Our Favorite Vinyl Releases of the Week (8/25/15)

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - S/T

It takes a lot of work to sound so natural.  With a recent breakout performance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the Denver band has proven on a larger scale what Mile High music fans have known for some time, Rateliff is an enormous talent peaking at the perfect time for his particular brand of neo-soul (see Leon Bridges, Aloe Blacc, Allen Stone). And yet despite the similarities there's something more country-stomp about the Night Sweats...a sound that places you in a country swing bar vs. a dimly-lit NYC club.  This album is intensely listenable and will keep you warm at night as Fall arrives.  And it will remind you that "soul" is named so because of it's ability to stir up your innards.

Royal Headache - High

|| Purchase Album HERE ||

Rock doesn't need to be complicated...in it's purest form the layers & depth don't come from complex instrumentation or heady lyrics, but rather from the emotion being channelled through the fingers & voices of its members.  Anger, jealousy, indifference, ecstasy...each have their own energy and rock is the unquestioning gorge containing the raging river.  On their sophomore album, the Australian band provides a garage sound that as Marc Masters wrote, provides a weirdly correct backdrop for their lead singer to deliver "Motown-worthy poetry."  We won't give away the ending, but it all does just fine and may be the album you've been unconsciously lusting after for a long time.