For this week’s round of ready-to-stream albums, we present an LP from current SPIN cover star Dave Grohl and the newest full-length from recent SPIN profile subject William Tyler. Grab a pair of headphones and plug into those two records, as well as the eight others below:
1) Dave Grohl and Friends, Sound City: Real to Reel. “Stevie Nicks sounds as urgent and bewitching as ever… The heavily anticipated collaboration between Paul McCartney and former members of Nirvana may have only taken three hours to write and record, but it’s tight and pretty thrilling. Trent Reznor’s lovely contribution… serves as a reminder that for some musicians, digital technology wasn’t a shortcut, but a means to enhance the art form. Grohl aims to honor the magic of the soundboard in this energized collection of songs, but it’s clearly the magic of the people and the inspiration that comes from working with gifted friends and colleagues.” (via NPR)
2) Marnie Stern, The Chronicles of Marnia. “The overall feeling is more spare; her fingertapping and vocals collide and explode like they did on her previous records, but they do so with more precision, and the lyrics pack an even greater wallop as a result.” (via NPR)
3) Devendra Banhart, Mala. “Banhart’s arsenal contains a remarkable capacity to convey yearning… and it shines through in slow, brooding pleas like ‘Won’t You Come Home.’ The singer still takes a lot of tonal detours on Mala, but that’s the sound of creative freedom for a songwriter who’s never been afraid to follow his whims to epiphanies, dead ends and many points in between.” (via NPR)
4) Phosphorescent, Muchacho. “The gorgeous new Muchacho… finds a way to aim heavenward while still hitting nerves closer to home. In a series of humbly soaring ballads that drift and bloom over five, six and even seven minutes, the band’s sixth album captures a bit of the grandiose loveliness of Phosphorescent’s choirboy-folk peers in Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket.” (via NPR)
5) Eric Clapton, Old Sock. “Clapton stretches out on a variety of sounds and styles, pulling up the reggae undertones of Taj Mahal’s ‘Further on Down the Road,’ taking an uncharacteristic honky-tonk turn on the country standard ‘Born to Lose’ and dabbling in vintage show tunes on the 1937 Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein ballad ‘The Folks Who Live on the Hill’… new song ‘Gotta Get Over’ is a big, bluesy rocker soaked in electric guitar and soulful backing vocals, while Clapton limbers up his slide-guitar skills on a version of Leadbelly’s classic ‘Goodnight Irene.'” (via the Wall Street Journal)
6) William Tyler, Impossible Truth. “The Best New Artist alum’s new instrumental effort feels… elusive, if not transcendent. Painting a layered and hazy, John Fahey-indebted landscape, the Lambchop and Silver Jews associate comes across as travel-weary cartographer and six-string virtuoso all at once.” (via SPIN)
7) Úlfur, White Mountain. “Trades in gorgeous soundscapes that verge into the near-mystical… contributions from Mountain Man vocalist Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Björk collaborator Sigrún Jónsdóttir (bass, guitar). The end result is warmer than the music of his predecessors, and imbued with creative programming that brings to mind the work of the Morr Music camp or loop-lovers like Dosh.” (via SPIN)
8) Lightouts, Want. “Melding Sonic Youth’s mangled guitars and monotonic vocal sensibilities with a taut and measured rhythm section, these Brooklynites manage to tap into an ever-expanding history of blown-out guitar rock and laconic vocals without feeling like a rehasing of rock’n’roll’s recent past.” (via SPIN)
9) Various Artists, FreshMoon Presents: 808k Vol. 1. “The collection features a clutch of unreleased material from the bigger names on the circuit: DJ Spinn contributes the rootsy ‘Deep,’ and Traxman offers the spartan ‘Zone.’ DJ Rashad, meanwhile, provides the 8-bit nightmare ‘Lickin’ And Kickin’,’ which sounds like a Commodore 64 having a conniption. DJ Manny and DJ Earl also contribute, as do a glut of lesser-known Texan players. (via FACT)
10) Various Artists, Spring Breakers Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. “As promised (warned?), Skrillex produced the original score for Spring Breakers, which also brings in Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, Wacka Flocka Flame, and, interestingly, a collaboration between James Franco and Florida rapper Dangeruss.” — Entertainment Weekly (via Pitchfork)
