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Apr 19, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Sad Planets

England’s Fat White Family have released a new album, Serfs Up!, today via Domino, their first for the label (and third album overall) and it’s our Album of the Week. Find out more info on it below. Also below are streams for other albums released today, including close runner-up Laughing Matter, by Wand.

Fat White Family: Serfs Up! (Domino)

When Serfs Up! was announced, Fat White Family shared the string-backed “Feet,” which was our #1 Song of the Week. Then they shared another new track, “Tastes Good With the Money,” via a crazy and bloody video directed by fellow musician Róisín Murphy that had a bit of a Monty Python vibe to it. The song features Baxter Dury, who also appeared in the video. “Tastes Good With the Money” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then just before the album’s released they shared another song from the album, “When I Leave,” via a strange video for the track.

Serfs Up! is the follow-up to 2016’s Songs For Our Mothers and was recorded in Sheffield, England. It’s a crazy patchwork of glam rock, Gregorian chants, 1980s New Wave, string sections, post-punk, and more. It’s a collection of the best produced, best written songs the group have put out yet.

A press release announcing Serfs Up! hyped the album this way: “Where once they soundtracked a grubby Britain of vape shops, frozen dinners and blackened tin-foil, Fat White Family now inhabit another cosmos entirely. Serfs Up! is the product of a band of outlaws reborn. Few but themselves could have forecast it: Fat White Family survived. Fat White Family got wise. Fat White Family got sophisticated.”

Fat White Family UK Tour Dates:

05/01/19 - The 1865 - SOUTHAMPTON
05/02/19 - Concorde 2 - BRIGHTON
05/03/19 - Academy - BRISTOL
05/04/19 - The Ritz - MANCHESTER
05/07/19 - SWG3 TV - GLASGOW
05/08/19 - Button Factory - DUBLIN
05/0919 - Leadmill - SHEFFIELD
05/10/19 - Rock City - NOTTINGHAM
05/12/19 - Gold Sounds Festival - LEEDS
05/14/19 - Waterfront - NORWICH
05/15/19 - Kentish Town Forum - LONDON

Album of the Week Runner-up:

Wand: Laughing Matter (Drag City)

Los Angeles-based psych-rockers Wand have released a new album, Laughing Matter, today via Drag City and it was almost our Album of the Week.

Previously Wand shared a video for Laughing Matter‘s first single, “Scarecrow,” which was our #1 Song of the Week. Then they shared another song from the album, “Thin Air,” which was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared another song from the album, “Walkie Talkie,” via a video for the song. Then they shared another song from the album, “Rio Grande,” via a video for the song (it was also one of our Songs of the Week).

Laughing Matter is the follow-up to 2017’s Plum and is the band’s fifth full-length. The band consists of Sofia Arreguin (keys, vocals), Cory Hanson (guitar, vocals), Robert Cody (guitar), Lee Landey (bass), and Evan Burrows (drums). Musically, the album channels early to mid period Radiohead.

A previous press release described the album as such: “Laughing Matter is a record about love in a time of terror; it calls you down from panic room labyrinths, to work the deep tissue of unraveling trauma we all carry so dear. The 15 songs on this record face their energy outward, to take with you through a common world that can’t suffer its human abusers much longer. Laughing Matter encourages you to shake hands with your old demons, to lay your pathologies to rest, to hold your spirit close, and let your body do what’s next.”

Also Released This Week:

Cage The Elephant: Social Cues (RCA)

Diane Coffee: Internet Arms (Polyvinyl)

Drugdealer: Raw Honey (Mexican Summer)

Lizzo: Cuz I Love You (Nice Life Recording Company/Atlantic)

Sad Planets: Akron, Ohio (Tee Pee)

Heather Woods Broderick: Invitation (Western Vinyl)

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