The first of this week’s smashers is Prestige, the much-anticipated third album from Girl Ray, the three-piece comprising Poppy Hankin, Iris McConnell and Sophie Moss. Co-produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Ben H. Allen (M.I.A., Gnarls Barkley, Christina Aguilera, Deerhunter) with the band’s singer and songwriter Hankin, Prestige takes the shambolic charm of their debut, Earl Grey (2017), and the indiefied R&B of 2019’s Girl and injects a booster shot of Hi-NRG eighties disco-pop.
Skindred – one of the UK’s most exciting live acts – celebrate their 25th anniversary with the release of their brand-new album, Smile, their eighth long-player. From the hard-hitting ‘Gimme That Boom’ to the pop-reggae triumph of ‘L.O.V.E. (Smile Please)’, these two sides of the album, ranging from joy to rage and love to fury, suggest that Smile is going to be hailed as the band’s masterpiece. It’s an album that brings together all facets of Skindred’s music – from reggae to metal, rock to pop, dub to electro – into the most mind-expanding and potent collection of songs, designed to melt stereos around the world!
At long last, Wilco’s 12th studio album, Cruel Country, gets a UK vinyl release. This is the band’s exploration of the genre they’ve often been defined by but, until now, never fully embraced. The double album features 21 Jeff Tweedy-penned tracks, made almost entirely of live takes, created with all six members together in The Loft for the first time since 2011’s The Whole Love.
Few albums define a particular era as does The Lexicon of Love. It’s embedded deep in the fabric of popular culture: namechecked, referenced and, now, frequently featured in ‘best of all time’ polls. The album opened up the ’80s wide, in full, glorious Technicolor. In 1982, ABC became the toast of the world with this album, which also launched the production career of Trevor Horn. Like the greatest landmark albums, it has transcended its origins and is simply there, an ever-evolving testament to its marriage of youth, wit, creativity, technology, emotion, masterplan and happy accident. The LP has been half-speed mastered for optimum sound quality.
Shoegaze legends Ride reissue two more of their early classic albums on CD and LP, following last year’s reissues of Nowhere, 4EPs and Going Blank Again from their days on Creation Records. All the original audio has been reworked and refined. Carnival of Light, the band’s third album, comes on transparent glow-in-the-dark green double vinyl, and comes with a 12″x12″ insert. Tarantula, the fourth and final album before their split, is released on limited-edition transparent orange vinyl and CD, and includes three bonus tracks.
Our release of the week is Sunset 666, a new live album from The Jesus and Mary Chain, recorded at the Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles in 2018. In 1990 a young American band, full of a precise kind of noise and darkness, were special guests on the US tour being undertaken by a group famed for their own noise and darkness, poise and catharsis. The young band: Nine Inch Nails. Those headliners: The Jesus and Mary Chain. Almost thirty years later, an invitation was extended: would the Reid brothers care to reverse the roles and open for Nine Inch Nails on their own North American tour? Trent Reznor had been a fan of the Mary Chain and influenced by them since hearing Psychocandy, so it felt a good fit and the Reid brothers accepted.
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