This Week’s New Releases: Bloc Party, Jessie Ware & More
This week’s new releases kick off with one of the most successful indie acts to come out of the UK in the past decade: Bloc Party. After a three year hiatus the four-piece have returned with their fourth album, imaginatively named… “Four”. Considering their first three efforts had displayed three different sides to the band, with debut LP “Silent Alarm” proving to be 2005′s freshest release with it’s fantastic take on indie post-punk; 2007′s follow up “A Weekend In The City” was perhaps more progressive and moody; while 2008′s “Intimacy” displayed front man Kele‘s growing love for electronic music.
Dubbed as a ‘come back’ LP, ‘Four’ takes the band back to their roots without a synth in sight! Lead single “Octopus” promptly clocked up an impressive 28,462 listeners since the beginning of August, and while “Four” is officially out today it already has 3,865 listeners!
You've been trying to reach me
You bought me a book
To be lost in the forest, to be cut adrift
I've been paid, I've been paid
Jessie Ware first made waves back in 2010 when she’s lent vocals to SBTRKT‘s fantastically catchy track “Nervous”. Since then, the 27 year-old South Londoner has steadily emerged from the underground collaborating with some of the most respected and up-and-coming producers in the electronic world. With recent single “Wildest Moments” clocking up 2,089 listeners last week, you can be confident thinking that number will have at least doubled by in the next seven days.
Why am I doing this to myself?
Losing my mind on a tiny error
I nearly left the real me on the shelf
No, no, no, no, no
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti‘s new LP “Mature Themes” is released today via indie label 4AD. As the follow up to 2010′s impressive breakthrough “Before Today”, musically it sits somewhere before said album and his earlier forays into the realms of lo-fi psyche. True it may not be as assessable as previous efforts, but with lead single “Only In My Dreams” sat at the top of their Last.fm page with 3,426 listeners last week, most fans are at least giving it a go!
The Californian reggae-rock band Slightly Stoopid have self-released their new LP, “Top Of The World”, their first in four years. The new album features the band’s signature West Coast vibe with downtempo grooves and island-infused melodies across 21 tracks. North Americans can catch the band on tour this fall for 20+ dates.
It seem that I'm so poor
But I shall not give up so easily
There's a reward for me
Bloc Party 
