DC October 11 New Release Recap

Now we're talking...(or rather, listening)...A full slate of great new titles out today including new works from Rachael Yamagata, Swell Season's Marketa Irglova, Joe Henry, Ryan Adams, the Ben Folds box set, Boston new-acoustic masters Crooked Still, the Janie Jones soundtrack, Peter Gabriel's symphonic retrospective, New England's Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers, Brit retro-rock band The Rifles and Aussie art-popstress Washington. Whew. And that's just the DC features. Our expanded list includes titles from Radiohead, William Shatner (!), Mayer Hawthorne, Andrew Bird's Norman soundtrack, Kate Havnevik, Julian Lennon, Joe Jonas, James Morrison, Evanescence, Deas Vail, Ben Lee, Catherine AD, Black Francis & Reid Paley and many, many more...

Rachael Yamagata - Chesapeake - Third full-length since her 2002 debut EP finds the singer/songwriter in a brighter mood after the dramatic, formidable major label double-length release Elephant/Teeth Sinking Into Heart (2008)...Noteworthy producer John Alagia (John Mayer, Dave Matthews) is once again at the studio helm after working with Yamagata on her debut album Happenstance...new project is fan funded...more DC

Markéta Irglová - Anar (ANTI-) - The Oscar-winning success of the modern movie musical Once with her Swell Season mate Glen Hansard plus the solid reception to the duo's subsequent works set the stage for the new solo outing for this 23-year-old Czech-born songwriter...Irglová expands upon the nuanced piano/guitar acoustic pop sound of Swell Season for her new project, drawing, she says, upon a varied stylistic palette influenced by classic American R+B, adventurous alt/art-rock and even Broadway showtunes...more DC

Joe Henry - Reverie (ANTI-) - Twelfth album from the critically acclaimed songwriter, musician and producer may be an acoustic effort, but don't let that color your preconception: this is a self-described "raw and raucous and messy affair" with a swift, measured and powerful punch...“I knew it should be stripped and lean but not demur, sonically speaking; in black and white, but not without red blood in its veins," says Henry...more DC 

Ryan Adams - Ashes and Fire (PAX-AM/Capitol) - After a two year recording hiatus, Ryan Adams returns rested, clean, married, relaxed and refocused -- and with what just might be his most personal and enjoyable albums of his long and prolific career, as founder frontman of alt-country pioneers Whiskeytown and over a decade of solo releases...After working with Ethan Johns on Heartbreaker and Gold, Adams turned to Johns' father Glyn, the man behind the boards on legendary albums by The Who, The Clash and Bob Dylan...friend Norah Jones contributes piano, vocals and co-writing to seven of the tracks...more DC

Peter Gabriel - New Blood (Real World) - "No guitars. No drum kit." The succinct self-description of the new orchestral project from one of rock's most innovative and respected visionaries hints at what's in store with the follow up of sorts to his 2010 covers album Scratch My Back. Arranger John Metcalfe is again on hand for the symphonic transformation, this time tackling Gabriel's own repertoire of songs that reach back to his 1977 solo debut...a concert DVD New Blood Live arrives October 25...more DC  

Ben Folds - The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective (Sony) - Acerbic, witty and someone who can unleash a wickedly catchy melody like a pitcher wields a knuckler, the piano/alt-pop prankster closes an era with this generous 61-track, 3-CD career retrospective. But he also opens a familiar door with his former "Five" mates Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee (now heading up the band Hotel Lights) with three newly recorded tracks and hints that a new BFF album may be in the works...more DC

Crooked Still - Friends of Fall (October 11, Signature Sounds) - Freewheeling Boston acoustic ensemble celebrates their ten year anniversary and impending hiatus with this seven track collection that includes a handful of new songs as well as covers from Paul Simon, The Beatles and John Hartford...each member of the acclaimed string band chose one song to arrange and direct the band...more DC

