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“Is it better to be on or be good?” sings the Dodos‘ Meric Long on the San Francisco indie-folk duo’s new No Color. It’s an apt question: For 2009’s Time To Die, the group added a third member (to play vibes, of all things), contracted big-name producer Phil Ek, and introduced electric guitar into the mix—all attempts to be “on” that resulted in The Dodos’ most patently “off” work to date. But No Color scales things back, with Long and drummer Logan Kroeber playing mostly as a duo again, carrying the majority of the sonic load on a spirited collection of aggressive folk songs. When outsiders make contributions, The Dodos make them count, like the much-needed feminine touch Neko Case gives to “Sleep,” where swooning boy-girl vocals pretty up a thudding experimental hoedown. On “Black Night,” waves of Smashing Pumpkins-style feedback swell and crash over a base of cutup strumming. No Color is the noisiest, prettiest album of The Dodos’ career. It’s good and on. –AVCLUB

OTHER NEW VINYL RELEASES:

Rise Against, End Game
Rilo Kiley, Take Offs & Landings
Burzum, Fallen
Discharge, Apocalypse Now
Fleshtomes, Brooklyn Sound Solution
Heart, Dreamboat Annie
Eric Johnson, Ah Via Musicom
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Scandalous
Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers, Rare Bird Alert
J Mascis, Several Shades Of Why
Owls, Owls

Tags: new releasesvinyl

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Smoke Ring for My Halo, is Kurt Vile’s fourth and finest full-length album to date. Strings buzz, strummed patterns double back on themselves and from up above it all, the Philadelphia-native showers everything with cosmic, harp-like harmonics. It’s a song that’s both monastic and vast all at once, the kind of curiously rich work that seems like it was crafted by forty longhairs instead of just one. But Vile has gone great lengths in answering his own question in recent years, finding a way to distill thousands of hours spent with classic American guitar music into one very singular and sublime vision. Whether he’s channeling the energies of John Fahey or Tom Petty or even Bob Seger, Smoke Ring makes clear that the end result is his alone. –PF

OTHER NEW VINYL RELEASES:

Cut Copy Zonoscope
R.E.M. Collapse Into Now
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti Doldrums
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti House Arrest
Buffalo Tom Skins
Parts & Labor Constant Future
Rival Schools Pedals
Uriah Heep Demons & Wizards
Witchfinder General Death Penalty
Witchfinder General Friends Of Hell

Tags: new releasesvinyl

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More than just a b-sides collection, INCESTICIDE culls together Nirvana’s work before and around their now-legendary albums. Released between the groundbreaking NEVERMIND and the artsier IN UTERO, the rarities and outtakes which make up this album shed new light on Nirvana’s oeuvre, filling in the gaps between official releases and providing fans with a wider variety of recordings from different sources.

Highlights include three covers, taken from John Peel sessions: a Devo tune (“Turnaround”) and two songs by Scotland’s The Vaselines, whose purposefully vapid pop magic is given the force of a juggernaut, with the minimal production that best showcases the Nirvana’s aggressive grace. The famous quasi-live recording conditions of the BBC sessions provide another standout, the surging, desperate “Aneurysm,” which remains one of Nirvana’s finest recorded moments. –CDU

OTHER NEW VINYL RELEASES:

Adele 21
JJ & Mofro Grey Georgia Warhorse
Scissor Sisters Night Work
Toro Y Moi Underneath The Pine
G. Love Fixin To Die
Books Lemon Of Pink
Blues Magoos Electric Comic Book
Blues Magoos Psychedelic Lollipop
Cave Singers No Witch
Low Anthem Smart Flesh
Esperanza Spalding Chamber Music Society

Tags: new releasesvinyl