New Music Reviews (02/14)

Each week, Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. These reviews help our DJs decide on what they want to play. See what we added this week below (and on our Charts page), including new releases from Big Thief, Spoon, Raveena, and more.

Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (4AD)
This Brooklyn band’s excellent fifth full-length is a 20-song double album of expansive folk-pop ranging from intimate acoustic folk and rustic country to atmospheric rock and moody, electronic-infused, beat-driven pop. Adrianne Lenker remains one of modern music’s finest lyricists, and her songs here encompass everything from a playful meditation on potatoes to lost love and a desire for connection.

Spoon – Lucifer on the Sofa (Matador)
This Austin band’s 10th album is one of their strongest sets of sharply crafted, hook-filled rock ranging from swaggering glam and driving, blues-tinged rock to slinky, funk-inflected rock, anthemic dance-rock and moody, sax-streaked rock.

Raveena – Asha's Awakening (Warner)
The second album from Queens, NY-bred artist Raveena Aurora is an impressive blend of airy R&B with psych-tinged electro-pop, funk and hip hop, along with incorporating elements of Bollywood film music and other South Asian styles reflecting her heritage (her family immigrated to Queens from India) on songs of love, loss and healing.

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio – Cold As Weiss (Colemine)
This Seattle band’s third album (and the first featuring new drummer Dan Weiss) is an impressive set of funk and soul instrumentals (along with a bit of blues), combining stinging guitar riffs, searing organ lines and in-the-pocket rhythms.

Empath – Visitor (Fat Possum)
This Philadelphia band’s second album features a somewhat cleaner and brighter sound for their psych-tinged noise-punk, combining fuzzy guitars and synths, driving rhythms, a variety of ambient samples, gauzy vocals and an abundance of catchy song hooks.

Shamir – Heterosexuality (AntiFragile Music)
This Las Vegas-bred, Philadelphia-based artist’s eighth album is a strong set of industrial-tinged electro-pop. Produced by Hollow Comet (aka Strange Ranger’s Isaac Eiger), the album combines sparkling synths, fuzzy guitars, occasional strings and booming beats with his soaring, falsetto-laden vocals and personal lyrics of identity and self-acceptance.

Night Shop – Forever Night (Dangerbird)
The second Night Shop full-length album from LA-based artist Justin Sullivan (who’s also played with Kevin Morby, Flat Worms and The Babies) is a sharply crafted set of folk-rock inflected at times with rockabilly, glam-rock and other styles.

A Place to Bury Strangers – See Through You (Dedstrange)
The sixth album from this Brooklyn band led by Oliver Ackermann is a potent blend of noise-addled post-punk, industrial and shoegazer psych-rock, combining grimy, distortion-drenched guitars and driving rhythms with half-buried vocals, often-dark lyrics and hypnotic song hooks.

alt-J – The Dream (Canvasback/Atlantic)
This British trio’s fourth album is a diverse set of quirky avant-pop ranging from breezy, rhythm-driven pop-rock and gentle acoustic folk to intricate prog-pop and moody chamber-pop.

Moonchild – Starfruit (Tru Thoughts)
This LA-based trio’s fifth album is a potent set of atmospheric R&B with plush synths, gently propulsive rhythms, breathy vocals and dreamy melodies. Special guests include Rapsody, Tank and the Bangas, Lalah Hathaway and Mumu Fresh.

Eddie Vedder – Earthling (Seattle Surf/Republic)
The Pearl Jam frontman’s third solo album (and first in 11 years) ranges from crunchy, energetic rock and anthemic heartland rock to earnest folk-pop, jaunty, country-tinged rock and Beatlesque chamber-pop. The album’s guest list includes a trio of legends: Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Ringo Starr.

The Delines – The Sea Drift (Jealous Butcher)
The third album from this Portland-based band featuring Amy Boone (formerly of Austin band The Damnations) along with members of Richmond Fontaine is a beautifully crafted blend of cinematic country-soul and folk-rock with a warm, often-melancholy sound combining guitar, keyboards, trumpet and strings with Boone’s world-weary vocals and Willy Vlautin’s finely chiseled lyrics portraying struggling lives along the Gulf Coast.

Trupa Trupa – B Flat A (Lovitt)
This Polish band’s sixth album is a well-crafted set of ominous rock ranging from driving, tension-filled post-punk to atmospheric psych-rock, with often-dark lyrics for these troubled times.

Carrie Biell – We Get Along (self-released)
The latest solo album from this Seattle artist (and member of Moon Palace) is a well-crafted set of reflective folk-pop combining acoustic and electric guitars, synths, piano and other instrumentation with her breathy vocals, melancholy melodies and personal lyrics of desire and love lost and found.

Trentemøller – Memoria (In My Room)
The sixth studio album from Danish producer/musician Anders Trentemøller is an evocative blend of shoegazerish dream-pop and atmospheric post-rock with fuzzy guitars, shimmering synths and hypnotic song hooks.

Fort Romeau – Beings of Light (Ghostly International)
The third full-length (and first in seven years) from this British electronic producer (aka Michael Greene) is an evocative blend of deep house, dreamy techno and atmospheric ambient, combining moody synths, looped samples and hypnotic rhythms.

Holm – Why Don’t You Dance (PNKSLM)
Holm is the solo project of Mikkel Holm Silkjær, who’s the frontman for the Danish band Yung. His debut album as Holm is a solid set ranging from moody post-punk and anthemic indie-rock to some brooding ballads.

Jacques Greene – Fantasy EP (LuckyMe)
This Montreal producer’s latest release is a solid five-song EP of propulsive electronic grooves combining moody synths, rugged breakbeats, vocal samples and bittersweet melodies.