Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers! Most of you with plans today probably won’t see the inside of a record store (unless they sell chocolates or something,) and guess what: you don’t need to! After a few weeks when the releases were flying fast and furious, things slow down to a near-crawl this week with only a few notable albums hitting shelves.
Note: Band of Horses and Band of Skulls are two separate bands. Band of Horses is an American band filled with beardy guys who wear checker-print shirts and have a vague country/folk tint to them. Band of Skulls are from the U.K., and they’re much more of a typical hard/alternative rock vibe. They were also on one of the recent Twilight soundtracks, which is how I remember hearing of ’em. At any rate, you might wanna check out their new album, entitled Sweet Sour.
I’ve recently become familiar with the Phenomenal Handclap Band. This outfit is quite obviously from NYC, and they have this ESG/Tom Tom Club downtown funk ’80s vibe-in other words, right up my alley. We’ve already brought you the single and video for “Following,” now their album, Form & Control, is officially hitting stores. Sign me up for that one, people.
Remember that time last year when Amos Lee scored a Number One album out of nowhere? What? I’m the only one? Anyway, in 2011 the singer/songwriter earned the dubious distinction of scoring the lowest first-week Soundscan total of any album to debut at #1. Well, I guess a #1 album is a #1 album, and barely a year later, Amos is back with an EP that he calls As The Crow Flies.
There ain’t much goin’ on besides that guys and girls. Other new albums of note include Arrow, the new album from Austin indie outfit Heartless Bastards, The Promise, which is Detroit rocker Mitch Ryder’s first album release in the U.S. for three decades, and…uh, that’s pretty much it.
Now get out of the way so those people can buy Adele and Foo Fighters albums. And make sure you’re checking out Pause and Play for all your new release needs!