Amoeba Music

Fabulous Rhythms Of Modesto is the 1960 solo debut by the great Cuban conga player who performed with a wide range of artists including Perez Prado, Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne, and Harry Belafonte. Reissued here by Numero Group, the album is a lively mix of Afro-Cuban jazz, cha-cha, mambo, and more. “Silent Island” floats on romantic swells; “Chuqui Bambo” is slinky and hypnotic; “Jungle Dream” is a hip-shaking good time. More

Award-winning jazz pianist Emmet Cohen chose the nickname of the late jazz legend (his friend and mentor) Michael Funmi Ononaiye for the title of his latest album. Vibe Provider offers Cohen’s dynamic originals as well as his airy takes on classics such as “Surrey With the Fringe on Top.” The title track builds on its lively percussion into a stirring number with melancholy moments. More

Pulling pages out of old playbooks and inserting them into their own, Swim Surreal and Zero 7 combine the best elements of disco, '70s smooth soul and, '80s yacht rock grooves, and shined it up into a glossy sheen of psychedelic neo-soul. While earlier tracks like "Don't Call It Love" and "Back To Earth" will have you up and groovin', the album noticeably downshifts with "Masquerade," and ends in a milder, more heartfelt mood. Don't let In The Half Light miss you while the weather is still warm. More

The Syrian artist’s fifth studio album revitalizes the sound he is known for: a jubilant hybrid of electronic and traditional dabke music. These songs are rich in multi-cultural appeal, as evidenced by the opening track “Yal Harak Qalbe,” which offers the kind of lively beat that would be welcome on any dance floor, and “Ma Andi Gherak Mahbuub,” with its industrial grit. Souleyman’s rich voice produces strong melodies throughout. More

Add Lainey Wilson to the list of female country legends. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter has been steadily churning out top-notch twang for some time now, and on Whirlwind , she has created one of her most heart-in-your-gut releases yet. With lonesome Western guitars and urgent riffs, the songs are moody and moving — even when Wilson's at her most celebratory or defiant. Whirlwind is an album for those moments in life that feel like a tightrope walk between beauty and devastation. Unforgettable and incredible. More

The new album from Denzel Curry is an instant classic. King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2 nods to '90s-era Southern hip-hop while adding a fresh take from Denzel Curry and his galaxy of star contributors. These tracks let the good times roll; the beats are minimalist and hard, the rhymes skilled and smart. These feel like the type of underground tracks that, before long, will work their way into the playlists of everyone you know — that's how irresistible this record is. More

Prepare to swoon for the debut album from Chicago's Brigitte Calls Me Baby, The Future Is Our Way Out . Singer Wes Leavins' velvety voice calls to mind crooners from Morrissey to Roy Orbison. The melodies are elegant, emotional, and bigger than life — essentially this is a dream album for fans of smart, sophisticated post-punk meets mid-century pop. The band wears their influences on their well-tailored sleeves, to be sure, yet The Future Is Our Way Out feels fresh, surprising, and absolutely gorgeous. More

After a lengthy wait between albums, it's great to have Blind Pilot back and sounding so fantastic. There's an underlying melancholy to many of the songs, even when the band is crafting catchy, sweet-as-sugar indie pop choruses, that gives these easy-to-love tracks an added layer of power. Elements of Fleetwood Mac's questing, grandiose guitarwork weave into the band's sound; dreamy, layered harmonies inject an aura of romance into both Blind Pilot's more downcast and more upbeat melodies. In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain is Blind Pilot at their most sweeping, epic, and enjoyable. More

DIIV's Frog In Boiling Water is sludgy, tense, and hypnotic. The band is marinating in shoegaze here, with downbeat, hushed vocals and insistent guitars. It's one of their best, most intriguing releases to date, a listening experience that's vaguely disquieting, darkly beautiful, and emotionally gripping. A moody, melancholic new direction for the band that gets more intriguing with each spin. More

The Dwarves return with another good-spirited, goofy, and in-your-face record of high-octane punk. With seven originals, two remixes, and one track from the band's 2023 Concept Album release, Keep it Reel speeds by as the band delves into surf rock, scuzz punk, classic horror, and loopiness of every order. The melodies channel classic '70s punk while the thematic elments, you guessed it, get weirder and wilder. Keep It Reel is everything you love about The Dwarves, from tightly-constructed raucous rockers to ridiculous and imaginative lyrics. More

Triple Seven , the debut full-length from much buzzed about Indianapolis alt-rockers Wishy, is a standout. These varied, vivid tracks easily move from genre to genre, with the band pulling in elements of shoegaze, dreampop, grunge, powerpop, and even emo. Triple Seven basically sounds like a long-lost left-of-center indie darling from the '90s. This heady, hook-laden album is a nostalgia injection that's destined to delight. More

