April always represents a coming-out party of sorts for the independent music industry. The winter months are being phased out, and as the days get longer and warmer, the need for new and invigorating music only grows stronger. With the renewal of Spring comes its accompanying melodies to motivate and captivate us, to get us out of the house and out into the parks and onto the patios, to inspire us, so that we too can get the creative juices flowing and start anew. It's a beautiful thing, folks. This month, even before reckoning with the extensive catalog of stellar Record Store Day releases (April 20!), it's a pretty overwhelming list. After finding about 30 candidates that qualified for the top ten most anticipated April releases, it was difficult to deny mentioning some of these albums that are also worth your time, so I've set aside a few honorable mentions before getting into the main inventory. Hold on to your hats.
Honorable Mention
10. Iron & Wine - Ghost on Ghost
Ive heard a lot from the Iron & Wine naysayers as of late. Sure, I was among those thinking they hit their stride in the mid to late '00s, that is, until I saw Sam Beam and his ten-piece ensemble perform at Town Ballroom back in the spring of 2011 in support of their excellent fourth studio record Kiss Each Other Clean. The album went largely understated, even as Beam expanded his instrumental output, taking stylistic risks, but meeting every expectation I had, and then some. Concerning the new album, Beam says that he’s gotten rid of some of the “anxious tension” in his songwriting and that the new record “felt like a reward to myself after the way I went about making the last few.” The first cut from the record “Lovers’ Revolution” certainly sounds like nothing we’ve heard from the songwriter before, as it relies heavily on a broader range of jazz-tinged instruments. This is something that could really come to life in a live setting. Listen to the track below.
9. Young Galaxy - Ultramarine
8. IO Echo - Ministry of Love
Coming off a robust string of shows at SXSW, and after having released their self-titled debut EP last year, LA shoegazers IO Echo will release their debut LP Ministry of Love today via IAMSOUND. If you stream the record over at the Pitchfork Advance platform, you’ll notice the album has a lot of weight to it with lead singer Ioanna Gika dishing out some powerful vocals over feathery synth and percussion splashes. Listen to "When The Lilies Die" below.
7. Rilo Kiley - rkives
6. Merchandise - Totale Nite LP
Tampa DIY indie-rockers Merchandise have slowly been boiling out of obscurity since they formed in 2008, and recently just broke ground with their well-received LP Children of Desire released by the modest Katorga Works label back in July. Announcing their forthcoming album Totale Night (out April 8) earlier this year, the group dropped a pretty excellent single with “Anxiety’s Door,” a upbeat post-punk anthem. Listen to the track below.
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Mosquito
4. The Flaming Lips - The Terror
I had the opportunity to see The Flaming Lips a few weeks ago play a packed show at SXSW, but I have to admit, it was not at all the amazing performance that I was expecting. When frontman Wayne Coyne first came out on stage decked-out in a strange outfit that featured tubes of light and a baby doll strapped to his chest, I was pretty stoked, until he mentioned to the thousand’s attending the show at Austin’s Auditorium Shores that he would be playing all new songs from the forthcoming record The Terror. I don’t know what it is about shows where a band plays only material nobody has heard yet, but they tend to be pretty underwhelming in my experience, especially when they’re of the experimental, hard-to-translate-live, brand of music that The Flaming Lips have been going for lately. While the show wasn’t exactly stellar, it was mostly interesting for its weirdness, and for the fact that it seems that Coyne’s songwriting is only getting trippier, which is good, right? The Terror is out on April 16 in the US via Warner Bros. Records.
3. James Blake - Overgrown
James Blake captivated us back in 2011 with his excellent debut self-titled LP, and with his forthcoming record Overgrown set for release on April 9, it’s hard to know what to expect for the UK musician. And while 2011’s Enough Thunder EP provided some highlights with a collaborative track with Bon Iver entitled “Fall Creek Boys” and a truly gorgeous cover of Joni Mitchell’s perennial “A Case of You”, other tracks proved to be more unimpressive with a closer focus on a more downtempo, minimalist approach. However, Blake’s latest single, the soulful “Retrograde”, shines brightly though the clouds, and provides enough hope that his sophomore full-length will be worth our while. Watch the video for "Retrograde" below.
2. The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
Point-blank, The Knife is making some of the most interesting and evocative music of the year so far. With choice cuts "A Tooth For An Eye" and "Full of Fire" breaking some serious ground with their lyrical and textural variations, there's no telling how awesome The Knife's forthcoming album Shaking The Habitual will be in full. Wait, yes there is, because you can stream the album right now over at Pitchfork Advance and decide for yourself. What are you waiting for? Go have a listen! And watch the video for "A Tooth For An Eye" below.
1. Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Daze
Time and time again Kurt Vile has shown off his damned good songwriting abilities, and judging by the sound of the lead title track off his forthcoming record Wakin on a Pretty Daze, it looks like we have another record by the Philly folk-rocker to run out and buy. As always, Vile’s gentle sough moves effortlessly among floaty, blissed-out guitar licks, and while his approach hasn’t changed much, there’s a fullness to this track in particular that seems to liberate all the potential energy that Vile has been accumulating over his past several releases. If you’re still unsure how you feel about the first cut, get a first listen of the record via NPR, who is streaming the record in-full on their website right now. Listen to "Walkin on a Pretty Day" below and watch a short mini-documentary on the making of the album artwork for the LP.
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