DC May 29 New Release Recap

Call it a potpourri. Call it a plethora. But today is definitely a banner week for worthy DC new releases. For starters, check out Regina Spektor's What We Saw From the Cheap Seats or "New Nashville" songwriter Matthew Perryman Jones' Land of the Living. Go for a folk-meets-world-beat sound from Melody Gardot or see what New York City's The Walkmen and the always-interesting Sigur Ros have up their collective musical sleeves. We're also big on the pair of London siblings in 2:54 and think you may want to check out the latest from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Nashville couple Elenowen, Donovan Frankenreiter, Aussie singer Julia Stone (minus brother Angus this time) and a new EP from DC fave Marisa Nadler. Also of note: new music from Canadian folk duo Dala, U.K. retro-songstress Rumer, Paloma Faith, Gemma Ray, Ladyhawke, The Pond (with Kathryn Williams) and Sun Kil Moon (aka Mark Kozelek). As we said, a good week. More to read below and links to streaming music...

Regina Spektor - What We Saw From the Cheap Seats (May 29, Warner Brothers) - First new studio album in three years from the Brooklyn-based, ivory-tickling performing songwriter is also a reunion of sorts with Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Eminem) who co-produced four songs on Spektor's 2009 album Far...most songs were cut with just Spektor on vocals and piano and then she and Elizondo added in layers of additional instrumentation with the goal of making each song stand alone in both style and sound...more DC

Matthew Perryman Jones is often the example we use when offering up an example of what has become the "new Nashville": the famed Music City's haven for intelligent and exceptionally talented tunesmiths creatively coloring outside of the commercial country lines. Over the past decade Jones has developed a reputation for quality as well as a devoted fan base, penning and performing fleshed out and finely crafted folk/rock on albums such as 2006's excellent Throwing Punches in the Dark and the 2008 follow up Swallow the Sea. Now, four long years later, Jones returns with Land of the Living, a fan funded album produced by Cason Cooley (Katie Herzig, Mat Kearney)...more DC

Jazz/folk chanteuse Melody Gardot developed a devoted following in Philadelphia and New York for her supple mix of soul-bearing originals and inspired covers but the international success -- particularly in Europe -- accompanying her 2009 breakout album My One And Only Thrill has dramatically expanded her musical vision. Long-awaited project The Absence (May 29, Verve) sounds as exotic and sultry as the look of her recent press photos. Gardot sees the new album as a musical travelogue of her cross-cultural ventures, taking the listener, she says, to "the deserts of Morocco, the streets of Lisbon, from the tango bars of Buenos Aires to the beaches of Brazil..." more DC

Josh and Nicole Johnson are Elenowen, a Nashville-based folk/pop duo who have, not surprisingly, drawn comparisons to the sweetened Americana songcraft of The Civil Wars. "We strive to maintain a certain vulnerability in our music," says Josh, adding "We think it creates an intimacy that's totally connected to the music." It would be easy to point to the couple's marriage as a basis for the heartfelt lyricism and endearing vocal harmonies that shine through songs like "Flying For The First Time" and "Blood and Bones" (both co-writes with fellow Music City songwriter Trent Dabbs)...more DC

2:54 - S/T - London-based grrl-ish siblings Colette and Hannah Thurow are the dual creative forces behind this darkly atmospheric U.K. band and their highly buzzed (literally and figuratively) debut album... a gothy shoe-gazing mix of distorted guitars and cool, dispassionate vocals, the Irish-born Thurows signal not so much emotional angst as even tempered ambivalence...a densely layered, mesmerizing production from Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey) lays the dreamy groundwork for the sisters' ten groove-driven songs, tracks that swirl and spiral with tightly-coiled force around an oblique, minor chord melody...more DC

London-based singer Rumer - aka Sarah Joyce -- possesses one of those effortlessly and indescribably lovely voices that simply transcends whatever song she might happen to be singing. Some may find her completely relaxed, honey-dipped sound leaning a little too far into the area of ultra-mellow, Xanax-induced somnambulence -- and it's true she can at times make Norah Jones or even the legendary Karen Carpenter sound positively energized. But for those who revel in the plush, velvety textures of a voice that's steeped in the swaying standards of a modern cabaret approach -- and her fans include Burt Bacharach and Elton John --  it's hard to beat her U.K. platinum debut Seasons of My Soul or her forthcoming collection of mostly obscure covers Boys Don't Cry (Atlantic UK)...more DC

Chantal Kreviazuk - In This Life
Dala - Best Day
Donavon Frankenreiter - Start Livin'
Edward Sharpe & Magnetic Zeros - HERE
Fort Atlantic - S/T
Gemma Ray - Island Fire
Island Twins - S/T
Joan Armatrading - Starlight
Julia Stone - By The Horns
Kalen Nash - Ukred
Ladyhawke - Anxiety
Lake Street Drive - Fun Machine (Covers EP)
Lemonade - Diver
Lucy Michelle & Velvet Lapelles - Heat
Marissa Nadler - The Sister
Paloma Faith - Fall To Grace (UK)
Preteen Zenith - Rubble Guts + BB Eye
P.S. I Love You - Death Dreams
Rebecca Ferguson - Heaven
Rory Block - I Belong to the Band:Tribute to Rev. Gary Davis
Scissor Sisters - Magic Hour
Sigur Rós - Valtari
Sun Kil Moon - Among the Leaves
The Pond (w/ Kathryn Williams) - S/T (UK)
The Static Sea - Third Parties
The Walkmen - Heaven
Ultravox - Brilliant