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Serving as a celebration of their 10-year history and a look ahead to their next era, Flatland Forever is Flatland Cavalry’s essential album. It features 15+ reissues of the band’s fan-favorite tracks from acclaimed releases Come May, Humble Folks, Homeland Insecurity, Welcome To Countryland, Songs To Keep You Warm, and Wandering Star – as well as 4 previously-unheard new songs. The album showcases Flatland’s signature range of breadth of ability – with heart-wrenching ballads, uptempo jams, timeless songwriting, and rich musicianship.
Presenting Unreal Unearth Unending, Hozier’s collection of songs from the sessions behind his chart-topping 2023 album Unreal Unearth. The Deluxe Version contains all tracks released around the album from 2022-2024 including the 16 original album tracks plus 10 songs never-before pressed on vinyl including the global smash hit “Too Sweet” and a previously unreleased new track “Hymn To Virgil.” Available December 6 on 3 “Tooth White” colored LPs in an expanded trifold package plus 2 printed 12”x12” inserts featuring drawings by Andrew Hozier-Byrne.
Childish Gambino - Atavista - Vinyl 2 LP
For years, Childish Gambino's Atavista hid in plain sight. When he released an unfinished version of the record on March 15, 2020, it spent just 12 hours on his website before he pulled it down. Reappearing on streaming a week later as 3.15.20, the project brought up almost as many questions as sparkling neo-soul anthems, which still sounded slicker than the average as raw cuts titled after timestamps.
Atavista is an ode to impermanence, never more directly than over the glimmering guitar of "Time" with Grande. ("One thing's for certain, baby/We're running out of time," they harmonize on the chorus.) But in Gambino's capable hands, Atavista also slows down to enjoy the view, the sonic equivalent of a luxe leather-interior BMW cruising an open California highway. "I did what I wanted to," he revels on closing track "Final Church." Atavista took many shapes over the years to reach a final form. In each warm refrain, tight sequence, and carefully chosen collaborator, Gambino demonstrates why some things are worth waiting for.
Little Big Town, The Christmas Record is the band’s first ever full-length Christmas album and includes 11 songs. Featuring 6 Christmas classics and 5 new holiday songs, including “Glow.” NBC announced that Little Big Town will be hosting what promises to be an unforgettable holiday special entitled, “Little Big Town’s Christmas at The Opry.” The special will be a festive 2-hour musical extravaganza from Nashville’s iconic Grand OIe Opry, featuring performances from the band alongside lots of exciting special guests. Indie Exclusive Green LP. Limited Edition.
DMX made his legendary introduction to the world in 1998 with his multi-platinum-selling debut album It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot, which captured his gift for blending light and heavy concepts behind an intense, menacing presence at the microphone. Before the end of that year DMX had released his second hit, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, which also reached #1. DMX’s next three albums also went on to secure the top spot, making him the first rapper to have their first five albums go straight to the top of the US chart.
Yet, one thing remained as a consistent theme across DMX’s releases — his profound prayers. Found on each of his first six studio albums, these prayers (which do not contain beats) blend supplications, thanksgivings, confessions, and meditations on life, death, and the beyond.
In celebration of DMX’s legacy and ahead of his 54th birthday, UMe will be releasing Let Us Pray: Partnering with GRAMMY award-winning songwriter and producer Warryn Campbell, we set DMX’s prayers to music for the first time on this groundbreaking project that marries hip-hop and gospel with features from Killer Mike, Snoop Dogg, LeCrae, MC Lyte and more.
Featured Artists
- Snoop Dogg
- Killer Mike
- MC Lyte
- LeCrae
- Mary Mary
- Terrace Martin
- The Walls Group
- Lena Byrd Miles
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Often revered as one of the most important debut albums of all time, Weezer’s “blue” album celebrates 30 years with a 1-LP color vinyl
edition exclusive for indie music stores.
Across 6CDs, Elvis Costello: King of America & Other Realms traces his musical travels from Hollywood – where the King Of America album was recorded in 1986 – to a brand new take on “Brilliant Mistake” cut in Cape Fear early in 2024, via Costello’s recording adventures in New Orleans, Oxford and Clarksdale, Mississippi, Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee and guided by Costello’s own 35-page essay which includes numerous rare and never-before seen photos.
