PlayARt - Bring Albums to Life

Limited 180gm metallic gold colored vinyl LP pressing. 20th Anniversary Edition. "Alice" is the 14th studio album by Tom Waits, originally released in 2002. The album contains most songs written for the play Alice. The adaptation was directed by Robert Wilson, who Waits had previously worked with on the play The Black Rider, and originally set up at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg in 1992. The play has since been performed in various theatres around the world.

2022 release, the 13th studio album from the alt-rock band. "We went in search of ourselves as the band that we have somehow always been. Just for the fun of it we jammed and learned some old songs. Before long we started the mysterious process of building new songs. A beautiful bit of chemistry meddling that had befriended us hundreds of times along the way. Once we found that slip stream of sound and vision, we just kept mining. With time turned into an elastic waist band of oversized underwear, we had no reason to stop writing and rocking. It felt like a dream. When all was said and done, our moody love for each other and the magic of music had gifted us with more songs than we knew what to do with. Well we figured it out. 2 double albums released back to back. The second of which is easily as meaningful as the first or should that be reversed. 'Return of the Dream Canteen' is everything we are and ever dreamed of being. It's packed."

Double 180gm white colored vinyl LP pressing housed in gatefold jacket. 2022 release. Three-time Grammy nominees and San Antonio, Texas-born quartet, Nothing More return with their highly awaited 7th album Spirits. The album features 13 songs with the band's most focused, adventurous, and intense music, uniting introspective philosophical lyrics with unapologetically massive anthems, including their in-your-face rock track "Turn It Up Like," their most recent Top 20 Billboard Active Rock radio single "Tired Of Winning" which is currently inside the Top 10. Since their emergence in 2003, Nothing More has earned rock radio chart history with #1 singles with both "This is the Time (Ballast)" and "Go To War" and already has seven Active Rock Radio Top-10 singles in their repertoire. "Spirits" further proves their expertise in the rock genre and beyond. It documents the tumultuous time the world experienced over the past two years capturing the desperation and isolation of lockdown, the spiral of substance abuse, the pain of broken relationships and survival in self-reliance while summarizing the overall story and mission of Nothing More: Reflect, Provoke, Inspire.

Hitting play on the debut album from Plains, the duo composed of Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson, we're immediately teleported into a world of Southern sunsets, wide open spaces, and the unapologetic nature of Country music. Plains began out of Crutchfield's and Williamson's mutual love for each other's music and after trading albums (Saint Cloud and Sorceress, respectively) in early 2020. Feeling that it was time to have a separate project that could reflect a different side of her creative inspirations, Katie felt that Jess was the perfect fit for a collaboration, and they set off to create I Walked With You A Ways.Written between Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Marfa, the album was recorded in Durham, NC with collaborator and producer Brad Cook. The creative magic of only a few vocal takes, tracking with a band comprised of Spencer Tweedy and Phil Cook, gives the album a feel of fresh, on-the-spot conception. The trust and history of Crutchfield and Cook's collaborations (Saint Cloud, Great Thunder EP) set the tone for this new container of spontaneity and experimentation.And that's the thing about Country music, and what so much of this album nods to - from Waylon and Willie, to The Judds, The Chicks, Trio, and beyond - these are groups that are formed out of family and friendship, that lyrically take their listeners on a voyage of sorrow and hope. Crutchfield's sharp, honest edge of truth telling paired with Williamson's ability to paint the scene with candles, plains, sunsets, and small Texas towns is one of the strongest parts of this album.While Williamson sings "Texas in my rearview / Plains in my heart" and Crutchfield echoes "Got a heartbreak burn, take the quickest route / On this 4 lane highway I'll trace it in the clouds," the true gift of this album emerges. We're in the backseat with these two, truck windows open, wide open spaces in front of us. The feeling of being both a mess and unstoppable at our fingertips. May this album bring us all closer to ourselves and to each other.

2022 release, the fourth album from the Australian psychedelic rock band.

A new studio album of songs written, recorded and produced by visionary musician and artist BRIAN ENO – featuring his vocals on 8 of the 10 recordings.

FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE is Eno’s first studio album in six years and features appearances from longstanding collaborators Leo Abrahams, Roger Eno and Peter Chilvers, alongside Cecily Eno, Clodagh Simonds, Darla Eno and Jon Hopkins.

The album includes studio recordings of “There Were Bells” and “Garden Of Stars,” compositions that Eno penned to perform as part of his first live performance in 11 years at the Acropolis back in August 2021, it also includes “Making Gardens Out Of Silence” that features as part of the ongoing Serpentine interdisciplinary program, BACK TO EARTH.

