LISTING

1 Absolutely Cuckoo (1:34)
2 I Don't Believe In The Sun (4:16)
3 All My Little Words (2:46)
4 A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off (2:41)
5 Reno Dakota (1:05)
6 I Don't Want To Get Over You (2:22)
7 Come Back From San Francisco (2:48)
8 The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side (3:43)
9 Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits (2:25)
10 The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be (1:11)
11 I Think I Need A New Heart (2:32)
12 The Book Of Love (2:42)
13 Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long (2:33)
14 How Fucking Romantic (0:58)
15 The One You Really Love (2:53)
16 Punk Love (0:58)
17 Parades Go By (2:56)
18 Boa Constrictor (0:58)
19 A Pretty Girl Is Like (1:50)
20 My Sentimental Melody (3:07)
21 Nothing Matters When We're Dancing (2:27)
22 Sweet-Lovin' Man (4:59)
23 The Things We Did And Didn't Do (2:11)
24 Roses (0:27)
25 Love Is Like Jazz (2:56)
26 When My Boy Walks Down The Street (2:38)
27 Time Enough For Rocking When We're Old (2:03)
28 Very Funny (1:26)
29 Grand Canyon (2:28)
30 No One Will Ever Love You (3:14)
31 If You Don't Cry (3:07)
32 You're My Only Home (2:17)
33 (Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy (2:18)
34 My Only Friend (2:01)
35 Promises Of Eternity (3:46)
36 World Love (3:07)
37 Washington, D.C. (1:53)
38 Long-Forgotten Fairytale (3:37)
39 Kiss Me Like You Mean It (2:01)
40 Papa Was A Rodeo (5:01)
41 Epitaph For My Heart (2:50)
42 Asleep And Dreaming (1:53)
43 The Sun Goes Down And The World Goes Dancing (2:46)
44 The Way You Say Good-Night (2:44)
45 Abigail, Belle Of Kilronan (2:00)
46 I Shatter (3:09)
47 Underwear (2:49)
48 It's A Crime (3:54)
49 Busby Berkeley Dreams (3:36)
50 I'm Sorry I Love You (3:06)
51 Acoustic Guitar (2:37)
52 The Death Of Ferdinand De Saussure (3:10)
53 Love In The Shadows (2:54)
54 Bitter Tears (2:51)
55 Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget (1:55)
56 Yeah! Oh, Yeah! (2:19)
57 Experimental Music Love (0:29)
58 Meaningless (2:08)
59 Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin (1:46)
60 Queen Of The Savages (2:12)
61 Blue You (3:03)
62 I Can't Touch You Anymore (3:05)
63 Two Kinds Of People (1:10)
64 How To Say Goodbye (2:48)
65 The Night You Can't Remember (2:17)
66 For We Are The King Of The Boudoir (1:14)
67 Strange Eyes (2:01)
68 Xylophone Track (2:47)
69 Zebra (2:15)

Arguably the very best soul singer alive, Lee comes correct with two massive tunes from his critically acclaimed Sentimental Fool LP.

With the deep piano intro, frantic shuffle and pleading vocal Two Jobs has the conviction of James Brown with the swing of Bobby Bland. A sound very few folks could pull off, yet Lee triumphs with command and swagger in equal measure.

Save Your Tears for Someone New is a deep, dark ballad tailored-made for Lee’s ferociously soulful voice. A veritable masterclass in rhythm and soul.

TRACK LISTING

Side A – Two Jobs
Side B – Save Your Tears For Someone New

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH 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 ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Formed in 1984, Fields of the Nephilim is the creation of vocalist and front man Carl McCoy. Highly influential, especially in the world of goth, but also within the metal and electronic genres, their legacy endures to this day. You can hear their influence on bands like Swans, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Explosions In The Sky, Wolves in The Throne Room, Behemoth and more. The band’s unique sound, an apocalyptic fusion of Victorian underworld meets Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western, had an appearance to match (wide-brimmed hats, long duster coats and cowboy boots, usually black and smothered in white flour as a substitute for dust), and set them apart from their contemporaries. Elizium is one of their most beautiful albums and considered by many to be their best. As The Quietus wrote, “it was both their most accessible and their most experimental work, concluding and consolidating the Nephilim’s five-year shamanic journey. Lead-off single and opening track ‘For Her Light’ featured a lengthy mid- section that anticipated the apocalyptic post-rock of Godspeed! You Black Emperor (unsurprisingly, it failed to chart), and the album featured some of the band’s hardest rock in the wah-overload of ‘Submission,’ as well as further incorporating dance elements – more successfully and organically than many of their peers, it must be said - on second single ‘Sumerland’.” Louder Sound also called “Sumerland” their “greatest ever track”.

Beggars Arkive is happy to announce a double vinyl expanded deluxe reissue of Fields Of Nephilim's third highly acclaimed album Elizium, released by Beggars Banquet in 1990. The album has been expanded onto a double LP for audio clarity and contains 4 bonus tracks. Recorded and produced by Pink Floyd engineer Andy Jackson, the audio is via analogue transfer to 96khz/24 bit by John Dent at Loud, with vinyl mastering by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road.

