You'll want these records in your collection...
In this fast-paced musical landscape, where it’s so easy to simply put a playlist on shuffle, nothing compares to putting a record on, sitting back and enjoying all it has to offer in full (or at least until you have get up again to flip it over).
Every week, NME will round up the best vinyl releases, available to buy or pre-order via Norman Records. Check out the best from this week below.
Lana Del Rey – ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’
NME say:
What can we expect from Lana Del Rey’s new album, the brilliantly-titled ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’, that’s out this week? Well, as Lana herself recently said: “It’s in the vein of a Laurel Canyon sound, and it’s kind of transformed a little bit because there’s some surf elements… not really surfy like Dick Dale but a lot of electric guitar, a little Red Hot Chili Peppers influence in there.” It also features a cover of Sublime’s ‘Doin’ Time’, no less.
Norman Records say:
Lana Del Rey returns with her sixth album and, she’s pictured on the cover with none other than the grandson of Jack Nicholson. It contains fourteen new songs, most co-written with fun.’s Jack Antonoff.
Bon Iver – ‘i,i’
NME say:
Bon Iver’s new album, the Justin Vernon project’s fourth full-length to date, is a closing of a cycle. In fact, he has compared all his efforts to date to the seasons: the winter of ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’, the “ frenetic spring” of ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’ and the “unhinged summer” of 2016’s ‘22, A Million’. Now comes the autumn of ‘i,i’. “It feels very much like the most adult record, the most complete,” Vernon says. “It feels like when you get through all this life, when the sun starts to set, and what happens is you start gaining perspective. And then you can put that perspective into more honest, generous work.”
Norman Records say:
Justin ‘Bon Iver’ Vernon is one of the artists who continues to push the art of autotune forward. He applies his craft to an incredibly earnest indie-folk that has steadily been taking over the world. ‘i, i’ is likely an allusion to second album ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’ and has more than enough heart to match that wonderful record.
Ezra Furman – ‘Twelve Nudes’
NME say:
“Ezra Furman’s last album, 2018’s ‘Transangelic Exodus’, was an epic, Springsteen-inspired journey through the underbelly of American culture,” NME’s Jordan Bassett writes, adding in his review of ‘Twelve Nudes’ that the punk-infused new record from Ezra Furman is instead “an invigorating call-to-arms… provocative [and] a quick-and-dirty about-turn”.
Norman Records say:
Ezra Furman, whilst always sounding like Ezra Furman, tends to dabble in different rock sub-genres. With new album ‘Twelve Nudes’, he claims it is a punk record. He hurt his throat through singing so hard whilst making it, so there is blood on the tracks here. It was recorded in Oakland, CA under the influence of booze and cigarettes. The title refers to the songs on the album being there with nothing to hide.
Whitney – ‘Forever Turned Around’
NME say:
Whitney’s new album ‘Forever Turned Around’ still has that swooning alt-country sound of their first record, but is lyrically darker than before. “A lot of the lyrics on the record read like an inner dialogue that we pretty much think that everyone is having. Like life and death vibes… this record is dealing with a lot of fear, confusion,” the band recently said, adding: “[But] it still sounds like optimistic Whitney. I don’t think we’re ready to release a record that’s truly sad.”
Norman Records say:
Whitney return with their new album, ‘Forever Turned Around’. It is the follow-up to their 2016 debut ‘Light Upon The Lake’. The Chicago duo play a brand of indie-fied soulful country, and ‘Forever Turned Around’ was produced by Bradley Cook and Jonathan Rado, who, with credits between them such as Hand Habits, Father John Misty, Weyes Blood and Hiss Golden Messenger, were able to add the perfect colours and textures.
Why? – ‘Aokohio’
NME say:
“I have no idea if this record is good or not,” the ever-honest Yoni Wolf says of the latest project, ‘AOKOHIO’, from his cult experimental-rap project Why?, which collects 18 impressionistic songs and comes equipped with a visual album. “But I never really know. I know that I’ve never written a song that’s indispensable to the American songbook. But in terms of what it is, it’s a piece of art. I put blood, sweat, and tears into this album, and struggled through the creative process as I always do. As far as where this sits with the rest of my albums? I can’t answer that. I just know that my career is a lifelong career, and I’m working it. Every time it feels right, it makes me feel good.” You can’t argue with that.
