Features / Release Round-Up

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Elvis Costello and The Imposters, The Boy Named If (Capitol/EMI) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Elvis Costello and The Imposters are back with a new, rip-roaring rock album.  The band previewed many of the songs on The Boy Named If during its last concert tour; if those tunes (including lead single “Magnificent Hurt”) are any indication, this set returns Costello to his spiky roots.  Available on CD, LP, cassette, digital platforms, and an official store-exclusive, autographed CD set with accompanying 88-page illustrated storybook.

Richard Carpenter, Richard Carpenter’s Piano Songbook (Decca) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Richard Carpenter returns with his first solo album in almost 25 years.  Piano Songbook (delayed from 2021) features newly-recorded solo piano renditions of some of the rich, classic melodies associated with Carpenters including “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” “For All We Know,” “Yesterday Once More,” “I Need to Be in Love,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “I Won’t Last a Day Without You,” and more.  Available on CD and digital/streaming.  Read more here.

Chelsea Walls: Original Music by Jeff Tweedy (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Omnivore has remastered, reissued, and expanded Jeff Tweedy’s original soundtrack to Ethan Hawke’s 2001 directorial debut, Chelsea Walls.  For the film set at New York’s notorious Hotel Chelsea, the Wilco frontman provided a moody score of both instrumentals and vocal tracks performed by Wilco (“Promising”), Billy Bragg and Wilco (“When the Roses Bloom Again”), and two of the film’s stars, Robert Sean Leonard (“The Lonely 1” with Steve Zahn, “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling”) and jazz great Little Jimmy Scott (a cover of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy”).  The evocative, edgy, improvised instrumentals were performed by Tweedy and drummer Glenn Kotche, who would soon be invited into Wilco’s ranks.  This reissue, available on CD and as a 2-LP vinyl set, adds two previously unreleased bonus tracks: an extended version of the “Finale” and Robert Sean Leonard’s recording of Tweedy’s “Promising.”  The 16-page booklet features new liner notes by Ethan Hawke and Glenn Kotche, as well as an interview between Jeff Tweedy and reissue producer Cheryl Pawelski.

Poco, One Night in Nashville (Purple Pyramid) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Purple Pyramid/Cleopatra brings Poco’s May 20, 2004 Nashville show at the Belcourt Theatre to CD and transparent blue vinyl.  Band founders Richie Furay, Rusty Young, and George Grantham, plus longtime member Paul Cotton led the band through such classic tracks as “Crazy Love,” “Heart of the Night,” “Call It Love,” “Rose of Cimarron” and more.