This week sees the return of L.A.-based artist Aimee Mann. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls her ninth solo album, "a consistently strong set of intimate, smartly crafted folk-pop, combining a dark, acoustic-oriented sound with her plaintive vocals and often-poignant lyrics reflecting upon lost love and mental illness." Berkeley, CA-based artist Chaz Bundick of Toro Y Moi fame hooked up with the California duo The Mattson 2 for what Yates calls "a fine set of mostly instrumental, jazz and funk-tinged psych-rock with a cinematic, '70s-steeped sound." On her sophomore album, young DC-based artist Sneaks (aka Eva Moolchan) brings "a potent set of hypnotic post-punk with a minimalist sound featuring stark bass guitar lines and drum-machine beats accompanying her deadpan vocals and often-enigmatic lyrics."
The Buttertones deliver a "spirited blend of goth-tinged post-punk with '60s garage-rock, surf and R&B" on their debut album. On their seventh album, UK duo Goldfrapp bring a mix of throbbing dance-pop and ambient ballads. And Coco Hames (former frontwoman for The Ettes) debuts with a "a well-crafted blend of '60s girl-group pop, garage-rock, country-tinged folk-pop and more."
Aimee Mann - "Patient Zero"
from Mental Illness on Superego
Bob Dylan - "My One and Only Love"
from Triplicate on Columbia / Sony Music
Body Count - "Black Hoodie"
from Bloodlust on Century Media
The Buttertones - "A Tear For Rosie"
from Gravedigging on Innovative Leisure
Chaz Bundick / The Mattson 2 - "JBS"
from Star Stuff on Company Records
Coco Hames - "When You Said Goodbye"
from Coco Hames on Merge
Devon Sproule - "Make It Safe"
from The Gold String on Tin Angel
50 Cent - "In Da Club"
from Best of 50 Cent on Interscope
George Winston - "Carousel 1"
from Spring Carousel on RCA
Geotic - "Actually Smiling"
from Abysma on Ghostly International
Goldfrapp - "Moon In Your Mouth"
from Silver Eye on Mute
Hauschka - "Constant Growth Fails"
from What If on Temporary Residence
ÌFÉ - "Umbo (Come Down)"
from IIII + IIII on Discos Ifá
Jake Xerxes Fussell - "Jump for Joy"
from What in the Natural World on Paradise of Bachelors
Julia Holter - "So Lillies"
from In the Same Room on Domino
Leela James - "All Over Again"
from Did It for Love on Shesangz
Lydia Ainsworth - "Into The Blue"
from Darling of the Afterglow on Arbutus Records
Mastodon - "Sultan's Curse"
from Emperor of Sand on Reprise / Warner Music
The Mavericks - "Damned (If You Do)"
from Brand New Day on Mono Mundo Recordings / Thirty Tigers
Monster Movie - "Into the Light"
from Keep the Voices Distant on Graveface Records
The Moonlandingz - "Black Hanz"
from Interplanetary Class Classics on Transgressive