Amoeba Music

Angus & Julia Stone's Karaoke Bar will sweep you off your feet. This is an album about joy: the everyday joys of dingy karaoke bars when you're up next to sing, the pulsing, dreamy joys of being in love. Nostalgia walks hand in hand with melancholy throughout these tracks. Listen to this album from cover to cover and watch your mood slowly improve: what's remarkable about Karaoke Bar is the way the songs mirror life, the ebb and flow of the good and bad times, the delicate sense of loveliness interwoven throughout our days. More

Now here's some good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll. Ricky Warwick, solo artist and frontman of Black Star Riders, The Almighty and Thin Lizzy (2010-2019), delivers the goods on his latest, Fire & Vengeance . Rollicking, gritty, and guaranteed for a good time, these tracks blend bar rock, hard rock, and traditional Irish music. The album practically drips sweat – it's that evocative. Fire & Vengeance is a tribute to the power of rock music, how it brings people together and adds a surge of hope and excitement in the midst of even the darkest times. Featuring appearances from Phil Collen (Def Leppard), Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, The Dead Daisies), Darren Holden (The High Kings), and Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke). More

156/Silence's From A Distance will hit you straight in the gut. These songs are relentless and furious, waves of pure emotion pushing out through the speakers. When the storm clouds do part, they reveal moments of intense beauty within the darkness, the punishing percussion and fiery guitars somehow segueing naturally into quieter, more cinematic moments of sound. Drawing inspiration from the horror genre and from retro game soundtracks, these songs will haunt you in the best possible way. Mike Hranica (The Devil Wears Prada) and Alex Reade (Make Them Suffer) make appearances. More

Listening to Czarface is like entering a whole 'nother dimension. Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer takes that up a notch. The flows are non-stop, the beats magnetic, and the lyrics entrancing. You've got multi-talented actor/rapper Tom Hardy as Frankie Pulitzer, plus appearances from the legends Busta Rhymes, El-P, and Method Man. There's a lot to absorb here and with each listen, new layers reveal themselves. One of the most dynamic, exciting hip-hop releases of the year. More

Pulp are back with another gift to fans. After the band released More , their first album in twenty-four years, they toured those new songs alongside their classic oeuvre. Live! captures the passion and excitement of those shows; it's a recording of the band's June 13, 2025 gig at The O2 in London. Listening to this album is a journey, from the sing-a-long-ready choruses of their biggest, boldest numbers to the surprisingly intimate tone of their more downbeat tracks. The energy coming through the speakers is undeniable. A testament to Pulp's artistry and legacy, and a darn good time. More

Nothing satisfies like Dinosaur Jr. and their latest, There Near , is a feast. J Mascis' lyrics are razor sharp, often timely (how often do you get to hear an alternative rock legend sing the word "edgelord"), and filled with crisp, undeniable imagery. The percussion is primal and the guitars as intense as ever – in fact, possibly even more intense than most of the band's contemporary outings, thanks to Mascis' use of a recently-acquired '70s era Mesa Boogie MK 1 amp, the same type of amp used on Dinosaur Jr's very first album. According to Mascis, someone told him this album seems more "upbeat" than their usual sound, and yeah, you can pick that up in the melodies...but then listen closer because the lyrics might be decidedly less so. There Near is another great album from a consistently great, legendary band. More

Some of contemporary music's best and brightest have come together as FATHERS. Versatile producer Kenny Beats (Vince Staples, IDLES, Geese), keyboardist Kiefer (Terrace Martin, Anderson .Paak), multi-instrumentalist CARRTOONS (George Clinton, Freddie Gibbs), and musician/drummer/writer-producer Nate Smith (Brittany Howard, Jon Batiste) joined forces to create this soulful jazz album. Blue Note is the perfect label for this project, which feels classic and timeless, sophisticated and savvy. These evocative songs set a lush, bold, vibrant mood. Turn this one up loud and immerse yourself in the sound. More

Alicia Witt's latest is a beautiful slow burn. On Between Heaven and Earth , Witt entered the studio with alt-country artist and producer Joe Henry (Rhiannon Giddens, Solomon Burke, Bonnie Raitt). The songs were inspired, in part, by Witt's longtime friendship with David Lynch, who directed her in Dune (where she played Alia Atreide) and Twin Peaks (she played Donna's younger sister, Gersten Hayward). Jazz, piano-driven rock, torch songs, and orchestral pop combine to create a languorous, contemplative mood as Witt sings of metaphysical connections, undying love, and hard-won transcendence. An album that rewards close listening, there's simply nothing else out there like Between Heaven and Earth . More

Everlast returns with his first album in eight years, Embers to Ashes . Produced by Yelawolf, the album is an excellent showcase for Everlast's smart, heartfelt songwriting. The unifying force behind all these tracks is the blues, those downtrodden yet resilient sounds interwoven through the country rock numbers and the catchy rock-pop ones. These are songs about mistakes made again and again, the regrets those decisions leave behind, and finding a way to move forward a little wiser and a littler kinder. Impressive and insightful. More

