PlayARt - Bring Albums to Life

Dusk, Boy Named Banjo’s exhilarating new album, is indeed an electrifying dose of lightning in a bottle, one that explores the full sonic and emotional spectrum of the band’s rich, eclectic sound, from late-night, feel-good, fall-in-love party anthems to stripped-down, introspective meditations on loneliness, loss, and letting go. The writing is keen and incisive here, artfully grappling with lust and longing, hope and heartbreak, regret and redemption, and the Nashville five-piece’s performances are nothing short of exhilarating, blurring the lines between Music Row and Laurel Canyon with lush harmonies and bold, cinematic arrangements.

Split-coloured vinyl & printed lyrics. "Run the Jewels - Hip-hop's preeminent collaboration between veteran rhyme-slayers El-P and Killer Mike have gone from a whim-driven underground rap project to a worldwide sensation since the release of their 2013 debut Run The Jewels. Mixing the industrial grime of New York City with the vibrant bounce of the dirty South, they forge hip-hop's future while adhering to the core tenets of it's bedrock: gymnastic displays of skills, incendiary political rhetoric, merciless braggadocio, battle-honed assholery, R-rated punchlines and a back-and-forth that brings the interplay of the shell-toe Adidas era screaming into our contemporary nightmare.Tearing up the music industry rulebook, their self-titled 2013 debut was originally released through a series of website-crashing free album downloads. Featuring Outkast's Big Boi on Banana Clipper and Prince Paul on Twin Hype Back, it's a "rough and rabid ride"; a "swaggering victory lap for two artists at the peak of their creativity"; and been dubbed "one of the best hip-hop records of 2013"." Now available in a special 10th anniversary edition with the original and instrumental album, packaged in a double gatefold sleeve with split-coloured vinyl.

This new Deluxe Edition features the original 12 tracks including the hit singles “Ghost Story” and “Hate My Heart,” plus 6 additional songs including “Take Me Out” and her latest single “Out Of That Truck.” Carrie is a true multiformat, multimedia superstar, spanning achievements in music, TV, film, and as a New York Times bestselling author and successful entrepreneur. She has sold more than 85 million records worldwide and recorded 28 #1 singles (14 of which she co-wrote).

Reigning from Atlanta, GA, vocal powerhouse Teddy Swims masterfully blends genres from pop, soul, hip-hop, to R&B. Throughout the last four years, Teddy has spent countless hours honing his craft by writing original music and solidifying who he is as an artist. His remarkable debut album I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1) is a transformative record that pushes boundaries, inviting listeners to come along on his personal journey of self-discovery and growth. With his soul-stirring voice and heartfelt lyrics, Teddy delivers an intimate and cathartic experience, delving into themes of love, loss, and the complexities of life. With nearly 1 billion global streams across his catalog, Teddy Swims has become a force to be reckoned with, amassing a social following of over 10 million devoted fans and selling out tours across the globe. His undeniable talent has also attracted collaborations with renowned artists like Meghan Trainor, Thomas Rhett, and ILLENIUM, showcasing his versatility and musical prowess.

3-time GRAMMY® award winning recording artist olivia rodrigo will release her new album, GUTS, on september 8th via geffen records. available to pre-order now.

GUTS was recorded with producer daniel nigro, who also collaborated with her on SOUR, her chart-topping, 4x platinum debut album.

“for me, this album is about growing pains and about trying to figure out who I am at this point in my life and exactly what I want to say in my songs."

Black Rainbows is a musical project inspired by the objects and artworks collected by Theaster Gates at the Stoney Island Arts Bank in Chicago. Situated at the Great Grand Crossing neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side, Stoney Island Arts Bank is a cathedral to Black Art, a curated collection of Black archives comprising books, sculpture, records, furniture and problematic objects from America's past. As well as being a site for archive, the Arts bank is also a place for convening. Bailey Rae attended The Black Artists Retreat there in 2017 and performed in the space.