TRACK LISTING

A1. (Dead But Dreaming)
A2. For Her Light
A3. At The Gates Of Silent Memory
A4. (Paradise Regained)
B1. Submission
B2. Sumerland (What Dreams May Come)
C1. Wail Of Sumer
C2. And There Will Your Heart Be Also
C3. Sumerland -Single Version *
D1. For Her Light -Two *
D2. Submission Two -The Dub Posture *
D3. Sumerland -Dreamed Version *

* Bonus Tracks

Beggars Arkive are happy to announce a vinyl reissue of the second Fields Of The Nephilim album The Nephilim, released 35 years ago by Situation Two/Beggars Banquet in 1988, and not pressed on vinyl since then. The album is pressed on golden brown vinyl and is expanded to a double LP. The album contains their epic, legendary track “Moonchild” plus three bonus tracks.

Formed in 1984, Fields of the Nephilim is the creation of vocalist and front man Carl McCoy. Highly influential, especially in the world of goth, but also within the metal and electronic genres, their legacy endures to this day. You can hear their influence on bands like Swans, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Explosions In The Sky, Wolves in The Throne Room, Behemoth and more.

The Nephilim was recorded in a former courthouse in the Somerset countryside where defendants who were sentenced to death were hung. “Moonchild” is the band’s best known song due to it reaching #28 in the UK single charts, and LouderSound called it a classic and said that it “perfectly encapsulates this era of the band and it has some nifty guitar work, great bass lines from Tony Pettitt, Nod’s stellar drumming and McCoy’s distinctive vocals.”

In a 2013 remembrance of the album, PopMatters said “The band’s sophomore effort, regarded not only as its best work but also as one of the UK goth scene’s masterpieces, is a seamless, hour-long trek into a surreal land populated by chiming guitars, hypnotic bass, found samples, and McCoy’s storytelling.”

TRACK LISTING

1 - Endemoniada
2 - The Watchman
3 - Phobia
4 - Moonchild
5 - Chord Of Souls
6 - Shiva
7 - Celebrate
8 - Love Under Will
9 - Last Exit For The Lost
10 - Celebrate (Second Seal)
11 - Psychonaut Lib III

RIYL: Wilderness, Ought, Shame, Protomartyr, Gold Class, Dry Cleaning, Fontaines DC, Unwound, Fugazi, Jawbox.

Colin McCann didn’t pick up a guitar for nearly ten years. The Northern-California-based songwriter, previously performing under Long Dog Bird, had been creating music with longtime friend and collaborator Brian Gossman for much of their adult lives with early-00s Baltimore-based band Wilderness. So what would cause such a stagnant period? And how could McCann find his way back to the joy that music had once so easily conjured? The answer was to go back to the very beginning, where the kinetic forces that urged McCann to make music in the first place could emerge once again. But first, he had to make space in his internal world; a kind of silence where he could hear the exhale of his past, and the blossoming of a new song.

That blossoming would soon become the first songs for McCann’s latest project Vulture Feather. The band’s debut album Liminal Fields exists on an intangible plane: a crack in the concrete, a gauze between worlds. For as long as McCann can recall, he’s been using music as a vehicle to try and connect with an underlying, indescribable nature that only the sonic world seems to be able to reach. “There’s a feeling of ecstasy that comes when one merges with music,” he says. “It’s what calls us all back again and again to listen, to sing, and to play.” McCann had been striving to reach this outlying environment throughout his career, often stretching in ways that eventually came to negatively impact his life, and his health.

The wake up call came when McCann suffered a near-death experience, eerily predicted by a friend through a dream she had had almost a year earlier. Newly awoken to the beauty of being alive, McCann strove to slow down, to listen to the inherent nature in all living things, and to rediscover our mutual connectivity. He stopped playing and listening to music, and instead soaked himself in the cacophony of silence. Then without any epiphany or grand catalyst, something urged McCann to pick up a guitar again. Ideas flowed more naturally than ever, and he soon realized that the liminal space he had been searching for was there all along he only had to listen.

McCann tentatively reached out to Gossman to collaborate and the friends found themselves once again jamming together, in an off-grid quonset hut where they now practice. “It was like no time had passed,” McCann says. “That feeling of ecstatic joy, of forgetting your own name, came flooding back.” They were soon joined by another old friend, Eric Fiscus, who completed Vulture Feather on drums.

TRACK LISTING

01. Inseparable
02. Bad Land
03. Bell Of Renewal
04. Your True Face
05. Monument
06. Be Still
07. Illusion Of Time
08. Ballad Of Pelletreau

Jordan Fields ropes in some help from his close-knit Chicagoan community for a thoroughly delightful excursion into pure house music for the lastest release on long standing imprint, Yore.

SIX tracks (count 'em!) meaning there's plenty wriggle for your wonga on this 12"! All of it leaning on the deep, tribal and slightly jazzy - it's wraught with the spirit of house music through and through with dreamy organ licks, frenetic percussion, warm bass and insurmountable energy.

