Genre scrambling folk-pop breakout Ethel Cain made history last month as the first openly trans artist to crack the Billboard Top 10 with the vinyl reissue of her 2022 album, Preacher’s Daughter. The groundswell of enthusiasm for the Florida songwriter’s immaculate debut was palpable in Boulder, with the album topping the list of April’s bestselling new LPs at Paradise Found Records and Music (1646 Pearl St.) Her ongoing tour may be skipping the Front Range (wtf?) but you can catch U.K. art-pop shapeshifters Black Country, New Road — making their Found Sounds debut at No. 4 — when they open for St. Vincent at Mission Ballroom on May 16.
1. Ethel Cain - Preacher's Daughter (Reissue)
2. Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE
3. Mk.gee - Two Star & The Dream Police (Reissue)
4. Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong
5. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (Reissue)
6. Julien Baker & TORRES - Send a Prayer My Way
7. Lord Huron - Strange Trails (10th Anniversary Edition) (Reissue)
8. Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman (Reissue)
9. DJO - The Crux
10. Goose - Everything Must Go
STAFF PICK: Irish experimental musician Maria Somerville is a master of the hypnotic. On Luster, her 4AD debut and second studio album, the artist’s glistening sound exists somewhere between a deep dream state and her home on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, capturing the spirit of both places with droning instrumentation and soft vocals. On tracks like “Garden” or “Stonefly,” you can’t help but float, caught in a trance, but you’ll be nodding along the whole way up. - Carter Ferryman, special project manager