Change up your routine with some new tunes from these albums, dropping today!
Pink Floyd – The Endless River (Columbia Records)
In 2013 David Gilmour and Nick Mason revisited the music from the 1993 Division Bell sessions, when they played freely with Rick Wright at Britannia Row and Astoria studios. They decided that the tracks should be made available as part of the Pink Floyd repertoire. It would be the last time the three of them would be heard together. The band have spent the last year recording and upgrading the music, using the advantages of modern studio technology to create The Endless River. It is a tribute to Rick Wright, whose keyboards are at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound. It is a mainly instrumental album with one song, ‘Louder Than Words’, (with new lyrics by novelist Polly Samson), arranged across four sides and produced by David Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson.
Buy the album on iTunes today!
Cult of Youth – Final Days (Sacred Bones Records)
Final Days is yet another large step forward, though Cult of Youth tread more or less the same sonic territory they have been exploring for a while. This time around, however, Ragonis joined on every track by a fully realized lineup of the band, where on previous albums the membership was a little more mercurial. Guitarist Christian Kount adds sharp, post-Joy Division leads to pseudo-goth rockers like “God’s Garden” and “Empty Faction,” while drummer/percussionist Cory Flannigan plays tight post-industrial rhythms or trashy kitchen-sink percussion (the recording is fabled to include the use of human bones in the percussion tracks on some songs) on Birthday Party-esque tracks like “Sanctuary.
Buy the album on Scared Bones Records website!
Big K.R.I.T – Cadillactica (Def Jam Records)
Mississippi rapper Big K.R.I.T. was baptized in deep Southern slop and then cut through the competition with a bit of an indie spin, but Cadillactica is on another level, and if the album cover makes it looks like one of Kid Cudi’s space jams, there’s good reason. This sprawling, ambitious effort is the promise of Cudi’s early soul-searching fulfilled, beginning with two interesting intros, best of the pair being “Life” where K.R.I.T. testifies “I found life on this planet/Dammit, I’ve been damaged/But I won’t take this for granted” and then proceeds to shove and prove as if this were his debut. Check the frantic, techno-Outkast title track for unique and new proof, while “Soul Food,” featuring Raphael Saadiq, does just what it does on the tin, reminiscing about tradition in a mournful, “you don’t know what you got till it’s gone” style. Cadillactica is an album where an artist launches a superior second act while losing none of the essential elements that made the first so powerful.
Buy the album on Big K.R.I.T’s website!
Rumer – Into Colour (Atlantic Records)
Rumer’s third full-length album, 2014’s Into Colour, once again finds the British singer/songwriter delving into a batch of ’60s and ’70s soft pop-influenced songs. In this album Rumer eschews the cover songs in favor of very personal, all-original material. Collaborating with her boyfriend, producer/arranger/songwriter Rob Shirakbari, she has crafted an album that retains all of her vintage inclinations without ever falling into retro kitsch. There is an added emotional weight and a sense that something more than a well-constructed melody is at stake on Into Colour. Some of this might stem from the fact that Rumer (who publicly revealed in 2012 that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD) suffered stage anxiety, as well as a miscarriage before embarking on this album. Not surprisingly, there is a melancholy tone to much of the material on Into Colour. However, whether she is ruminating over an ex-boyfriend as she does on “Sam,” or working through her feelings of loss after her miscarriage as on “Butterfly,” Rumer’s measured, lyrical songs never get mired in sadness, and instead stay afloat on her warm, enveloping vocals and melodies that stick with you long after the song is over.
Buy Into Colour on Rumer’s official site today!
