New from Eels, Elvis Costello, Aaron and the Lord, Big Wreck, Laura Lee Lovely

---

Eels: Amateur Hour

---

Early last year, Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett rang up producer John Parish, who worked with him on 2002's Souljacker. Ideas and tracks began flowing between Paris' studio in Bristol UK and Everett in LA, resulting in Extreme Witchcraft, due later this month. This opening track on the 14th Eels album is "a taut piece of indie rock with a raw feel," writes Clash Magazine. "The production is kept simple, the arrangement unadorned, allowing Eels to run rampant in the studio."

---

Elvis Costello: Farewell,  OK

---

Just ahead of the release of The Boy Named If (And Other Children's Stories) comes this latest single. “Like a lot of good rock and roll songs this began with a drummer down in a basement and a singer howling outside the backdoor,” Costello says of the track. “It’s a blurred gaze, a drink too much, an accidental punch and a kiss goodnight, all in the tumult of a dancehall.”

---

Aaron and the Lord: This Love Ain't Dead

---

Singer-guitarist Aaron Perrino, formerly of  Boston indie band Sheila Divine and solo project Dear Leader, began collaborating remotely during pandemic lockdown with multi-instrumentalist Steven Lord of Dirty Bangs, resulting in the recent release of Aaron and the Lord. Guest vocalists include Tanya Donelly of Belly, featured on this track, which harks back to the sound of female-fronted 80s bands. The LP is billed as "a ten-spot of vivid, slicing indie rock songs, with nods back to the chiming guitars and stentorian vocals of the bands [Perrino] grew up on and forward to a new kind of pop-rock future."

---

Big Wreck: Fields

---

"Everything about the latest release by longtime Canadian-American rock fixtures Big Wreck is on a huge scale," CanadianBeats writes in its review of Big Wreck 7.1, the first installment of a planned three-part album. The website calls the EP "loud and energetic, smooth at the core with just the right amount of roughness to its edges," and says this track "has an especially warm, upbeat feel."

---

Laura Lee Lovely: Allandale

---

Adding a dose of dreamy pop to this week's New Music bin is this emerging New Zealand artist, aka Laura Watson. The Revue calls her an artist to watch in 2022, and says this track will have you "basking in the superb synths, the occasional dissonant guitar stroke, and pulsating 808s [electronic percussion]. ... Watson’s ethereal vocals add to the song’s mysticism and escapism quality."

Greeting 2022 with New Music by Sarah Borges, Mitski, Shout Out Louds, Edgar Road, Tame Impala

---

Sarah Borges: Wouldn't Know You

---

Our first batch of new-music picks for the new year includes a brand-new track from Together Alone, expected in February. Like so many musicians in the Time of Covid, this Boston-based alt-country-Americana artist recorded the album remotely, with New York producer Eric Ambel. Borges told local news outlet The Patriot Ledger that the new LP leans more toward rock. "My sound has changed. I was big into indie rock when I started ... Then I fell in love with country music and wrote that way for a while. I play a couple of different styles now, but I don’t consciously try to write in any one style." The lyric here tells of a fellow who's looking worse for the wear of rough living: "I'd be willing to bet / that if you're mom and you met / she wouldn't know you."

---

Mitski: The Only Heartbreaker

---

Another early-2022 release will be this Japanese-American pop-rock musician's Laurel Hell. This single was co-written with Semisonic's Dan Wilson. NPR says it "enlists an '80s sound in classic 'Take On Me' style that emphasizes the histrionics of intentionally sabotaging something or someone. Simple in its attempt to process the dreadful stomach-pit feeling of being the only passionate one in a relationship - even if it means knowingly invoking pain - 'The Only Heartbreaker' succeeds in its sing(or scream at the top of your lungs)-along potential and aching honesty."

---

Shout Out Louds: As Far Away as Possible

---

Also due in February is House, the first album in five years by this indie band from Sweden. It was produced in Stockholm by Björn Yttling of Peter Bjorn & John. Of this advance single, the band says it "had to do with that sensation of being stuck, of longing for a break from the hum-drum of the day-to-day. Maybe a drink, a night out, a simple slip out the back door. Or something more. Anything really. Anything other than this. By dreaming of being as far away as possible, this song shines a light in the expansive darkness.”

---

Edgar Road: Little Man

---

The latest single by this indie band from northeastern Scotland took a little while to make its way across the water, but it's fresh enough to land in our New Music bin. The track features the five-piece band's signature sound, combining a solid rock foundation with airy keyboards and Mark Conti's from-the-heart lead vocal.

---

Tame Impala: No Choice

---

Building on the success of last year's Slow Rush, Kevin Parker and company are bringing out a deluxe edition next month, and this new single will be one of the added tracks. Australian music site TripleJ writes: "Obviously, it's sonically in line with The Slow Rush material - mixing dance music momentum with psych rock flair."

Our New Year's Special is now streaming!

We're ringing in 2022 by playing the songs that were featured in our New Music Bin in 2021.

Every week we pick five new releases, and each gets about a dozen top-of-the-hour spins during the next three weeks before settling back into our big, big mix.