Pressed nice and crisp and loud as per the Yore standard, six fresh joints to rock out in the club or the house party. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Inflation busting value from JF and friends with a LONG playing house EP that offers pure wriggle for your wonga! Five tracks - over half an hour run time - that's half a headline set at THP covered in one record!

TRACK LISTING

A1. DUBrazil – Untitled 1 07:10
A2. DUBrazil – Untitled 2 07:34

B1. Jordan Fields – Wanna Feel The Music (Piano Mix) 05:39
B2. Tracky Disco – Keep It Going 05:15
B3. Afrolectro – Needs Love 06:20

Junip originally formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2000 by José González (guitar, vocals), Elias Araya (drums) and Tobias Winterkorn (organ/moog). Junip have periodically gathered together and recorded when schedules permitted, but this is the first time all the members have focused exclusively on the band. Their sound will be familiar to those who have listened to González’s acclaimed records, but added to the mix on top of his nylon stringed guitar and distinctive voice are organs, analogue synths and drums. The influences are diverse and wide-ranging, from Neu! to Shuggie Otis and John Martyn, while the place to which it takes you is one of pastoral contemplation, hazy summer memories and autumnal grace…

TRACK LISTING

1. In Every Direction
2. Always
3. Rope & Summit
4. Without You
5. It's Alright
6. Howl
7. Sweet & Bitter
8. Don't Let It Pass
9. Off Point
10. To The Grain
11. Tide 

Soul great Lee Fields signs to Daptone and announces a new album.
Lee Fields is arguably the greatest soul singer alive today. In an age when the shelf life of an artist largely depends on posturing and trends, he has proven to be an unassailable force of nature. His prolific, decade-spanning career continues to reign supreme on the modern soul scene.

In early 2022, Lee reunited with Daptone Records and producer Gabriel Roth to record Sentimental Fool, a deep, blues-tinged, wholly-conceived soul album. From his first line to his final plaintive lyric, the beauty, power, and raw humanity of Leeʼs voice is on full display here; the culmination of an astounding career that has seemed to defy gravity, rising to only greater and greater heights.

Soul music pours out of Lee Fields, as free and unstinting as God's love.
It was ever since the 1960's, when he was a teenager in North Carolina sweating it out on juke joint stages, crumpled dollars hailing at his feet. It continues now that the living legend is in his late sixties, ushering in the most successful and fruitful period of his career.

Like any living legend worth their salt, Fields has suffered despair, obscurity, defeat. Although he now tours stages around the world, and although he helped fellow soul legends like Sharon Jones (who was once Fields' backup singer) and Charles Bradley (whom Fields took on his first tour) get their first break, he did not always have this position. There were years—they were known as "the 1980's"—when Fields nearly gave up. His success these days, then has a bittersweet tinge: His dear friends Bradley and Jones have both passed, leaving Fields to outlive them and carry their legacy forth.

With all these years, and all this life, comes a sort of divine wisdom, and Fields has it in spades. "I am a sinner, just like everybody else," he says gravely. He is no "holier—than—thou guy," he adds. He just believes in people's ability to love and be loved, and he understands that music is the divine bridge to these places.

TRACK LISTING

1. Forever
2. I Should Have Let You Be
3. Sentimental Fool
4. Two Jobs
5. Just Give Me Your Time
6. Save Your Tears For Someone New
7. The Door
8. What Did I Do?
9. Without A Heart
10. Ordinary Lives
11. Your Face Before My Eyes
12. Extraordinary Man

The House of Tomorrow EP celebrates 30 years in 2022. The House of Tomorrow EP marks the first release introducing vocals by Stephin Merritt.

Cast your mind back to notable landmarks of 1992. Outside the Twin Cities, Mall of America opened to the public. Frank Gehry’s enormous golden fish sculpture, El Peix, welcomed Barcelona Olympians. And The House of Tomorrow, a four-song 7” on a small indie label, ushered in a new era for The Magnetic Fields. When Susan Anway, who sang on early albums Distant Plastic Trees and The Wayward Bus, left the group, Stephin Merritt stepped up to the microphone. “This was my first time singing on record,” he recalls. He sought to sound simple, subtle, and unobtrusive, à la the Japanese concept of shibusa. “But now, listening back, I hear a little too much vocal influence from the Jesus and Mary Chain. (I really should move to Scotland. I belong there.)”

Likewise, the arrangements and production of The House of Tomorrow felt less polished overall than on its predecessors, even as the band’s sound was evolving. “I wanted to have rock instrumentation, plus cello (so ELO without keyboards), but everyone was tracked separately so there was no question of sounding like we were playing together,” explains Stephin. Instead, he chose to highlight the artifice. Voilà! “The drums are like Tusk only more so, the cello sounds like a synth, and the guitars might as well be programmed.” The House of Tomorrow rose in stature upon re-release on compact disc in 1996, with a new addition, “Alien Being” (previously relegated to the flip of the “Long Vermont Roads” single), boosting its modest track list from four songs to five. The limits of technology had stymied plans the first time: “You can’t fit five two-and-a-half–minute songs on a 7” record, even at 33rpm.”

