TOBIAS JESSO JR. - Goon

"The story of Tobias Jesso Jr.'s rapid ascent in many ways began with the breakup of the band Girls and Jesso reaching out to producer Chet 'JR' White in the aftermath of the split. But the storybook beginning, which included Jesso relocating from Vancouver to San Francisco, sleeping on White's couch during recording, and inevitably collaborating with the likes of The Black Keys' Patrick Carney and Ariel Rechtshaid as well, is only the background. Jesso's debut, Goon, doesn’t need any of it to be impactful or important. What Jesso has delivered is a record that needs no context, that can exist outside of time and place. Jesso, in short, has crafted a masterpiece, with the only connection of real significance being between him and his audience.

While the comparisons to Harry Nilsson and John Lennon hold up over the course of the debut, what may be the most surprising is the range that Jesso shows throughout. Goon isn't all piano ballads; hell, it isn't all ballads, period. 'Crocodile Tears' is a mid-tempo, psych-tinted strut that finds Jesso boo-hoo-hooing his way into unexpected territory. 'Leaving L.A.' is something totally different, lounge-y in its instrumental breaks, allowing Jesso freedom to veer from straight-ahead singer/songwriter territory. Throw in the guitar backbones of 'The Wait' and 'Tell the Truth,' and Goon contains plenty of variety in both tone and arrangement, carefully placed gaps in the ultimate strengths of the album." - Paste

COURTNEY BARNETT - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Think

"'Take what you want from me,' Courtney Barnett repeats near the end of 'Kim's Caravan,' a highlight from her new album, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. That bit of exasperation is surrounded by some clever observational lines and a fiery guitar solo, but it sits at the song’s core, a reminder that Barnett is more than a Seinfeld-ian joker pointing out life’s little quirks. Like Stephen Malkmus or Kurt Vonnegut, Barnett looks at the mundane with a skewed perspective, turning it over in her mind and transmogrifying it into something extraordinary." - Consequence Of Sound

MATTHEW E. WHITE - Fresh Blood

"On 'Rock & Roll Is Cold,' the second track on Matthew E. White's second album, the 32-year-old Virginian takes a rare break from essaying love in its many various forms to get a little meta, singing about music itself. Off-mic, some cynical cur boasts that he's figured out how to fake it in gospel, soul and R&B. White rolls his eyes, pitying the fool. 'Everybody sees that R&B is free,' he whispers, incredulously. 'Gospel licks,' he adds, 'ain't got no tricks.'

White, by contrast, is no faker, and has got no tricks, evading the valley of slavish copyists by locating his own idiosyncratic dialect within the larger lexicon of soul. The house band at his Spacebomb studio robes his songs with strings, horns, Fender Rhodes, the sort of rich instrumentation that evokes soul at its plushest, but White’s vocals–dry, understated, deadpan–are something else, and the friction between those styles lends Fresh Blood a frisson. His lyrics, meanwhile, are more Bill Callahan than Bill Withers: dark, blackly humorous, mischievous and erotic." - MOJO

ANDY SHAUF - The Bearer Of Bad News

"It's taken two years for Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf's The Bearer of Bad News to reach the States, but now we can finally hear why this Saskatchewan crooner is being hailed. Without a doubt, Shauf's folk is the kind of lush, contemplative songwriting that makes you pause." - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

"Recorded in his basement in Regina, Saskatchewan over the course of two years and written over four, The Bearer Of Bad News has the deep, refined feeling of being worked on, but not overworked. The 11 tracks here are decidedly rustic at heart, with a hushed, spartan feeling akin to early Elliott Smith albums, an acknowledged influence. The vision is singular, with Shauf supplying all the vocals and instrumentation save for drums on one track. Shauf's brand of Canadiana is rooted in folk music, but the sophistication of his arrangements reveals a keen pop sensibility that saves it from wallowing too deeply in the sepia-toned doldrums." - All Music

MICHAEL CHAPMAN - Window

"Every artist has a piece of work that niggles them—something that they wish they could redo, given the chance. It’s why Paul McCartney once reproduced Let It Be and why Kate Bush re-recorded Wuthering Heights for her best-of album. For the prolific Michael Chapman, that album is Window, the missing link in the series of Chapman’s early albums being reissued by Light In The Attic. Window sits just after the previously released Fully Qualified Survivor and Rainmaker, and right before Wrecked Again.