Isokratisses (Greek for "women who sing the "iso" or "drone") is a vocal ensemble comprised of eight women who carry the ancient tradition of polyphonic songs from Epirus: a region in northern Greece and southern Albania. Born and reared in the Greek speaking villages around Deropoli and Politsani in Albania, the women of Isokratisses have sung these songs since childhood. The group ranges in age from 19 to 56 with some sisters in the group as well as an aunt. They were nurtured by this archaic music, listening and singing it with their family and friends. The songs were passed down from generation to generation. The group started its artistic activity in 2015, after the singer Anna Katsi took the initiative to encourage the younger members to perform regularly. The communal nature of polyphonic singing is a way of revitalizing an art that has declined in recent years and to reassert the primacy of female voices in the southern Balkans. Singing these songs builds an invisible bridge that connects the present with the past, the memories of childhood travel with the immediacy of daily life. On Oct 14, 2022, Third Man Records will release a full album of these solo polyphonic songs, with Grammy-winning producer Christopher King. "It is social music, woven into the fabric of poor, marginalized, and disenfranchised communities. Many of the songs are variations of mirologia (songs of fate, songs of morning) that used to be sung throughout the southern Balkans but have largely disappeared on an informal cultural level except for Epirus. Structurally, the songs are pentatonic (five notes with no semitones) and are composed of three or four distinct melodic voices that weave together in an organic yet unexpected way. The remaining members of the group provide the iso or “drone” that is the low tonic note of the melody." - Chris King

Alvvays' third album, the nervy joyride that is the compulsively lovable Blue Rev, doesn't simply reassert what's always been great about Alvvays but instead reimagines it. They have, in part and sum, never been better. There are newly aggressive moments here-the gleeful and snarling guitar solo at the heart of opener "Pharmacist," or the explosive cacophony near the middle of "Many Mirrors." And there are some purely beautiful spans, too-the church- organ fantasia of "Fourth Figure," or the blue-skies bridge of "Belinda Says." But the power and magic of Blue Rev stems from Alvvays' ability to bridge ostensible binaries, to fuse elements that seem antithetical in single songs-cynicism and empathy, anger and play, clatter and melody, the soft and the steely. The luminous poser kiss-off of "Velveteen," the lovelorn confusion of "Tile by Tile," the panicked but somehow reassuring rush of "After the Earthquake."In October 2021, when they arrived at a Los Angeles studio with fellow Canadian Shawn Everett, he urged them to forget the careful planning they'd done and just play the stuff, straight to tape. On the second day, they ripped through Blue Rev front-to-back twice, pausing only 15 seconds between songs and only 30 minutes between full album takes. And then, as Everett has done on recent albums by The War on Drugs and Kacey Musgraves, he spent an obsessive amount of time alongside Alvvays filling in the cracks, roughing up the surfaces, and mixing the results. This hybridized approach allowed the band to harness each song's absolute core, then grace it with texture and depth.

WILLOW's new album features "(maybe) it’s my fault," "hover like a GODDESS" and more. On tour with MGK and international festivals, plus appearances on NPR, SNL and more through 2022.

Blood Money is etched. It’s scratched out in bold, dark lines, with marimba, trumpet, and bass clarinet and contains some songs of Tom Waits’ most memorable melodies. The songs are declarative, sardonic, unforgiving, musical dispatches, from the bottom of the heap. “Blood Money is flesh and bone, earthbound,” said Waits. “The songs are rooted in reality: jealousy, rage, the human meat wheel...They are more car- nal. I like a beautiful song that tells you terrible things. We all like bad news out of a pretty mouth. I like songs to sound as though they’ve been aging in a barrel and distressed.”

Magnetically energetic and eternally hopeful, Dayglow (the project of Austin, TX based Sloan Struble) excels in creating catchy, carefully crafted, effervescent indie pop. His home-recorded 2018 debut album Fuzzybrain featured the Platinum Certified single “Can I Call You Tonight?”, which went on to be hailed as 2020’s biggest independent alternative hit. Following up with his sophomore album Harmony House in 2021, Dayglow generated a mountain of indie buzz and critical acclaim anchored by lead single "Close To You". Now, after racking up over a billion streams and selling out headline tours around the world, Dayglow returns with his third album People In Motion. Fun and colorful, People In Motion meditates on the ideas of commitment, inner peace, and movement, while inviting the listener to the dance floor to leave the chaos and noise of our current culture behind.

2022 release. Written in early 2021, Better By Now features 10 blossoming indie-pop tracks that Brooke describes as a "spectrum of emotions." In her trademark layered approach, Brooke reflects on love, anxiety, and how two seemingly opposing forces can exist at once. "Better By Now is almost 50% about falling in love and 50% about depression and anxiety," she says. "And what that means in my life and how that applies to the world we're in right now."

Luke Bryan’s first #1’s/Greatest Hits album - includes 22- #1 Songs on 2CD-Set.

