New Release Tuesday: Novemeber 21, 2006

If you survived the Deliverance-esque Ikea parking lot this weekend, and didn't get shot trying to get yourself a PS3, you deserve to spend even more of your hard-earned cash on records. Here's what you can find on the shelves at fine local establishments like End of an Ear or Waterloo today.

Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmas (Asthmatic Kitty)

Featuring five discs worth of holiday music spanning the course of five years, tinsel used as an nstrument and a cast of dozens, Stevens' Christmas collection is a must-have for every mildly holiday-prone hipster on the planet. The package includes stickers, photos, extensive liner notes, short stories written by Sufjan, a songbook featuring lyrics and chord charts, and a Christmas essay by Rick Moody. We like Rick Moody! Oh fine, we like Sufjan too. It's just too cute to ignore.

Sufjan Stevens' Christmas Songs at Asthmatic Kitty
Sufjan Stevens "That Was the Worst Christmas Ever" (YouTube)
Sufjan Stevens Official

Swan Lake Beast Moans (Jagjaguwar)

Since the world is, without a doubt, in need of just one more Canadian super group, we present Swan Lake, riding on the heels of a Wolf Parade side project gone amazing (Sunset Rubdown) and a stellar album by Destroyer (Destroyer's Rubies). Swan Lake features Daniel Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers), Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown) and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes) and finds the group of friends in territories both familiar and tenuous, displaying a wide range of influences and directions. We wish they'd turn up the Bejar, but that might just be because of the steady diet of Krug we've been on the last two years.

Swan Lake
Swan Lake "All Fires" (mp3)

The Beatles Love (Capitol)

Beatles fans will devour this along with the Cirque Du Soleil Vegas show if they're OCD, the anti-Yoko crowd will cringe at her cheek pecks with Paul and Ringo, and Olivia will smile blankly, thinking about how much George would have hated it. Despite all of the drama that inevitably follows post-break-up Beatles projects, George Martin and his son, Giles, are behind this massive mash-up (that's unfair, it's really more interesting than a simple mash-up, it's quite incredible) work in progress that will follow all the albums as they go through the recycle-re-release process. As the Martin clan steps into the 21st century, blending Lennon's original "Strawberry Fields Forever" with a demo, shifting into an early take of the song and then "climaxing in a musical collage including the piano solo from "In My Life" and the harpsichord pattern from "Piggies" ... ", the rest of us get a second chance to enjoy the songs we've come to know inside-out from a different perspective.

The Beatles
The Beatles "Hear Love"
Beatles Love Intro (Cirque Du Soleil)

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names #3 (Minty Fresh)

Though technically released last year, #3 is the first full-length album from Swedish darlings Suburban Kids With Biblical Names. We're not sure what it is about that part of the world that makes their music scene so prolific, but we're not complaining. With catchy and addictive tracks like "Rent a Wreck", #3 is sure to be a favorite as the international playboys of indie music start compiling their year-end lists. I'm not sure even the blackest of hearts can refuse a "ba ba ba" chorus.

SKWBN Official
SKWBN MySpace