Release Day Picks: February 10th New Album Highlights

Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by Thievery Corporation, Tinariwen, The Sadies, Sallie Ford and Sinkane. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Thievery Corporation – The Temple Of I & I

The Scoop: Thievery Corporationmasterminds Eric Hilton and Rob Garza set up shop in Port Antonio, Jamaica in early 2015. The sounds of the island are all over the band’s latest self-released studio album, The Temple Of I & I. Hilton and Garza recruited a bevy of special guests to contribute to the album including 26-year-old Jamaica native Racquel Jones. Listen to the reggae-tinged “Letter To The Editor,” which features Jones, off The Temple Of I & I:

Label: ESL Music

Producer: Thievery Corporation

Number Of Tracks: 15

Running Time: 60:15

Guest Musicians: Notch, Puma, Mr. Lif, Racquel Jones, Elin Melgarejo, Shana Halligan, Lou Lou Ghelichkhani, Zee

Tracklist:

1. Thief Rockers
2. Letter To The Editor
3. Strike The Root
4. Ghetto Matrix
5. True Sons Of Zion
6. The Temple Of I & I
7. Time & Space
8. Love Has No Heart
9. Lose To Find
10. Let The Chalice Blaze
11. Weapons Of Destruction
12. Road Block
13. Fight To Survive
14. Babylon Falling
15. Drop Your Guns

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Tinariwen – Elwan

The Scoop: If anyone is looking for a new record that appropriately corresponds to the current polarizing political environment, look no further than the new album Elwan (translates to “Elephants”) from Tinariwen. Having left their homeland in the Sahara region of Mali due to perilous unrest, this group of Taureg musicians travel the world as cultural ambassadors, building ties and spreading a positive message through the universal language of music. What makes this giant sounding cliché legit is that the music is actually an honest integration of many cultural styles. Sometimes you have songs that sound like what you might expect from a Saharan “world music” compilation, but then you’ll get these crushing bluesy and psychedelic guitar licks, quick picked melodies, and these killer rhythmic jams that blur the music into a true cultural amalgamation. They have a pretty nice guest list as well. Have a listen to “Sastanàqqàm” off the new record:

Label: ANTI-

Producer: Tinariwen, Andrew Scheps

Number Of Tracks: 13

Running Time: 45:07

Guest Musicians: Matt Sweeney, Kurt Vile, Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age), Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees)

Tracklist:

1. Tiwàyyen
2. Sastanàqqàm
3. Nizzagh Ijbal
4. Hayati
5. Ittus
6. Ténéré Tàqqàl
7. Imidiwàn N-Àkall-In
8. Talyat
9. Assàwt
10. Arhegh Ad Annàgh
11. Nànnuflày
12. Intro Flute Fog Edaghan
13. Fog Edaghàn

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The Sadies – Northern Passages

The Scoop: For those unfamiliar with The Sadies you can think of them like this – they sound like The Band if Levon and the boys had honed their chops during the height of the grunge era. The Canadian quartet take a similar jukebox approach to their unique spin on Americana. Northern Passages, the band’s tenth studio effort and first in four years, finds them continuing to not be constrained by genre where psychedelic garage rock sits side by side with country, folk and surf rock. The band, who has a history of unique collaborations, continued that trend by inviting guitarist Kurt Vile to join in the fold. Give a listen to Vile’s contribution the shimmery lo-fi noir track “It’s Easy (Like Walking)”:

Label: YEP Roc Records

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 34:42

Guest Musicians: Kurt Vile

Tracklist:

1. Riverview Fog
2. Another Season Again
3. There Are No Words
4. It’s Easy (Like Walking)
5. The Elements Song
6. Through Strange Eyes
7. God Bless the Infidels
8. The Good Years
9. As Above, So Below
10. Questions I’ve Never Asked
11. The Noise Museum

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Sallie Ford – Soul Sick

The Scoop: Over the course of three studio albums, Sallie Ford has built a reputation around her bawdy retro-cool brand of rockabilly-infused garage rock. Ford put her modern woman’s stamp on the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle with songs about sex, drinking and partying without ever sounding hackneyed. For her second solo effort, Soul Sick, Ford has turned a bit more introspective, but without losing any of her biting swagger. Described as “an album about insecurity, anxiety and depression; it’s an album about band breakups, major life changes, and what it took to deal with those things,” give a listen to the track “Middle Child”:

Label: Vanguard

Producer: Mike Coykendall

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 39:00

Guest Musicians: Ben Nugent (Dolorean), Ralph Carney (Tom Waits, the B-52s), John Coykendall, Kirk Hamilton

Tracklist:

1. Record on Repeat
2. Screw Up
3. Loneliness is Power
4. Get Out
5. Failure
6. Middle Child
7. Never Gonna Please
8. Romanticized Catastrophe
9. Hurts So Bad
10. Unraveling
11. Rapid Eyes

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Sinkane – Life & Livin’ It

The Scoop: Frontman Ahmed Gallab and his eclectic, genre-blending, groove-oriented band Sinkane return with their follow up to 2014’s Mean Love. The new record was tracked at Sonic Ranch Studios in El Paso, Texas with Gallab joined by bassist Ish Montgomery, drummer Jason Trammell and guitarist Jonny Lam. Longtime collaborator Greg Lofaro as well as Trammell earned credits for contributing lyrics and Antibalas horn players Jas Walton and Jordan MacLean were brought into guest on the album. Watch the video for the groovy “Telephone”:

Label: City Slang

Producer: Ahmed Gallab

Number Of Tracks: 9

Running Time: 38:06

Guest Musicians: Jas Walton, Jordan MacLean

Tracklist:

1. Deadweight
2. U’Huh
3. Favorite Song
4. Fire
5. Telephone
6. Passenger
7. Theme From Life & Livin’ It
8. Won’t Follow
9. The Way

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Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Ryan Dembinsky, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.