We’ve had an amazing year with releases by The Lemonheads (Rough Trade’s Reissue Of The Year), Black Lips (Rough Trade’s Albums Of The Year), Marina Allen (Rough Trade’s Albums Of The Year), Hater (Rough Trade’s Albums Of The Year), Pictish Trail, The Dream Syndicate, Jane Weaver’s side project Fenella, Air Waves, Yosa Peit, Immaterial Possession, Lucy Gooch, Kristin Hersh’s side project 50 Foot Wave and Modern Studies.
Browse all our releases below.
The Lemonheads’ seminal album ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’, lovingly reissued for it’s 30th Anniversary. The long overdue reissue includes a slew of extra material, including an unreleased ‘My Drug Buddy’ KCRW session track from 1992 featuring Juliana Hatfield, B-sides from singles ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ and ‘Confetti’, a track from the ‘Mrs. Robinson/Being Round’ EP, alongside demos that will be released for the first time on vinyl. This reissue celebrates their prestigious fifth album, these deluxe bookback editions feature new liner notes and unseen photos.
ROUGH TRADE’S REISSUE OF THE YEAR
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The Black Lips return with their 10th studio effort ‘Apocalypse Love’, scorched with their trademark menace, it cryogenically mutates all recognised musical bases; it spins yarns about vintage Soviet synths, Benzedrine stupors, coup de’ tats, stolen valor and certified destruction, all set against a black setting sun. Since the turn of the decade the band have transformed from austere country pioneers, into a set of Lynchian surrealists, hellbent on recalibrating the history of rock ‘n’ roll.
ROUGH TRADE’S ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
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Full of surprising melodies and hooks, contemplative, and constantly startling. Not your typical singer-songwriter, Marina Allen draws from influences as wide as loft jazz, Karen Carpenter, Meredith Monk and the New York avant-garde, and modern masters like Joanna Newsom, Neko Case, and Fiona Apple.
ROUGH TRADE’S ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
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A reawakening for the Swedish visionaries, Sincere solidifies their impressive trajectory in a fuzzed out haze of dark and arresting shoegaze pop. An expansive trip through noisier, bittersweet pop realms that recalls My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Deerhunter. A gorgeous and dazzling piece of aching romanticism, destined to feature on a thousand mixtapes.
ROUGH TRADE’S ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
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Fifth album from Isle-of-Eigg dwelling psych-pop wonder Pictish Trail. A strange, unpredictable, sardonic and yet deeply personal record inspired by all from Fever Ray to The Flaming Lips, Liars, Mercury Rev and Beck, Island Family is Pictish Trail’s contrarian view of arcadia; a search for the euphoric in the bucolic, bound in conflicting ideas and feelings around nature and environment, sincerity and artifice, escapism and belonging.
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The brand-new album from The Dream Syndicate blends vintage Krautrock, Eno-like ambience, Neu-inspired rhythmic groove and a Californian sun baked sheen into their classic psychedelic, melodic, hue.
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Jane Weavers experimental ensemble in collaboration with Peter Philipson and Raz Ullah, Fenella returns with a hallucinogenic excursion into ambient textures and hypnagogic drones on new album ‘The Metallic Index’. Taking further steps into their combined compositional universe with this follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed Fehérlófia album.
“A sonic exaltation and refinement of craft, going further into the realms of atmospheric abstract cosmology blissfully morphed with the mythopoetic” The Quietus
Heady with hooks and unforgettable melodies, gliding on deeply danceable grooves, always with Air Waves’ innate compassion, concision and uncanny pop sense shining throughout. A masterpiece that’s beautifully simple, instantly accessible and entirely addictive. Featuring Cass Mccombs, Skyler Skjelset (Fleet Foxes, Beach House), Luke Temple, Brian Betancourt (Hospitality, Sam Evian), Rina Mushonga, Frankie Cosmos, Lispector, David Christian, Ethan Sass, and Ben Florencio.
“There is a rawness, both musical and emotional, proving that the simplest ways to communicate feelings are sometimes the most effective” Pitchfork
Debut from genre-defying producer, Yosa Peit. Laurie Anderson meets Bjork; Prince overlapped with Arthur Russell and the hum of Blue Velvet, with jarred and splintered ambient production reminiscent of Aphex Twin. ‘Phyton’ gets a special expanded edition via Fire Records, featuring unreleased tracks; ‘Tyrann’, a live version of the haunting album track ‘Serpentine’ and end of the night lament, ‘Rise’.
“The production is super fresh” Holly Herndon
The debut album from post-folk travellers Immaterial Possession, a quartet, half of whom came from an artist commune and half who were card-carrying Elephant6 alumni. ‘Immaterial Possession’ is a rich tapestry of a record, a gorgeous, melodious return to a time when influences co-habited freely and whatever was close at hand made the music of the day.
The latest album from 50 Foot Wave with Kristin Hersh and fellow Throwing Muses’ member Bernard Georges on bass and drummer Rob Ahlers. A sonic trip from the heavy, echoey riff of ‘Staring Into The Sun’ with all of its grunge melancholy and dronecore menace to the perfectly baroque ‘Hog Child’ with its spidery guitar that dissolves into motorik bass and drums.
“Kristin Hersh is still delivering rock-solid gold” The Quietus
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Through the hazy daze of a smoky folk opus, Modern Studies craft rich soundtracks, stuttering Super-8 sketches from a washed-out world of melancholy, hand-tinted and tantalising. Lullaby couplets blossom into gorgeous chamber pop melodies, the drama unfolding behind Emily Scott’s plaintive vocal; part Julie London, part Sandy Denny, a little bit Kate Bush, with a hushed sigh of Joni.
“Like Sandy Denny but it has the wounded intimacy of Beth Orton and the precision of Christie McVie” ★★★★ MOJO
“Unclassifiable” ★★★★ Uncut
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