The Clash, The Raconteurs, Steve Lacy and other big vinyl releases this week

You'll want these records in your collection...

In this fast-paced musical landscape, where it’s so easy to simply put a playlist on shuffle, nothing compares to putting a record on, sitting back and enjoying all it has to offer in full (or at least until you have get up again to flip it over).

Every week, NME will round up the best vinyl releases, available to buy or pre-order via Norman Records. Check out the best from this week below.

The Clash – ‘London Calling’ (40th Anniversary)

NME say:

Four decades on and The Clash’s seminal third album is still as vital as ever. Sure, these days it’s easy to overlook such an omnipresent record – especially when even Eton-educated PMs are fans – but its essential explorations of societal inequalities, racial injustices and political apathy are needed now as much as ever.

Norman Records say:

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Forty years since the Clash unleashed their third album London Calling. Iconic not just because of the more varied music contained within and it’s legendary title track but just look at that sleeve will you? They haven’t gone completely to town with this just a relatively standard LP (admittedly in special sleeve) and CD reissue plus a CD box set they’ve called London Calling: The Scrapbook which contains a hardback book full of memorabilia, archive material and lyrics.   

Buy it now from Norman Records

Steve Lacy – ‘Apollo XXI’

NME say:

On his debut album ‘Apollo XXI’, The Internet star and Vampire Weekend collaborator Steve Lacy “balances wistful musical throwbacks with authentic lyricism and attitude”, as our review notes, creating “a distinct world filled with hazy strings, warped synths and vocals that range from a flawless ’70s-style falsetto to laid-back speech. It’s retro-inspired through a modern lens.” Released back in May, the record is out now on vinyl.

Norman Records say:

Here we have the long-awaited debut LP from The Internet’s Steve Lacy. Though ‘Apollo XXI’ is Lacy’s first solo full-length, we doubt this precocious young chap was feeling the pressure too much – when you’ve made beats for Kendrick Lamar, given a TED Talk and walked the runway at Paris Fashion week before turning 20 you probably don’t even know what pressure is. Lacy’s carefree approach translates into this gorgeous neo-soul set.

Buy it now from Norman Records

DJ Shadow – ‘Our Pathetic Age’

NME say:

‘Our Pathetic Age’ is a heck of an album title, isn’t it? The 23-track record is split between two sides: instrumentals and big-name collabs (Nas, Run The Jewels, Interpol’s Paul Banks, De La Soul, members of Wu-Tang Clan and more feature). The renowned hip-hop producer explains of his inspiration for the album: “People are addicted to, and addled by distraction; they’re angry and confused, and disaffected by their own governmental institutions. There’s songs that are inspired by this energy and seek to harness it, to make sense of it. In some cases, there’s attempts to salve the wound; in others, the songs merely observe but don’t offer solutions.”

Norman Records say:

Pioneering turntablist DJ Shadow returns with ambitious double album ‘Our Pathetic Age’. With his personal record collection of over 60,000 records, it’s no surprise at how sprawling and eclectic the producer’s very original brand of ‘sampledelia’ is. Featuring the likes of Run The Jewels, Nas and Sam Herring, expect to be immersed in the Californian’s stellar mish-mashed universe.

Buy it now from Norman Records

The Raconteurs – ‘Broken Boy Soldiers’ 

NME say:

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With Jack White’s band returing earlier this year for their first new album in over a decade, which we called “an analogue record for digital times” and an “old school slab of rock”, it’s the perfect time to revisit The Raconteurs’ debut, now available on 180g vinyl reissue LP encased in a lovely copper-embossed gatefold jacket.

Norman Records say:

Looking somewhat like the Cardiacs on the sleeve are Jack White’s the Raconteurs. This is the project that he collaborated on songwriting with power pop mainstay Brendan Benson. The duo met up initially to just write one song but kept on at it and a full band formed just like that. 

Buy it now from Norman Records

Ty Segall – ‘Melted’

NME say:

Over the past decade or so, San Fran garage-rocker Ty Segall has released a whopping 12 studio albums, as well as live records, collab projects and loads more. ‘Melted’ alternates between riotous dive bar rock, wide-eyed psych and scuzzy lo-fi pop, and is well worth a revisit with this new re-release.

Norman Records say:

Known to release a new album each mealtime, Ty Segall is now filling in the gaps between meals by re-issuing his old ones. ‘Melted’ was his third album from way back in those heady days we knew as 2010 and was made in collaboration with Sic Alps Mike Donovan. It’s a blast of short and sharp garage rock with trademark lo-fi amp buzz and songs with a glam rock catchiness and a psych rock sensibility. Lots of rock fun as always and still fresh as a daisy. 

