Artist: | Title: | Label: |
Accept | “Blind Rage” (Hear here; MP3) | (Nuclear Blast) |
Bad Case of Big Mouth (easycore band from Harrison, N.J.) | “Straight Up Bad Luck” (Hear here; MP3) | (Eulogy Recordings) |
Bahamas (Ontario-based musician Afie Jurvanen) | “Bahamas Is Alfie” (producer: Bahamas; first single: “All the Time”; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Brushfire / Republic) |
Liam Bailey (U.K. soul/rock singer) | “Definitely Now” (producers: Salaam Remi, Bailey; first single: “On My Mind”; Hear here; MP3) | (Flying Buddha – Remi’s label) |
Beach Day | “Native Echoes” (producer: Jim Diamond; first single: “All My Friends Were Punks”; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Kanine) |
Big Engine | “Shot Like a Rocket” (Hear here; MP3) | (Pavement Music) |
Elvin Bishop | “Can’t Even Do Wrong Right” (Mickey Thomas sings lead on “Let Your Woman Have Her Way,” his first collaboration with Bishop since 1976’s “Fooled Around and Fell in Love”; guest: Charlie Musselwhite; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Alligator) |
Bishop Allen (Brooklyn indie-pop group) | “Lights Out” (first single: “Start Again”; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Dead Oceans) |
Benjamin Booker (New Orleans-based singer-songwriter) | “Benjamin Booker” (producer: Andrija Tokic; Hear here; See here; Vinyl; MP3) | (ATO) |
Chuck Brown & The Chuck Brown Band | “Beautiful Life” (the Godfather of Go-Go’s final album, recorded before his death in May 2012; guests: Wale, Faith Evans, Raheem DeVaughn, Sugar Bear, etc.; Hear/read here; MP3) | (Raw Venture) |
Buckcherry | “Fuck” (six-song EP; Hear here) | (F-Bomb) |
Danielia Cotton | “The Real Book” (her first album of covers; producer: Kevin Salem; guests: Amy Helm, Tracy Bonham, Rachel Yamagata; Hear here) | (Cottontown) |
Rocco DeLuca | “Rocco DeLuca” (producer: Daniel Lanois; first single: “Colors of the Cold”; Hear here; Read here; MP3) | (429) |
Dirty Loops | “Loopified” (first single: “Hit Me”; Hear here; See here; MP3) | (Verve) |
Colton Dixon (season 11 “American Idol” finalist) | “Anchor” (producers: David Garcia, Red Decibel; first single: “More of You”; Hear here; MP3) | (Sparrow) |
Dr. John | “Ske-Dat-De-Dat … The Spirit of Satch” (a tribute to Louis Armstrong; guests: Bonnie Raitt, Ledisi, Blind Boys of Alabama, Anthony Hamilton, The McCrary Sisters, Shemekia Copeland, Terence Blanchard, Arturo Sandoval, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, etc.; Hear here; Read here; MP3) | (Concord) |
Electric Würms (prog-rock side project featuring The Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd and Wayne Coyne, backed by Nashville psychedelic rock band Linear Downfall) | “Musik, Die Shwer Zu Twerk” (first single: a cover of Yes’ “Heart of the Sunrise”; Hear here; Vinyl) | (Warner) |
Enuff Z’Nuff | “Covered in Gold” (14 cover songs; Hear here; MP3) | (Cleopatra) |
Orenda Fink (former Azure Ray singer) | “Blue Dream” (producers: Ben Brodin, Todd Fink; new single: “You Can Be Loved”; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Saddle Creek) |
Ruthie Foster | “Promise of a Brand New Day” (producer: Meshell Ndegeocello; guests: Doyle Bramhall II, Toshi Reagon; Hear here; MP3) | (Blue Corn Music) |
Roddy Frame (former Aztec Camera frontman) | “Seven Dials” (his first solo album in eight years was released in the U.K. in May; producers: Frame, Sebastian Lewsley; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (AED – Edwyn Collins’ label) |
Ace Frehley | “Space Invader” (includes a cover of “The Joker”; Hear here; Read here; Vinyl; MP3) | (eOne Music) |
Bebel Gilberto | “Tudo!” (producer: Mario C.; Hear here; MP3) | (Portrait / Sony Music Masterworks) |
Christian Gregory (British soul revivalist) | “Count On You” (four-song EP, co-written with Michael Kiwanuka; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Movement / Fat Possum) |
Euge Groove | “Got 2 Be Groovin” (guests: Elliot Yamin, Chanel Haynes; Hear here; MP3) | (Shanachie) |
Paul Hardcastle | “Moovin & Groovin” (disco-flavored album; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Trippin N’ Rhythm) |