The collection is anchored by CD1: a new 2024 remaster of the album King Of America from the original master tapes.
CD2 collects the solo demos from 1985 including six performances from the unheard Red Bus Studios session with radically different lyrical drafts, shedding new light on the intention of key songs from the King Of America album.
CD3 is a never heard before 17-song concert recorded on January 27, 1987 at The Royal Albert Hall in London in the company of James Burton, Jim Keltner, Jerry Scheff, Benmont Tench & T-Bone Wolk.
Newly mixed from multitrack tapes – and featuring live renditions of several King Of America titles – Costello is also heard performing songs by Waylon Jennings, Arthur Alexander, Allen Toussaint, Sonny Boy Williamson, Mose Allison, Ray Charles, Jesse Winchester, Dave Bartholomew and Buddy Holly. A truly great American songbook.
The set closes with a 3CD digest of Costello’s studio recordings, previously unreleased demos, outtakes & live recordings from this wild and wonderfully odd odyssey.
After 16 years, THE CURE is back with their 14th studio album, SONGS OF A LOST WORLD. Songs from the record were previewed during their 90-date, 33-country ‘Shows Of A Lost World’ tour for more than 1.3 million people to overwhelming fan and critical acclaim. Speaking about, “Alone,” the opening track on the album, Robert Smith says, “It’s the track that unlocked the record; as soon as we had that piece of music recorded, I knew it was the opening song and I felt the whole album come into focus... that was the moment when I knew the song – and the album – were real.” Robert Smith created the sleeve concept and Andy Vella, a longtime Cure collaborator, handled the album’s art and design. The cover art features ‘Bagatelle,’ a 1975 sculpture by Janez Pirnat.
It’s dangerous to put Illiterate Light in a box, especially with the release of their new album, Arches. Are they a guitar-driven indie rock duo? Kaleidoscopic neo-psychedelia? Synth-kissed, harmony-laden folk? What does one do with an album beginning with “fake tits and diet coke,” then pivoting to train derailments in rural Ohio and never-ending black holes? These prolific farmers-turned-rockers have captured the energy of their live shows—fans crowd-surfing, moshing, crying, and crooning—and infused it into their latest release.
“We’ve always been shape shifters, moving between heavy, dark distortion and gentle sweet fingerpicking, writing aggressive songs, introspective songs, and love songs, exploding and embracing,” reflects singer-guitarist Jeff Gorman. “Smashing it all together used to feel strange, but now there's a glue between everything we do. Our fans get it. They care less about genre. All they care about is feeling. And that’s all we care about. Are you alive or not?”
Illiterate Light’s third album, Arches, is not a passageway but an arrival. “We’re no longer striving to define a sound,” said drummer Jake Cochran. “We’re leaning into sides of ourselves that have felt off-limits, sticking to what feels right rather than concerning ourselves with comparison.” Out November 1 via Thirty Tigers, the record is bursting with thunderous anthems, biting lyrics, and lush harmonies.
The band originated in the Shenandoah Valley in 2015 when multi-instrumentalists Gorman and Cochran began playing music together while working on an organic farm. Eventually, they left the farm to focus on music, adopting the moniker Illiterate Light from a Wilco lyric. After several years of non-stop touring, they signed with Atlantic Records and released their eponymous full-length debut in late 2019. Two years later, they signed with Thirty Tigers and, in 2023, issued their critically acclaimed LP, Sunburned. Shortly after, they released two additional EPs, making Arches their fourth release in two years.
Arches was recorded in two very different locations: small-town Appalachia at Gorman’s home studio and Hollywood, CA at Sunset Sound with producer Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes, Beck, The Killers). “We wanted the best of both worlds,” says Gorman. “We spent several days with Joe at Sunset. To record vocals in the same live room as so many of my heroes—Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Dylan—was unreal. I knew I was in a holy place.” The LA session was paired with sessions in Virginia, where Gorman and Cochran co-produced the bulk of the record with longtime collaborator Danny Gibney. In their hometown, they experimented with soaring instrumental journeys and had friends sit in on the sessions to keep things lively.