The singer-songwriter and prodigious guitarist was in transition from his folkier origins to his heavier future and heading for a whole mess of trouble with the same year's Wrecked Again. Given the touring bust-ups and tortured recording sessions to come, Michael's wife Andru Chapman remembers the recording of Window was noted for a 'lack of hiccups. No one threw their toys out of the pram, unlike Wrecked Again.' Recorded with U.S. guitar player Phil Greenberg, violin player Johnny Van Derek, and pianist Alex Atterson, the album has a blend of electric and acoustic instruments, both traditional and experimental at once, synthetic sounds melding with finger-picked guitars." - Light In The Attic

JON HOPKINS - LateNightTales

"LateNightTales welcomes UK producer and musician Jon Hopkins to the fold with a beautiful sequence of songs and music, a requiem for a dreamstate. It's possibly somewhere between heaven, hell and high water, down the Thames Delta towards Eden. It may involve techno and a distorted state, or simply mates sat listening to music together, drifting on the open sea of their minds. This is Jon Hopkins' world, not so much joining the dots as colouring the whole damn picture in.

'Putting this album together was a unique opportunity for me to present music that I have been listening to for years, free from the constraints of a club setting or from trying to stick to one genre. I chose tracks not just because they have been important to me but because of how they sit together, putting as much thought into the transitions and overall narrative as I did into the track choices. I mixed by key and by texture more than anything else, using original sound design, pivot notes, and often recording new synth or piano parts to link things together in a way that flows as naturally as possible. I hope you enjoy it.' -J. H." - LateNightTales

ERIC CHENAUX - Skullsplitter

"Eric Chenaux has emerged as one of the most distinctive, innovative and original voices in what might be called avant-garde balladry, juxtaposing his gorgeously pure and open singing against a guitar sound and style that truly stands alone. Skullsplitter is the impressive new album that confirms Chenaux's singular aesthetic: genuine, natural, unaffected vocals gliding through slow, smoky melodies while electric and nylon-string guitars are deployed with adventurously experimental, dextrous, semi-improvisational technique and texture.

Skullsplitter stands as a welcome and natural evolution from Chenaux's previous song-based album Guitar & Voice (2012), his first properly solo record for Constellation (i.e. made without guest musicians or collaborators), which was widely celebrated as his best work to date, championed by The Wire, Said The Gramophone, Stereophile and others for its unique sensibility and sensitivity. Skullsplitter builds on these strengths and similarly consists solely of Chenaux's voice and guitar." - Constellation

BOB DYLAN - Shadows In The Night

"Bob Dylan sings Sinatra? It shouldn't work, but Shadows In The Night is quite gorgeous, the sound of an old man picking over memories, lost loves, regrets and triumphs amid an ambient tumble of haunting electric instrumentation. It is spooky, bittersweet, mesmerisingly moving and showcases the best singing from Dylan in 25 years.

The very concept seems outrageous, which is perhaps why Dylan’s management have been at pains to insist it is not a Sinatra tribute.

As much as I love Dylan, recent albums have suggested his barking, growling voice was shot beyond repair. but here his singing is delicate, tender and precise. There is age in the notes, for sure, a wobble and croak as he tackles chords from unusual angles, and falls away with fading breath. Yet somehow this ancient croon focuses the songs, compelling listeners to address their interior world in a way glissando prettiness might disguise.

It is perfectly set in simple yet inspired arrangements for a five-piece band, replacing the usual nostalgic orchestras with weeping pedal steel guitars, gently sawed double bass, a swell of horns and the lightest hint of brushed hi-hats." - The Independent

ARTHUR - Dreams and Images

"If you had met Arthur Lee Harper in 1967, around the time he was writing his debut album, it probably wouldn’t have been too long before he introduced himself as a poet. That might seem strange, considering he did not actually publish poems. Instead, he played guitar and wrote songs—not verse set to music, but rhyming lyrics with verses and choruses, delicate melodies and Romantic imagery. He was then what we might call today a singer-songwriter, but the '60s being the '60s, Harper and his friends Stephen John Kalinich and Mark Lindsey Buckingham had grander ambitions than simply strumming pop tunes or providing entertainment. Poetry was an aspiration, a true calling, a means of peeling away the veneer of society and exposing some hard human truths both beautiful and revolting.