From World’s Fairs and Disneyland to Tex Avery and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, visions of the home of the future have long been popular. Although this new vinyl edition of The House of Tomorrow includes an etching of Buckminster Fuller’s visionary D.I.Y. Dymaxion House, Stephin laments the sluggish pace of architectural innovation. What is his dream home? “I want to live in Barbarella’s spaceship, with my neighbors being the Jetsons, floating defiantly over Edinburgh Castle.”

Never before released as a 12”, this 30th anniversary remastered edition of The House of Tomorrow is available on opaque spring green vinyl (as well as basic black). But don’t press Stephin to discuss the color’s charms, please. “I had a sickly pea green bathroom in my East Village tenement, and I never got over it,” he reveals. “It’s okay on plants, but everywhere else, the browner it is, the less I hate it. My favorite shade of green is brown.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 Young And Insane
2 Technical (You’re So)
3 Alien Being
4 Love Goes Home To Paris In The Spring
5 Either You Don’t Love Me Or I Don’t Love You
Side B
Etching……..

R&B Star joins Yoda for a London anthem. Smooth jazzy R&B sounds combine Yoda’s lush prodection with Joel Culpepper sublime vocals. Culpepper has collaborated with the likes of Swindle and supported Stevie Wonder and Lalah Hathaway to name but two.

TRACK LISTING

A. London Fields
B. London Fields Instrumental

More Energy Fields, Current is a definitive new peak in the recorded continuum of prolific producer/percussionist Carlos Niño. Featuring contributions from more than a dozen exciting voices in the creative music constellation of Los Angeles (of which Niño’s has been a central force for over 2 decades), including Sam Gendel, Nate Mercereau, Jamael Dean, and Jamire Williams, the album collects 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” style.

The album is ripe with “ambient” passages that function like open portals between moments of consonance and clarity, and epic post-hip hop opuses like the heavy/heady “Thanking the Earth.” But even in the occasional absence of drums, there is a powerful pulse implicit in the program’s frequency of consciousness. It’s a testament to Niño’s foundations as a DJ. His distinct ability to craft a kinetic, cinematic sonic experience from dozens of independent, often rhythmically-ambiguous improvisational memories is more fluently displayed on More Energy Fields, Current than anything we’ve heard from him to date. It resonates, lucidly, with the way Niño’s mentor Iasos – who is known to the world as an original founder of New Age music – has described his work: "Real Time Interactive Imagination, Flow Texturization."

On More Energy Fields, Current, Niño immerses us in the watery depths of his world, spiriting us like a submarine through exotic nether-leagues of untouched sound. And when we arrive at the final, bookending piece “Please, Wake Up.” (an extended version of the opening theme, featuring saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings), it’s like a return, safely to shore.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pleasewakeupalittlefaster, Please...
2. The World Stage, 4321 Degnan Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90008
3. Nightswimming
4. Now The Background Is The Foreground.
5. Thanking The Earth
6. Salon Winds
7. Ripples, Reflection, Loop
8. Togetherness
9. Lasos 79 ‘til Infinity
10. Please, Wake Up.

Unreleased recordings from the Special Night & It Rains Love sessions. Produced by Leon Michels. We are always sitting on a handful of unreleased songs that didn’t make their way to albums. Listening back to these gems we decided to launch a new series entitled Big Crown Vaults and the first volume features the music of Lee Fields & the Expressions. These tunes were cut during the Special Night & It Rains Love sessions. Listening to these tracks you can imagine how difficult some of these decisions were in the first place to leave them off the albums. An absolute standout is “Regenerate,” a song that finds Lee in the country soul realm, a style that Mr Fields, a North Carolina native, flourishes in. A drum break starts the song and then drops into a chorus where El Michels, Paul & Big Bill Schalda belt out the earworm chorus. Lee sings an encouraging tune about finding your way out of a low point in a relationship while The Expressions lay down an airtight groove. “Thinking About You” takes it back to the dance floors with what will surely be a hit at Soul parties around the globe. An uptempo drum break opens the song and Lee launches into a tale about the unbreakable bond with his significant other and how they keep each strong through moments of hardship and pain.

People who have seen Lee perform live in the last decade might have been lucky enough to hear his rendition of Little Carl Carlton’s “Two Timer”. For those of you who haven’t heard it, Big Crown Vaults has got you covered. A faithful version of the song showcases Lee’s gorgeous voice and the Expression's unwavering groove. Another treat on here is the fuzzed out funk banger “Do You Know” where Fields uses his platform to address some of our societal woes in a “Make The World” style. A deeper from the vaults number is “Out To Get You”, an instrumental that Lee never laid down vocals to. Even as just a rhythm track it stands as a testament to The Expressions musical prowess, the band that created 5 studio albums with Lee Fields which will go down in history as stone classics. Oil Painting of Lee Fields on the cover... 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:

1. Two Timer
2. Regenerate
3. Do You Know ?
4. Time
5. Thinking About You
6. Don’t Give Up

SIDE B:

1. Out To Get You
2. Two Timer (Instrumental)
3. Regenerate (Instrumental)
4. Do You Know ? (Instrumental)
5. Thinking About You (Instrumental)
6. Don’t Give Up (Instrumental)

Nonesuch Records releases the Magnetic Fields’ Quickies, a set of five vinyl EPs that features twenty-eight new short songs by Stephin Merritt, ranging in length from thirteen seconds to two minutes and thirty-five seconds. Quickies also will be available on CD.

