Vinyl-Jahresrückblick 2021 – Topseller Rock & Pop 18 Items

Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington return after announcing they were parting ways at a show in 2014 in the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Their debut album Psychic from 2013 was lauded as a modern classic almost immediately after release.

Since, Nicolas Jaar has been incredibly prolific releasing no less than four albums through his own Other People label including a soundtrack to cult classic Sergei Parajanov film The Color Of Pomegranates, created original soundtracks for 2015’s Dheepan and 2019’s Ema, co-produced tracks on FKA Twigs (Bleep album of the year 2020) Magdalene and worked on material under the A.A.L (Against All Logic) moniker with the likes of no wave legend Lydia Lunch.

Working with multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington on the DARKSIDE project, Nicolas Jaar’s production takes in heady psychedelic influences from prog and drone genres. Layering his entrancing vocals over the pulsating rhythm section on tracks such as ‘Lawmaker’ and ‘I’m The Echo’ that draw on the sun drenched psych of contemporary West Coast bands like Moon Duo and Wooden Shjips. Elsewhere we encounter the extended ‘Inside Is Out There’ with percussion heavily indebted to Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit and heavily treated vocals sat low in the mix. “From the beginning, DARKSIDE has been our jam band. Something we did on days off. When we reconvened, it was because we really couldn’t wait to jam together again”.

A harmonious return from the prolific duo, filtering an array of influences into their own expertly crafted sound.

Hotly-tipped musician and singer Arlo Parks is hotly-tipped for a reason. Collapsed In Sunbeams is a pop album with an irreverent twinge; Parks’ lyricism is poignant as she recounts the mundanities of daily life — a slightly bungled kiss, an argument on a busy street, seeing your crush with somebody else — with a certain romantic awe, delivered in an irresistible mode recalling a youthful Macy Gray, backed by indie rock instrumentation which hinges on the simple and emotive. The soaring chorus hook of ‘Caroline’ is endlessly catchy, and while the LP is loaded with hit after hit, the whole thing demands repeated listens for all the tinier details.

Continuing the tradition on from her multi-Grammy Award, record-breaking debut album When WE ALL GO TO Sleep, Where DO WE GO?, Happier Than Ever features no outside songwriters or producers, and was written by 19-year-old Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas who produced the album in Los Angeles.

Billie Eilish has also teased her forthcoming single is coming this Thursday, April 29 at 9AM PT.

Billie Eilish has fast become one of the biggest stars to emerge since the release of her debut single “ocean eyes,” and continues to shatter the ceiling of music with her genre-defying sound. Fast forward from her humble breakout in 2015, Billie’s album When WE ALL Fall ASleep, Where DO WE GO? debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S as well as 17 additional countries around the world upon release, and was the most streamed album of 2019. When WE ALL Fall ASleep, Where DO WE GO? was written, produced and recorded entirely by Billie Eilish and brother Finneas in their childhood home of Los Angeles. Billie Eilish went on to make history as the youngest artist to receive nominations and win in all the major categories, at the 62nd Grammy® Awards, receiving an award for Best New Artist, Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Album. Billie Eilish is also the youngest artist to write and record an official James Bond theme song, ‘No Time To Die.’ Most recently, Billie Eilish was nominated for four additional awards at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021, and took home both Record of the Year for 'everything i wanted,' and Best Song Written For Visual Media for 'No Time To Die.'

Limited to approx. 500 copies for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. For those countries only available at HHV.

At the top of 2020, after a year of traversing the globe in support of 2019’s Run Fast Sleep Naked, Nick Murphy began creating music that simply felt good. Though the singer had retired his billionstreaming Chet Faker project four years prior, the new songs he was working on in his New York City studio had an energy reminiscent of his earlier work. Reviving the project “wasn’t on my radar” at the time, Murphy admits, but the next thing he knew, he had a full album. The result is Hotel Surrender, a radiant 10-track LP full of swaggering bass lines and electrifying melodies that reintroduces Chet Faker to the world – and to Murphy himself. Like his debut LP, 2014’s Built on Glass, Murphy wrote and produced Hotel Surrender solely on his own, finishing most of the songs before COVID-19 hit in March 2020. He admits that before Hotel Surrender, he had never approached his process with such ease. This time, as the album title suggests, he surrendered to the music. “There was this, like, unconsciousness—not thinking, but just feeling, letting it come out and letting it steer itself,” Murphy says. “The great lesson for me was that I could write from a place of joy. I was also just being kind to myself. None of this music was hurting, it just felt good. It made me feel better, and it helped me be better.”

Recorded at Studio Koltrast Hakefjorden, which González set up in his family’s summer house north of Gothenburg, Local Valley “is similar to my other solo albums in sound and spirit,” he says, “a natural continuation of the styles I’ve been adding through the years both solo and with Junip. I set out to write songs in the same vein as my old ones: short, melodic and rhythmical, a mixture of classic folk singer songwriting and songs with influences from Latin America and Africa. It’s more outward looking than my earlier works, but no less personal. On the contrary, I feel more comfortable than ever saying that this album reflects me and my thoughts right now.”

On Local Valley – which follows the 2015 release of González’s acclaimed Vestiges & Claws – he sings in three languages (English, Spanish and Swedish) and it provides a welcome reminder of the Gothenburg, Sweden-based artist’s understated appeal and singular ability to communicate discreetly.

New edition featuring the complete album.

Few bands have invigorated French pop like La Femme over the last decade, and in 2021, they're coming to make all of our lives better. Paradigmes, their much-awaited third album, offers a shift in how we see the world, a kaleidoscopic vortex to a different, more vibrant dimension. After Psycho Tropical Berlin in 2013 and Mystère in 2016 which both reached Gold status in France and got them to play hundreds of shows around the world, the Paris-based, Biarritz band continue to dazzle listeners with their new record. Within this album of beautifully-curated electropop you will hear everything from coldwave to yéyé, Kraftwerk to the Velvet Underground, all distilled and sequenced and psychedelicized so that it sounds uniquely La Femme. The title track is a brassy blast of sizzling electro that imbues the spirit of flappers and philosophers, cabaret and art deco and Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis, all underpinned with a touch of lyrical melancholy. Paradigmes is an album that lives in the moment, even if that moment is a challenge right now. Its fantastical voyages will undoubtedly provide an escape into a world beyond our own.

Record Store Day 2021 Release.