jj has upgraded to JJ, and with it have released their fourth album “V”. While the Swedish duo, comprised of Elin Kastlander and Joakim Benon, retain their iconic languid sound, the sounds of “V” carry what many are calling a heightened intentionality. About their former anonymity, vocalist Kastlander has remarked, “We didn’t mean to be anonymous, to begin with. We just knew we needed to put our music out.” The music which first caught listeners ears in 2009 continues to be a marker for cross-genre indie-pop and indie-hip-hop.

V is out via Secretly Canadian and Sincerely Yours, August 19th.

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New Orleans based singer-songwriter Benjamin Booker has released his self-titled debut album. Influenced by The Gun Club, Blind Willie Johnson, and T. Rex, the album is already receiving rave reviews for its ferocious brand of southern rock.

Benjamin Booker is out via ATO Records, August 20.

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Operators is a three person analog/electronic/dance project including Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits) as well as Divine Fits drummer Sam Brown and Devojka. They will release their first EP EP1 this Tuesday.

EP1 is out via Grandstand.

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Joe Bradley, known for his bright abstract paintings and cavemanish drawings, has released his first book of collected work. “Joe Bradley: Drawings” spans the past five years of Bradley’s sketches in linear seeming sequence, beginning with his humorous interpretation of minimalism and on into cartoonish characters and angular sketching.

published by PictureBox

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“Alex Prager: Face in the Crowd” (text by Kaitlin Booher and Elizabeth Banks) features the glossy, “cinematic” photography for which Prager is so well known. The book showcases Prager’s work staging and photographing crowds to create portraits that mirror Hollywood film stills.

published by Lehmann Maupin in conjunction with M+B Gallery.

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“Lese Majesty”, Shabazz Palaces’s sophomore album, marks Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire’s foray into what some are calling the future sounds of hip-hop. The Seattle duo forgo any traditional hip-hop harmony and beat structures, instead creating a sci-fi atmosphere in seven suites.

“Lese Majesty” is out via Sub Pop, July 28.

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Singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis has released her third solo-album “The Voyager”.

The album, produced by Ryan Adams and Mike Viola, features collaborations with Beck and Johnathan Rice and is packed with Lewis’s signature wit as well as emotion. Lewis claims the album grapples with personal demons and events such as her father’s death and the end of Rilo Kiley.

“The Voyager” is out via Warner Bros, July 28.

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In 2012, musician Beck Hansen released a project called “Song Reader” — an ‘album’ of original sheet music for twenty new, never before recorded songs, held in a hardbound carrying case and complete with over 100 pages of artwork.

The music was written by Beck and left to be interpreted by anyone who picked it up.

Two years later, this led to an album of studio recordings, with each track adapted by a different musician — including Jack White, Moses Sumney, Jeff Tweedy and more, including Beck himself. Also entitled “Song Reader,” Beck and partner Warby Parker will release the collaborative album on July 29th.

Proceeds from “Song Reader” will benefit the non-profit 826 Foundation, which funds writing and tutoring centers.

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Here, you can listen to versions of the “Song Reader” sheet music collection by the ‘unofficial’ group of musicians.