This week, French band Phoenix rises with their sixth album to date, KEXP Music Director Don Yates loves Ti Amo enough to call it "another sharply crafted set of buoyant pop-rock with a warm, streamlined sound featuring fizzy synths, glistening guitars, bouncy beats and sunny pop hooks". Brooklyn band Big Thief returns with their second release of "expansive folk-pop with a mostly intimate and hushed sound accompanying [lead singer] Adrianne Lenker's soothing soprano and imagistic lyrics countering life's hardships with resiliency and hope". And just what you need to follow that - Brooklyn-via-El Paso band Cigarettes After Sex debut with "an evocative set of noirish, bleary-eyed dream-pop combining an atmospheric, slow-burning sound with smoky, androgynous vocals and often-melancholy lyrics of love and heartbreak".
Also in stores this week is the galactic amalgam of neo-classical, prog-rock, ambient, folk, space-rock and other styles as seasoned composers Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly and James McAlister join for Planetarium. Another stellar album this week comes from KEXP faves London Grammar, whose second album, Truth Is A Beautiful Thing is "a sleeker, more polished take on their stately pop, combining a spacious, slow-burning sound with Hannah Reid's elegant, soaring vocals and downcast lyrics". And from the recently departed rock pioneer Chuck Berry is his final album (and first studio album since 1979's Rock It), which is "a wide-ranging set that occasionally hearkens back to the fire and wit of his classic recordings".
Look for all of these and new music from Ani DiFranco, Boogarins, Dave Depper, Kronos Quartet, Pantha Du Prince, Tindersticks, The Ruby Suns, and many others.
It's been six years since we last heard from Seattle-bred band Fleet Foxes, and the group return with their third LP this week. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says the album's "expansive folk-pop is their most adventurous work to date, featuring a rich, ornate sound on sprawling, shape-shifting song…
Earlier this year, we got a sneak peek at the new alt-J album as the UK trio stopped by KEXP for an in-studio session. Now, the entire LP is out -- a release KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls, "their most adventurous, ranging from catchy prog-pop and solemn atmospheric folk ballads to decidedly o…