Luke Bryan will be releasing his #1’s on CD for the first time.  It includes 22- #1 Hits that span over 12 years.  #1’s Volume 1 & Volume 2 will be released as a 2 CD-Set on September 30^th .  It begins with “Rain Is A Good Thing” which was his first #1 and all of the way up to 2021 with his #1- “Knockin’ Boots”. Luke Bryan has released seven studio albums to date.  Since his debut, Luke Bryan has garnered 27 #1 hits and has more RIAA certified digital singles than any other country artist with 68.5 million, has 15.6 billion streams worldwide, and has sold nearly 13 million albums.   Each CD includes a Free Limited Edition Poster

Girl Of My Dreams is an up-close look at the moments of heartache, triumph and deeply transformative experiences on FLETCHER's way to self-discovery. The new record expands on the boldly detailed storytelling she’s brought to hits like “Undrunk” and “Bitter.” This time around, FLETCHER reveals her inner world more fully and fearlessly than ever before, embracing the kind of uninhibited honesty that’s freeing for both artist and audience.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2022 release. Spanish Villager No. 3 is the highly anticipated third studio album from Grammy-nominated artist Ondara. Featuring the single, "An Alien in Minneapolis," the album was produced by Ondara and Mike Viola.

Created during the pandemic lockdown, The Trouble with Fever, co-produced with her husband, Patrick Carney, is Branch's fourth solo album and follows her critically acclaimed 2017 album, Hopeless Romantic. The time at home gave Branch the opportunity to stretch herself creatively. She says: "The album began during the 2020 lockdown, while Patrick and I were here at home in Nashville. I didn’t realize I was making a record at first — it was more just for our own sanity, living in a house with a toddler, getting time together to play music and screw around in the studio. I had some unfinished songs that I’d started during the Hopeless Romantic recordings that I wanted to revisit and finish."

Little Big Town is set to release their brand-new studio album, Mr. Sun, on September 16, 2022. This is their 10th studio album and first new music in over 2 years. It features their latest single, “Hell Yeah.” Little Big Town first entered the music scene more than 20 years ago. The band’s breakthrough albums, Tornado and Pain Killer, produced multiple #1 singles, including “Pontoon,” “Tornado,” and “Day Drinking,” as well as 2015’s history-making, best-selling country single of the year, “Girl Crush.” Their 2017 release, The Breaker, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and #4 on the Billboard 200 to critical acclaim. “Wine, Beer, Whiskey,” was the latest from their self-produced 9th studio album, Nightfall, which also reached the top of the Billboard Country Albums chart and has garnered over 316 million global streams.

Revealer is full of confessions, intimations, and hard truths. It's a warts-and-all self-portrait of a young artist who is full of doubt and uncertainty, yet bursting with exciting ideas about music and life; who has numerous GRAMMY nominations but still feels like she has far to go; who turns those misgivings into songs that are confident in their idiosyncrasies. It's a rumination on music as a vehicle for revelations, what's gained and what's lost when you put words to your innermost feelings.

Charley Crockett will release his latest album The Man From Waco on September 9th via Son of Davy/Thirty Tigers. Crockett wrote or co-wrote all 14 songs on the album, and in many ways The Man From Waco is the purest distillation of his artistry to date. What started as a demo session with producer Bruce Robison at Robison’s studio The Bunker outside Austin, TX turned into the first album Crockett has ever made with his band The Blue Drifters backing him from start to finish. Mostly first takes with only a handful of overdubs, The Man From Waco finds Crockett refining his singular “Gulf & Western” sound which continues to captivate an ever-growing legion of fans.

“I just wanted an honest partnership: do it at your place, live to tape, everybody in the room,” Crockett says of the recording experience, and Robison was happy to accommodate. “The magic is in the performances on that tape. That’s what Bruce wanted to do, that’s what I wanted to do. When we were done, I said ‘these are masters, not demos.’”

There’s a loose narrative thread that ties the album together, but at the center of The Man From Waco is Crockett, who continues to trust his instincts and carve out his own singular space. Eschewing the ever-growing siren song of major labels and GRAMMY-winning producers, Crockett is forging ahead as a mostly DIY artist, calling his own shots and giving himself the space to strive for greatness on his own terms.

“Everybody was telling me: ‘go right, go right, go right,’” says Crockett. “I went left. I had to hold on to what has gotten me this far.”

The Man From Waco will be in a record store near you on September 9th on CD, Vinyl, and an indie record store exclusive edition featuring alternate album artwork. 

