In Stores Now 5/23

The Dead have come back to life with Day of the Dead. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "This mammoth 59 song, 5 and a ½ hour long tribute to the Grateful Dead was put together and produced by The National's Bryce and Aaron Dessner as a benefit for the Red Hot organization and their fight against AIDS. The impressive lineup features a variety of musical heavy hitters ranging from The Walkmen and Phosphorescent to Fucked Up and Tim Hecker to Tal National and Orchestra Baobab. Best of all, most of the interpretations here range from solid to pretty great."

Ric Ocasek can't stop Car Seat Headrest: Seattle-based artist Will Toledo returns with his first full-length recorded in a studio. "Produced by Steve Fisk, Teens Of Denial is not only the best-sounding Car Seat Headrest album to date, it's also packed with great songs combining anthemic song hooks and shout-along choruses with smartly crafted lyrics of alienation, depression and survival." The latest from Brooklyn band The So So Glos "finds them bringing a bit more diverse and hook-filled sound to their anthemic garage-punk, with often-politically charged lyrics contrasting anxiety, political extremism and other modern problems with the power of music and community." Marissa Nadler delivers her "fullest and most expansive sound yet. Like her last album (2014's July), this one was produced by Seattle's Randall Dunn and features a stellar, mostly Northwest supporting cast fleshing out her haunting, psych-tinged folk-pop."

Pantha du Prince -- aka Berlin producer Hendrick Weber -- "collaborated with drummer Bendik Hovik Kjeldsberg (The Bell Laboratory) and Scott Mou (Queens) for his fourth album (and first in six years), which finds him bringing a bit more of an atmospheric bent to his minimalist techno, combining twinkling synths and cascading bells and chimes with propulsive rhythms and occasional vocals." Saskatchewan artist Andy Shauf shares his fourth full-length, a "concept album comprised of character sketches of people attending a party. The music is beautifully arranged chamber-pop, with an often-spacious sound featuring a variety of instrumentation (with all but the strings played by Shauf) accompanying his modest vocals and finely chiseled lyrics."

• (Various Artists) The War on Drugs – “Touch of Grey”
• from Day of the Dead on 4AD / Red Hot
• Adult Jazz – “Earrings Off!”
• from Earrings Off! on Tri Angle
• Andy Shauf – “The Magician”
• from The Party on Anti-
• Black Milk / Nat Turner – “The Knock”
• from The Rebellion Sessions on Computer Ugly
• Blues Magoos
• from Mercury Singles 1966-1968 on Sundazed
• Bob Dylan – “Melancholy Mood”
• from Fallen Angels on Columbia / Sony Music
• Brett Dennen – “Strawberry Road”
• from Por Favor on Elektra
• Car Seat Headrest – “Vincent”
• from Teens of Denial on Matador
• Death – “Zombie Ritual”
• from Scream Bloody Gore on Relapse Records
• The Echocentrics – “Gettin' Away With Your Gal (feat. Bill Callahan)”
• from Echo Hotel on Nacional Records
• Eric Clapton – “Spiral”
• from I Still Do on Bushbranch/Surfdog
• Fifth Harmony – “Work From Home”
• from 7/27 on Epic
• Helen Love – “First Girl From Wales In New York”
• from Smash Hits on Alcopop!
• The Highwaymen – “Highwayman”
• from The Very Best of the Highwaymen on Columbia Nashville / Legacy / Sony Music
• Honey Radar – “Caterpillar”
• from Blank Cartoon on What's Yr Rupture?
• Karl Blau – “Fallin' Rain”
• from Introducing Karl Blau on Raven Marching Band Records
• Katatonia – “Serac”
• from The Fall of Hearts on Peaceville Records / Snapper
• Kate Jackson – “Metropolis”
• from British Road Movies on Hoo Ha Records
• Kyle Forester – “Didn't Try to Run Away”
• from Kyle Forester on Flying Moonlight
• Luna – “Slash Your Tires”
• from Luna: Long Players (92-99) vinyl reissues on Captured Tracks
• Marissa Nadler – “Katie I Know”
• from Strangers on Sacred Bones/Bella Union
• Masabumi Kikuchi – “In Love In Vain”
• from Black Orpheus reissue on ECM
• Methyl Ethel – “Idée Fixe”
• from Oh Inhuman Spectacle on 4AD
• Mike Adams at His Honest Weight – “Bronze Worlds”
• from Casino Drone on Joyful Noise
• Misha – “We're Gonna Have It Out (Modern Love)”
• from All We Will Become on Tomlab
• Mountains & Rainbows – “How You Spend Your Time”
• from Particles on Castle Face
• Mrs. Magician – “Eyes All Over Town”
• from Bermuda on Swami
• Mudcrutch – “Beautiful World”
• from 2 on Reprise / Warner Bros.
• Mutual Benefit – “Lost Dreamers”
• from Skip a Sinking Stone on Mom + Pop Music
• Pantha du Prince – “Islands In The Sky”
• from The Triad on Rough Trade
• Richard Ashcroft – “Songs Of Experience”
• from These People on Harvest / Righteous Phonographic Association
• Saosin – “The Silver String”
• from Along the Shadow on Epitaph
• Seiho – “Exhibition”
• from Collapse on Leaving
• The So So Glos – “Missionary”
• from Kamikaze on Votiv
• Supermoon – “Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves”
• from Playland on Mint
• Tanya Donelly – “Storm Blown Bird”
• from Swan Song Series on American Laundromat Records
• Terry Allen – “What of Alicia”
• from Juarez reissue on Paradise of Bachelors
• Terry Reid – “River (Previously Unreleased Alternate Take)”
• from The Other Side of the River reissue on Light in the Attic
• Tim Heidecker – “In Glendale”
• from In Glendale on Jagjaguwar / Rado Records
• Zig Zags – “The Sadist”
• from Running Out of Red on Castle Face
• Zo! – “Lifelines feat. Dornik”
• from SkyBreak on Foreign Exchange Music