PJ Harvey New Vinyl Thursday

It’s PJ Harvey New Vinyl Thursday at The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven. Check out this week’s list of new vinyl arrivals:

ABBA – The Vinyl Collection (Boxed Set, Colored Vinyl)

Atmosphere – God Loves Ugly

The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers

Weekly Review:

Indie rock darlings The Beths are back with their second full length album, Jump Rope Gazers. As soon as I heard the first few notes of the lead single “Dying to Believe” play on my stereo I knew I was hooked. The guitar builds to crescendo with the drum and then drops out like the floor beneath your feet right as the vocals come in. Accented by slashing guitars, soaring vocals and sugar sweet harmonies, this song is guaranteed to get some serious playing time on my stereo.
Lucky for us we don’t have to wonder about just this this one hit, as the album is chalk full of good songs for your listening enjoyment. Title track “Jump Rope Gazers” has an 80’s pop rock ballad feel that hearkens back to the day of John Waite’s “I Ain’t Missing You.” “Out of Sight” brings twinkling mid-west emo guitars into the mix. With lyrics hopeful, heavy lyrics “If your world collapses/I’ll be down in the rubble/I’d build you another.”
I’ve already purchased a copy, so be sure to snag a copy today. The one I picked up was a very cool tangerine colored variant with a printed inner sleeve. -Brad Simmons

Barbara Lynn – The Atlantic Years 1968-1973(Limited Edition, 180 Gram Vinyl)

Bill Withers – Live at Carnegie Hall (180 Gram Vinyl)

Bon Iver – For Emma Forever Ago

Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways

Weekly Review:

The timing for the first collection of songs to come from Bob Dylan’s pen since 2012 couldn’t be better. Dylan obsessives have always made the time to pour over the bard’s lyrics for hidden meanings, but with so many competing options shut down for the time being, these poetic deep dives are even more enticing.
Sonically, Rough and Rowdy Ways splits the difference between Tempest, Dylan’s last original album, and the American songbook albums he’s released since then. “False Prophet,” “Crossing the Rubicon” and “Good Jimmy Reed” are upbeat blues numbers, while “I’ve Made Up My Mind” and “Mother of Muses” find Dylan in gentler, crooner mode.
Gallons of digital ink have been spilled over “Murder Most Foul,” a nearly 17-minute ode to John F. Kennedy with no chorus. The song has a nearly hypnotic effect on me. As Dylan’s words wash over, I am drawn to and comforted by the cascading piano and violin.
Dylan’s 39th album reinforces why he remains such a compelling and fascinating artist heading into the seventh decade of his riveting career. -Joel Francis

Big Star – #1 Record

Big Star – The Best Of Big Star (180 Gram Vinyl)

Bob Marley – Legend (Picture Disc Vinyl LP, Limited Edition)

The Chicks – Gaslighter

Weekly Review:

They may have dropped the dixie, but these Chicks still aren’t ready to make nice. The opening title track has many of the band’s hallmarks – a catchy, sing-along chorus, propulsive banjo picking backed with big drums, and a nasty kiss-off.
Production from Jack Antonoff, the man behind the boards for Taylor Swift’s recent pop albums and Lana Del Ray’s 2019 gem NFR, gives the album a shiny, poppy gloss. Fans missing the country and bluegrass elements of the Chicks’ older material should love “March March,” a strong performance with banjo, violin and plenty of stomps and claps.
If Gaslighter has a weakness, it is the multitude of mid-tempo numbers and ballads. The album would be better with more upbeat performances sprinkled throughout. As it is, Gaslighter stalls after the momentum established by the early numbers. Compounding the problem, most of these songs deal with the same topic: the dissolution of Natalie Maines’ marriage.
This won’t be a problem for long-time fans. Despite the weighty heartbreak behind the material, Gaslighter is filled with self-empowerment and determination to embrace the future regardless of the past. -Joel Francis

Childish Gambino – Camp

Cigarettes After Sex – Cry (Clear Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)

CKY – Carver City

Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers

David Bowie – Hunky Dory (180 Gram Vinyl)

Deer Tick – The Black Dirt Sessions

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio – Close But No Cigar

Ellie Goulding – Brightest Blue (140 Gram Vinyl)

Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Weekly Review:

When this Fiona Apple’s fifth album was released digitally last April, and dealing with the coronavirus appeared to be a season and not A Thing We’d Have to Live With Indefinitely, I was convinced it was going to be the soundtrack for the pandemic.
Although this naiveté is laughable in hindsight, Fetch the Bolt Cutters still captures that mood. It is charming, angry, insecure, elegant, awkward and funny – often effortlessly shuffling through several emotions within a few bars.
Apple recorded these songs at her home studio in the years following her previous album, eight years ago. The resulting baker’s dozen tunes are complex and authentic and provide a heartening catharsis especially needed right now. -Joel Francis