Sideways is a charmer of an album. Josh Gilligan writes easygoing songs with real emotional heft. The Nashville singer-songwriter blends '70s soft rock and contemporary indie to create endless summer songs, filled with gentle beauty and breezy atmosphere. It's a real pleasure to listen to this album; you'll be vibing out, feeling good, and then Gilligan's songwriting will hit you with a moment of poignancy and understanding that stops you in your tracks. A lovely album that will stay on repeat. More

Wild Pink's Still Coming Down is the perfect soundtrack for late summer/early fall. The songs are rollicking and rootsy, wistful and moody. This is the album you need for driving through fields of crops primed for the harvest or dusty desert towns. It's practically made for sitting next to a crackling fireplace and getting into a pensive mood, book in hand. Contributions from MJ Lenderman and Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) add to the poignant, tender vibe of these wildly entertaining indie rock meets Americana tracks. Highly recommended. More

Rediscovering Mos Def's The Ecstatic is a gift. Jazz, soul, and traditional Middle Eastern musical influences create a layered tapestry that's compelling, forward-thinking and addictive. Now known as Yasiin Bey, the rapper's lyrical focus on Western imperialism and social inequality still hit just as hard and feel just as (unfortunately) timely as they did back in 2009 when the album was originally released. This new Rhymesayers reissue shines a well-deserved spotlight on this incisive, stunning, and essential hip-hop record. Absolutely fantastic stuff. More

Seventy or so years ago, sanctimonious old preachers and moral crusaders would've been tossing Frozen Charlotte onto bonfires. They would've been whispering that Jack White made a deal with the devil to sound this good. That's how thrilling, searing, and classically rock 'n' roll this album is. An undercurrent of danger, of unpredictability, roils beneath White's biting vocals, his fired up guitar, and the pounding percussion. Sure, his love for blues rock, garage rock, and punk has always been on display, but this release cranks up the ferocity times 1000. Frozen Charlotte is White at the peak of his powers. More

Beth Orton is one of our great talents. If you need a reminder, look no further than The Ground Above . Urgent, unflinching, and emotionally intense, these brilliant and sometimes brutal songs have a clear familiarity with grief and loss and survival. But that's not the whole story. There's a resilience, defiance, and joy embedded in these tracks. This is jazzy, folksy, slow burn indie rock with a downbeat bent and an eye toward the light. More

feeble little horse has to be one of the most exciting acts in contemporary indie rock. Their latest, bitknot , is out on Saddle Creek and indeed it does have some of that classic Saddle Creek sound, with an unexpected and exciting hyperpop twist. The ethos is experimental and DIY, the sound fuzzed out, glitchy, noisy and shoegazey...and very, very pretty. So many bops on here, so many moments of pure surprise and delight. This one will make you feel alive. More

Classic Blues From Smithsonian Folkways is a look back into history, a celebration, and an education. Out on vinyl for the first time, the album runs the gamut from ballads to boogies to saucy innuendo-laced songs. The Delta,St.Louis, Southwest, Piedmont, and Chicago styles of blues are all here, as are the legendary artists that came to call the Folkways label home in mid-century America. Lightnin' Hopkins, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Elizabeth Cotten, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Memphis Slim are just a handful of the powerhouses on this iconic release. Featuring notes by musician, professor, author and folklorist Dr. Barry Lee Pearson. More

Vince Staples' Cry Baby is smart, timely, and defiant. Staples goes rock 'n' roll for the tracks, each song infused with simmering unease. Lyrically, Staples has a handle on this American age like none other: the tracks are political and of the moment, whether he's tackling societal ills straight-on or putting the exhaustion we all feel under the microscope. Cry Baby is brilliant and incisive, a real evolution for an artist who was already a unique talent. More

Young the Giant is back with a big, bold, deeply rock 'n' roll album. Victory Garden is filled with sweeping choruses, epic alt-rock riffs, and Sameer Gadhia's honeyed vocals. The songs are eclectic and dynamic. You'll find lovelorn stadium-ready ballads and danceable indie rock numbers destined for crowd-wide sing-a-longs. Everything's filled with a lot of heart and soul, everything's ultra catchy. Victory Garden is Young the Giant doing what they do best. More

Smithsonian Folkways presents a very special album from poet and musician Joy Harjo, Insomnia and Seven Steps to Grace . Produced by Esperanza Spalding, who also plays bass, the album is filled with wonder, beauty, and indelible images. Harjo weaves her poetry through atmospheric arrangements with elements of jazz, prog rock, grunge, and Native American traditional music. Insomnia and Seven Steps to Grace is purposefully imbued with the power of love and beauty, a much-needed counterpoint to the ills of our age. More

Failure's Location Lost is bruising, moving, and fantastic. Each song is its own kind of slow burn. Melancholic indie rock crescendos into sludgy shoegaze-metal on "The Rising Skyline," a haunting duet with longtime friend of the band Hayley Williams. Urgent alt-rock guitars and insistent vocals open "The Air's on Fire" before it bursts into a hypnotic, driving heavy track. Compelling and cathartic, Location Lost is essential listening. More