Largehearted Boy's Interesting CD Releases This Week

August 4, 2008

Covering a Russian folk-punk legend virtually unknown in the west is an odd choice for a sophomore album (especially when you choose to sing in Russian), but Alina Simone brings Yanka Dyagileva’s music to life in Everyone Is Crying Out to Me Beware. In the most daring release of the year, Simone chooses not to mimic Dyagileva’s style but to put her own stamp on these songs with her powerful voice and artful arrangements that frame the lyrics perfectly. Last night after I read that one of my personal heroes, Aleksander Solzenhitsyn, had passed away, it was these songs (along with fragments of his prose) that echoed in my head until sleep took hold. Her CD release show is August 8th at Union Hall in Brooklyn.

The Airborne Toxic Event’s self-titled debut is out tomorrow, a strong effort from a band that took their name from Don DeLillo’s novel, White Noise…

Other new releases I have heard and can strongly recommend this week include Clinic’s Funf, Conor Oberst’s self-titled album, The Faint’s Fasciination, Ida’s My Fair, My Dark EP, and Oxford Collapse’s Bits.

The two Gang of Four remastered discs (Hard and Songs of the Free) are on my shopping list. Other reissues of note include Scott Walker: Til the Band Comes In, Verbena’s Souls for Sale, and the Waterboys’ remastered Room to Roam (complete with bonus disc).

Abe Vigoda: Skeleton [vinyl]
The Airborne Toxic Event: The Airborne Toxic Event
Alice Cooper: Along Came A Spider [vinyl]
Alina Simone: Everyone Is Crying Out to Me Beware
Amy Ray: Didn’t It Feel Kinder
Anthony Green: Avalon
Apollo Sunshine: Shall Noise Upon (2xLP + CD) [vinyl]
Atlas Sound: Atlas Shrugged [vinyl]
Bellrays: Hard, Sweet and Sticky [vinyl]
Benji Hughes: A Love Extreme [vinyl]
Black Light Burns: Cover Your Heart & the Anvil Pants Odyssey
Blue October: The Answers
The Brand New Heavies: Get Used To It: The Tom Moulton Mixes
Brazilian Girls: New York City
The Brian Jonestown Massacre: Just Like Kicking Jesus [vinyl]
Carla Bruni: Comme Si de Rien N’Etait
Carrie Rodriguez: She Ain’t Me
Clinic: Funf
Clinic: Funf [vinyl]
Conor Oberst: Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst: Conor Oberst [vinyl]
Correcto: Correcto
Correcto: Correcto [vinyl]
CSS: Donkey [vinyl]
Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours [vinyl]
Darker My Love: 2
Darker My Love: 2 [vinyl]
Dave Stewart: The Dave Stewart Songbook, Vol. 1
David Vandervelde: Waiting for the Sunrise
David Vandervelde: Waiting for the Sunrise
DeVotchKa: A Mad and Faithful Telling [vinyl]
Ellen Allien: Out Remixes EP [vinyl]
Elvis Presley: Complete ’68 Comeback Special: 40th Anniversary Edition (box set)
Ernie Halter: Starting Over
The Faint: Fasciination
The Faint: Fasciination [vinyl]
Gang of Four: Hard (reissued import)
Gang of Four: Songs of the Free (remastered import)
Glen Campbell: Meet Glen Campbell (covers album) [vinyl]
The Golden Hands Before God: Here
Hawthorne Heights: Fragile Future
Heidi Newfield: What Am I Waiting For
Helms Alee: Night Terror
Ida: My Fair, My Dark EP
Ida: My Fair, My Dark EP [vinyl]
The Interiors: The Interiors
Jedi Mind Tricks Presents…: King Syze Syzemology
Jedi Mind Tricks Presents…: King Syze The Labor Union
JIm Boggia: Misadventures in Stereo
John Mellencamp: Life Death Love and Freedom (with bonus DVD) [vinyl]
Jonathan Richman: Because Her Beauty Is Raw and Wild [vinyl]
Lewis Black: Anticipation
Lord Dog Bird: The Lord Dog Bird
Luciano: Fabric 41
Madonna: Give It 2 Me (maxi-single)
Mandi Perkins: Alice In No Man’s Land
The Marked Men: The Marked Men
The Marked Men: The Marked Men [vinyl]
Mars Black: Stay Black
MIke Gordon: The Green Sparrow
Mike Mangione: Tenebrae
Mogwai: Batcat EP (import)
Motion City Soundtrack: Even If It Kills Me [vinyl]
Music Go Music: Reach Out [vinyl]
Nas: Nas [vinyl]
Norah Jones: Live from Austin, TX [vinyl]
Oneida: Preteen Weaponry
Oneida: Preteen Weaponry [vinyl]
Oxford Collapse: Bits
Passenger: Wicked Man’s Rest
Pete Seeger: Hard Travelling: Best of Pete Seeger
Peter Bradley Price: Leavetaking
Phish: LivePhish 04/02/98
Phish: LivePhish 04/03/98
Phish: LivePhish 04/04/98
Phish: LivePhish 04/05/98
Prints: Just Thoughts
Randy Newman: Harps & Angels
Sam Phillips: The Disappearing Act 1987-1998 (import)
Sarah McLachlan: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy Legacy Edition (3-cd set)
Scott Walker: Til the Band Comes In (reissue)
Shannon McArdle: Summer of the Whore
Squeeze: The Complete BBC Sessions (import)
That Handsome Devil: A City Dressed In Dynamite
There For Tomorrow: There For Tomorrow EP
Tricky: Council Estate (single)
Various Artists: Pineapple Express (soundtrack)
Various Artists: Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted – Baghdad, 1925-1929
Verbena: Souls for Sale (reissue)
Waterboys: Room to Roam (remastered with bonus disc, import)
The Weight: Are Men [vinyl]
Zozobra: Birds of Prey