We kick off this week’s picks with Corb Lund’s 1994 album Modern Pain, which is finally getting its first vinyl release after more than thirty years. The album by one of Canada’s most beloved and revered songwriters captures the raw and do-it-yourself nature of his early acoustic and folk records, showcasing songs that range from upbeat, punchy numbers to sentimental tracks. The songs were recorded in a basement on the cheap and have an innocent, indie charm that couldn’t be recreated in the studio.
Ezra Furman’s fearless creativity and emotional honesty have made her one of the most compelling voices in modern music. Blending punk energy, heartfelt lyricism and genre-defying innovation, Furman’s work is both deeply personal and universally resonant. Her new album, Goodbye Small Head, contains twelve variations on the experience of completely losing control, whether through weakness, illness, mysticism, BDSM, drugs, heartbreak or just living in a sick society with one’s eyes open, and represent a band reaching the peak of their powers.
Kadavar have undergone a significant transformation since their formation in 2010. From credible representatives of retroesque, psychedelic stoner rock, which always thrived on the contemporary coolness of Berlin, they soon went out into the big wide world, where they not only presented their musical idea, but also found new inspiration, and their sound has become more contemporary over the years.
Crooked Teeth holds a special place in the heart of Papa Roach fans, who were given the opportunity to support the creation of the album in an astonishing crowdfunding bid that offered unique prizes, such as the opportunity of buying the band’s studio (and all of the equipment in it). Their ninth studio album was a flag in the soil of this immortality, marking an exploration between their nu-metal roots and the new era of modern rock.
Volume 4 & 5 is a double-LP package from Bardo Pond, combining two more volumes of free-form improvisational jams on vinyl for the first time. These tracks capture the raw essence of the band, whose fearless exploration blurs the lines between structure, chaos, melody and noise, traversing space rock, acid rock, post-rock, shoegaze, noise, krautrock and psychedelia.
Our release of the week is Metalhorse, a concept album revolving around the image of a dilapidated funfair, representing the tumultuousness of life: risk and pleasure, danger and exhilaration. This is the first Billy Nomates album to be made in a studio with a full band, and the 11 new songs here explore blues, folk and piano-driven arrangements that take her stark punk sound in a more pastoral direction.
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