Norman Records say:
Almost two decades on from Yoni Wolf’s first release, he continues to ask ‘Why?’. In the case of ‘AOKOHIO’ the answer seems to be something to do with an accompanying visual project and an LP broken up into short song-suites. Musically it’s another set of bombastic avant-rap from the singular Wolf. Once again the likes of Dirty Projectors and Of Montreal are your sonic touchstones for a Why? album.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Bryce Dessner, Eighth Blackbird – ‘When We Are Inhuman’
NME say:
‘When We Are Inhuman’ sees The National’s Bryce Dessner team up with folk oddball Bonnie “Prince” Billy and contemporary classical ensemble Eighth Blackbird for a record that features reworkings of Billy’s own songs interwoven with compositions from Dessner’s ‘Murder Ballades’. It’s packed full of sublime, slow-burning beauty.
Norman Records say:
After last year’s ‘El Chan’, The National’s Bryce Dessner makes another foray into the world of contemporary classical and post-minimalist composition in the form of ‘When We Are Inhuman’. For ‘When We Are Inhuman’ Dessner balanced the instrumental prowess of Eighth Blackbird with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s folksy songcraft to create an LP of nuanced and stirring compositions. ‘Illinois’-era Sufjan Stevens is the most obvious comparison here – indeed, the link is so strong that there’s even a song on ‘When We Are Inhuman’ based on that record’s ‘John Wayne Gacy Jr.’.
Velvet Negroni – ‘NEON BROWN’
NME say:
Velvet Negroni has toured with Bon Iver and worked with Kanye West – who can argue with such credentials like that? His album ‘NEON BROWN’, a collection of warped and sprawling R&B jams, displays hallmarks of both said artists: combining the soulfulness of Justin Vernon with the intricate attention-to-detail of West.
Norman Records say:
When people are asked to name musicians from Minneapolis they tend to get stuck pretty much as soon as they say Prince. Perhaps the rapidly-rising Velvet Negroni will be able to help add to that list in the near future. ‘NEON BROWN’, the debut LP from the one born Jeremy Nutzman (what a name), contains a sort of hybrid hip-hop/R&B style that the likes of Frank Ocean and The Weeknd have struck gold with in recent years.
Carter Tutti Void – ‘Triumvirate’
NME say:
Carter Tutti Void (who take their name from the members themselves: Throbbing Gristle’s Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Factory Floor’s Nik Void) have had a fruitful collaborative relationship since first teaming up for a live performance in 2011, releasing two records since, followed by this, a third and what’s described as their “final” album together. Expect sparse, jittering and wholly hypnotic industrial-electro.
Norman Records say:
Carter Tutti Void – the industrial music supergroup made up of Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti and Nik Colk Void – say that ‘Triumvirate’ will be their final LP together. Let’s all appreciate this lot while we can, then. Sounds like… well it sounds exactly like what you get when you link up two former members of Throbbing Gristle with one half of Factory Floor.
HTRK – ‘Venus In Leo’
NME say:
Aussie noir-electro duo HTRK’s new album ‘Venus In Leo’ makes for a perfect end-of-summer soundtrack. However, it was actually intending for December listening, as singer Jonnine Standish notes: “We’ve got the track ‘New Year’s Eve’ and another called ‘New Year’s Day’. Of course, New Year’s Eve is at the end of the summer for us, but it wasn’t until much later we realized that would be completely at odds with a lot of the rest of the world.” They add: “‘New Year’s Day’ is about someone getting out of jail but he has a sinking feeling he’ll end up back in there very soon. But I liked the idea of a sunrise at the end bringing a bit of hope. I think there’s a lot of positivity in the album.”
Norman Records say:
‘Venus In Leo’ is the fourth album from HTRK, the minimal electronic duo. Theirs is a sound that is finds an intense sadness in mundanity, that is communicated with minimal beats now freed from their noisy shells.
Pharmakon – ‘Devour’
NME say:
Margaret Chardiet, AKA noise musician Pharmakon, explains the stark artwork of her new album as such: “‘Devour’ uses self-cannibalisation as allegory for the self-destructive nature of humans,” adding: “Our minds, our politics and our species, humans are self-destructing. But this behaviour does not happen in a vacuum. It is an instinctive inward response to a world of increasing outward violence, greed, and oppression.” As a result, the five-track ‘Devour’ is an abrasive, deeply confronting listen.
Norman Records say:
Margaret Chardiet drops her fourth LP as Pharmakon. ‘Devour’ is the first album Chardiet has recorded live in the studio, and as such there’s a real feeling of spontaneity and immediacy to this tortured set of power electronics. Production from Uniform’s Ben Greenberg only adds to the intensity.
The post Lana Del Rey, Bon Iver and other big vinyl releases you need this week appeared first on NME.
