Lots of big releases this week! Lets see, lets see...oh right, TAYLOR SWIFT's new record is here. Seriously, looking right at it right now. It's called 'Midnights' and it's here and after some cursory googling, I sense a fair amount of hubbub on this one. The secrecy and suspense around the drops of Taylor's studio albums (this one will be her tenth) has reached some unprecedented levels. Is this a long-awaited scrapped album from the past? Will she settle some scores with entertainment industry figures who have wronged her? Will she change her name to Cobbler Quick and drop an album of blasted 21 century glitch-pop? Don't worry, all will be revealed soon at, or shortly after, midnight, when we open at 10 am. There are multiple cover and color editions that will be arriving throughout the coming days ('Mahogany', 'Blood Moon', 'Moonstone Blue' and 'Jade Green'), so check in with us on available versions! Less speculation is involved when it comes to a long-awaited new record from ARCTIC MONKEYS. We just know 'The Car' is gonna be great, the question is how. Early singles indicate that frontman Alex Turner is heading deeper into the languid styles of the Bowie/Elton lounge act. 'Custard yellow' vinyl on this one, which I know all about from watching Bake Off. Reigning pop champion CARLY RAE JEPSEN returns with another gleaming, mood-lifting, and adventurous album called 'The Loneliest Time', with production assistance from Lewis OfMan and Bullion. The history of conversational, relatable pop music this century largely starts with TEGAN AND SARA, born in Calgary just one province over from Carly Rae. The sister duo departs Warner for indie label Mom + Pop to bring us 'Crybaby', an album of punchy, energetic sugar bombs as strong as any of their prior work.

It's dizzying enough to try to imagine being LOU REED at any stage of his fascinating career; he was an ornery visionary, resolutely caustic/cool, a soothsayer and a shit-talker, and he made some of the most enduring music of the 20th century. The earliest Velvet Underground records seem to come from early in the morning of rock n roll, sunrays just starting to peek out through the trees, Bo Diddley having just blown the reveille horn; home recorded demos of Lou singing "I'm Waiting For The Man" and "Pale Blue Eyes", at the age of 21 in 1965? Downright prehistoric. Light In The Attic inaugurates a new series of Lou Reed Archive releases with 'Words & Music May 1965', compiled with the assistance of his partner Laurie Anderson, and resplendent with recordings that have never, ever surfaced until now - a tall order when it comes to one of the most bootlegged bands on Earth. Our ears are still abuzz from the mighty Cuca Records compilation Numero blessed us with last year; this week, they dig deeper with a reissue of one of the rarest LPs from the Cuca catalog, which didn't quite fit into the country, folk and polka focus of the Driftless Dreamers set. BIRDLEGS & PAULINE were a Rockford vocal duo who happened to turn up in the Cuca studio for a 45 and an LP's worth of swinging, spirited doo-wop and girl group sound. The one and only PINK FLOYD reconvene with their first new material since 2014; a new single dedicated to Ukraine, and featuring vocals from Ukrainian vocalist Andriy Khlyvnyuk. RAY CHARLES essential duets album 'Genius Loves Company' also gets a welcome reissue.

KENDRICK LAMAR celebrates ten years since his earth-shaking major label debut 'Good Kid, M.A.A.D City' with an anniversary edition that sports modified artwork from it's original deluxe edition, and clear vinyl. CURREN$Y & THE ALCHEMIST team up again for 'Continuance', an incredible session of trippy coke rap full of absolutely zonked instrumentals, cool samples, and as always, endless references to cars that go vroom. R&B balladeer GIVEON returns with 'Give Or Take', and we've finally got vinyl of the excellent sophomore album from LUCKY DAYE, who turns in some interstellar smooth raunch on 'Candydrip'.