We're playing our 2021 picks - in random order - from 6pm New Year's Eve until Noon on New Year's Day (Eastern Standard Time).

Join us for a great variety of current music, including lots of indie artists. As always, our stream is free and commercial-free!

Last batch of New Music before the New Year: Superchunk, Bully, Parcels, Beach House, Lake 22

---

Superchunk: Endless Summer

---

Dubbed an "indie-rock institution" by Paste Magazine, this North Carlolina-based band will release its 12th studio LP, Wild Loneliness, in February. The album features several guest performers, such as Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley, who provide harmony vocals on this first single. The song, says co-founder and singer-songwriter Mac McCaughan, "was written on New Year’s Day 2020, which was unseasonably warm here in North Carolina." From the lyric: "I miss the cold and I miss looking out for spring ... I'm not ready for an endless summer."

---

Bully: Just For Love

---

This new single was recorded during the sessions for Bully's 2020 album, Sugareggg. Stereogum writes that it "fits the same general mood as the tracks from that album. On its own, though, 'Just For Love' works as a noisy, nervy, hooky jam with a bittersweet undercurrent. It’s a prime example of what Bully does well." The stand-alone single was released in early December as the Alicia Bognanno-fronted band started a brief Eastern U.S. tour. No word if there's more to come.

---

Parcels: Somethinggreater

---

This track from the Australian band's second album was released last month and we've been spinning it on our nightly free-form show, The Detour. It's wormed itself into our ears, so we're moving it to the New Music bin. The NME calls Day/Night "a sprawling and inventive double album" that expands the band's sound beyond the first album's disco formula - although some of that remains in this track, a "reclined and understated '70s anthem with a Chic guitar line and a bouncy bassline."

---

Beach House: New Romance

---

The third of four chapters of Once Twice Melody is due in mid-January, but meanwhile we're featuring another track from chapter two. This number rolls along in a dreamy, Beach House-y groove, while the lyrics suggest turmoil. Victoria Legrand told Apple Music: "'New Romance' existed, just the music, for quite a long time. It really had this intensity to it. It was like a pop song, but it was more psychotic, a little bit scary." For the lyrics, "I really wanted to write something that felt so visual and large. So, the song actually is pretty wild, like new romance, which is, in theory, it's such an exciting feeling. It's also terrifying, because you don't know what's going to happen."

---

Lake 22: Control

---

As '21 comes to a close we want to pull out another track from '22's midyear release. This Seattle-area quintet draws on many musical influences on its self-titled debut album. This track has a throwback sound, and we don't mean to the 90s. Maybe the 40s? The band describes it as "a hybrid of rock, pop and Broadway" that deals with "the challenges of staying in control of things in your life from health concerns to relationship issues." The already high energy level jumps even higher when the horns kick in midway through.

Best Coast + Joe Bonamassa + Small Town Sindrome + Animal Collective + Lala Lala = New Music Variety

---

Best Coast: Leading

---

The duo of Beverly Cosentino and Bobb Bruno released Always Tomorrow in early 2020, but their planned tour was scrubbed due to the pandemic. As they prepare to try again (fingers crossed), they're issuing a deluxe edition of the album with several new tracks, including this single. "As Always Tomorrow turns two years old, and we finally set out to tour the album the way it was meant to be toured in the first place, the album evolves into something brand new," Cosentino says. Paste Magazine says this track "has trembling guitar, brash drums and lively vocals that reimagine the band’s power-pop sound as more 'power' and less 'pop' than before." It also features backing vocals by teenage rockers The Linda Lindas.

---

Joe Bonamassa: Notches

---

We're catching up with the blues-rock guitarist's latest album, Time Clocks, which came out a couple of months ago. Blues Rock Review writes that "Bonamassa really digs deep lyrically on this album and it feels more personal. Of course, there is great guitar, but Joe’s songwriting has never been better." This track is a co-write with Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke. We're featuring a 4-minute "radio edit" in our New Music rotation, but promise we'll also play the full 7-minute track.

---

Small Town Sindrome: On My Own

---

From Grand Rapids, Minnesota (pop. 11,000, not to be confused with the Michigan city of 199,000) comes this "high-energy pop-punk / alt-rock band." We're featuring just one of the catchy tracks on its recently released second album, It Only Gets Worse. The LP was produced, recorded and mixed by Pete Steinkopf of The Bouncing Souls.

---

Animal Collective: Walker

---

This track is a tribute to pop-turned-avant-garde musician Scott Walker. Band member Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) has said it was written around the time of Walker’s death in 2019, adding, "he’ll always be a big inspiration.” The trippy track will be included on the band's 11th album, Time Skiffs, due in February. Stereogum reviewer Tom Breihan calls the song "a sunny, mind-blown piece of mutant pop ... [with] a loping beat and echoed-out percussion; the backing track reminds me a bit of Remain In Light-era Talking Heads."

---

Lala Lala: Color of the Pool

---

We return to I Want the Door to Open, this fall's release from Chicago musician Lillie West. She delivers the cryptic lyrics (Driving through the fog / I couldn't tell which way was down / Three rabbits on the road / A message from a different realm) over a looping rhythm track, bubbling synth and layered backing vocals, ending with a sax solo by Adam Schatz.