Buy it now from Norman Records

Suede – ‘Head Music’ (Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition)

NME say: 

Suede’s fourth album is being reissued on triple vinyl for its 20th anniversary, coming with an extra disc of non-album B-sides. At the time, we wrote of the LP: “It’s sex, it’s drugs, it’s suburban ennui, it’s frequently hilarious… while Suede may be writing some of the most exciting pop of their career, they’re also striking out for new pastures,” noting that while frontman Brett Anderson’s lyrical subjects may have remained the same, the band seemed to have been drawing inspiration from some unlikely sources: reggae, Roxy Music and Duran Duran.

Norman Records say:

Twenty years since Suede’s Head Music with songs like Electricity and She’s in Fashion and lyrics about being freaks on the edge of the wasteland of the city and dreaming about one day not being trash on the streets. The album was made right in the epicentre of Brett Anderson’s addiction to crack but still managed to make it to number one. Now you can get it as a 4CD or 3LP set complete with non LP B sides. 

Buy it now from Norman Records

TOY – ‘Songs Of Consumption’

NME say:

It’s healthy for bands to wear their influences on their sleeves, and TOY are doing just that with this new eight-track release, which features interpretations of songs by artists that have inspired them: The Stooges, Nico, Soft Cell and more. It will “show people where we are going towards musically,” the band say, and is “a homage to the spirit of these people, that helped us to untangle ourselves from our inherent complicated nature and create a new space where we can exist.”

Norman Records say:

English psychedelic/shoegaze/krautrock act Toy are coming up to a decade in their existence, and, following the critical acclaim that greeted their fourth album Happy In The Hollow back in January this year, they turn to the songs that inspired them for this eight-track covers album, Songs of Consumption. It includes tracks from diverse artists such as The Troggs, Serge & Charlotte Gainsbourg and Nico. They got the idea from the 7” bonus single of covers that accompanied the Dinked and Rough Trade versions of Happy In The Hollow, and three of those are included here. 

Buy it now from Norman Records

She Drew The Gun – ‘Trouble Every Day’

NME say:

Frank Zappa’s ‘Trouble Every Day’, penned about the Watts riots in LA during 1965, was the inspiration for this pseudo-cover by Merseyside’s She Drew The Gun, with singer Louisa Roach explaining: “I rewrote some of the lyrics to reflect what I’ve seen reported on the TV in more recent times, from English riots to the Extinction Rebellion protests.” Roach’s new version “takes a look at the issues that are facing us at the moment from the rise of the far right to the threat of climate change and the role the global media corporations play in supporting neoliberal ideology.”

Norman Records say:

Following a series of memorable festival appearances this summer, Liverpudlian psych-rock quartet She Drew The Gun release a new four-track EP, led by a re-tooled and updated cover of Frank Zappa’s ‘Trouble Every Day’ with lyrics to reflect the unrest of 2019. Also included are two new original tracks and a remix of Revolution Of Mind’s opening track ‘Resister’ by Slackers. 

Buy it now from Norman Records

Tindersticks – ‘No Treasure But Hope’

NME say:

‘No Treasure But Hope’ is Tindersticks’ 12th album to date but it feels like a breath of fresh air for the band in many ways. Frontman Stuart Staples explains that it sees the current line-up exploring new ideas and is “the first album we’ve made together with just complete trust”. He adds: “We were just recording the air in the room of us playing music. I think that that in itself defines what this is. The songs pertain to that as well. The human aspect of this moment and how you can try to navigate this world and this moment that we live in.”

Norman Records say:

Nottingham stalwarts Tindersticks return with a 12th full-length release,  ‘No Treasure But Hope’. Made in just five days, the record is an intentional change of direction for the five-piece. In a strive to create instinctual material, not overthinking and sanitising every element, the band yet again present a previously unseen side to themselves.

Buy it now from Norman Records

Jane Weaver – ‘Loops In The Secret Society’

NME say:

In an interview earlier this year, Manc psych figure Jane Weaver (formerly of 90s Britpop band Kill Laura) underlined the importance of patience in the creative process. “It’s always unexpected,” she said. “There are songs where I’ve thought, ‘this is a great song, and it’s gonna be on my album’, which I’ve then ditched and never gone back to… You’ve got to live with it for a while. And then you can think of something better.” Likewise, this new release from Weaver both revisits and reworks old material (from 2014’s ‘The Silver Globe’ and 2017’s ‘Modern Kosmology’) and splices in new ambient pieces. ‘Loops In The Secret Society’ is out now.

Norman Records say:

Here comes Manchester chanteuse Jane Weaver with a project that sees her re-work elements from her last two studio albums The Silver Globe and Modern Kosmology, interspersed with brand new ambient pieces over two slabs of vinyl. Loops In The Secret Society is a product of the mesmerising British tour that Jane Weaver kicked off in October last year which saw the source material expanded and reworked. 

Buy it now from Norman Records

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