DC October 23 New Release Recap

This week we have some fine new releases for your review including the long overdue full length debut from Austin blues/rock guitarist Gary Clark Jr., the third album from alt-pop princess Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes), Brit arena-rock mainstay turned retro-pop songwriter Andy Burrows and Brooklyn folk/pop duo -- and DC fave -- Barnaby Bright. We've also got some nice virtual ink on Swedish band The Amazing, Lilly Hiatt (John's talented daughter) and Virginia chamber folk band The Last Bison. Check out our full DC list below including new stuff from Taylor Swift, Peter Gabriel (So Anniversary Edition), Kasie Chambers and Shane Nicholson, Interpol's Paul Banks, Martha Tilston and more...

Andy Burrows' hookfilled and nostalgic British pop harkens back to an earlier era, when bands like ELO, Macca and his Wings and 10CC hit their apex with nimble, sinfully rich melodies, eargrabbing production flair and harmonies so divine they could have been delivered from the pearly gates. On Company (PIAS), the follow up to his acclaimed 2010 album Sun Comes Up Again (under the moniker I Am Arrow) -- an album we described as filled with "shiny, XL-sized melodies, a touch of SoCal strummy powerpop and a frisky bounce in the rhythmic step" -- Burrows again dusts off the classic pop/rock hymnbook...more DC

Austin-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist extraordinaire Gary Clark Jr. doesn't just imbibe the blues, he appears to have the knack for absorbing the heart and -- most importantly -- the soul of the blues as well. Highly-anticipated full length debut Blak and Blu (Warner Brothers) is equal parts black and blue, an innately gifted modern funk proprietor who just happens to be a riveting and incendiary blues/rock guitar slinger to boot...more DC

Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man (Capitol) - Brit electro/art/pop princess Natasha Khan returns with her third album and the follow up to the critically-praised 2009 project Two Suns...Both her 2006 debut album Fur and Gold and Two Suns were nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize in the U.K. and she also picked up two Brit Award nominations for Female Solo Artist... the theatrical ingénue image and plugged-in Kate Bush-styled sound Khan has created for herself -- edgy but not too -- gets little in the way of a make over for The Haunted Man's eleven tracks...more DC

Brooklyn's Barnaby Bright, the husband and wife duo of Becky and Nathan Bliss, have been quietly creating exquisite and gracefully nuanced folk/pop over the past few years, highlighting Becky's effortlessly angelic vocals and Nathan's warm, straightforward instrumental arrangements. Long awaited full-length The Longest Day (Mishara) is another confident step forward, an expansion of the Bliss' wistful and whimsical acoustic styles across slightly exotic world music boundaries -- particularly in Becky's extraordinary singing -- and a more personal approach to the lyrical threads of their songwriting...more DC

We're pleased to report that the singing and songwriting gene has once again emerged intact with Lilly Hiatt and her band The Dropped Ponies. The daughter of master songcraftsman John Hiatt, the Nashville-based 28-year-old has been honing her own particular brand of countrified folk/rock and Americana the past few years with guitarist Beth Finney and now with the addition Jon Radford (Drew Holcombe Band) on drums and Jake Bradley (Over the Rhine) on bass, she's assembled a potent and promising outfit to flesh out her songs...more DC

Push the "late 60's/early 70's" button on your Wayback Machine, don that fringe suede jacket, light the patchouli incense and then close your eyes. Now you're ready for Gentle Stream, the lovingly retro new album from Swedish band The Amazing that British music bible Q hailed as “a gorgeously understated blend of gentle psychedelic pop, tranquil folk rock and gently stoned prog.” Released in Europe last year and finally washing up on American shores this week, this is the kind of music where a track named "When The Colours Change" just might not be about the fall leaves..more DC

If you tried to imagine what mountain music might sound like played by a folk orchestra of fiddles, banjos, mandolins and cellos you might come up with something akin to the music of Virginia's The Last Bison. With hirsute frontman and songwriter Ben Hardesty forging the way, the Chesapeake septet is less sturm and drang and more strum and twang as they take the front porch folk into new realms of sophisticated and intricate string arrangements. "At once epic and intimate", raves The L.A. Weekly, "great outdoorsy and fireside cozy"...more DC

More October 23 New Releases:

Autumn Owls - Between Buildings
Cale Parks - To Swift Mars EP
Cemetaries - This Wilderness
Colbie Caillat - Christmas In the Sand
Further Seems Forever - Penny Black 
Kasey Chambers/Shane Nicholson - Wreck & Ruin
Kath Buckell - Faces Do Not Change
Lady Antebellum - On This Winter's Night
Matraca Berg - Love's Truck Stop (UK)
Martha Tilston - Machines of Love & Grace (UK)
Other Lives - Mind The Gap (EP)
Paul Banks (Interpol) - Banks
Peter Broderick - These Walls of Mine
Peter Gabriel - So (Expanded 25th Anniv. Edition/Immersion Box)
Rah Rah - The Poet's Dead
San Cisco - Awkward EP
Sasparilla - Magpie
Shiny Toy Guns - III
State Radio - Rabbit Inn Rebellion
Taylor Swift - Red (10/22)
The Bar-Kays - Grown Folks
The Bony King of Nowhere - S/T (EUR)
Titus Andronicus - Local Business
Tony Bennett - Viva Duets (w/ Latin artists)