1. The Worse Things Get, Neko Case
2. AM, Arctic Monkeys
3. Hesitation Marks, Nine Inch Nails
4. In Our Town-Songs For Boise 150, Various Artists
5. World Boogie is Coming, North Mississippi Allstars
6. Hail to the King, Avenged Sevenfold
7. Harmony, Serena Ryder
8. Repave, Volcano Choir
9. All Re-Mixed Up, Puscifer
10. Electric Lady, Janelle Monae
11. The Civil Wars, The Civil Wars
12. All People, Michael Franti
13. If You Leave, Daughter
14. Shadows, Greys and Evil Ways, The White Buffalo
15. Live in San Francisco, Ry Cooder and Corridos Famosos
16. Inland, Jars of Clay
17. Devils ‘n Darlins, Ed Roland and the Sweet Tea Project
18. Kiss Land, The Weeknd
19. Silver Gymnasium, Okkervil River
20. Bad Blood, Bastille
RECORD EXCHANGE TOP 20 SELLERS (WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 8, 2013)
1. The Worse Things Get, Neko Case
2. Hesitation Marks, Nine Inch Nails
3. Centipede Hz., Animal Collective
4. Long Night Moon, Reckless Kelly
5. In Our Town-Songs For Boise 150, Various Artists
6. Paradise Valley, John Mayer
7. White Lighter, Typhoon
8. The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait, Bob Dylan
9. World Boogie is Coming, North Mississippi Allstars
10. Hail to the King, Avenged Sevenfold
11. Silver Gymnasium, Okkervil River
12. Southeastern, Jason Isbell
13. Rockpango, Los Lonely Boys
14. For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver
15. Bankrupt!, Phoenix
16. Like Clockwork, Queens of the Stone Age
17. Repave, Volcano Choir
18. Made Up Mind, Tedeschi Trucks Band
19. The Civil Wars, The Civil Wars
20. Pushin’ Against a Stone, Valerie June
THE VINYL WORD: NEKO CASE'S LATEST IS 'HER BEST SINCE FOX CONFESSOR'
PREVIEW/BUY THE VINYL HERE
PREVIEW/BUY THE DELUXE VINYL HERE
From her Fiona Apple-lite title and seeming repetition of themes from her previous album Middle Cyclone, it could be easy to write off Neko Case at this point in her career. But that would be tantamount to a crime, as Case, with her latest album The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, has released her best material since 2006’s Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, either solo or with The New Pornographers. This amazing album is a full realization of what Case just began to explore in Middle Cyclone, from familial drama to her conception of her own gender. On The Worse Things Get, there’s not a weak song. — MusicOMH.com
NEW RELEASE OF THE WEEK: NINE INCH NAILS' 'VITAL' 'HESITATION MARKS'
PREVIEW/BUY THE CD HERE
PREVIEW/BUY THE DELUXE CD HERE
PREVIEW/BUY THE VINYL HERE
As a record from the gear-grinding, bloodletting, mud-sweat-and-tears, industrial void-enterer Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Hesitation Marks is an almost scandalous about-face, powering down the Hate Machine and revving up the Man-Machine, boldly exploring “EBM” for a generation of headbangers still coming to terms with the throbbing gristle of “EDM.” As part of a cultural moment, it’s the third in a trilogy of bluntly minimal albums — following the Knife’s Shaking the Habitual and Kanye West’s Yeezus — that retrofit an icon’s chosen genre into a blocky, clinical, Piet Mondrian painting. Noise is rendered as tight, impenetrable polygons of sound; beats are clicked together like Duplo bricks in primary colors; 808s are heartbreak; and everyone seems to be jacking to the same circa-1988 Chicago house records.
All of which to say, this is the most important artistic statement from NIN leader Trent Reznor since the late ’90s, when SPIN dubbed him “the Most Vital Artist in Music Today.” Through coincidence or design (he’s a Kanye fan), Hesitation Marks surges with the energy of modern hip-hop — hey, the surge of modern everything. And unlike Radiohead, you can dance to it. This is acid. Reznor’s clean, crisp, basement-breaking beats are a daze of Phuture’s past. Chicago house is already seeing a revival on the gnashing edges of the noise scene. It’s already got the potential to be the Internet generation’s Ramones T-shirt: moody, abrasive, infectious, aggressively simple. Through his own twisted K-hole, #ARTPOP icon Reznor is once again one of the most vital artists working today, coming back haunted, breaking the habitual. Let’s get physical. — Spin