Indie Rock

Record Label: Thrill Jockey Style: Independent

Vinyl, 7", Single, 45 RPM

Record Label: Thrill Jockey Style: Independent

Tracey Thorn wrote a song that reached Jens in the early stages of his new album, "I Know What Love Isn't". In her song she sang "Oh Jens, oh Jens / your songs seem to look through a different lens / you're still so young, love ends just as easy as it's begun." A touching moment for the Swedish songwriter, having been a fan since his teens. But it came to him in a time when he found himself very confused and in doubt. He was changing and, subsequently, so were his songs. They weren't looking through that lens anymore. "I Know What Love Isn't" came out of a break up, something Jens didn't see as worth writing about at first. The songs began more fleeting than the last go around, on his 2007 album "Night Falls Over Kortedala". The songs began building from images and memories and soon began to take their own route, one that Lekman wasn't privy to their destination. In "The World Moves On" he paints a picture of a sweltering summer in the city of Melbourne where he lived while writing and recording the album. The hot days that led up to the Black Saturday bushfires, but also more mundane images of feeding possums in a park or getting in trouble with some guy on a scooter. It seems to lead nowhere at first but the aimlessness in itself reaches heartbreaking conclusions later on, summed up by the soaring chorus "...and you don't get over a broken heart, you just learn to carry it gracefully." Like Joan Didion once said that she writes entirely to find out what she's thinking, Jens wrote until he caught up with his thoughts. And of course they led him right back to the break up. Musically, "I Know What Love Isn't" chooses an economic route. From the vast palette he created for Kortedala, he's only chosen a few somber colors this time around. There are strings but not a string section, an upright piano and not a grand, a single saxophone and gracenotes from a flute. The songs are lighter, almost aerodynamic, Jens explains - "I wanted the songs to take off almost unnoticeably, where the chorus is separated from the verse only through a small detail like a tambourine or a harmony. Like when you're in an airplane taking off and you look out the window and realize you're already in the air." A dry country piano makes "Become Someone Else's" lift high. Vocals from Melbourne singer Sophie Brous makes the chorus in "Erica America" soar. Strings pick up the title track and send it up to the sky without much effort or force. In the latter, Lekman once again points the way to distill essential truths from every day life vignettes while singing about a sham marriage. "I thought of the Friday nights when I'd be cruising up and down the street with my best friend in her old crappy Holden, talking about getting married to get me into the country. The idea was so appealing, that we would build this constructed relationship around a purpose rather than some vague feeling that could change at anytime. But in the end, the sham marriage is much too great a story to be kept secret. At least when you make a living from telling stories." And that's what "I Know What Love Isn't..." is. A collection of songs that grew to a story that had to be told. A story that is not new, but essentially human. The story of the grey areas of love that you have to excavate and explore, using the method of exclusion, to find out what love is. Vinyl, LP, Album

2 × Vinyl, LP, 45 RPM, Album, Repress, 180g

2 × Vinyl, Album, Reissue, LP, 180gram

THE DISTRACTIONS were the great lost band of the new wave era. Factory single legends, one rated and feted album, a batch of classic songs and an awful lot of whatever happened to? So few albums have ever been as long-awaited as THE DISTRACTIONS' second, Record Label: Occultation Style: Independent

Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Limited Edition, White

2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Special Edition

2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Special Edition, 180 Gram

2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Special Edition, Gatefold, 180 Gram

Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Special Edition, 180 Gram

Centipede Hz, the 10th Animal Collective album, follows the widely celebrated Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009) and it's the first since Strawberry Jam (2007) to feature all four original band members: Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin. As the album's opening drum crashes and radio interference immediately make clear, Animal Collective have made their most widescreen and fully realized music to date. The album is a panoramic set of songs that shimmer with the confidence and wonder of Animal Collective's unique inner logic and the luminous warmth of their sound world. 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold

double-vinyl with silver foil gatefold sleeve and a download card; it’s limited to 7500 copies 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, 180g DVD All Media, Deluxe Edition, Limited Edition

The superbly jangly "Northern Lights" is the third single to be taken from Allo Darlin's second album "Europe". Written about a New Year's Eve spent in Sweden it somehow manages to imbue a wintery scene with a sweet breath of sunshine as Elizabeth Morris' voice rings out clear as a bell and Paul Rain's guitar melodies shine brightly. The single heralds Allo Darlin's most high profile tour to date, which kicks off on 31 August and runs throughout September. Stepping up several venue sizes due to public demand, the band continues to rise as their profile ever increases. Whether it be through word of mouth or via the positive press coverage and radio play, Allo Darlin have built up an army of fiercely loyal fans who enthusiastically sing along to every word that comes out of Morris' mouth. Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Orange