Jenny Lewis - On the Line (WB)

The 11 all-new original songs were written by Lewis and feature a backing band of legendary talent including Beck, Benmont Tench, Don Was, Jim Keltner, and Ringo Starr. From her start as the dynamic frontwoman of Rilo Kiley, Lewis has steadily developed her own vocal style, drawing from the sly country twang of Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Patsy Cline, while remaining indebted to pop music. Joe Levy, editor of Rolling Stone remarked that "Jenny is the best songwriter working today."

Ex Hex - Its Real (Merge)

Mary Timony's commitment to larger-than-life riffs and unforgettable hooks remains intact, but the garagey, post-punk approach that defined their debut LP has grown in scale and ambition. Vocal harmonies are layered ten tracks deep, solos shimmer and modulate atop heaving power chords, and the codas linger and stretch toward new frontiers of sound. On first listen, you might think you've unearthed a long-lost LP carved from the space where crunch-minded art rock and glitter-covered hard rock converge, an event horizon at the intersection of towering choruses and swaggering guitars.

Strand of Oaks - Eraserland (Dead Oceans)

Tim Showalter was uncertain about his next record and the shape it would take. With no new songs written, he was unprepared for the message he would receive from his friend Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), the conversation that would follow, and the album that would become Eraserland. He went into the studio with MMJ (sans Jim James) as his band. Jason Isbell also contributed his Hendrix-esque guitar work, while Emma Ruth Rundle provided gorgeous vocals. Every song was recorded live, with all musicians playing together in one room and working to bring the ideas to fruition.

Andrew Bird - My Finest Work Yet (Loma Vista)

My Finest Work Yet finds Bird grappling with themes of current day dichotomies and how to identify a moral compass amidst such divisive times. "I'm interested in the idea that our enemies are what make us whole—there's an intimacy one shares with their opponent when locked in such a struggle. If we were to just walk away would our enemies miss us? How did we get to this point and how can we, through awareness of it, maybe pull ourselves out of this death spiral," says Bird.

Avey Tare - Cows on Hourglass Pond (Domino)

Cows On Hourglass Pond was recorded between January - March 2018 by Dave Portner at Laughing Gas Studio in Asheville, NC on a Tascam 48 half-inch reel-to-reel tape machine. The album was mixed by Adam McDaniel and Dave Portner at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, NC. The album takes inspiration from the future and the past in equal measure, referencing a myriad of cultural touchstones and influences - Buddy Holly, robots, Waylon Jennings, Morricone soundtracks, and much more.

Ibibio Sound Machine - Doko Mien (Merge)

When Eno Williams uses both English and Ibibio- the Nigerian language from which her band's name is derived, the group somehow produces a world of both entrancing specificity and comforting universality, a language entirely of their own. By pulsing the mystic shapes of Williams' lines through further inventive, glittering collages of genre on Doko Mien, Ibibio Sound Machine crack apart the horizon separating cultures, between nature and technology, between joy and pain, between tradition and future.

Lambchop - This (is what I wanted to tell you) (Merge)

In the summer of 2017, Kurt Wagner re-met Matthew McCaughan, who has spent the last decade drumming for Bon Iver and Hiss Golden Messenger. They became instant musical pen pals, with Wagner sending him acappella takes of new song ideas and McCaughan dispatching long-form synthesizer pieces for inspiration. McCaughan eventually headed to Nashville, where they put a band behind the songs, using pedal steel and piano and the harmonica of Nashville legend Charlie McCoy to color in the spaces of these black-and-white sketches.

Orville Peck - Pony (Sub Pop)

Combining the lulling ambience of shoegaze with the iconic melodies and vocal prowess of classic American country music, enigmatic outlaw cowboy Orville Peck, croons love and loss from the badlands of North America. Orville's debut album delivers a diverse collection of stories that sing of heartbreak, revenge and the unrelenting tug of the cowboy ethos. Warm lap steel guitars and echoing drums move through dreamy ballads, campfire lullabies and sometimes frantic buzzsaw tunes, all the while paying homage to his country music roots.

Nick Dittmeier & The Sawdusters - All Damn Day (Eastwood)

Nick's new album is a sturdy collection of authentic, blue-collared Americana. More than the usual drone of love and loss, Dittmeier's colorful songwriting pervades every inch with a meticulously-woven, straight-shooting life story. It's music that feels like an earnest living room conversation set to a soundtrack, each character represented blooming to life in vivid color almost tangibly before intent listeners' eyes. In between are melodies and rhythms crafted evenhandedly with sincerity and passion. - Pop Matters

Also New This Week

Terry Allen & Panhandle Mystery Band - Pedal Steal + 4 Corners (Paradise of Bachelors)
Bad Suns - Mystic Truth (Epitaph)
Shirley Collins - The Sweet Primeroses (Topic)
Luther Dickinson and Sisters of the Strawberry Moon - Solstice (New West)
Duster - Capsule Losing Contact (Numero)
Jerry Garcia Band - Electric On The Eel (ATO)
Kevin Garrett - Hoax (KG)
Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days DLX (Sub Pop)
La Dispute - Panorama (Epitaph)
Laurel Halo - DJ Kicks (K7)
John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Wedding Album (Secretly Canadian)
Motley Crue - The Dirt OST (Eleven Seven)
The Murlocs - Manic Candid Episode (Flightless)
Carrie Newcomer - The Point Of Arrival (Available Light)
Prefab Sprout - I Trawl the Megahertz (Legacy)
John Raymond - Real Feels: Live Vol 2 (Sunnyside)
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor (Felte)
Spiral Stairs - We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized (Nine Mile)
Robin Trower - Coming Closer To The Day (Mascot)
Wallows - Nothing Happens (Atlantic)
Nilufer Yanya - Miss Universe (ATO)