5 Albums Coming Out This Week That Don’t Suck

As fun as it is to complain about “music these days,” and how it’s all been downhill since The Chronic came out, it’s even MORE fun to listen to — wait for it — good music. Every Tuesday, a.k.a. Music Release Day, we’ll highlight five albums worth (legally) downloading or driving to the local Best Buy (lolz) for. (Banner via)

Today, we’ve got selections from Yo La Tengo, A$AP Rocky, Free Energy, and more.


Fade by Yo La Tengo

Now that Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon have called it quits, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, who have been together for 30 years and counting, are The Indie Rock Couple, and on Fade, the band’s 13th album, they’re celebrating the peaceful, easy feelings that come with being — get this — middle-aged and happy. Gone are the winking pop culture references from And Then Nothing…, as are the squalls Electr-O-Pura; Fade is a simple, tight, sweet, not boring album that, unlike 2010’s Popular Songs, which was split between a poppy first half and experimental second, feels like a well-crafted whole. Yo La Tengo’s not done with 15-minute feedback-drenched jams, hopefully, but for one record, Ira and Georgia (and trusty ol’ James) are content to relax, at least a little.

LongLiveA$AP by A$AP Rocky

For more on A$AP Rocky’s debut studio album, check out the Smoking Section.

Lysandre by Christopher Owens

Typical career, this Christopher Owens has had. Parents were members of the creepy Children of God church. His infant brother died of pneumonia right before he was born because CoG doesn’t exactly condone “medicine.” Left the church at 16. Worked for famed artist Stanley Marsh 3. Started a band, Girls. Released two Billboard-charting albums with Girls, including 2011’s excellent Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Called out HBO’s Girls on Twitter. Left Girls right at the peak of their success. And now here we are, with his first solo album, Lysandre, named after a girl he fell in love with in France and just as quickly lost. Owens sounds heartbroken throughout, but, for the most part (and minus one regretful sax solo), he doesn’t wallow in his misery; he channels it through 1970s sun-swallowed AM radio hits and twee-pop. It’s a little too messy to live up to his work with his former band, but that lack of cohesiveness is a honest reflection of what Owens’ mind must be like all the time, considering…

Love Sign by Free Energy

There’s nothing insincere about how much the guys in Free Energy love the Cars and Thin Lizzy and chunky hooks and racing to the chorus. If they had it their way, Love Sign would only be listened to in a basement while wearing a muscle shirt and holding a cold can of beer in one hand, and your special lady in the other.

Caligula by Anthony Jeselnik

Anthony Jeselnik’s second hilarious stand-up album begins with a track called “Rape.” It only gets darker and more twisted, with perfectly paced jokes going down paths you’re mad you didn’t think of yourself, from there. Wonder if the shark on the cover is symbolic of anything?

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