Vlyes Why

Why Do Birds Sing? is the fifth studio album from the textbook American cult band, Violent Femmes. First released in 1991, it was their last studio album with original drummer, Victor DeLorenzo. The darkly humorous and sharp-edged folk-rock collection features the infectious hit “American Music,” well as a fan-favorite cover of Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me.” This 30th-anniversary 2-CD edition features a complete 1991 live set captured at The Boat House in Norfolk, VA.

Originally released on 12th March 1993, the album hit the No.1 spot in both the UK and Ireland and sold over 6 million copies worldwide. The four disc box set contains the album on the first CD and bonus material spread over three further discs. Of course all of those previous bonus tracks are included, but so too are unreleased early demos, a live performance from 31 July 1994 at the Féile Festival in Ireland and a series of radio sessions from 1992-1993. The box includes a poster and four postcards.

Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? is the debut album by Chicago-based Poet Laureate and singer-songwriter Kara Jackson. Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?, is a sonic invitation to process our grief. The title is a question the author is always answering. How do we give ourselves permission to yearn for the people we miss? How do we find the courage to let go of what begs to be released? How do we have the audacity to love in spite of everything invented to deter us from it?

It's interesting to note that Hot Chip's string of great albums - beginning with Made in the Dark - coincided with their exploration of the joys of long-term relationships. Celebrating monogamy while avoiding monotony applies to how they make music, as well: on the surface, Why Make Sense? is another album of wry, kinetic electro-pop from a group that has mastered the style, but it also builds on Hot Chip's roots - and dance music's origins - in ways that sound fresh. The band reunited with In Our Heads producer Mark Ralph, and they expand on that album's joyousness, this time imbuing it with elements of R&B, hip-hop, and, especially, disco. "Huarache Lights" feels like the album's mission statement, from its slow and steady groove and un-ironic talkbox to its sample of First Choice's "Let No Man Put Asunder," a sizzling disco testament to commitment that was also sampled by the prime movers of house and techno's early days…