This week sees the return of L.A.-based artist Aimee Mann. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls her ninth solo album, "a consistently strong set of intimate, smartly crafted folk-pop, combining a dark, acoustic-oriented sound with her plaintive vocals and often-poignant lyrics reflecting upon lost love and mental illness." Berkeley, CA-based artist Chaz Bundick of Toro Y Moi fame hooked up with the California duo The Mattson 2 for what Yates calls "a fine set of mostly instrumental, jazz and funk-tinged psych-rock with a cinematic, '70s-steeped sound." On her sophomore album, young DC-based artist Sneaks (aka Eva Moolchan) brings "a potent set of hypnotic post-punk with a minimalist sound featuring stark bass guitar lines and drum-machine beats accompanying her deadpan vocals and often-enigmatic lyrics."
The Buttertones deliver a "spirited blend of goth-tinged post-punk with '60s garage-rock, surf and R&B" on their debut album. On their seventh album, UK duo Goldfrapp bring a mix of throbbing dance-pop and ambient ballads. And Coco Hames (former frontwoman for The Ettes) debuts with a "a well-crafted blend of '60s girl-group pop, garage-rock, country-tinged folk-pop and more."