Before Harper signed with Lee Hazlewood’s LHI Records, he was living at the YMCA and sharing bags of potatoes with his friends. Dreams and Images, released under his first name to almost no fanfare, did not do much to change those conditions, and this reissue does not present it as a lost or unheralded classic. Instead, it's another piece of the LHI puzzle that Light in the Attic has been putting together for a few years now. In that regard, it's a revealing artifact of that scene, as well as a gentle statement of purpose by a struggling poet." - Pitchfork

VA - Native North America Vol. 1: Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985

From the impressive range of styles, regions and eras covered (as well as the hours of research that undoubtedly went into this compilation) to the stunning layout and typesetting, Kevin Howes and co. have put together one awe-inspiring document!

"[Native North America]'s power stems from the convergence of familiar influences (Beatles, Stones, Dylan, especially Neil Young) with the traditions, languages and lyrical concerns of the Inuit, Métis and First Nations peoples. Apart from Buffy Sainte-Marie, the Saskatchewan-born, US-raised Cree singer who became a 1960s folk star, this strand of North American music has been almost entirely forgotten.

Bringing it to light was a Herculean task for Vancouver-based DJ and compiler Kevin Howes. He began collecting these records 15 years ago, rummaging through record stores, private libraries, dilapidated warehouses and neglected corners of radio station archives in order to find artists who were 'off the grid.'

'The thing that I found appalling and shocking was there was no information available,' he says. 'I’d find a record somewhere and Google the artist and I was shooting blanks. I had to go straight to the source to ask for context and the stories behind the music.'" - The Guardian

BESSIE JONES with the Georgia Sea Island Singers and others - Get In Union: Recordings by Alan Lomax 1969-1966

"Students of ethnomusicology and folk music enthusiasts fortunate enough to hear the two or three LPs of Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers can tell you the thrill of hearing the group’s music for the first time.

The singers' dedication to preserving a music with roots that run all the way back to West Africa has enabled generations to hear something of the foundation of spirituals, the blues, jazz, gospel, and many other genres.

Thanks to Tompkins Square, a leader in black sacred music reissue projects, many thousands more can experience the Georgia Sea Island Singers with the release of Get In Union. And for those who have heard the group before, take heed: more than half of the 51 selections, recorded by Alan Lomax between 1959 and 1966, have not been issued publicly until now." - Journal of Gospel Music

STEVE GUNN - Way Out Weather

We already loved his first set of vocal pop/rock tunes for Paradise Of Bachelors (last year's Time Off), but hadn't gotten around ('til right now) to mentioning this equally stealthily-subdued and subtle follow-up album, released last month and sure to make its way onto the lists of record-store staffers and music critics in the weeks ahead/as this year winds down.

"For years, Gunn never toured—for much of the ’00s, he jammed endlessly with pals and co-conspirators and studiously developed his guitar style, which is described reductively as folk but draws on a wide swath of music that includes blues, jazz, Indian classical, punk, and the Grateful Dead. He never wanted to be a traditional virtuoso who played wheedle-wheedle-whee-style solos. Rather, he’s a rhythmic player inclined to repetition and improvisation, more about appreciating forward motion than traveling to a specific destination.

Gunn also had to develop confidence as a vocalist—singing for people will always be more terrifying than playing guitar—though that initial tentativeness isn’t evident on Way Out Weather, his most straightforward and rock-oriented record. Gunn’s singing echoes his playing: It is relaxed and intimate, like a late-night conversation with a trusted confidant, and it gently draws you into the hypnotically beguiling songs." - Grantland

THE WEATHER STATION - What Am I Going To Do With Everything I Know (12"-only)

We've been fans of Tamara Lindeman for quite a while now, and while her previous release All Of It Was Mine was a doozy (whose songs we had the pleasure of hearing performed live in our shop), this new EP, maybe due to the confluent factors of arresting concision, great performances, and hushed depth of lyrical detail, has bowled over many of us on staff here, not unlike the lightheaded rush of new love (followed by sober consideration of its consequences) that this mini-song cycle so eloquently and beautifully revolves around.