Merritt explains his thinking behind the Quickies concept: “I’ve been reading a lot of very short fiction, and I enjoyed writing 101 Two-Letter Words, the poetry book about the shortest words you can use in Scrabble. And I’ve been listening to a lot of French baroque harpsichord music. Harpsichord doesn’t lend itself to languor. So I’ve been thinking about one instrument at a time, playing for about a minute or so and then stopping, and I’ve been thinking of narratives that are only a few lines long. Also, I had been using a lot of small notebooks, so when I reach the bottom of the page, I’ve only gone a short way. Now that I’m working on a different album, I’m enforcing a large notebook rule so that I don’t do Quickies twice in a row.”

Quickies features Merritt and other Magnetic Fields band members Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms, and John Woo. They are joined by longtime friends and collaborators Chris Ewen, Daniel Handler, and Pinky Weitzman.

To date, Stephin Merritt has written and recorded twelve Magnetic Fields albums, including the beloved 69 Love Songs and the 2017 critically acclaimed Nonesuch box set, 50 Song Memoir, which chronicled the first fifty years of the songwriter’s life with one song per year. New York magazine called the box set ‘a celebration of Merritt’s sky-high range as a writer and a player, through the exploration of the circumstances that helped cultivate it … a delightful flip through the untold back pages of one of rock’s most singular voices, and, all in all, the best damned Magnetic Fields album in the last ten years.’ Merritt has also composed original music and lyrics for several music theatre pieces, including an off-Broadway stage musical of Neil Gaiman’s novel Coraline, for which he received an Obie Award. In 2014, Merritt composed songs and background music for the first musical episode of public radio’s This American Life. Stephin Merritt also releases albums under the band names the 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Castles Of America
2. The Biggest Tits In History
3. The Day The Politicians Died

Side B
1. Castle Down A Dirt Road
2. Bathroom Quickie
3. My Stupid Boyfriend

Side C
1. Love Gone Wrong
2. Favorite Bar
3. Kill A Man A Week

Side D
1. Kraftwerk In A Blackout
2. When She Plays The Toy Piano
3. Death Pact (Let's Make A)

Side E
1. I’ve Got A Date With Jesus
2. Come, Life, Shaker Life!

Side F
1. (I Want To Join A) Biker Gang
2. Rock 'n' Roll Guy

Side G
1. You've Got A Friend In Beelzebub
2. Let's Get Drunk Again (And Get Divorced)
3. The Best Cup Of Coffee In Tennessee

Side H
1. When The Brat Upstairs Got A Drum Kit
2. The Price You Pay
3. The Boy In The Corner

Side I
1. Song Of The Ant
2. I Wish I Had Fangs And A Tail
3. Evil Rhythm

Side J
1. She Says Hello
2. The Little Robot Girl
3. I Wish I Were A Prostitute Again

Melbourne, Australia minor key pop magicians Crayon Fields released their second album All The Pleasures Of The World in 2009. Just over a decade later they revisit this era-defining album with a deluxe vinyl reissue, including new liner notes and a raft of bonus tracks. All the Pleasures catapulted Crayon Fields from Melbourne hometown favourites to internationally acclaimed cult heroes. It was one of the year's most acclaimed Australian releases, earning a glowing review on Pitchfork and landing in countless end of year best of lists. The band headed to the US and UK/Europe for a series of tours, performing for KEXP, playing Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan shows at SXSW and CMJ and slogging their way from Austin to Estonia. In Australia they shared stages with the likes of Cornelius, Stereolab, Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Built to Spill. With its loping bass lines, swooning strings and eerie, hypnotic harmonies, All The Pleasures Of The World quickly assumed the status of a 21st century indie classic. The initial vinyl run sold out very quickly, and for the last decade fans have been harrassing the band for a repress. Crayon Fields have gone one step beyond, with newly penned liner notes from frontman Geoffrey O'Connor as well as Melbourne novelist/scriptwriter Anna Barnes (Content). The first pressing is in blue/green "galaxy swirl" coloured vinyl, and the band have raided their archives to unearth a trove of rare bonus tracks. These include single B-sides, covers of Abba, Roxette and Kath Bloom, and even moog-driven lounge instrumental versions of key singles Mirror Ball and the album title track. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Mirror Ball
2. Voice Of Paradise
3. All The Pleasures Of The World
4. Timeless
5. Celebrate
Side B:
1. Graceless
2. Where The Light Isn’t Cruel
3. Disappear
4. Lucky Again
5. You Could Wind Up Anywhere

Digital Bonus Tracks:
11. How Loved You Are
12. So Much Time
13. Come Here (Kath Bloom)
14. Mirror Ball (demo Version)
15. Take A Chance On Me (Abba)
16. All The Pleasures Of The World (Moog Version)
17. Mirror Ball (Moog Version)
18. It Must Have Been Love (Roxette)

