This Valentine's Day week, it's appropriate that Father John Misty releases his sophomore full-length, I Love You, Honeybear. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls the release, "a masterful, more fully realized set of sophisticated ‘70s-steeped pop. With Jonathan Wilson again enlisted as producer, the album features a warm, sumptuous sound combining acoustic and electric guitars, piano, strings, horns, harps and more on beautifully crafted songs of love with soaring harmonies and rich melodies, along with Tillman’s soulful vocals and finely chiseled lyrics blending biting satire with heartfelt poignancy."
The Districts also release their second album today, "a potent set of anthemic indie-rock, with in-demand indie-rock producer John Congleton helping provide the band with a more muscular and fleshed-out sound than their 2013 debut Telephone, combining loud, rumbling guitars and pounding rhythms with monster song hooks and angst-fueled lyrics." Brooklyn-based producer Braille (aka Praveen Sharma, also one-half of Sepalcure alongside Machinedrum) releases "another absorbing set of warm soulful grooves that implement the same emotive style found on Sepalcure's innovative releases, albeit at a predominantly slower yet still hypnotic tempo."
Paris-based duo The Dø (Finnish vocalist Olivia Merilahti and French multi-instrumentalist Dan Levy) "ditched the acoustic instruments that colored their previous releases in favor of a more keyboard-oriented sound for their third album. It’s a strong set of emotive electro-pop combining bright synths and other keyboards with aching vocals and moody melodies." JD McPherson lets the good times roll on his second album, "another sharply crafted blend of jump blues and ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll, though this time featuring a more reverb-laden sound with buzzing electric guitars, rollicking piano, in-the-pocket rhythms, occasional honking sax and confident, dynamic vocals." And on the heels of her Grammy win for Best Alternative Music Album, St. Vincent release a deluxe edition of her self-titled full-length, containing five bonus tracks, including the previously unreleased track "Bad Believer."
KEXP Music Director Don Yates has declared the debut release from Ibeyi as his "Pick of the Week." He notes, "the debut album from the young Paris-based French-Cuban twin-sister duo of Naomi and Lisa-Kainde Diaz (who are also both daughters of the acclaimed Cuban percussionist Miguel “Anga” Diaz) i…
The legendary Bob Dylan releases "an album of vintage songs associated with legendary crooner Frank Sinatra." KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "it works beautifully, with spare, low-key accompaniment (ethereal pedal steel, softly plucked bass, gentle guitars and occasional muted brass) and his …