“Having our community stop by the sessions kept us on our toes—we haven’t been able to do that in the past. It helped connect us to the feeling of our live show,” recalls Cochran. Illiterate Light’s live performances, described by the Washington Post as “massive,” feature Gorman on one foot, hammering bass on a foot-pedal synth, shredding big guitar riffs, and spitting out song after song while Cochran matches Gorman harmony for harmony, dancing with his standing drum kit, teetering on the edge of the stage only to dive head first into his next solo.
Arches is the closest you can get to their live show, with heavier songs like “I Ride Alone” and “Bloodlines” encapsulating the best of the writhing, uninhibited front-row experience. The keystone of the album, “Norfolk Southern,” crashes in with Gorman belting, “Here comes the Norfolk Southern / It's off the tracks / and heading for you,” with Cochran chanting, “break, break, break, break” to the ghost of the train that derailed in 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio, releasing 10,000 gallons of hazardous materials into the atmosphere. The song also serves as a metaphor for Gorman’s own turbulent feelings. “I certainly wanted to shine a light on the environmental catastrophe. But strangely, some days I feel just like that Norfolk Southern, barreling out of control at warp speed.”
Gorman lets the lyrics take control. Showing up relentlessly, day after day, to his home studio dubbed “The Bookhouse” (a tribute to David Lynch's Twin Peaks), he can’t predict what will arise. For the album's first track, “Payphone,” the opening lyrics were a surprise to Gorman: “Fake tits and diet coke / Full of undefeated hope / You are the only one I trust.” The jangly and groovy album opener is a pep talk between a woman named Big Red and her man as he faces crippling self-doubt and is self-medicating. She comforts him during a time of despair on a phone call that continues to drop.
Another relationship study, “Montauk,” is a cold beachside dance under the full moon inspired by the central question in Gorman’s favorite movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. “Do we go for it again—even though we're destined to fail?” he asks. “For me, the answer is a resounding yes.”
“All the Stars Are Burning Out” continues in that reflective vein. “It’s a throwback song, about getting high, going for a drive, dreaming up your future. You’re looking at that wide open black sky of bright stars, and they’re so beautiful and inspiring, and they make you want to follow your dreams. And yet all those stars eventually burn out. It’s a song about going for it even though life is impermanent and full of change,” Gorman said.
The saying goes, “arches never sleep.” Designed to distribute weight evenly, arches naturally rebalance as the structure around them shifts over time. Illiterate Light’s Arches exists within this metaphor in many ways. The album marks a period of artistic strength, a balancing act of identity and possibility. To listen to Arches is to plant yourself within the arch, to stand in the threshold between two worlds and gaze into Gorman and Cochran’s constant motion forward.
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NEW THIS WEEK AT THE SHOP
New albums from MOUNT EERIE, the longtime nom-de-tune of Pacific Northwest indie musician Phil Elverum, come along with the sudden unpredictability of obscure weather events. Oftentimes, they sound like a weather event as well. In the eight years since the tragic passing of his wife and co-parent, the illustrator and musician Genevieve Castree, Elverum's release schedule has dwindled even further. As an artist, he has always captured his life in the moment, as an infinitesimal speck of humanity attempting to sound out the whole cosmos; it is understandably not a method that produces dozens of tossed-off LPs. All that's to say is, if you're a longtime fan of Phil's (or simply someone still entranced by his album 'The Glow, Pt. 2' as The Microphones, which will hold up as one of the greatest recordings of this entire century), the prospect of a humongous new double disc set from him called 'Night Palace', in which he re-acquaints himself with the lo-fi spiritual folk-rock littered with every instrument imaginable that first put him on the sonic map, is incredible news. Just a few listens to this album, quite approachable despite its length, confirms that the guy is still in his long-ranging prime. We've had to wait a little less long to finally get copies of