The influential New York jazz label Candid label rolls out some beautiful editions of rare, out of print jazz from their early 60s catalog this week. The 1961 ABBEY LINCOLN gem 'Straight Ahead' is one of her greatest sessions, with Coleman Hawkins and Eric Dolphy in tow. Dolphy also figures on CHARLES MINGUS 'Presents Charles Mingus', also from 1961, plus we've got the explosive 'We Insist!' from MAX ROACH, one of the crowning achievements of the jazz avant-garde joining forces with the civil rights movement. Grant Green, Harold Vick and Blue Mitchell join organist BIG JOHN PATTON for the pioneering groove of 1965's 'Oh Baby', which gets the Blue Note Classic Vinyl series treatment this week.

Quite the heady crop of rock reissues this week! QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE were still wandering the desert following the breakup of Josh Homme's former band Kyuss when they laid their debut album on us, a fantastically fried slice of stoner groove rock that has aged incredibly well to the present, and features a bit less of the esoteric flair of later QOTSA work, focusing primarily on the wild and wooly riffs. 25 years on, it gets a new vinyl edition on orange wax with cool new Frank Kozik cover art and its original track sequence intact. The 1985 album 'Feudalist Tarts' was the closest ALEX CHILTON came to a return to form during his erratic 80s period, and it's back this week, alongside a 20th b-day for THE LIBERTINES 'Up the Bracket', and a ten-year edition of BASEMENT's 'Colourmeinkindness', which gets an expanded new edition.

Constantly re-inventing herself and finding new strengths at each turn, veteran R&B vocalist DAWN RICHARD turns on yet another gear with an incredible collab album with jazz composer SPENCER ZAHN called 'Pigments'. Bassist and vocalist NICK HAKIM delivers another great record of melted pop and floating soul on 'Cometa', clearly infuenced by Helado Negro who turns up as a guest. Reliably dreamy electro producer BIBIO returns with an irresistible new album of spartan seaside pop on 'BIB10', in on gold wax, and we've got an incredible set of modern library music from the UK duo of GLENN FALLOWS & MARK TREFFEL. On 'The Globeflower Masters Vol. 2', the pair play pitch-perfect filmscore funk, sounding like the descendants of David Axelrod and Fabio Frizzi.

Chicago DIY multi-instrumentalist hero NNAMDI releases a new album, 'Please Have A Seat', which contains a number of songs he wrote to motivate himself during covid. Upbeat pop, clattering rap, and hazy sheets of noise turn up here in equal measure. They're really testing us with this album art, but luckily the UK post-rock geniuses DRY CLEANING deliver the goods sonically on their second album for 4AD; 'Stumpwork' is another casually brilliant album of loping riffs and looping observations. Brooklyn indie darlings FRANKIE COSMOS go Yo La Tengo mode on 'Inner World Peace', in on color vinyl. Powwow vocalists Daryl Black Eagle, Red Medicine, Ray Two Hawks Watson, Ian Wapicana, and Joe Rainey make up the MEDICINE SINGERS, and they are joined by a wide range of guests (Thor Harris, Yonatan Gat, Laraaji, Jaimie Branch, and more) for an electrifying new record of native music that adds electronics, jazz and punk to the traditional mix.

The Nyege Nyege Tapes label continues to keep up pace with the frenetic rhythm of central African dance music (an infinite hybrid of trance, techno, and gqom) with some incredible new records from AUTHENTICALLY PLASTIC and DUMA. We've come to look forward to each new record from THE SOFT PINK TRUTH, the ever-evolving "solo project" of Drew Daniel from Matmos, which tends to feature a who's who of the unclassifiable American avant underground. 'Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?' promises an affirmative answer to its titular question, with all of Baltimore's weirdos in the house to help. Virtual band ANAMANAGUCHI's soundtrack for the 'Scott Pilgrim Vs the World' videogame is also here; I may have typed that sentence but I do not quite understand what it means.

