Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs.
ARTIST: Lloyd Cole
RELEASE: Broken Record
BACKSTORY: The former Commotions leader this week releases his first full-band album in a decade, a rootsy collection featuring his Small Ensemble bluegrass trio, as well as guest turns by Joan Wasser, aka Joan as Police Woman, and ex-Commotion Blair Cowan. (More details here.)
BUY IT: Broken Record via Amazon.co.uk
ARTIST: The Vaselines
RELEASE: Sex With an X
BACKSTORY: The reunited Scottish indie-pop darlings — Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee — this week release only their second-ever album, after 1989’s Dum-Dum. The set, on Sub Pop Records, features the title track and “I Hate the ’80s,” both of which the band offered as free downloads earlier this summer. (Full tracklist here.)
BUY IT: Sex With an X via Amazon.com
ARTIST: Grinderman
RELEASE: Grinderman 2
BACKSTORY: This week, Nick Cave’s raging garage-blues side project — featuring the singer’s fellow Bad Seeds Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos — will follow up its 2007 self-titled debut with a nine-track sophomore effort that’s been preceded this summer by lead-off single “Heathen Child.” (Full tracklist here.)
BUY IT: Grinderman 2 via Amazon.com
ARTIST: James
RELEASE: The Morning After the Night Before
BACKSTORY: The long-running Manchester act this week issue a 2CD set in the U.S. that combines its two 2010 U.K.-only EPs: the seven-track The Night Before, released last spring, and the eight-track The Morning After, which was issued just last week. The U.S. release is timed to coincide with the band’s upcoming American tour.
BUY IT: The Morning After the Night Before via Amazon.com