Originally released in 1999. 6xLP is black ten-inch vinyl in box with ten-inch book insert and full album download. 3CD is jewel case box set and book insert. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Absolutely Cuckoo
2. I Don't Believe In The Sun
3. All My Little Words
4. A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
5. Reno Dakota
6. I Don't Want To Get Over You
7. Come Back From San Francisco
8. The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side
9. Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits
10. The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be
11. I Think I Need A New Heart
12. The Book Of Love
13. Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long
14. How Fucking Romantic
15. The One You Really Love
16. Punk Love
17. Parades Go By
18. Boa Constrictor
19. A Pretty Girl Is Like
20. My Sentimental Melody
21. Nothing Matters When We're Dancing
22. Sweet-Lovin' Man
23. The Things We Did And Didn't Do
24. Roses
25. Love Is Like Jazz
26. When My Boy Walks Down The Street
27. Time Enough For Rocking When We're Old
28. Very Funny
29. Grand Canyon
30. No One Will Ever Love You
31. If You Don't Cry
32. You're My Only Home
33. (Crazy For You But) Not That Crazy
34. My Only Friend
35. Promises Of Eternity
36. World Love
37. Washington, D.C.
38. Long-Forgotten Fairytale
39. Kiss Me Like You Mean It
40. Papa Was A Rodeo
41. Epitaph For My Heart
42. Asleep And Dreaming
43. The Sun Goes Down And The World Goes Dancing
44. The Way You Say Good-Night
45. Abigail, Belle Of Kilronan
46. I Shatter
47. Underwear
48. It's A Crime
49. Busby Berkeley Dreams
50. I'm Sorry I Love You
51. Acoustic Guitar
52. The Death Of Ferdinand De Saussure
53. Love In The Shadows
54. Bitter Tears
55. Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget
56. Yeah! Oh, Yeah!
57. Experimental Music Love
58. Meaningless
59. Love Is Like A Bottle Of Gin
60. Queen Of The Savages 61 Blue You
62. I Can't Touch You Anymore
63. Two Kinds Of People
64. How To Say Goodbye
65. The Night You Can't Remember
66. For We Are The King Of The Boudoir
67. Strange Eyes
68. Xylophone Track
69. Zebra 

At the corner of Living Legend St. and OG Ave. you will find Lee Fields’ house. A home that was built with blood, sweat, and tears, and stands on the unshakable foundation of his god given talent. Lee has been singing for 50 plus years and is undeniably, yet amazingly, at the top of his game. Those who have paid attention know that Lee is part of the class that is directly responsible for the revival of old school funk and soul. He has inspired many of today’s younger artists who are doing their best to carry the torch. As long as the road has been, and heavy as the crown may be, Fields is proving yet again that he’s “still got it”. His latest offering is sure to be a warmly received instant classic.

It Rains Love is the 2nd album by Lee Fields & The Expressions on Brooklyn’s Big Crown Records and gives us yet another masterclass in soul. Teaming up again with frequent collaborator and producer Leon Michels and his devoted band, The Expressions, they have managed again to take a classic approach and update it. Traditional soul sensibilities are mixed with a hip-hop tinged, sample ready sound that is as much an homage to the old as to the new. Some of the songs sound like they could belong to any of the last 4 decades without it feeling like a throwback, while others are 60’s soul through and through. Lyrically, Lee runs the gamut from gushing admonishments of love to politically charged calls to action, from proclamations of God’s existence to love letters written to his wife. This record marks the fifth studio album from Lee Fields & the Expressions and we are very proud to add it to the already impeccable catalog they have created together. Another strong offering by a man many people consider to be a national treasure, the professor of love himself, Mr Lee Fields. It’s all love baby! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Lee Field’s is on top form and dominating the soul genre with his distinctive and bold vocals. It Rains Love is a monumental album which sets him apart as a pure talent, taking all things soul and putting his own stamp on it.

TRACK LISTING

1. It Rains Love
2. Blessed With The Best
3. Two Faces
4. You’re What’s Needed In My Life
5. Wake Up
6. Will I Get Off Easy
7. Prisoner Of Love
8. A Promise Is A Promise
9. God Is Real
10. Love Is The Answer
11. Don’t Give Up (Cd Bonus Track)

The instrumental version of the instant classic "Special Night" by Lee Fields & The Expressions. There are a few terms that get thrown around loosely, two of which are legend and retro-soul. One of these fits Lee Fields hand and glove, one of these doesn’t fit at all. Very few people in music have both earned the status of legendary and continue to solidify it. 50 years in the game and only getting better, gaining more fans, and evolving his sound on each album, Lee is in fact a Living Legend. This brings us to the misuse of the term "retro-soul" when talking about Mr. Fields. You don’t have to look far to find a younger generation emulating the essence and styles of an era the’ve only experienced through music and movies. It seems unfair to tag Lee with a term that implies imitation when he is part of the generation that actually defined the genre. Plain and simple, this is not that. "Special Night" is a masterclass in soul music past and present. “I feel that every human being’s purpose is to do what their inner voice says to do,” says Lee Fields. “And my inner voice, my driving force, wants me to put out music and keeping making better records.” Special Night is also the first record in the Expressions catalogue in which every song was written jointly by Lee Fields and The Expressions.

