Here are some back-to-school albums to look forward to while the campus turns slowly into a giant icicle. This list is a mere centimeter out of the yards of album releases this fall. However, the cream of the current harvest is undoubtedly included with three of the hottest young artists and one folk legend that need no introduction.
Artist: The Avett Brothers
Album: The Carpenter
Release Date: Sept. 11
Label: Universal Republic Records
The raw beauty in the twangy banjo, thumping bass, and cello are righteously surfaced when The Avett Brothers are involved. In 2009, their album I and Love and You became a widely acclaimed success. Paste Magazine called it, "an overpowering acoustic album brimming with sadness and soul." The praise was singular, bringing excitement and apprehension for their next release, The Carpenter, which was announced on the band's Facebook page in June.
The group's vocal harmonies seem to drip with a minor darkness while refraining from being void in luster and spice. What can be expected this September is a majestic indie album comparable to a rootsy Mumford and Sons or a full band of Paul Simon clones.
The Avett Brothers have also released a preview of the 12 songs from The Carpenter, which can be viewed on their Facebook page.
Artist:Bob Dylan
Album:Tempest
Release Date:Sept. 11
Label: Columbia Records
At age 71, Bob Dylan is still a prominent recording artist who refuses to quit. While his universally famous albums, such as The Times They Are a-Changin', keep their place in American cultural history, this folk legend doesn't back down from the present. If Dylan's next release, Tempest, matches his 2009 album Together Through Life, which ranked No. 1 in the U.S. and the U.K., it will feature the same bluesy Dylan riffs with a raspier voice, portraying his famous folk lyric style with a distinction like aged Merlot.
This release marks the 50-year anniversary of Dylan's premier self-titled album that introduced the sometimes-cynical Minnesota boy to the world. According to a press release from Columbia Records, this album contains ten new and original songs and makes the 35th studio set from Dylan. All of this considered, Tempest may be the most highly anticipated album of the year for some.
Artist: Flying Lotus
Album: Until the Quiet Comes
Release Date: Oct. 2
Label: Warp Records
With cogs rotating and levers pounding, Flying Lotus' experimental take on electronic music has appeared on the Adult Swim Network's commercial bumps. That was in 2006, when Steve Ellison, or Flying Lotus, started to become the originator of a distinctly jagged sound, and the sound must go on.
Ellison's next album Until the Quiet Comes features Radiohead lead vocalist Thom Yorke for a second time, after their first collaboration on "...And The World Laughs With You" in 2010. The combination of rhythmic machinery, broken record-like demeanor and eerie lead vocals is shady and sapid. Certainly, the bizarre array of sounds are too distantly spread apart texturally to give way to a danceable beat.
But what is dissectible from this form of expression is much like what can be felt from a glimpse of Kandinsky's Composition VII - a chaotic bliss of sorts. Just don't forget to blink.
Artist: deadmau5
Album: >Album Title Goes Here<
Release Date: Sept. 25
Label: mau5trap
Joel Thomas Zimmerman, better known as deadmau5, has taken the tag-and-pull beat that raves adore and created a springboard for American idols. The Toronto native moves further from the archaic deep house roots, his thirst for collaboration has allowed him to record with hip-hop group Cypress Hill, a few notable pop-punk singers, and drum and bass superstars such as Pendulum's Rob Swire. "Professional Griefers," featuring My Chemical Romance front man Gerard Way, appears as the centerfold track for Zimmerman's next album >Album Title Goes Here<.
After returning from his last European tour, the electronic sensation decided to overhaul his studio in Toronto where "he locked himself in and went on a creative spree to finish 'album title goes here'," according to a press release from mau5trap records.
This release includes music videos for "Professional Griefers" as well as "The Veldt," which features deadmau5 fan Chris James' vocal version of the track which James uploaded to Soundcloud.com in March. Zimmerman discovered the track after a series of tweets from fans.
Email: arts@ubspectrum.com