Imogen Heap | “Sparks” (Hear here; Read here; Deluxe edition; MP3) | (RCA) |
Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas | “Secret Evil” (producer: Milo Froideval; first single: “Tired Oak”; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Instant – producer Richard Gottehrer’s label) |
Sarah Jaffe (Texas singer-songwriter) | “Don’t Disconnect” (producer: Midlake’s McKenzie Smith; Hear here; See here; MP3) | (Kirtland) |
Jars of Clay | “20” (acoustic versions of 20 songs chosen by fans, to help the band celebrate its 20th anniversary; Hear here) | (+180) |
JJ (Swedish band) | “V” (Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Secretly Canadian / Sincerely Yours) |
Wiz Khalifa | “Blacc Hollywood” (first single: “We Dem Boyz”; Hear here; MP3; MP3 Deluxe Edition) | (Rostrum / Atlantic) |
Kimbra | “The Golden Echo” (the track “As You Are” features a string arrangement by Van Dyke Parks; producers: Kimbra, Rich Costey; guests: John Legend, Muse’s Matt Bellamy, John JR Robinson, Thundercat, Flying Lotus, Dirty Projector’s Dave Longstreth, Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Bilal; first single: “90s Music”; Hear here; See here; Vinyl; MP3; MP3 Deluxe Edition) | (Warner) |
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (Queen of J-pop) | “Pika Pika Fantajin” (producer: Yasutaka Nakata; first single: “Kira Kira Killer”; Hear here; See here; MP3) | (Warner) |
The Last Internationale (NYC indie rock band) | “We Will Reign” (producer: Brendan O’Brien; first single: “Killing Fields”; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Epic) |
The Magic Numbers | “Alias” (their first album since 2010; producer: guitarist-vocalist Romeo Stodart; first single: “Shot in the Dark”; Hear here; Read here; Vinyl) | (U.K. – Caroline, Aug. 18) |
Mud Morganfield & Kim Wilson | “For Pops: A Tribute To Muddy Waters” (Morganfield is the son of Waters, and Wilson is the frontman of the Fabulous Thunderbirds) | (Severn) |
Neal Morse | “Songs From November” (producer: Morse; Hear here) | (Metal Blade) |
Laura Mvula | “Laura Mvula With Metropole Orkest” (52-piece orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley at Abbey Road Studios; Hear here; See here; MP3) | (RCA) |
Chase Rice | “Ignite the Night” (Hear here; MP3) | (Dack Janiels / Columbia) |
Roadkill Ghost Choir (indie folk-rock band from De Land, Fla.) | “In Tongues” (producer: Doug Boehm; first single: “A Blow to the Head”; Hear here; MP3) | (Greatest Hiss / Wolfbomb Productions) |
Smokey Robinson | “Smokey & Friends” (all-star duets album; guests: Elton John, James Taylor, Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, etc.; Hear here; Read here; MP3) | (Verve) |
Selah | “You Amaze Us” (first single: “You Amaze Us”; Hear here; MP3) | (Curb) |
Sleeping Bag | “Deep Sleep” (Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Joyful Noise Recordings) |
Ray Stevens | “Gospel Collection (Volume One)” (Hear here) | (Gaither Music Group / Universal) |
Sugar Ray and the Bluetones (Chicago-style blues band) | “Living Tear To Tear” (Hear here) | (Severn) |
Paul Thorn (Americana artist) | “Too Blessed to Be Stressed” (Hear here; Read here; MP3) | (Perpetual Obscurity) |
Randy Travis | “Influence Vol. 2: The Man I Am” (Hear here; MP3) | (Warner) |
Twin Atlantic | “Great Divide” (producers: Gil Norton, Jacknife Lee; Hear here; Read here; MP3) | (Red Bull) |
Midge Ure | “Fragile” (first single: “Become”; Hear here; Vinyl; MP3) | (Hypertension) |
Various artists | “If I Stay: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” (featuring songs by Beck, Sonic Youth, Odessa, Tom Odell, Willamette Stone, etc.; MP3) | (WaterTower Music) |
Various artists | “Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited” (Americana artists re-imagine and update Cash’s 1964 concept album “Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian”; producer: Joe Henry; contributors: Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Bill Miller, etc.; Hear here; MP3) | (Sony Music Masterworks) |
Various artists | “VH1 Love & Hip Hop: Music From the Series” (MP3) | (Def Jam) |