"The Weather Station returns with this limited edition 12" 45 RPM EP. The 6-song EP was recorded with Daniel Romano and the acclaimed North Carolina band Megafaun. Each side of the record is a trio of interconnected songs: Side A is a meditation on knowledge; Side B is a narrative, a love story in three parts. It is a quiet, yearning, and soulful record that expands on the acoustic folk of All Of It Was Mine (YC-011) while deepening the intimacy." - You've Changed

VA - Master Mix: Red Hot + Arthur Russell

While this writer's most partial to Lonnie Holley's spaced-out interludes (the one nod to Russell's more exploratory side aside from Blood Orange's medleying of modern composition/disco in nudging "Tower Of Meaning" up against "Is It All Over My Face?"), along with more traditional (yet effectively intimate) covers turned in by Sam Amidon, Devendra Banhart and Alexis Taylor, it's DM Stith-featuring duo The Revival Hour that's the nicest surprise to these ears, whose version of "Hiding Your Present From You" has electronics/beats slowly filling in its initially-conventional folk-pop cracks.

"Russell's understated influence, undeniable innovation, and untimely death explain why Master Mix came about—and why it’s so damn good. His recordings are patently unique, but they’re not ubiquitous; whether imitating or reinventing, Master Mix's cast didn’t have to fear the backlash commonly associated with performing well-known classics. Both approaches work." - Entertainment Weekly

KEVIN MORBY - Still Life

As the full title/cover of this sophomore album suggests, Kevin Morby's songwriting keeps the playfully serious tone set on Harlem River (a 2013 staff fave here), thriving on collaboration while also seemingly needing the necessary time alone to recharge and rebuild. Having recently parted ways with Woods and moved to L.A., Still Life finds Morby managing to successfully echo the work of peers and elders (Kurt Vile, Cass McCombs, even Bill Fay in the way each vocal line lilts up on closer "Our Moon") while starting to come into his own and stand out as a bandleader/solo artist.

"[Still Life] reflects both time in transit and the quiet confines of his new home in Montecito Heights. Scenes of performers, audience expectations and the paradoxical confines of a roving individual perpetually caught in a crowd percolate the songs, notably in 'The Jester, The Tramp, The Acrobat,' and 'Parade.' (Morby calls the latter an elegy of sorts for one of his major influences, Lou Reed). Violent fates, wrestling with destiny and the nature of death creep into songs like 'The Ballad of Arlo Jones,' 'Bloodsucker' and 'Amen.' Even Morby's more obvious love songs like 'All of My Life,' 'Drowning' and “Our Moon” are highly bittersweet; the characters in these songs seem to never quite find each other, but perhaps they find themselves.

As with Harlem River, Still Life is once again produced by Rob Barbato (Cass McCombs, Darker My Love), who adds his signature guitar and bass playing to the album. The album was engineered and mixed by Drew Fischer, who worked on Harlem River as well as The Babies' second full length album Our House on the Hill,  and was recorded between March and June of 2014 at Barbato and Fischer's new Burbank recording studio, Comp'ny. Morby is also once again joined by Justin Sullivan (The Babies) on drums and percussion." - Woodsist

JOHN SOUTHWORTH - Niagara

With co-producer (and recent Polaris Prize winner for his work with Tanya Tagaq and Jesse Zubot as the core trio behind Tagaq's Animism) Jean Martin once again helping at the helm, anyone already entranced by Southworth and ace backing band The South Seas' 2010 effort Human Cry now has twice the adventurous performances and ambitious songcraft to enjoy with this double-disc tribute to the two halves, towns, and states of nation-mind that are/is Niagara Falls, ON/NY.

"Southworth's best songs tend to be evocative, romantic and whimsical, and there are a number of knockouts here: the euphoric build and release of 'Ode To The Morning Sky'; the slow, dull, spiritual thud of Andrew Downing's acoustic bass on 'Folk Art Cathedral'; the mystical, infinite yet minute lullaby that is 'Irish Tree Alphabet' and Felicity Williams' breathy, Wurlitzer-chased lift-off at the end of closer 'Loving You. But there's also variety: 'Hey I've Got News For You' is assertively American; the melody on 'Womb Of Time' sounds like it's lifted from the American Songbook with Southworth sounding exhausted (but not in a bad way); and there's a Waits-ian groove on 'Halloween Election.' It's dreamy eccentricity: a little crazy and courageous, and a strong statement." - Exclaim!