Wide ranging in it's themes, Black Rainbows' subjects are drawn from encounters with objects in the Arts Bank. Taking us from the rock hewn churches of Ethiopia, to the journeys of Black Pioneers Westward, from Miss New York Transit Queen 1957, to how the sunset appears from Harriet Jacobs' loophole. Black Rainbows explores Black femininity, Spell Work, Inner Space/Outer Space, time collapse and ancestors, the erasure Black childhood and music as a vessel for transcendence. The project will be released in various iterations - live performances, books, visuals, lectures, exhibitions, and more. Sonically, the album is a multi-genre mix of the progressive R&B, neo soul sound that will be familiar to fans but it also contains rock, jazz and electronic elements. The album was produced by S.J. Brown and Corinne Bailey Rae.

Gearing up for another pivotal creative chapter, GRAMMY® Award-winning UK singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer James Blake has released “Big Hammer,” the debut single from his forthcoming, sixth studio album Playing Robots Into Heaven which will be released on September 8, 2023. Playing Robots Into Heaven follows the critically acclaimed Friends That Break Your Heart and will see James return to the electronic roots of his Hessle, Hemlock and R&S records days. It will also nod to his latest creation, the CMYK event series with Ronda INTL which kicked off in Los Angeles last March and will be venturing to London on July 6th.

Royal Blood ignite an epic summer ahead as they announce the September 1st release of their fourth album ‘Back To The Water Below’.

From the very beginning, Royal Blood’s story has been one of two life-long friends whose shared passion and dedication for writing and performing has led them on a remarkable adventure together – a story that has yet to be repeated, and is a feat as rare as it is remarkable. Long before Royal Blood were even formed, they spent years together in various bands playing to half empty bars around Brighton - and only then did they suddenly become a decade-in-the-making overnight success story. One day they were plotting how to recoup the meagre £300 they had spent on their first recording, but within a year they were at the top of UK album charts, storming Glastonbury and winning the BRIT Award for Best British Group.

On Cautious Clay’s deeply personal Blue Note debut KARPEH, the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer takes an artistic leap forward with an ambitious yet introspective album about growth, conceptions of intimacy and lineage that reveals a new side of his artistry by delving deeper than ever into his jazz influences. Across the album’s 15 tracks, Cautious is heard on vocals, flute, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, guitar, synthesizer and bass.

Darius Rucker will be releasing his 6th Country Studio album- Carolyn’s Boy which will feature 14 songs including #1 song- “Beers and Sunshine” and his latest hit single- “Fire’s Don’t Start Themselves.” The album title is named after his mother. Rucker embarked on a successful solo career, applying his versatile baritone to acclaimed R&B and country efforts like the platinum-selling Learn to Live (2008) and True Believers (2013), and 2023's Carolyn’s Boy, which featured the hit single "Beers and Sunshine."

There are times when an artist transcends the form. When the spirit of music goes beyond embodying sound. 1987 saw the release of Linda Ronstadt's groundbreaking love letter to her family soul and lifeblood - Canciones de mi Padre.

Selling over 10 million copies and celebrated by music lovers across the globe, and here at home by both Grammy's and the Library of Congress, Linda Ronstadt brought the most beautiful and timeless Spanish melodies back into homes in a loving reunion as well as coloring new rooms where these songs, bright as the day, suddenly rang out.

New connections celebrating beauty, language, and roots. Even today - especially today - the sound of Canciones de mi Padre links the then to the now and onward.

OTR crafts loving, buoyant electronic tracks bursting with optimism and catharsis. Making music began as an escape from strange, alienating circumstances, and has since blossomed into a burgeoning career with a dynamic, ambitious upcoming sophomore album-Be Quiet, They're Listening-due on Astralwerks in the summer. Boasting an explosion of dreamy synths and polished percussion, the record showcases the scope of emotion as well as meticulous attention to detail that elevates OTR's work.

"World Music Radio is the new musical transmission from GRAMMY® and Oscar® winner Jon Batiste, following his acclaimed hit record WE ARE.

This concept album stars Batiste as interstellar traveling griot/DJ Billy Bob Bo Bob who examines popular music from around the globe on a radio broadcast to the rest of the universe - begging the question, isn’t all music, world music?