MK.GEE's anointed new album 'Two Star & the Dream Police', though by the looks of things on Discogs, a couple fans could not hold out and have already paid hundreds of dollars for the merch table version. I may not be predisposed to enjoy a record with this much hype, but I gave it a chance and by gum, its phenomenal; an uncanny combo of murky R&B, Knopfler-esque 80s guitar pop moves, and an ephemeral, jazzy feel throughout make up one of the years gems. Next up, CHARLI XCX. I'm sure the timing of the vinyl release of her extended version of 'brat and it's the same but there's three more songs so it's not' was intended to be celebratory; alas, if only that were the case. Anyhoo, its here. Its even bigger. And its not neon green any more.Feeling like the world's got you by the brain-cells? Consider MILES DAVIS, who started doing his own thing before he had anyone willing to go the distance with him, and is vindicated for eternity as one of the most creative, demanding, and productive musicians to ever live. A nice heavy box set called 'Miles In France', captures five separate performances of his Second Classic Quintet gigging across l'Hexagone in 1963 and 64, featuring players like George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock. If you don't have the scratch or the hours to spend on this big boy, there is also a convenient 2LP version collecting one crucial set.Doing business under the Peak Oil label name, former Sconnie raver turned LA ambient don Brian Foote has released some of the best dub techno records to come out in the States in a long time, if ever. Looking to throw the haters off the scent, he's launched a new sublabel called False Aralia with two new releases from ZERO KEY and SELFSAME which keep up the good work, while sounding refreshingly distinct from the Peak Oil jawns. Warm, effluvial zoners abound on these two slabs, where voices and rhythms refract and mingle according to some obscure hidden dub logic. In the same spirit, a new compilation from Music From Memory called VIRTUAL DREAMS II continues their excavation of the 90s Japanese supersoft IDM scene.A lot more great compilations return to the shop this week. Several we have had before over the years, but three are new. No internet radio station stays atop the pulse of so many strains of music as NTS, and their latest collection of selector-chosen comps is EUROPEAN PRIMITIVE GUITAR, which combs the continents output of Fahey and Kottke-esque 6-string wizards across the 70s and 80s. A new set from the Smiling C label called THE VOICE OF LOVE collects rare and essential slabs of UK sophistipop, street soul, and lovers rock. The UK label Acid Jazz has compiled THE ALBARIKA STORY, which charts the progression of West Africa's most influential independent label through its unique bits of jazz, funk, and disco.Last up, we've got bygone classics back in print on limited color vinyl editions from NATHANIEL RATELIFF, 9TH WONDER, MARGO PRICE, COLDPLAY, the VIOLENT FEMMES, and many more. -
USED VINYL ALERT
Here is your weekly update for November 7th We'll pickup where the Thursday night sneak peek video on our @StrictlyDiscs Instagram and Facebook left off. No frills. Just the artists. The rest is for your 650+ fresh-used digging pleasure downstairs in our Madison shop. Some of the headliners this week:
Rock/Punk: Aztec Camera, Camper Van Beethoven, Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Midnight Oil, The Church, The Band, Boondoggle & Balderdash, Bad Finger, Faces, The Bunneymen, Kraftwerk, Fairport Convention, Tom Tom Club, Duran Duran, Tom Waits, ZZ Top, Question Mark & The Mysterians, Dead Kennedys
Jazz: Quincy Jones, Julie Tippetts, Yusef Lateef, Harold Land, Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, Herbie Hancock, Acoustic Alchemy, Ben Webster, Art Blakey, Bill Connors,
Soul: Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, The Supremes, Little Buster, Jimmy Holiday, The Invitations, The Mighty Hannibal, The Isley Brothers
Contemporary/Hip-Hop: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Green Day, Cyn, Amy Winehouse, Drake, Big Punisher, J.Cole, GT Posse, Run The Jewels
Country: David Allan Coe, Restless Heart, Steve Earle, Dolly Parton, Willy Nelson, Waylon Jennings
Soundtracks: Walt Disney World Epcot Center, Alien, Lord of the Rings, Godfather, A Clockwork Orange, Top Gun
ALSO...holiday albums are back on the top bins! John Denver & The Muppets are there waiting for you.
Happy Digging! -
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