Advance Listen: Your first look at new releases from Defeater, Relient K and Tallhart

June 21, 2013

Every week, AP receives mountains of new releases to review. In this recurring list, we will count down a few of the most anticipated albums we received (that have been announced and are cleared to talk about) and give you a couple quick fun facts about each. You heard it here first!

CONTRIBUTORS
[SH] Scott Heisel
[BM] Brittany Moseley
[CW] Cassie Whitt

DEFEATER
TITLE: Letters Home
LABEL: Bridge Nine
RELEASE DATE: July 16
Sure, Boston hardcore band Defeater went through a bit of a lineup shuffle (drummer Andy Reitz was replaced by Joe Longobardi, also of Misser), but it hasn't shaken their foundation at all—Letters Home is 10 tracks and 34 minutes of pulse-quickening hardcore designed to make you scream along in agony and thrash your body to the beat. You won't find any acoustic tracks here, unlike 2011's Empty Days & Sleepless Nights (although if you're jonesing for that, may we recommend frontman Derek Archambault's side project, Alcoa?), but you may find a guest vocalist show up on “No Relief” in the form of George Hirsch from Blacklisted. [SH]
STREAM: “Rabbit Foot”

RELIENT K
TITLE: Collapsible Lung
LABEL: Mono Vs. Stereo
RELEASE DATE: July 2
Relient K are proud of veering from course and taking an experimental co-writer-employed pop direction with their first full-length since 2009’s Forget And Not Slow Down. Yesterday, we premiered their new song, “Part-Time Lover” to very mixed responses in the comments. Check it out via the link, below.[CW]
STREAM: “Part-Time Lover”

TALLHART
TITLE: We Are The Same
LABEL: Rory/Equal Vision
RELEASE DATE: July 16
One of our 100 Bands You Need To Know In 2013, Tallhart’s sophomore full-length debut effortlessly moves from lush indie rock (“Our Bodies”) to alternative rock (“Fighter”) to a dark piano number (“See God Again”) before its penultimate song, the soulful rock ’n’ roller, “Wandering Kind”—all in just 33 minutes. [BM]