DC June 19 New Release Recap

As we take a look at this week's new albums, Fiona Apple's Idler Wheel... has been garnering the most press -- and for good reason. This is a serious and seriously good album that may not be for everyone (you know, like Justin Bieber) but those willing to head down the rabbit hole with Fiona will be justly rewarded. Also on tap today -- the new solo project from Glen Hansard (of Once and The Swell Season), the debut from Carolina roots-poppers Delta Rae (hey, Seymour Stein signed 'em) and the latest from Aussie alt-pop sensation Kate Miller-Heidke. We're also tipping you to new longplayers from Cincinnati electro-pop band Walk The Moon, German pop/folk duo BOY (no U.S. release planned yet) and some promising new songs from Jason Myles Goss. Want to hear what they sound like? Link to DC features below for more verbiage and music...

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel... (Epic/Sony) - Finished almost two years ago, fourth album of careening, confessional emotional bloodletting from reclusive 34-year-old L.A. songwriter is as lean, taut and angular as her recent press imagery...more than 15 years after her bold debut Tidal, Apple remains an brilliant, eccentric pop oddity of the first magnitude...troubled, angry and sharp as razor, Wheel is a series of off-kilter peaks into the dark recesses of our favorite haunted soul...more DC

Glen Hansard - Rhythm and Repose (ANTI-) - Ireland's acclaimed singer and songwriter came to prominence with the platinum, award-winning success of the 2006 indie movie sensation Once -- then went on with his co-star Marketa Irglova to record the 2009 album Strict Joy under the moniker The Swell Season...long-awaited debut solo album was recorded in Hansard's latest home of New York with producer Thomas "Doveman" Bartlett (The National)...more DC

Delta Rae  - Carry the Fire (Warner Brothers) - Signed by the legendary Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, Durham, NC roots-'n-pop band led by siblings Brittany, Ian & Eric Hölljes draw on elements of folk, blues, rock, gospel and country. Focus track (and video - watch via link) "Bottom of the River" last fall as well as a free download of an energized concert recording. "I hate labels," says Stein, "but if forced I would have to call their music 'Original Americana,' not unlike what the English are sending over via Mumford & Sons and others"...more DC

Kate Miller-Heidke - Platinum-selling art/pop star in her native Australia confidently returns with Nightflight, her third studio album that smitten critics have described as "a masterpiece" and "clever, insightful and revealing." Boasting an dramatic, adult-focused sound -- more art than pop -- and a diverse and thoughtful collection of songs written with her husband Keir Nuttall, the successor to her breakout '09 album Curiouser has drawn comparisons with the works of Kate Bush in its sophisticated production, panoramic pop/opera vocals and soul-bearing lyrical edge...more DC

Walk The Moon - S/T (RCA)- There's just enough left-of-center quirkiness fluttering around the edges of's sleek and shiny new self-titled album to signal that something interesting may be going on beneath the alt-pop candy shell. The Cincinnati-based band's well-oiled electronic machinery whirrs noisily behind the wall-of-sound production filling every sonic nook and cranny with propulsive synth beats and chiming guitar lines. But it's the tongue-in-cheek wordplay swirling though songs like "I Can Lift A Car" -- yes, over their heads, too -- that elevate the frenetic musical hyperactivity racing through the album like a caffeine buzz...more DC

BOY - Mutual Friends (U.K.; U.S. TBA) - The definitely non-boy Valeska Steiner and Sonja Glass are BOY , a Hamburg-based duo armed with a bundle of smart, often breezy alt-pop songs on their well-received debut album , released last fall in Germany and Switzerland, makes its way to the U.K. and the rest of Europe today and then -- we're hoping -- to the U.S. later this year. After meeting up at music workshop in Hamburg, Steiner and Glass began writing and performing together and then, over a nearly two and half year period, laying down tracks in Berlin at the home studio of producer and multi-instrumentalist Philipp Steinke...more DC

Jason Myles Goss - Radio Dial - For Brooklyn performing songwriter Goss, the qualities he loves most about music are "a good story and a memorable melody" -- two things that are happily in abundant display on Radio Dial, his fourth album. Entirely self-produced, Goss' new project was recorded in old school fashion on good ol' analog tape with the help of some talented friends including Austin Nevins on guitars and Sam Kassirer on keys, both members  of Josh Ritter's Royal City Band. The result is an album that is both profoundly personal and sonically expansive...more DC

Ami Saraiya & The Outcome - Soundproof Box
Chris Smither - Hundred Dollar Valentine
Efren - Write A New Song
Ex Lovers - Moth
Justin Bieber - Believe
Kenny Chesney - Welcome to the Fishbowl
Maren Parusel - Tightrope Walker
Mary Epworth - Dream Life
Morning Parade - S/T
Nell Bryden - Shake the Tree (UK)
Richard Marx - A Night Out With Friends (CD/DVD)
Seth Walker - Time Can Change
Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania
Sophie B. Hawkins - The Crossing
Vicci Martinez (The Voice) - Vicci
Walk the Moon - S/T
Zulu Winter - Language