“When I record, I make every song like I actually mean it. I mean every word I say. On Special Night I’m talking to my lady — literally, expressing the way I feel.” says Lee Fields. “You can tell if a song is real or not, and every moment I’m recording, those moments are real, this is a record about what people do in real life”. For one example, he cites the song “Work to Do,” which tells the story of “a guy going to counseling, drinking too much, apologizing to the old lady and trying to keep family together, doing the manly thing.” On “Make This World”, Lee makes a nod back to his early funk roots with a cautionary tale about the health of the planet. The world was designed to last indefinitely,” says Fields. “We’re the only living species on Earth who can alter that process. I’m hoping that song has a chain reaction, helps somebody put into action whatever contribution they can to change what the world is going through.” As always, sticking to the formula but pushing the boundaries “Never Be Another You” from the first note doesn’t sound like something you would hear on a Lee record, that is until he starts singing anyhow. A low tempo ballad with a head nodding drum track, sparse piano lines, and all the space Lee needs to lay down what is sure to be one of the flyest love songs of 2017.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Special Night
A2. I’m Coming Home
A3. Work To Do
A4. Never Be Another You
A5. Lover Man
B1. Make The World
B2. Let Him In
B3. How I Like It
B4. Where Is The Love?
B5. Precious Love 

Nonesuch Records releases the Magnetic Fields’ 50 Song Memoir, a five-CD/five-LP set that chronicles the 50 years of songwriter Stephin Merritt’s life with one song per year. It was produced by Stephin Merritt with additional production by Thomas Bartlett and Charles Newman. The Magnetic Fields performed the 50 Song Memoir over two nights per city, beginning November 18 & 19 at Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA, and continuing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on December 2 & 3. Further dates begin in spring 2017. 50 Song Memoir is available in five-LP and five-CD editions including an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt, and as a standalone bound book with a full-album download card.

Merritt began recording on his 50th birthday: February 9, 2015. Unlike his previous work, the lyrics on 50 Song Memoir are nonfiction – in Merritt’s words, “a mix of autobiography (bedbugs, Buddhism, buggery) and documentary (hippies, Hollywood, hyperacusis).” As he says in the album’s liner note interview with Handler, “I am the least autobiographical person you are likely to meet. I will probably not write any more true songs after this than I did before, but it’s been interesting working on it.”

In addition to his vocals on all 50 songs, Merritt plays more than one hundred instruments on 50 Song Memoir, ranging from ukulele to piano to drum machine to abacus. In concert, the music will be played and sung by a newly expanded Magnetic Fields septet in a stage set featuring 50 years of artefacts both musical (vintage computers, reel-to-reel tape decks, newly invented instruments), and decorative (tiki bar, shag carpet, vintage magazines for the perusal of idle musicians). The seven performers each play seven different instruments, either traditional (cello, charango, clavichord) or invented in the last 50 years (Slinky guitar, Swarmatron, synthesizer). The stage extravaganza will be directed by the award-winning Jose Zayas (Love in the Time of Cholera, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter).

To date, Stephin Merritt has written and recorded eleven Magnetic Fields albums, including the popular and critically acclaimed 69 Love Songs. A song from that record, ‘The Book of Love’, has been covered by Peter Gabriel and has appeared in numerous TV shows and films; notably, the Nairobi Chamber Orchestra performed the song at an official state dinner in Kenya, before Presidents Barack Obama and Uhuru Kenyatta delivered their toasts. Merritt has also composed original music and lyrics for several music theatre pieces, including an off-Broadway stage musical of Neil Gaiman's novel Coraline, for which he received an Obie Award. In 2014, Merritt composed songs and background music for the first musical episode of public radio’s This American Life. Stephin Merritt also releases albums under the band names the 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes. 

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
1. ’66 Wonder Where I’m From
2. ’67 Come Back As A Cockroach
3. ’68 A Cat Called Dionysus
4. ’69 Judy Garland
5. ’70 They’re Killing Children Over There
6. ’71 I Think I’ll Make Another World
7. ’72 Eye Contact
8. ’73 It Could Have Been Paradise
9. ’74 No
10. ’75 My Mama Ain’t

Disc 2
1. ’76 Hustle 76
2. ’77 Life Ain’t All Bad
3. ’78 The Blizzard Of ’78
4. ’79 Rock’n’Roll Will Ruin Your Life
5. ’80 London By Jetpack
6. ’81 How To Play The Synthesizer
7. ’82 Happy Beeping
8. ’83 Foxx And I
9. ’84 Danceteria!
10. ’85 Why I Am Not A Teenager

Disc 3
1. ’86 How I Failed Ethics
2. ’87 At The Pyramid
3. ’88 Ethan Frome
4. ’89 The 1989 Musical Marching Zoo
5. ’90 Dreaming In Tetris
6. ’91 The Day I Finally…
7. ’92 Weird Diseases
8. ’93 Me And Fred And Dave And Ted
9. ’94 Haven’t Got A Penny
10. ’95 A Serious Mistake

