DC October 18 New Release Recap

This week we find Chris Isaak visiting the legendary Sun Studios for some classic covers, The Cowboy Junkies finding their inner kick-ass, Shelby Lynne stripping down for what may be her most personal album ever and Canadian roots-rockers The Deep Dark Woods channeling The Band on an album we think is a "must hear." We've also got features on DC fave Ebba Forsberg and (also from Stockholm, Sweden) the electro-shoegaze pop of I Break Horses. Naturally you can click on any of the posts to stream music and videos, too. You'll also find some other worthwhile listens in our more extensive listing including My Brightest Diamond, Goapele, Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump, Pinback's Rob Crow and Veronica Falls...

Chris Isaak - Beyond the Sun (Vanguard) - In a 2000 interview, the legendary Sam Phillips commented "I don't keep up with the business like I used to, but I love to listen to Chris Isaak. He’s very talented, and his music is so damned honest. It’s incredible". Now Isaak repays the compliment with a self-produced 25-track tribute to Phillips and the music of the Sun Studio (including a few of his own newly penned songs)...more DC

Cowboy Junkies - Sing In My Meadow (Latent) - Michael Timmins describes the jammy, rough-edged new Junkies album as "the psychedelic, blues-inspired forays we are so fond of exploring on stage", the mesmerizing, low-keyed alt-folk of what most would consider the outfits' signature sound tossed out in exchange for a gritty power trio kick, or as Timmins puts it: "overdriven and thick with electricity"...the third of four releases in the band's 18-month Nomad Series of new albums...more DC

Shelby Lynne - Revelation Road (Everso) - Critically-praised, tough-minded alt-country indie queen handled the writing, recording, producing and arranging on this new stripped-down album she's calling her "most personal"...did we mention it's also on her own label?...with a voice that emits both weary, hard-ridden resolve and loosely restrained tenderness, Lynne is capable of making her lyrics both brutally honest and disarmingly fragile...more DC

The Deep Dark Woods - The Place I Left Behind  (Sugar Hill - Digital) - We're not sure just how much hometown Saskatoon, Saskatchewan plays into their sound, but we're guessing that this amiable, unpretentious and quietly disarming "Canadiana" folk/rock is probably in the water up there...2009 album Winter Hours proved a breakthrough, winning awards and receiving major critical praise...confident new self-produced project is layered with experimentation in sound and instrumentation that enriches rather than distracts...more DC

Ebba Forsberg - Falling, Folding, Flipping, Feeling (EBOTH in Sweden; US: TBA) - First new English album in five years from the Swedish songwriter who quietly, determinedly creates some of the deepest and most affectingly personal music you will hear this or any year...Like Fiona Apple, Forsberg transcended the Lilith Fair female songwriter empowerment bandwagon of the mid-90's with her excellent, enigmatic debut Been There, her sole U.S. release...Produced by Andreas Dahlbäck, these ten new songs of opaque lyrical imagery and meticulously crafted melodic structure reflect, she says, ”upon the agony of and longing for love as well as the longing of living life at its fullest while working on the art of letting go”...more DC

I Break Horses - Hearts (October 18, Bella Union) - A self-described "control freak" and hypochondriac who even admits to a phobia of her own heartbeat, Swedish songwriter Maria Lindén fatefully met up with her fellow Horse-man (and lyricist) Fredrik Balck at an online medical forum... obsession, affliction and what Lindén calls "man/machine conflict" are running themes in the dense, shoe-gazed electronica that's at the heart (so to speak) of their impressive debut...what keeps it interesting for us is how the lush melodies manage to radiate warmth despite the cool, hi-tech instrumental backing...more DC 

Also out this week:

Class Actress - Raprocher
Emika - S/T
Gauntlet Hair - S/T
Goapele - Break of Dawn
Janes Addiction - The Great Escape Artist
Lawson Rollins - Elevation
Matt Cardle (X-Factor) - Letters (UK)
My Brightest Diamond - All Things Will Unwind
Patrick Stump (Fall Out Boy) - Soul Punk
Penguin Prison - S/T
Class Actress - Raprocher
Real Estate - Days
Red Sky July - S/T (UK)
Rob Crow (Pinback) - He Thinks He's Human
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Tape Club (Anthology)
Stephanie's Id - Starfruit
T-Bone Burnett Presents: The Speaking Clock Revue
The Kentucky Headhunters - Dixie Lullabies
Veronica Falls - S/T (UK)
Whitehorse (Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet) - S/T