Ten April 2010 Albums Worth Checking Out

Photo by Katie Vesser

Remember the other day when everyone was fooling each other with reckless abandon? Yeah, that was fun. You know what else is fun? New music. April has a whole bunch of it, but the 10 albums below are some of the best you’ll find at your local record store/digital-music emporium of choice/etc. Enjoy, and tell ’em Paste sent you:

Sharon Jones – I Learned the Hard Way [Daptone, April 6]
Review (8.6/10) excerpt from Paste’s April/May issue: “This is Jones and the Dap-Kings’ moment. Considering the tangible creative strides they’ve made with Jones on this new album, together they seem poised to finally burst through the dam that’s kept them secret from the masses these last eight years.” Steve LaBate

Black Prairie – Feast of the Hunter’s Moon [Sugar Hill, April 6]
Review (7.8/10) excerpt from Paste’s April/May issue: “Combining the forces of Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk and Nate Query of The Decemberists with folk musicians Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld, Portland’s Black Prairie crafts an eclectic mix of traditional bluegrass and eastern European sounds.” Kristen Callihan

Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can [Astralwerks, April 6]
Review (8.9/10) excerpt from Paste’s April/May issue: “In between touring the globe and being touted as the young queen of a new-folk revival, [Marling has] found it in herself to make yet another gorgeous, melancholy, old-souled record.” Rachael Maddux

Dr. Dog Shame, Shame [Anti-, April 6]
Review (8.2/10) excerpt from Paste’s April/May issue: “These 11 tunes stretch out over 40 minutes like a yawn after a good nap, and they’re nearly as refreshing.” Justin Jacobs

Jónsi – Go [XL, April 6]
Review (8.0/10) excerpt from Paste’s March issue: “[Go] does cartwheels when it bloody well feels like it, cries when it wants to, and raises the bar for songwriters like Sufjan Stevens who share similarly heady classical predilections.” Jason Killingsworth

Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep [Nonesuch, April 13]
Review excerpt: “Merchant takes her time between projects, and you forget how deeply wired every inflection of this woman’s voice is in your head; her best work has always been tinged with whimsy, and here she lets the colors run amok with a childlike confidence.” Jeff Leven

The Stooges: Raw Power (reissue) [Columbia/Legacy, April 13]
Review (8.5/10) excerpt from Paste’s April/May issue: “The best part of both packages is Mark Wilder’s remaster of Raw Power, which finally delivers a beefy, satisfying mix to replace the famously disastrous mixing done by David Bowie in 1972, and later by Iggy Pop in 1996. This slick new edition furthers the case for Raw Power as The Stooges’ greatest work—as if there was any question.” Mario Aguilar

The Tallest Man on Earth: The Wild Hunt [Dead Oceans, April 13]
Review (8.0/10) excerpt from Paste’s April/May issue: “If Sondre Lerche were a bluegrass-loving goblin, he might sound a little like this. Among the dead weights of the modern new-Dylans, Matsson is a real live wire.” Brian Howe

Willie Nelson – Country Music [Rounder, April 20]
Review (8.5/10) excerpt from Paste’s April/May issue: “Nelson’s Country Music thumps to life with the unfussy airs of a pickin’ parlor throwdown. This batch of vintage tunes—drawn from the American canon of country, blues and gospel as defined by seminal types like Ernest Tubb and Bob Wills—is delivered with his soulful, weathered authority.” Steve Dollar

Caribou: Swim [Merge, April 20]
Review (8.5/10) from Paste’s April/May issue: “With his high, ghostly voice and ear for the eerie, Dan Snaith’s dance collages are less the stuff of a Saturday night at the disco and more 4 a.m. in a dark, seedy club.” Justin Jacobs