THE WHO - The Who Sell Out

The Who's underappreciated treasure from 1967 has been reissued for the first time in fourteen years, in a deluxe double-disc package consisting of both mono and stereo mixes and a slew of bonus tracks. Before becoming famous for their rock operas, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and co. were very much a pop group--albeit an extremely loud and hard-edged one--whose success in the UK owed a great deal to airplay on offshore pirate radio stations. The British government ban on these stations in '67 incensed Townshend, who turned what could have been an album of unrelated songs into a tongue-in-cheek tribute to top-40 radio and crass commercialism. Fake commercials and genuine jingles link the most psychedelic tunes The Who ever recorded. Sell Out's mono version is a must-hear for guitar solos markedly different than the ones on the stereo mix, notably on the song "Our Love Was, Is". The bonus cuts include demos and material left off the original album which, in this reviewer's opinion, was The Who's strongest and strangest.

CAMERA OBSCURA - My Maudlin Career

Aside from the label change to 4AD, little has changed in Camera Obscura's wistful indie-pop, but that's how fans want it. The album title highlights Tracyanne Campbell's acceptance that, much like Morrissey before her, she makes a living by crafting songs about romantic disappointment and the hopeless pursuit of love in spite of her past. On the title track, Campbell sings "This maudlin career must come to an end/I don't want to be sad again", even though we know that those maudlin ways have defined the band, and will continue to do so in the future. Phil Spector, Patsy Cline, Motown and early Everything But The Girl continue to exert their influence, as well as the towns and cities that provide the setting for Tracyanne's narratives (there's even a Toronto reference in "Forests & Sands"). Slow in evolution, stubbornly sad, and exactly the way Camera Obscura should sound.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS - Dark Days/Light Years

Even though this remarkable Welsh quintet have never made a bad record, their last few have been more very good than great. Part of this may have revolved around the fact that both 2005's majestic but languid Love Kraft and 2007's short but sweet Hey Venus! were, sonically at least, kind-of concept albums, choosing to highlight one aspect of the band's style. As past high watermarks Radiator, Guerrilla and Rings Around The World have amply illustrated, though, this band is at its best when pulling from every possible musical corner. Please welcome, then, their best effort since Rings, as DD/LY is a kaleidoscopic headtrip in the Furries' grand tradition merging meta-social commentary with Mod rave-ups, butt-thumping blasts of electro, vocoder soul, and simple pop treats. "Inaugural Trams" is their best single in ages, a childlike kraut jam that even features a rap in German from Franz Ferdinand's Nick McCarthy. It's not as though they stopped making solid music, but a SFA album of this calibre is indeed a welcome arrival.

PAPERCUTS - You Can Have What You Want

Easy. Breezy. Beautiful. It's too bad that's already a makeup slogan, because it describes Papercuts perfectly. You Can Have What You Want is as good as its title's word for all those craving a new indie-rock daydream soundtrack. Like their ancestors The Clientele and American Analog Set, the proceedings remain decidedly gentle throughout the album. Led by a wheezing Farfisa, YCHWYW glides along like a river of double cream, although the Clinic-on-valium drift of "Future Primitive" manages to stand out from the crowd as a true highlight. Other than that, it's business as usual, and business is certainly beautiful. So should you buy in? Well, arguing with the Papercuts' approach is kind of like debating whether the sun is hot--it's pretty open and shut: either you like the heat or you don't. Maybe we should talk again in August, but after the winter we've had, this group's brand of simple sunshine is sitting just fine with me.

CRYSTAL ANTLERS - Tentacles

On the heels of Pitchfork's 8.5 blessing/kiss-of-death for their debut EP, word came down the pipe that Crystal Antlers' first full-length was to be the last release from venerable indie Touch and Go. (No pressure.) Anyone looking for a Black Kids-style crash-and-burn will be disappointed, but they shouldn't be surprised. CA are clearly not a group interested in crossing over, and their trashy Comets On Fire by way of loud Oneida (or tamed Lightning Bolt) brand of psych frenzy fits well on the label that gave us The Jesus Lizard and Big Black, among many others. Trebly and cluttered, the album takes a couple of spins to fully decipher, especially when nearly every song is awash in organ and clipped, hoarse vocals. Once there, though, the wrecking-ball energy starts to take a sugar-rush hold, whose momentum is broken only by what turn out to be some of the best cuts on the disc. In particular, epic droning album closer "Several Tongues" not only contains some of the most affecting (if still undecipherable ) vocals here, but also a totally bang-on free jazz section. Well played!