'Sahar' is our first time hearing from the Belgian/Egyptian folk singer TAMINO, but by the sounds of this gorgeous album, which reminds a great deal of the first couple from Jose Gonzalez, we will be hearing much more. Itinerant folk singer KATH BLOOM has a frailty to her voice that can bring you to your knees, exemplified perfectly by some 90's CD only songs on 'It's Just a Dream' that land on vinyl for the first time ever. Folkways rolls out two essential albums from the Appalachian folk duo HAZEL DICKENS and ALICE GERRARD; 'Won't You Come & Sing for Me' and 'Who's That Knocking?' contain many fertile seeds of the bluegrass tradition.

Less well known than his successful sister, the vocalist Betty Wright, soul singer MILTON WRIGHT delivered a scorching debut with 1975's 'Friends & Buddies', which gets a nice reissue this week, as well as a great compilation of funk from the Miami scene he was a part of, helmed by producer Henry Stone. One of the premium selections from the Soul Jazz Studio One comps, STUDIO ONE WOMEN, gets a repress on orange wax, with essential performances from Marcia Griffiths, Jennifer Lara, and more. The FANIA ALL STARS we're at the height of their original potency on 1972's 'Live at The Cheetah'; Ray Barretto, Willie Colon, Larry Harlow, Johnny Pacheco, Hector Lavoe, and more all turn up on these extended cuts of modern salsa.

Crunchy melodicists of 90s indie ARCHERS OF LOAF return with a cool new record called 'Reason in Decline', and we've got a great new LP from NYC band RIBBON STAGE, who bring their love of the Shop Assistants, the Swirlies, and Dolly Mixture to bear on a new record called 'Hit With The Most'. The rockingest yet of Rocktobers brings us more gold this week, in color vinyl versions of 3 must-haves from the B-52's: 'The B-52's', 'Wild Planet' and 'Mesopotamia'.

Last up, some bonafide classics that have not turned up in this shop for many years. THE STOOGES defiant debut LP is here on whiskey-colored wax. A new compilation of LEONARD COHEN songs covers expansive ground between his albums and includes the hard to find song "Hallelujah". NICK DRAKE's fall classic 'Five Leaves Left' lands in the bins for the first time since the Obama era, and we've got copies of everyone's favorite not-quite-unplugged album from NIRVANA.

Heading downstairs for this week's Used Vinyl Alert, we've crammed the New Arrivals full of classic rock, pop, jazz, soul, & along with some seldom seen contemporary LPs! Big ones are in from Iggy Pop, Metallica, Captain Beefheart, Television, Tom Tom Club, Public Image Ltd, Frank Zappa, R.E.M., Pink Floyd, Weird Al, Motley Crue, King Crimson, Tom Waits, & many more.

A treasure trove of Soul LPs are in this week, including Al Green, The Temptations, Chi-Lites, Buddy Miles, Martha & The Vandellas, Mary Wells, Rasputin's Stash, Tyrone Davis, Ray Charles, Eddie Floyd, & a rare one from Bobby Womack. Jazz winners continue to fill the bins - you'll see names like Pat Metheny, Hugh Masekela, Miles Davis, Wayne Henderson, Jimmy Smith, Anthony Braxton, Gary Burton, Dollar Brand, along with loads of others.

Essential vocal LPs are in this week from Nancy & Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzergerald, Nat King Cole, & Chris Connor. Blues is also well represented from Albert King, Lonnie Brooks, R.L. Burnside, & John Mayall.

Some contemporary classics are also here from Death Grips, Burial, Oneohtrix Point Never, Bonobo, Nine Inch Nails, My Bloody Valentine, Tool & more. We also have some rare 90s pressings in from Third Eye Blind & Jewel.

We round things out this week with some old school hip hop from Run DMC, Africa Bambaataa, & others, a deep run of soundtracks, a short (but sweet) stack of African LPs, and more Christmas LPs to get you ready for the holidays (it's never too early!).

Black Friday Record Store Day is November 25th

Yes, we are still buying! Call Ron to schedule (608.213.3610).