Janie Jones - Janie Jones Soundtrack (Nettwerk) - Actors Alessandro Nivola and Abigail Breslin play self-destructive rock star father and rediscovered 13-year-old daughter in this music-heavy film based on a true story opening in limited release October 28. Soundtrack album features eight surprisingly good songs sung by the two leads, written by fine Irish songwriter Gemma Hayes (for Breslin's character Janie Jones), who was dating the film's director David M. Rosenthal at the time, and Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide (for Nivola's Ethan Brand) who also handled the film's score...more DC

Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers - Gift Horse (Vanguard) - New England roots rockers have been plying their specific journeyman musical trade for a decade, building a loyal and ever-growing fan base while maturing both personally and artistically...Kellogg's proudly mainstream songs are, more often than not, addressing subjects like family, friends and the power of roots and region, a proud father whose worries about societal and political issues have a small town blue collar grounding...more DC

The Rifles - Freedom Run (Nettwerk) - Lots of bands wear their musical lineage proudly on their sleeves but few do so as prominently as these Brit-pop rockers. Third studio full-length since their 2006 debut is a bristling amalgam of rough and tumble Jam/Clash-styled new wave/punk and hooky classic music hall songcraft recalling everything from The Kinks to Oasis...Band members have come and gone but founders Joel Stoker and Lucas Crowther continue to crank out brilliant retro-tinged rock as the creative nucleus...more DC

Washington - Perhaps it was the fact that Australian Megan Washington nabbed two 2010 Aria awards for Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist. Maybe it was the platinum success Down Under. But for whatever reason the planets seem to have alligned for the Melbourne-based 25-year-old singer/songwriter as last year's debut full-length I Believe You Liar, a brilliant and diverse album of art-pop magic finally hits the U.S. shores. Starting with a handful of songs from three prior EP's released since 2008 and then adding in new songs to round out the track list, Liar careens easily from the darkly eclectic to bright and shiny jumbles of infectious hooks...more DC

More October 11 Releases:

Ben Lee - Deeper Into Dreams
Black Francis/Reid Paley - Paley & Francis
Catherine AD - Communion EP (UK)
Crooked Fingers - Breaks In the Armor
Danielle Duval - Of the Valley
Darrell Scott - Long Ride Home
Deas Vail - S/T
Elliott Murphy - S/T
Emil and Friends - Lo and Behold
Evanescence - Evanescence
Forrest Day - S/T
Great American Taxi - Paradise Lost
Hawaii Five-O (Bob Dylan, Train) - Soundtrack
Himalayan Bear - Hard Times
James Morrison - The Awakening (US)
Jeffrey Lewis - A Turn in the Dream-Songs
Jim Keller (Tommy Tutone) - Soul Candy
Joe Jonas - Fast Life
John Wesley Harding - Sound of His Own Voice
Johnny Cash - Bootleg 3: Live Around the World
Julian Lennon - Everything Changes (UK)
Kate Miller-Heidke - Liberty Bell
Kate Havnevik - You
Kensington - Border
Lauren Alaina (American Idol) - Wildflower
Library Voices - Summer of Lust
Marketa Irglova (Swell Season) - Anar
Martina McBride - 11
Mayer Hawthorne - How Do You Do
Nat & Alex Wolf (Naked Brothers) - Black Sheep
Norman - Soundtrack (Andrew Bird)
Peter Bradley Adams - Traces (CD)
Radiohead - TKOL RMX 1234567
Remember Remember - The Quickening
Rich Robinson (Black Crowes) - Through A Crooked Sun
Shayna & The Catch - Lighthouse
Still Corners - Creatures of an Hour
Superhuman Happiness - The Physical EP
The Fairchilds - Our Revolution
The Moth & The Mirror - Honestly, This World (UK)
The Pine Hill Haints - Welcome to the Midnight Opry
Tony Sly - Sad Bear
Transfer - Future Selves
Various - ZZ Top Tribute
William Shatner - Seeking Major Tom