ARVO PART - In Principio

Long the indie-rocker's gateway drug to classical music, minimalist Estonian composer Part specializes in the sort of sombre, contemplative and relatively linear music that fans of Mogwai and Godspeed instantly understand. In particular, the highly influential trio of "Fratres", "Spiegel Im Spiegel" and "Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten" have seen him held in the kind of high regard that finds him equally respected amongst jazz, post-rock, and contemporary classical darlings like pianist Helene Grimaud, who has recorded his works on albums alongside those of Beethoven. In Principio is another excellent effort that is, on the whole, less heavy than 2005's meditation on mortality, Lamentate. Of course, In Principio means "In the beginning...", so don't expect lollipops. Using the first verses of the Gospel of John as its template, this piece for choir and orchestra is classic Part: measured, graceful, and tinged with sadness and understanding. Other highlights here include the tensely ascending/descending "La Sindone", and a reprise of "Da pacem Domine", a piece performed annually in tribute to the victims of the 2004 Madrid bombings.

METRIC - Fantasies

It's rather appropriate, and perhaps no accident, that Metric are named after a system of measurements. Their brand of dance-pop is so exactly produced and performed, you sense that each ingredient was added to only the most carefully considered degree. If the whole process appears a little heartless, it's to the band's credit that it's able to consistently inject these little formulas with plenty of human DNA. The instrumental trio of Jimmy Shaw, Josh Winstead and Joules-Scott Key play it tasteful, spirited and ultra-locked-in, but most of this responsibility rests on Emily Haines' petite but capable shoulders. No sweat--she hooks your ear with take after take of cool, detached, but never disinterested vocals. The opening four tracks are among the best they've turned in so far, making it an end product well worth their calculations.    

STEAMBOAT - S/T

A run of collaborative shows at the Tranzac in the summer of 2008 with local guest-vocalist luminaries Sandro Perri, Mantler, Andre Ethier, Emilie Mover, Alex Lukashevsky and Andy Swan helped establish Steamboat's reputation as one of the most unlikely regular favourites in the venerated club's programming. Started as a project for bassist/keyboardist Matt McLaren to keep himself and bandmates busy during downtime from their regular gig with pop classicists The Old Soul, Steamboat have bypassed current trends and stuck to an R'n'B vibe best summed up by the material they proudly cover in live shows (Lee Dorsey, Allen Toussaint, The Kinks, and The Parliaments, whose early B-side "I Can Feel The Ice Melting" is included on this 6-track EP). McLaren, a traditionalist with a powerful voice and a deep well of inspiration, possesses a distinct songwriting style that reaches beyond the Dr. John/Randy Newman template. The originals here are instant classics, and the good news is that there are a whole bunch more excellent tunes to come with future EPs.

VA - Boogaloo Pow Wow: Dancefloor Rendez-Vous In Young Nuyorica

While we've heard a few notable Nuyorican comps in the last year (The Soul Of Spanish Harlem, and Fania's killer Joe Bataan anthology Under The Streetlamps), Honest Jon's has truly taken things to the next level with Boogaloo Pow Wow. Heavy grooves unite a varied range of tracks, with traditional Afro-Cuban forms getting a funky backbeat here and there, and even some serious jazz blowing to remind you that this is, after all, New York. It's a serious dance party, from the super-cool sunglasses and satin shirt moves of Willie Rosario to the bizarro fusion of Diane & Carole's "Feelin' The Pain"--like someone accidentally brought a guiro to a Brill Building girl-group session.

BLACK DICE - Repo

Whereas former practice-space mates Animal Collective and Gang Gang Dance have arguably each made their music more listener-friendly in recent years, leave it to Brooklyn square-peg contrarians Black Dice to obstinately abstain from any such concessions, with single "Glazin'"'s mangled "Crimson & Clover" chord change the closest thing to a pop song on this new disc. Although Repo isn't much of a stylistic leap from their last two offerings Broken Ear Record and Load Blown (mostly maintaining an unsequenced, hand-punched jackhammer approach, letting inconsistencies funk up any arising rigidity), slight surprises include the trio pleasurably regressing into Boredoms-esque breakbeats and sproingy cartoon stabs straight off Super Roots 6 on both "Earnings Plus Interest" and "Ultra Vomit Craze", as well as an increased penchant for pitching their sound down and playing with screwed vocal samples, two traits this set shares with main mic inhaler Eric Copeland's recent solo output Alien In A Garbage Dump and RGAG.

