Recs with Merritt flips through the finest new vinyl releases for February 2024 including J Mascis, Brittany Howard

Records with Merritt is Marion Merritt’s vinyl store in Westport [1614 Westport Rd] with partner Ann Stewart. As a staple in our community for nearly a decade, we’ve partnered with Merritt for a monthly column, where the tastemaker shares her picks for the best wax releases to look forward to grabbing, divided by release date.

Here’s Marion Merritt’s rundown of the most exciting offerings in February 2024.

February 2, 2024 

What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. Using his own Bisquiteen Studio in the waning days of the pandemic, Mascis started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the music he creates for Dinosaur Jr. “When I’m writing for the band,” he says, “I’m always trying to think of doing things Lou (Barlow) and Murph would fit into. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record.” What Do We Do Now is scheduled to be released February 2, 2024 via Sub Pop.

Other albums of note for the week:

Phish Round Room
Bamboos This Is How You Do It
Aaliyah Aaliyah
Blue Mitchell Down With It
Billy Cobham Spectrum
Olivia Rodrigo The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes
All Time Low Put Up Or Shut Up
Kip Moore Up All Night
Various Artists Eccentric Soul: The Shoestring Label
Gaslight Anthem History Books
Michel Giacchino Lost Season One O.S.T.
Sixpence None The Richer Sixpence None The Richer
Fornite: Best of The Lobby Vinyl

February 9, 2024

There’s a double meaning to the title of What Now, the revelatory new album from Brittany Howard. “With the world we’re living in now, it feels like we’re all just trying to hang onto our souls,” says the Nashville-based musician and frontwoman for four-time Grammy Award-winning Alabama Shakes. “Everything seems to be getting more extreme and everyone keeps wondering, ‘What now? What’s next?’ By the same coin, the only constant on this record is you never know what’s going to happen next…” What Now is scheduled to be released February 9, 2024 via Island Records.

Other albums of note for the week:

Nathaniel Merriweather/Lovage Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By
Organ Chimera
American Analog Set New Drifters
E. Lundquist Art Between Minds
Cho Co Pa Co Cho Co Quin Quin Tradition
Various Artist Tokyo Riddimm 1976-1985
Usher Coming Home
Erasmus Hall Your Love Is My Desire
Madi Diaz Weird Faith
Dhani Harrison Innerstanding
Trophy Eyes Chemical Miracle

February 16, 2024

Voir Dire (Speak Your Truth), the historic album by Earl Sweatshirt and Alchemist, represents the long-awaited convergence of two rap titans. The album features notable Los Angeles wordsmith Vince Staples on two tracks and esteemed rap artist, MIKE. Voir Dire is considered to be one of the best rap albums of the year. Voir Dire is scheduled to be released February 16, 2024 via Warner Brothers Records.

Other albums of note for the week:

Vitamin String Quartet VSQ Performs Taylor Swift
Idles Tangk
Yusef Lateef Eastern Sounds
Akira Ishikawa & Count Buffaloes Uganda (Dawn Of African Rock)
Chromeo Adult Contemporary
Gentle Giant The Missing Piece Steven Wilson Remix
Blu Wav Grandaddy
Laura Jane Grace Hole In My Head
Chelsea Wolfe She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She
Barclay Crenshaw Barclay Crenshaw
Lil Peep Crybaby
Jennifer Lopez This Is Me…Now
Roisin Murphy Hairless Toys
Blackberry Smoke Be Right Here
Lime Garden One More Thing
Hillbilly Moon Explosion Back In Time
Les Amazon’s D’Afrique Musow Danse
Nouvelle Vague Should I Stay or Should I Go
Middle Kids Faith Crisis Pt 1
Kronos Quartet Black Angels
Molly Lewis On The Lips

February, 23, 2024

For more than 30 years, singer-songwriter and guitar hero Mary Timony has cut a distinctive path through the world of independent music, as a guitarist and vocalist for Ex Hex and super group, Wild Flag. The mystical, acoustic-driven Untame the Tiger emerged after the dissolution of a long-term relationship and was bookended by the deaths of Mary Timony’s father and mother. The album was recorded during a two-year period during which she was the primary caregiver for her ailing parents. Untame the Tiger is scheduled to be released February 23, 2024 via Merge Records.

Other albums of note for the week:

Hurray For The Riff Riff The Past is Still Alive
Prince The Vault-Old Friends 4 Sale
Neil Young & Crazy Horse Dume
Karen Dalton It’s So Hard To Tell Who’s Going To Love You Best
Eddie Piller & Dean Rudland Present Acid Jazz (Not Jazz) We Got A Funky Beat Various Artist
Bill Fay Goup Tomorrow Tomorrow & Tomorrow
BTS Love Yourself: Tear
Post Malone The Diamond Collection
Liam Bailey Zero Grace
Glitterer Rationale
The Waterboys This Is The Sea
Jerry Douglas Traveler
O’Donel Levy Simba
Conway the Machine Conductor Machine
Erick the Architect I’ve Never Been Here Before
Current 93 Island
The Raconteurs Reissues: Broken Boy Soldiers / Consolers Of The Lonely
The Dead Weather Reissues:  Sea of Cowards / Horehound