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First Listen Enjoy select, upcoming albums, in their entirety.
First Listen

First Listen

Hear upcoming albums in their entirety

Sunday

First Listen: Jim James, 'Regions Of Light And Sound Of God'

Jim James' Regions of Light and Sound of God comes out Feb. 5. Neil Krug/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Neil Krug/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Jim James, 'Regions Of Light And Sound Of God'

On his first full-length solo album, My Morning Jacket's singer makes the sound of a lost soul in search of something bigger than himself. James has always liked to let his voice echo into the void, but here, his attention seems to face inward instead of heavenward.

Jim James, 'Regions Of Light And Sound Of God'

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First Listen: Thao And The Get Down Stay Down, 'We The Common'

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down's new album, We the Common, comes out Feb. 5. Lauren Tabak/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Lauren Tabak/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Thao And The Get Down Stay Down, 'We The Common'

Quirky but cutting, playful but forceful, controlled but ragged, Thao Nguyen infuses her songs with electricity and mischievous boldness. Her third album is full of tense, clattering folk-rock.

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, 'We The Common'

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First Listen: Wayne Shorter, 'Without A Net'

Wayne Shorter's new album, Without a Net, comes out Feb. 5. Robert Ascroft/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Robert Ascroft/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Wayne Shorter, 'Without A Net'

The saxophonist turns 80 this year, and he's celebrating with the release of a live album. It features six new tunes from one of jazz's greatest living composers, as well as a long-running band whose uniquely intense language somehow makes a living legend more legendary.

Wayne Shorter, 'Without A Net'

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First Listen: Richard Thompson, 'Electric'

Richard Thompson's Electric comes out Feb. 5. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Richard Thompson, 'Electric'

The title of Thompson's 21st solo album promises a change of pace while doubling as a mission statement. And, sure enough, the record finds the great guitarist, singer and songwriter plugging in and indulging his rock 'n' roll side, complete with occasional solos that qualify as workouts.

Richard Thompson, 'Electric'

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Sunday

First Listen: Buke And Gase, 'General Dome'

Buke and Gase's new album, General Dome, comes out Jan. 29. Grant Cornett/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Grant Cornett/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Buke And Gase, 'General Dome'

Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez maneuver their homemade instruments through songs that rumble and clamor and grind with unmistakable electricity. For the duo, strange instrumentation is merely a means to a raucous, hypnotic, alluring end.

Buke And Gase, 'General Dome'

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First Listen: Darkstar, 'News From Nowhere'

Darkstar's new album, News From Nowhere, comes out Feb. 5. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Darkstar, 'News From Nowhere'

Composed with luminous synths and melodic vocal lines, the U.K. trio's latest album is an unabashed venture into warped pop music. Its pace is uncharacteristically rapid, its chords buoyant, yet there remains an eerie quality to Darkstar's music.

Darkstar, 'News From Nowhere'

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First Listen: Blaudzun, 'Heavy Flowers'

Blaudzun's U.S. debut, Heavy Flowers, comes out Jan. 29. IAMKAT/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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IAMKAT/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Blaudzun, 'Heavy Flowers'

Pretty and eccentric, ornate but never cluttered, Blaudzun's songs alternately boom and swoon, even when they bypass strings in favor of a warm, simple sound. Dutch singer-songwriter Johannes Sigmond, who records as Blaudzun, has a voice ideally suited for grandiosity.

Blaudzun, 'Heavy Flowers'

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First Listen: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, 'II'

Unknown Mortal Orchestra's new album, II, comes out Feb. 5. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, 'II'

The band's sound shape-shifts frequently through the worlds of brittle indie-pop, Nuggets-era retro psych-rock, vintage soul and something more alien. II traffics in, and thrives on, its air of strangeness and unknowability, but that makes its moments of shimmery warmth that much sweeter.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra, 'II'

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First Listen: Rudresh Mahanthappa, 'Gamak'

Rudresh Mahanthappa's new album, Gamak, comes out Jan. 29. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen: Rudresh Mahanthappa, 'Gamak'

Integration of Indian music, "three seconds and you know who's playing" saxophone, double-necked guitar and all that it implies, homegrown approaches to composition: It's all here. But the alto saxophonist's new album surfs on this information overload without drowning in it.

Rudresh Mahanthappa, 'Gamak'

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Sunday

First Listen: Jose James, 'No Beginning No End'

Jose James' No Beginning No End will be released on Jan. 22. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen: Jose James, 'No Beginning No End'

James' fourth album skirts categories with ease, fitting in with current R&B innovators like Frank Ocean or Miguel, yet maintaining a strong awareness of a lineage that stretches from Ray Charles to Marvin Gaye to Lou Rawls to Maxwell.

Jose James, 'No Beginning No End'

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First Listen: Aaron Neville, 'My True Story'

Aaron Neville's My True Story comes out on Jan. 22. Sarah A. Friedman/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Sarah A. Friedman/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Aaron Neville, 'My True Story'

An album of doo-wop covers, My True Story is painstakingly engineered to transcend trends. It's not trying to make its source material sound contemporary so much as dislodge it from its time capsule and free it to drift across eras.

Aaron Neville, 'My True Story'

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First Listen: Widowspeak, 'Almanac'

Widowspeak's new album, Almanac, comes out Jan. 22. Andrew Smith/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Andrew Smith/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Widowspeak, 'Almanac'

Widowspeak is a fount of familiar sounds, from early-'90s shoegazer rock to twangily portentous Western soundtracks to the languidly soft pop of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. But the music possesses a dreamy pop sound of its own.

Widowspeak, 'Almanac'

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Sunday

First Listen: Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory, 'Elements Of Light'

Pantha Du Prince (center), flanked by members of The Bell Laboratory. Katja Ruge/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Katja Ruge/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory, 'Elements Of Light'

A German producer teams up with Norwegian percussionists to make a sweeping, mutating composition. The ensemble setup plays up Pantha du Prince's talent for arrangements, a way of braiding electronic and acoustic sounds into a richly imagined whole.

Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory, 'Elements Of Light'

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First Listen: The Lone Bellow, 'The Lone Bellow'

The Lone Bellow's self-titled debut comes out Jan. 22. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen: The Lone Bellow, 'The Lone Bellow'

The band's music has commercial cachet to spare, as the roots-pop rumble of Mumford & Sons mixes agreeably with the more emotionally resonant folk-rock belting of The Swell Season or The Civil Wars.

The Lone Bellow, 'The Lone Bellow'

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First Listen: Indians, 'Somewhere Else'

Søren Løkke Juul, who records and performs as Indians, releases Something Else on Jan. 29. Piper Ferguson/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Piper Ferguson/Courtesy of the artist

First Listen: Indians, 'Somewhere Else'

On his first full-length album, Danish singer and multi-instrumentalist Søren Løkke Juul masters a kind of quiet adventurousness. The result is remarkable headphone music that reaches both the heart and the loneliest reaches of the heavens.

Indians, 'Somewhere Else'

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