Disc 4
1. ’96 I’m Sad!
2. ’97 Eurodisco Trio
3. ’98 Lovers’ Lies
4. ’99 Fathers In The Clouds
5. ’00 Ghosts Of The Marathon Dancers
6. ’01 Have You Seen It In The Snow?
7. ’02 Be True To Your Bar
8. ’03 The Ex And I
9. ’04 Cold-Blooded Man
10. ’05 Never Again

Disc 5
1. ’06 “Quotes”
2. ’07 In The Snow White Cottages
3. ’08 Surfin’
4. ’09 Till You Come Back To Me
5. ’10 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
6. ’11 Stupid Tears
7. ’12 You Can Never Go Back To New York
8. ’13 Big Enough For Both Of Us
9. ’14 I Wish I Had Pictures
10. ’15 Somebody’s Fetish

The Telescopes have signed with Hamburg’s Tapete Records. This new album, “Hidden Fields”, The Telescopes 8th, was recorded in Glasgow, with St deluxe.

“Hidden Fields” is an unexpected return from the group's recent expeditions into the outer reaches of freedrone noise. The psychiatric sounds of The Telescopes in a concise inner sensory rush. This is their most song based output for some time.

Soul legend Lee Fields has re-teamed with The Expressions for new album 'Emma Jean', out on Brooklyn’s Truth & Soul Records. The successful formula seems to be two-fold: sticking to the raucous-yet-tender voiced soul music Lee Fields has always made, yet updating it - pushing the boundaries of what it can be. The result is an unmistakeable sound, something that, as 'Faithful Man' was reviewed in Pitchfork, “isn’t indebted specifically to Atlantic or Stax or Philadelphia International or Chess or Fame or Motown so much as it’s indebted to all of them at once.”

This is why no one can call a Lee Fields record on Truth & Soul a “throwback.” It has hints, sounds, feelings that may be familiar but then there are textures, themes, and approaches that challenge the genre and stretch the sound into something else, something decidedly Lee Fields.

To be sure, a good part of this Lee Fields sound can be chalked up to Truth & Soul producers and co-owners Jeff Silverman and Leon Michels, as well as the team of top-notch musicians involved. The artists you hear behind Lee Fields are some of the same that have backed the likes of Aloe Blacc, Sharon Jones, El Michels Affair, Adele, Liam Bailey, Ghostface Killah, and Jay-Z to name a few.

This distinctive sound and style, a long time in the making, is again on point with 'Emma Jean'. Here, once more, the rules of the soul genre are tested, changed, and updated, showing that Fields and company have a very real command of this sound. To be sure, there are those that may be content with identifying and following the formulas of soul music’s past. But this new record–and the ones before it–show that Lee Fields, The Expressions, and Truth & Soul are more interested in where it can go next.

Liverpool legend Edgar Summertyme –aka Edgar Jones, former front man of The Stairs and Mercury music prize nominee returns with his inspirational new album ‘Morphic Fields’ in Oct.

Influenced by classic song writing, psychedelia and harking back to his Stairs roots, the music he has produced is truly compelling. Once again this innovative artist has produced another mesmerizing masterpiece.

TRACK LISTING

1) Revolving All Around You
2) Reach Out For The Spirit
3) Morphic Fields
4) Long Dark Night Of The Soul
5) Tell Me About It Brother
6) Honey Bear
7) Sense Of Wonder
8) Rachel’s House At Night
9) She Dunno
10) The Stars Will Shine Again For You My Love
11) Morphic Field
12) Making Good Of Nothing

Following up a widely acclaimed string of EPs in 2011, this is the debut full-length from Rough Fields.

"Edge of the Firelight" reveals Rough Fields' full musical scope, as the ten tracks sweep from deep, pulsating sub-grooves ("Summer On The Haight") and intense, epic crescendos ("Girls In Cars") to atmospheric sun-down jams ("Geese") and concrete explorations ("Border Navigation"). There's coherence throughout, though, not least in the album's faithful adherence to Rough Fields' usual sound sources - found objects, broken instruments, environmental sounds, sonic defects and thick, layered textures.

TRACK LISTING

1. Manila
2. Girls In Cars
3. Summer On The Haight
4. The Harbour Wall
5. You As You
6. Watery Fable
7. Dead Wood, Trailer Snakes
8. Geese
9. Border Navigation
10. Curtain Music

"Everything Last Winter" is the debut album from Fields, and it features re-recorded versions of their singles "If You Fail We All Fail" and "Song For The Fields". It also contains some of the most visually arresting artwork to grace a musical release in recent times. In keeping with the tone of the rest of their work the band have eschewed hiding behind computer trickery and all other mod cons and chosen to work with a real human being, a pen and a pad of paper.

Debut album from new London band The Playing Fields. They forge a unique sound - edgy, dark, intense pieces fixed around beautifully melodious song-writing and gently strummed hooks, with a rhythmic drive and graceful violin accompaniment. 'Dark, melodic tunesmiths' - The Guardian.

"A Life Worth Living For" is the musical swansong for these Edgeley pranksters – a mind-boggling mixture of indie pop, folk, country, jazz and psychedelia held together by instantly catchy melodies and quirky observational lyrics.