March Program Titles Released This Week:
Robert Cray Band – That’s What I Heard CD (Nozzle)
“Funky, cool and bad,” is how Robert Cray describes his latest album, That’s What I Heard. “I thought if it we could get this thing that Sam Cooke used to have, the kind of sound that early Sam Cooke records had, that we could pull this off,” says producer Steve Jordan. Over the past four decades, Cray has created a sound that rises from American roots, blues, soul and R&B, with five Grammy wins, 20 acclaimed studio albums and a bundle of live albums that punctuate the Blues Hall of Famer’s career. On That’s What I Heard, Robert celebrates the music of Curtis Mayfield, Bobby “Blue” Bland, The Sensational Nightingales and more, alongside four newly written songs. [Limited indie store exclusive colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Five Finger Death Punch – F8 CD/2xLP (Better Noise)
Founded in 2005, the American heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch has described their eighth studio effort F8 as a rebirth. This is the first album featuring new drummer Charlie Engel who replaced Jeremy Spencer in 2018. “Every so often, a band renowned for railing against the sicknesses of the system, decides to turn the lens inward, to express the inner turmoil that smolders within their own minds. A beautiful a catharsis this proves to be, and it is seldom more warranted than in the case of American metal titans, Five Finger Death Punch. Five Finger Death Punch has opened the floodgates and unleashed their eighth studio album, aptly titled F8. Forged from the fires of vocalist Ivan Moody’s lifesaving quest for sobriety, it comes to bear that F8 is deeper, angrier, and more disturbingly introspective than anything we have seen to date from one of America’s most successful metal bands.” [Limited indie store exclusive picture disc vinyl pressing also available.]
Four Year Strong – Brain Pain CD/LP (Pure Noise)
Four Year Strong aka vocalist/guitarists Dan O’Connor and Alan Day, bassist Joe Weiss and drummer Jake Massucco, began conceptualizing the ideas for Brain Pain two years ago. For the past year-and-a-half they focused on bringing those thoughts to fruition. “We didn’t want to set a strict deadline for this album because we wanted to be sure we took the time to write the best songs possible. In the past our writing and recording was so dependent on getting something out in time to go on tour; this time we really had the opportunity to take our time and work through these ideas,” explains Day. In order to capture that sound the group enlisted producer Will Putney, who was an engineer on 2010’s Enemy Of The World and already had a relationship with the band. “We were really emotionally invested in this music so we wanted to go with someone who we knew would care about it as much as we did and Will was that guy,” Day adds.