The maternal experience is the key thematic element to The Wandering Hearts' stunning new album, titled, (yes) Mother . The folk-meets-Americana melodies perfectly convey the earth-shaking change and confusion of life as a new mother. Growth isn't always easy but it is rewarding, opening up life and one's conception of self into multifaceted new directions: Mother does a wonderful job of capturing these complex moments, with all their challenges and luminosity. With their latest, the UK trio has crafted an album that's poignant, joyful, and deeply moving. There's much to connect with here, whether motherhood is an experience you relate to or not. More

Ten years on and no one's making contemporary sophistipop like TOPS. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Picture You Staring , Arbutus Records is releasing a deluxe anniversary LP with a photo zine and party poster, on dreamy sky blue color vinyl. The melodies are swooning and deeply romantic, creating an immersive mood you'll want to get lost in. Singer Jane Penny's voice is delicate and dextrous, the perfect complement for these pastel-hued washes of sound. Picture You Staring is a special record — don't sleep on this one. More

Miracle Focus is an appropriate title for the latest from Strand of Oaks. Written with the goal of simply making people feel good, these layered, gorgeous songs do just that. The miracles in these songs are not biblical in scale or in meaning: they're the simple miracles of everyday life. An album to make you sit up and notice all the good things around you, Miracle Focus is some of Strand of Oaks' finest work and it's sorely needed in our world today. More

Stung! is one of those albums that'll remind you of the mood-altering magic of music. Pond throws all the rules out of the window, creating eclectic, dazzling tracks that hop from genre-to-genre, pulling off each with aplomb. "So Lo" channels Prince with an ultra cool funk meets rock groove. The title track hurts so good, with a danceable psychedelia-meets-'60s rock take on romantic rejection. "Neon River" is trippy and ecstatic with spacey guitars and retro electronic flourishes. Stung! is a pure delight. More

Kali Malone's All Life Long is moving and majestic, a testament to the enduring, sacred power of music. The American-born, Stockholm-based composer and organist wrote these songs for pipe organ, choir, and brass quintet over the course of three years. They're imbued with a sense of mystery and awe, melancholy and transcendence. The voices belong to the Macadam Ensemble, with conducting by Etienne Ferschaud at Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-L'Immaculée-Conception in Nantes, France. Anima Brass handles, yes, the brass. And Kali Malone and Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))) play the historic pipe organs of Église Saint-François in Lausanne, France, Orgelpark in The Netherlands, and Malmö Konstmuseum in Sweden. All Life Long is a masterpiece. More

David Kushner announces himself as a major artistic presence with The Dichotomy . Kushner's deep, forceful voice has the atmospheric, on-edge quality of a Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen. His compositions draw on elements of gospel, gothic, folk, and alt-rock to create crooning, larger-than-life epics. Thematically, that makes sense, as Kushner's trafficking in some big, sometimes heavy stuff, including society and its lack of humanity, religious hypocrisy, and the struggle between darkness and light. The Dichotomy is the type of record that'll stick with you for long after the last notes fade out. More

Every so often, a record comes along and makes you stop in your tracks. That's the case for the wondrous, imaginative new Yannis & The Yaw album, Lagos Paris London . Vibrant, upbeat, and with a bit of an edge, this five-track EP is the result of an all-too-short yet seemingly fated collaboration between Foals singer Yannis Philippakis and the late, great Afrobeat legend Tony Allen. The pair play off each other magnificently, creating a fusion of sounds so dynamic and fresh it just feels like the sound of NOW — and that's despite the many setbacks in the creation of this collection, from scheduling issues to Covid restrictions, that started all the way back in 2016. Lagos Paris London is phenomenal. More

Hiatus Kaiyote's Love Heart Cheat Code is exuberant, inviting, and exciting. The Australian band combines neo-soul, math rock, and experimental to create songs that seem to live and breathe on their own, so imbued are they with power and a kind of dynamic, frenetic energy. The album is a soundtrack for and a tribute to deep, platonic love, the types of friendships that make life worth living yet seem so undervalued in the romance and drama-addicted storytelling of our culture. Filled with joyful anthems and unexpected sonic twists and turns, Love Heart Cheat Code will take you on an emotional journey. More

Punk legends Bad Religion take on the Trump administration with no holds barred on their newest release, Age of Unreason . Greg Gaffin's reassuringly smart and biting lyrics address immigration, fascism, paranoia and history in these hard, fast and catchy songs that stick to the band's classic sound. “Chaos From Within” highlights the band's characteristic harmonies and “My Sanity” may be sweetly melodic, but everything is sped along by the madcap drums. “Big Black Dog” stands out for its slower, more classic rock guitar and “Candidate” for its punk-ballad sound and satisfying guitar solos. More