Over the course of the last two decades, Of Montreal's creative force, Kevin Barnes, has been wowing fans with their vast catalog of endlessly fascinating pop and mesmerizing live shows. Barnes' songwriting and production aesthetic has since become iconic in the industry and has garnered massive critical acclaim in publications such as Rolling Stone, The New York Times, NPR, and Pitchfork, who described the band's album, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? as "ceaselessly fascinating and inexhaustibly replayable," as well as ranking it as the #5 album of the year. Barnes' influence on pop music is undeniable, with multiple late night TV appearances, including The Late Show With David Letterman and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, as well as brilliant collaborations with the likes of Solange, Janelle Monáe, Jon Brion, and others. The band has also performed across the globe, with festival appearances at Coachella, Sasquatch!, Pitchfork Music Festival and others, as well as hundreds of millions of streams worldwide. On Of Montreal's latest album, Freewave Lucifer f ck f ck f ck, Barnes continues to push the boundaries of what pop music can be. On songs like "Marijuana's A Working Woman," Barnes revisits themes of psychedelia using pulsating synths over their instantly recognizable bass playing. The album also touches on aspects of gender fluidity and is a fascinating look at what makes Barnes one of the most prolific and creative songwriters making music today. "An astonishingly good late-period record from Of Montreal that's as uncomfortably savage in it's depiction of breakup psychology as it is relentlessly catchy." -Pitchfork (8.7 Best New Music - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?)"The thesaurus-loving psychedelic chameleons return with what might be the glammiest groove since the late Marc Bolan shimmied on to the next dimension." -Rolling Stone on Aureate Gloom"[Lousy With Sylvianbriar] is one of the most memorable, lasting, and relatable albums in Of Montreal's extensive catalog, and easily one of the best." -AllMusic"... every year or so Of Montreal is going to release a new full-length of mind-bending glam-punk decadence that sort of blows everything else away." -Paste

The Paranoyds are Southern California DIY rock royalty. Fueled by the fiery energy of their live shows paired with raw lyricism and subtle societal commentary, The Paranoyds are unafraid and unapologetically in perpetual pursuit of a good time. The four-piece is made up of Laila Hashemi (keyboardist-vocals), Lexi Funston (guitars/vocals), Staz Lindes (bass/vocals) and David Ruiz (drums, vocals) who together masterfully blend light-hearted playfulness with sharp sincerity over fuzzy guitar, dreamy vocals and punchy, punky rock-n-roll.

Talk, Talk, Talk, the sophomore album from The Paranoyds gives the band space to expand, evolve and above all, have fun. Over 11 tracks, the band experiments with sounds that span an eclectic array of genres–from jazz, to lo-fi punk-rock, to groovy R&B–that melt together showcasing the innovative range of The Paranoyds.

In the kitchen of the Byron Bay home of Winston McCall stands a refrigerator, adorned on one side by a quote from Tom Waits: “I want beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.”

This, the PARKWAY DRIVE vocalist says, is a pretty good summation of him-self. It holds true, too, as one of the guiding principles behind Darker Still, the seventh full-length album to be born of this picturesque and serene corner of north-eastern NSW, Australia, and the defining musical statement to date from one of modern metal’s most revered bands.

Darker Still, McCall says, is the vision he and his bandmates – guitarists Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick, bassist Jia O’Connor and drummer Ben Gordon – have held in their mind’s eye since a misfit group of friends first convened in their parents’ basements and backyards in 2003. The journey to reach this moment has seen Parkway evolve from metal underdogs to festival-headlining behemoth, off the back of close to 20 gruelling years, six critically and commercially acclaimed studio albums (all of which achieving Gold status in their home nation), three documentaries, one live album, and many, many thousands of shows.

While Darker Still remains irrefutably PARKWAY DRIVE, it finds the band sonically standing shoulder to shoulder with rock and metal’s greats – Metallica, Pantera, Machine Head, Guns N’ Roses – as much as it does their metalcore contemporaries. “I wanted a classic guitar tone for this record,” explains Ling, who credits much of his inspiration to the connection his riffs have with a crowd in a live setting. 

Emerging from the darkness of the past few years, this is the true face of PARKWAY DRIVE: redefined and resolute, focused in mind and defiant in spirit.

Capitol Records Nashville presents multiplatinum hitmaker Jon Pardi's fourth studio album, Mr. Saturday Night. The 14-tracks include the singles, "Last Lonely Night," and "Fill `Er Up." Jon says about the album, "A lot of time was spent living with the songs on this record. There is more life experience on Mr. Saturday Night than any album I've released before." It was produced by Jon with Bart Butler and Ryan Gore, the same team behind his award-winning 2019 album, Heartache Medication.

This album was created in Los Angeles and London and is influenced by the increasing uncertainty and instability in the world. A pandemic, new wars in Europe, massive protests & riots, an attempted insurrection, Western democracy wavering, rising authoritarianism, wildfires and natural disasters and the destabilisation of the global order all informed Will Of The People. It has been a worrying and scary time for all of us as the Western empire and the natural world, which have cradled us for so long are genuinely threatened. This album is a personal navigation through those fears and preparation for what comes next.