World Music Radio sees Batiste reach new artistic heights with collaborators Jon Bellion, J.I.D, Camilo, NewJeans and others."

As Australian metal juggernauts Parkway Drive gear up for a world tour to commemorate their 20th anniversary as a band, Epitaph Records announces the release of the band’s debut EP from 2004, for the first time on vinyl. This expanded version of Don’t Close Your Eyes includes the original 8 tracks from the band’s first EP , with the addition of bonus tracks included from both their split album with I Killed the Prom Queen and from the compilation albums What We’ve Built and True Till Death, Volume I.

Hailing from the beachfront town of Byron Bay, Australia, Parkway Drive blasted out of their serene surroundings touting a volatile blend of intricate metal riffing, punishing breakdowns, and hardcore’s emotional tension. The band caught fire regionally with the chart-topping Horizons (2007) and Deep Blue (2010), then broke into the international market in 2012 with the arrival of Atlas. 2015’s Ire saw the group introduce clean singing into their oeuvre, and they continued to move toward a more melodic, though no less aggressive metal style on 2018’s Reverence and 2022’s Darker Still.

Parkway Drive continue to be a force of nature, 20 years in and still one of the top headliners in the Hard Music scene. Don’t Close Your Eyes revisits the band’s beginnings and their completest fans will be excited to finally have this album available on Vinyl.

Over the past eight years Teenage Wrist have continually evolved their sound, a process that’s peaking with their third full-length, STILL LOVE. Reaching new heights in both scope and execution, the album sees the duo—Marshall Gallagher (vocalist, guitarist, bassist) and Anthony Salazar (drums, vocalist, percussion)—producing the album themselves to handcraft their most expansive collection of songs to date from the ground up. The result is a self-realized collection of songs that saw the band borrowing vintage gear, bringing in friends in the form of members from 311 vocalist/turntablist Doug “SA” Martinez and Softcult and incorporating tasteful pop sensibilities to craft a collection of songs that redefines the band’s sound while staying true to their guitar-driven roots.

From the atmospheric, fuzzed out opener “Sunshine” (which Gallagher says is “the coolest riff he’s ever written”) to the midtempo rocker “Dark Sky’’ (the latter of which features the aforementioned cameo from 311 vocalist/turntablist Doug “SA” Martinez), the album will undoubtedly please fans who favor distorted guitars and crunchy chords. However, that’s only one aspect of the album and Teenage Wrist aren’t ashamed to admit that there’s a strong pop sensibility on the album that shows how much they’ve grown as songwriters since 2021’s Earth is a Black Hole. From the brain-invading ballad “Something Good” to the downbeat electronic vibe of “Diorama,” the album is teeming with unexpected moments that are reminiscent of Radiohead’s flair for experimentation.

The powerful bond between these two collaborators lies at the core of Teenage Wrist’s music and, more than any other factor, that’s evident on every moment of STILL LOVE. “There was a certain feeling that music gave me as a kid and this is honestly the first time on any record I feel like we kind of came close to achieving that,” Gallagher says of the end result. “We just shot from the gut on this record and tried not to overanalyze things... and I think the record speaks for itself.”

The album, described by Springfield, as 20 new songs stylistically somewhere between “Working Class Dog” and “Tao”. Sonically, the album sees Springfield returning to his first love of guitar-based power pop and keyboards, while lyrically featuring his favored subjects of love, sex and death. “My goal was solid three-minute tunes with the biggest hooks I could come up with.” As Springfield explains, “the album is called ‘Automatic’ because the songs just kind of came out on their own."

Since announcing their arrival with debut album in 1991, Blur went on to revolutionise the sound of English popular music with six successive UK #1 albums and a string of Top 10 singles, including two No 1s, helping to propel the band to mass popularity at home and abroad. One of the biggest British bands of the last three decades, Blur have released eight studio albums and collected ten NME Awards, six Q Awards, five BRIT Awards and an Ivor Novello Award, and played live to millions of devoted fans across the globe.