JENNIFER CASTLE - Pink City

Grand yet concise, Pink City fittingly sees longtime shop fave Jennifer Castle corralling together many of T.O.'s finest players (including Soundscapes alumnus Mike Smith on bass throughout, as well as providing string arrangements for the record's last two tracks) while leaving plenty of room for her voice and lyrics to take center stage.

"Pink City is a record of folksy and orchestrated rubies, engaging the listener with each successive pass and holding up to the scrutiny of a jeweler’s magnifying glass. With a voice that is soft and lush, Castle’s songs reach for the heavens and offer a very mature honesty." - PopMatters

"We're lucky Jennifer Castle is a Torontonian—we get to add more of her tunes to our city's canon. Despite lyrics about movement, travel and separation, Castle's voice is more grounded than ever on her third studio album. Critics are right to note that she conjures Joni Mitchell in her vocal agility on songs like 'Sailing Away,' but they do her a disservice by dwelling on the comparison or focusing on her ethereal, reverb-drenched pipes. It's hard to say what's better here: the heady rush of hooky flute (care of Ryan Driver) swirling with pedal steel on feisty country rocker Sparta, or the album’s many intimate piano- and guitar-driven songs." - NOW

KEITH CROSS & PETER ROSS - Bored Civilians

This recent reissue from Esoteric Recordings first caught our eye when it received a glowing writeup in MOJO magazine. Keith Cross & Peter Ross' Bored Civilians came after Cross' departure from short-lived prog-rock group T2. He took a different path with this next project with Ross, although Bored Civilians' Laurel Canyon-esque folk-rock has enough proggy touches to mark this album as a uniquely British take on the California sound.

"Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of an official re-mastered edition of Bored Civilians, the only album by the duo of Keith Cross & Peter Ross. Cross had earned plaudits as a young guitar virtuoso with the power trio T2 (who recorded an album for Decca Records in 1970). By 1972 his music had developed still further when he teamed up with Ross to record this marvellous album for Decca Records with guest musicians such as Nick Lowe, Jimmy Hastings and B.J. Cole. Highly sought after by collectors of the 'progressive' era, Bored Civilians has been newly re-mastered from the original Decca master tapes and includes two rare B-sides as bonus tracks. This reissue restores the original album artwork and includes a new essay." - Cherry Red

ALEXIS TAYLOR - Await Barbarians

Some of us on staff here were bigger-than-expected fans of Alexis Taylor's first solo album Rubbed Out when it was released back in October 2008, and Await Barbarians makes for another good-humoured, heart-on-sleeve sleeper set of songs teetering between thoughtful, singer/songwriter-ly tunefulness and gleeful electronic abandon.

"Taylor lays bare the heart and art always faintly detectable beneath the happy grooves. His high, thin vocals, careful diction and formal lyrical style are well suited to the more traditional role of sensitive singer-songwriter. Framed by wonky and at times extremely minimalist electronica, with ambient noises and odd glitches, his songs strike a balance between a kind of country folksiness and offbeat futurism. Lyrically, preoccupations include mortality, relationship problems and general anxieties about life but leavened by dry humour that is more playful than melancholy." - The Telegraph

VA - Too Slow To Disco Vol. 1

This mix of laid-back '70s soft-rock/pop/folk/jazz tracks and artists both familiar (including the Brothers both Doobie and Alessi, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago, Tony Joe White, Jan Hammer, and the recently-reviewed Ned Doheny, whose signature song "Get It Up For Love" opens the track listing) and new to us (hey there Browning Bryant, Brian Elliot, Don Brown, David Batteau and Robbie Dupree) has us hoping for/looking forward to future installments from upstart label How Do You Are?

"To turn your nose up at yacht rock and the Too Slow To Disco compliation would be to miss out on some fantastic songs, from the expert craftsmanship of Ned Doheny to the shimmy and swagger of Browning Bryant. Music trends really are cyclical, and this compendium is proof that you can’t keep good music down forever." - Sabotage Times