FEVER RAY - S/T

While just as beat-based as The Knife's own output, Karin Dreijer Andersson's new Fever Ray project stresses the downtempo tendencies with little to none of the hi-NRG end of the Dreijers' group sound, using the dropped-octave vocal effects brought to the fore for Silent Shout and just as spookily employed here, especially on opener "If I Had A Heart", a lone overtone-laden loop the only backdrop to Dreijer Andersson's split-personality electro-pop psychodrama. A solo debut as adventurous as it is accessible, Fever Ray's mood is captured perfectly by Swedish artist Martin Ander's nick of Charles Burns' shading style for the cover portrait.

RED RED MEAT - Bunny Gets Paid (Deluxe Edition)

When this album first came out in 1995, Red Red Meat were already one of my favourite bands. Bunny Gets Paid solidified their status in my mind as an uncomfortably beautiful spectacle--a marble-mouthed street preacher drunk on Appalachian moonshine, tripping over tambourines and maracas only to land in sticky dollops of molasses blues. They didn't play music so much as let it fall out of their pockets like loose change, and 15 years later, RRM songwriter Tim Rutili has made several albums by leading his second band Califone down a similar, if more folk-influenced, path. Bunny Gets Paid, though, is where his perverse and gorgeous journey first began in earnest. While the bonus material on this deluxe edition is slim, it expands beautifully on the album's mission statement, even when via a grizzled cover of Low's first single "Words". But the star, as it should be, is the record itself--as wounded, cautious, and haunted as ever.

MASTODON - Crack The Skye

Much has been made of this disc's two 10-minute-plus tunes, mid-paced tempos, and abundant singing. But for those paying attention to Mastodon's career, Crack The Skye isn't nearly the departure it might seem on paper. 2004's breakout Leviathan featured the 13-minute "Hearts Alive", a tune that would fit here like a glove, while 2006's Blood Mountain's big single was the chugging "Colony Of Birchman", a nearly-classic-rock jam with Queens Of The Stone Age singer Josh Homme. And as for Skye's grandiose wanderings, even at their most punishing the band has always distinguished themselves by their inability to play it straight, most notably with Brann Dailor's relentlessly evolving drumming. Bottom line: this is still most definitely a Mastodon album, and a really good one at that--it just takes a few more listens to understand how they're phrasing things this time around.

FRANCO & LE TPOK JAZZ - Francophonic

Franco was apparently underwhelmed when James Brown played on his home turf of Zaire (now Congo) for the famous "Rumble In The Jungle" fight between George Foreman and Muhammed Ali. In a time when many African nations were embracing independence, many African bands were proudly strutting their authenticite (modernized sounds combined with authentic African roots) and for Franco, James was just not real enough! Twenty years after the death of this giant of African music, Stern's has scored with this massive collection spanning his earliest Congolese rhumbas in 1953 to being awarded Grande Maitre by his country in 1980. Repeated listens reveal an artist who had a masterful command of various idioms and would often shift through a few in the space of one track. A long-awaited double-disc collection and absolutely essential listening.

OBITS - I Blame You

It's ironic that after no less than three projects together, it's Rick Froberg's first significant project away from John Reis that most echoes his old friend's '50s rock sensibilities. I Blame You owes as much to the days of greasers and surfers as the punk/noise that defined Froberg's past killer efforts as Hot Snakes and the seminal Drive Like Jehu. It's a subtle shift that suits the man's acidic pipes to a tee, his reedy, wiry voice channeling the era in a way that suggests the ghost of Buddy Holly stumbling across a Cramps album.

YEAH YEAH YEAHS - It's Blitz!

Despite its manic title and crushing cover, It's Blitz! finds both singer Karen O and guitarist Nick Zinner with their wildness in check. Indeed, Zinner appears to never even pick up a guitar until the four bonus tracks arrive--and those are acoustic. It's a significant change of energies for sure, but one that confirms that in the aftermath of the white-hot destruction for which they're famous, this trio is capable of something just as affecting and arresting--an album of real songs that aim for your heart, not your jugular.

