Carter Family meets Addams Family. Rich with quality finger picking and replete with harmonies, Easy Listening for Jerks offers many new moods of songs we think we know so well. Under a title that recalls the songwriting humour of Roger Miller and Steve Martin’s comedy stylings alike, the EPs offer a surprising and compelling mix of gravity and levity. Foggy Mountain Boys, but make it Beetlejuice.

On their Dualtone debut Sticking With It, Seattle-based seven-piece The Dip deliver the kind of unbridled soul/R&B that hits on every emotional level, inciting everything from raw catharsis to heavy-hearted reckoning to wildly exuberant joy. The resulting body of work captures the mood of the current moment while offering immediate escape into a more elevated state of mind.

Written alongside Ignorance, How Is It… a piece of reflection and quiet, meant to hold stillness in the aftermath. Recorded live, as a performance; an improvisation, with a group of Toronto jazz musicians, it was imagined as a record of ballads; simple, pure, almost naive, but speaking to many of the same realities as Ignorance does. Two albums as two halves of the same coin; the moon and sun, a photograph and a photonegative.

The jazztronica duo’ full-length debut Motherland Journey is an album years in the making, celebrating pushing boundaries, taking risks, and overcoming adversity. Following their 2021 EP, We Will Rise, this new album is a star-studded affair featuring the duo (producer NK-OK and multi-instrumentalist Mr DM) joined by collaborators including Ghetto Boy, Tiana Major9, KillBeatz and more.

Sonically, the album is a return to their earlier work and the kind of raw ethos that lies at the heart of Band of Horses. Emotionally intense, both on a personal and elemental level, we find band founder Ben Bridwell more autobiographical than he’s ever been on record detailing the nebulous frustrations and quiet indignities of relationship changes and what a person will do to make things right.

The sole, full length album from Loney Hutchins's most productive era in the 197’s. In '79 the country rock album was too folksy for LA and too electric for Nashville. Featuring a rhythm section from Dolly Parton's live band during her 'Jolene' period, and searing hot country licks, this reissue is restored from the original 2" multitrack tapes, including two never before heard tracks.

Legendary guitar player Mike Campbell, while seemingly inseparable from Tom Petty for over four decades, has always shown independence and musical curiosity which has resulted in some remarkable projects. External Combustion assures us that the Dirty Knobs are not side-band lark but, as tragic circumstances dictate, a worthy full-time concern for Campbell and his talents.

Harder, faster, shorter and louder than any other Porches record, it’s direct and pointed, charged up and chaotic, and as described by creator Aaron Maine, “the most energetic, off-the-cuff moments, collaged together into the most captivating songs I could make.” It’s a dreamy, primal journey of coping with an incomprehensible time, reveling in the joy and confusion of living through it all.

This is the most unforgivably doomy Crowbar record since their landmark 1998 effort, Odd Fellows Rest. It’s reverently old-school, counterbalanced by a resonant melodicism that’s stunningly mature. Songs like “Chemical Gods,” “Bleeding from Every Hole,” and “It’s Always Worth the Gain” demonstrate what Crowbar does better than any other band: powerful, evocative, and crushingly heavy music.

Filthy, belligerent and obnoxious, Midnight make music to start fights to. Since 2003, one-man-band Athenar has been churning out an ungodly racket, dropping countless demos, splits and EPs - and in 2022 he returns, delivering a catchy mixture of black metal, speed metal, and dirty punk rock. "I always want it to be loud and nasty," he asserts. "That kinda thing never gets old with me.”

Sabaton’s tenth full-length was crafted as a concept album that dives deep into previously unexplored atrocities, miracles and events tied to the early 20th century's World War I. The stories and history told here are not only engaging, and well-told musically and vocally, but are important to remember. A worthwhile addition to any metal (or history) fan's library.

"You're born into the world as a blank canvas. As you meet people and experience things, you're getting stained and torn up. " That's the concept here. Featuring guest appearances from Geoff Rickly, Jeff Smith and Bones, This World Is Going To Ruin You is a fully realized version of Vein.FM’s darker and more disgusting inception of metallic hardcore.