Frank Zappa – Hot Rats (Clear Vinyl, Pink, 50th Anniversary Edition)

The Garden – Kiss My Super Bowl Ring

HAIM – Women In Music Pt. III

Iration – Time Bomb

The Jayhawks – XOXO

Jesse Dayton – Gulf Coast Sessions

Kansas – The Absence Of Presence (Indie Exclusive, with Booklet, 180 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket,Green Colored Vinyl)

Lil Wayne – Funeral

Marvin Gaye – His Classic Duets

Misfits – Land Of The Dead [Clear Red Vinyl] [Limited Edition]

Misfits – Twilight of the Dead

Mac Miller – Blue Slide Park

NINA SIMONE / DJ MAESTRO – Little Girl Blue Remixed [Limited Transparent Vinyl]

Orgone – Mos / Fet (Colored Vinyl)

OutKast – Speakerboxxx: The Love Below

Otis Redding – Lonely and Blue: The Deepest Soul Of Otis Redding

PJ Harvey – Dry (180 Gram Vinyl)

PJ Harvey – Dry – Demos (180 Gram Vinyl)

Pretenders – Hate for Sale

Weekly Review:

Every so often, if music fans are lucky, a veteran artist will put out an album that reminds fans why and how they fell in love with the band in the first place. Hate for Sale, the 11th album from the Pretenders, is that album.
Clocking in at a brisk 30 minutes, Hate for Sale snarls out of the gate with and rarely slows down. Frontwoman Chrissie Hynde seems invigorated by the return of founding drummer Martin Chambers and guitarist James Walbourne, with whom she wrote every song. Walbourne’s riffs and solos add muscle to Hynde’s undiminished vocals. He even manages to singlehandedly salvage the album’s least-effective track (“Junkie Walk”). Sidesteps into reggae on “Lightning Man” and orchestral pop on the introspective ballad “You Can’t Hurt a Fool” reinforce the raw force on the rest of the album.
The Pretenders are selling hate. Buy it. There is a lot to love. -Joel Francis

Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher

Phoebe Bridgers – Stranger In The Alps

Post Malone – Stoney(Colored Vinyl, Orange)

Post Malone – Beerbongs & Bentleys (Clear Vinyl)

Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet

Pink Floyd – Obscured By Clouds (180 Gram Vinyl)

Pink Floyd –  Wish You Were Here

Paris Hilton – Paris (Gatefold LP Jacket, Limited Edition, Colored Vinyl)

Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R (180 Gram Vinyl, Bonus Tracks)

Queens of the Stone Age – Songs For The Deaf (180 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket)

Queens of the Stone Age – Lullabies To Paralyze (Gatefold LP Jacket)

Rebelution – Dub Collection

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

Roddy Ricch – Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial

Roy Ayers – Virgin Ubiquity: Unreleased Recordings 1976 – 1981

Son Volt – Trace

Tame Impala – Innerspeaker

That Dog – Totally Crushed Out! (180 Gram Vinyl, Black)

Thievery Corporation – Mirror Conspiracy

Velvet Revolver – Contraband

Various – High Fidelity (Original Soundtrack) (Black, 180 Gram Vinyl)

Various – Until the End of the World (Music From the Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Various – Devil Got My Woman (Various Artists)

Various artists – Soul of a Nation: Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher

Weekly Review:

Given the number of collections available, there must be a substantial appetite for jazz and funk music created during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Soul of a Nation: Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher is another new three-album collection covering the era of the Black Arts Movement, when jazz, funk, fusion and street poetry crisscrossed and inspired the mind as much as the feet.
Several of the names included here – Funkadelic, Gil Scott-Heron, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Don Cherry – should be recognizable, even if the performances are more obscure. Some songs may take some acclimation. “Theme De Yo-Yo,” by Art Ensemble of Chicago sounds like a R&B song wedged into a free jazz performance. “Space Jungle Funk” by Oneness of Juju is everything you think it is.
Even the more accessible numbers, such as Baby Huey’s “Hard Times” and James Mason’s “Sweet Power of Your Embrace,” a synthesizer-driven funk song that could have been the theme song to a ‘70s cop show, refuse to become background music. Jazz is the Teacher is a demanding collection, but if you’re willing to invest, it is richly rewarding. -Joel Francis

Wooden Shjips – Back To Land (Limited Edition, Colored Vinyl)

White Stripes – White Stripes (180 Gram Vinyl, Reissue)

Xxxtentacion – Bad Vibes Forever (Black, White, Gatefold LP Jacket

Y.G. – Still Brazy

Yo La Tengo – Summer Sun

FLASH SALE!

50% OFF Prince – Purple Rain- Thursday, July 23rd ONLY!

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Upcoming Events:

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Enjoy the music and we will see you soon. Your loving Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven staff:

Sherman, Gordon, Cat, Matt, Dylan, Doyle, Heather and Max

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