Whilst they are an iconic band, the new music truly feels like they have re-invented their sound for 2023 and we should really amplify the commercial viability and youthful leaning sound to reach new audiences.

The album is truly incredible body of work which is beautifully layered, with real stand-out singles which is understandably described by the band as one of their best creations.

Following it’s surprise digital release, Sigur Rós’ first new studio album in ten years, ÁTTA, is their most intimate and emotionally direct record to date. Few bands cut through the noise and distractions of the world to bring you a pure elemental truth or feeling like Sigur Rós. As you hear on ÁTTA, there’s a new compulsion and drive to the band that comes with the new formation of the line up. Multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson is back in the fold – having left the band in 2012 – to join frontman Jónsi and bassist Georg Holm. Recorded across multiple continents - in the band’s Sundlaugin studio in Iceland, the legendary Abbey Road in the UK and a number of studios in the US - ÁTTA leans heavily towards the orchestral, and touches on everything that has made Sigur Rós one of the most ambitious and acclaimed bands of recent times, with close to ten million albums sold, whilst signposting an exciting and expansive possibility for their future. ÁTTA prominently features the London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by Robert Ames, alongside brass performed by longtime Icelandic collaborators Brassgat í bala. It is mixed and co-produced by another frequent collaborator Paul Corley, alongside the band."

Wild Creatures is a career retrospective album containing twenty-three of Neko Case’s most impactful tracks from her discography, and will now be available on CD and 2x LP.

With a career spanning over twenty years, she has famously collaborated with The New Pornographers and Case/Lang/Veirs in addition to releasing many critically acclaimed solo albums, including ‘Fox Confessor Brings The Flood’, ‘Middle Cyclone’ and most recently 2018’s ‘Hell-On’.

Gathering power year after year, Neko sings with the fierce abandon of a newborn infant crying in a basket in the woods. Since escaping the labels of country and Americana, the gorgeous train-whistle vocals of her early career sit submerged in her later style, where their ghost can appear any minute. When her voice jumps an octave, it’s almost visible, like sparks at night. “I never knew where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do with my voice,” she says, “but I just wanted to do it so bad.”

The Vinyl configurations include: 2 LPs with printed inner sleeves, in a Gate- fold jacket.

Three-time Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams will release her highly anticipated new album Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart on June 30th (Highway 20 Records/Thirty Tigers). 2023 will be a special year for Williams: she turned 70 in January and on April 25th will release her long-awaited memoir Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You (Crown, a division of Penguin Random House LLC).

The last couple years have been challenging for Williams. In 2020, a tornado damaged her new home in Nashville, followed two weeks later by the beginning of the COVID lockdown. Later that November, Williams suffered a stroke that partially impaired some of her motor skills on the left side of her body, forcing her to learn to walk again and taking away her ability to play the guitar. Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart marks a triumphant return from one of our most revered artists and songwriters. Williams is in great form as heard on her new single “New York Comeback,” written by Williams, Tom Overby and Jesse Malin, with Patti Scialfa and Bruce Springsteen on backing vocals.

Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart was produced by Williams, Overby and Ray Kennedy, who also engineered. The album includes guest backing vocals by Jeremy Ivey, Jesse Malin, Buddy Miller, Angel Olsen, Margo Price and Tommy Stinson.

Off Planet, the 5th studio release from Django Django is a 21-track album split into four parts. Originally destined to be four experimental EPs but immediately transformed into a proper album when they started the recording session, Off Planet features some of the most exciting and dynamic music Django Django have ever produced. Harking back to their more experimental and electronic roots, the album also features guests such as Self Esteem, Jack Penate and others. Indie White 2 LP.

In March 2020, Jack Johnson reached out to Lee “Scratch" Perry to produce a dub remix album based on Jack’s most loved recordings. On August 29, 2021, the project was brought to a halt as Scratch departed this physical world. In 2022, Jack and Subatomic Sound System, Perry’s band of the last decade, connected directly and discovered they had all the pieces to bring Lee “Scratch” Perry’s three creations to completion. The LP also features dubs from Dennis Bovell, Scientist, Mad Professor, Nightmares on Wax, and more.