SONIC YOUTH - The Eternal: Buy Early Get Now pre-orders now taken in-store

While Sonic Youth's Matador debut The Eternal isn't officially released until June 9th, this is the newest release from the label to be part of their Buy Early Get Now campaign, and it will work a little differently than their last BEGN promotion (Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition) in that customers will pre-pay, provide us with some basic contact information (name and email address), and then be given a download card at point of purchase.

What you get:
-Double LP or CD of The Eternal
-Stream of the full album (stream goes live on April 28th)
-Exclusive limited live vinyl LP recorded July 4, 2008 in NYC (while supplies last, so sign up now!)
-Exclusive poster
-Exclusive mp3 downloads (available in sequence April 28th, May 12th, and June 2nd)

How you get it:
-Sign up for the pre-order here in our physical shop now
-Log onto www.buyearlygetnow.com on April 28th with your access code for album stream and downloads
-Return to us on release date (June 9th) to pick up your copy of The Eternal, plus your live LP and poster

We now return to our regularly scheduled Featured Release writeups...

JEAN-PIERRE MASSIERA - Midnight Massiera: The B-Music Of Jean-Pierre Massiera

Known to collectors primarily as the mad genius behind the nutsoid quasi-soundtrack album Les Maledictus Sound from 1968, French producer/engineer/guitarist Jean-Pierre Massiera epitomizes Finders Keepers' sensibilities perhaps more than any other artist. Recording mostly in the late '60s and '70s, Massiera's vision was to never do anything straight-ahead, whether playing cosmic surf music early in his career, charting similar psychotic territory as White Noise, Pierre Henry and Ennio Morricone, or experimenting with proggy disco. His ear for radical combinations of sounds and effects puts him in league with producers Joe Meek and Lee Perry--just check his version of "They're Coming To Take Me Away" in French! After being blown away by Midnight Massiera, you can also seek out the Mucho Gusto label's Psychoses: Freakoid (1963-1978), their second of two collections which focuses mostly on his weird Euro-disco period.

PJ HARVEY & JOHN PARISH - A Woman A Man Walked By

If 2007's White Chalk was a singularly ghostly study of PJ Harvey's talents, then consider A Woman A Man... a reminder that she possesses a much wider range. The mid-octane swagger of opener "Black Hearted Love" seems to suggest a full-throated return to old Storied days, but Harvey has always been fond of red herrings. And so with Parish's varied skills and tastes guiding the proceedings, what we get is a tour of her many voices--the chilling falsetto, the rich alto croon, the vengeful phoenix. Like their first collaboration together, the underrated Dance Hall At Louse Point, this record reveals itself slowly, strangely, and satisfyingly.

HENRIK SCHWARZ/AME/DIXON - The Grandfather Paradox

Upping the personal record-collection connections made with this 2CD comp collab between DJ/producer Berliners Henrik Schwarz, Ame (Frank Wiedermann and Kristian Beyer) and Dixon is the number of pre-techno artist picks chosen for Schwarz's 2006 DJ-Kicks mix (Moondog, Cymande, Arthur Russell) that reappear (with different tracks chosen from each) on The Grandfather Paradox. Pat Metheny's performance of Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint", so infamously spun into "Little Fluffy..." chillout territory by The Orb in the early '90s, instead gets underpinned herein by Ame's remix of Etienne Jaumet's "Repeat After Me", locking into an afro-percussion-propelled three-on-the-floor throb. The bonus, alternately-sequenced unmixed disc makes one appreciate this foursome's mixing and re-editing abilities all the more, especially their transformations of the aforementioned Cymande's "For Baby Oh" and "Metamorphoses", a live late-'70s synth/drum-machine workout from one-time Yes member (circa Relayer) Patrick Moraz. Other highlights include soulful vocal house thumper "Feedback" (a lesser-known Theo Parrish production under the alias Green Pickles), as well as the cooldown finale of minimal originator Robert Hood's "Minus" (bringing things back to that three-beat feel) segueing into tasteful processing of material by Raymond Scott and Moondog. Those entranced in recent years by both Optimo's classy eclecticism and the more formal treatments of Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald's Recomposed should find a formidable middle ground with this set. As these discs' title toys with, you can play with the past--so long as you're mindful of the potential ramifications, and manage to stake out a parallel timeline of your own.