Boston Skyline Records

BostonSkylineRecords.com turns its keen eye on new releases and tells you what’s worth your money. We’ll start with the impressive box-set Coals to Newcastle, a complete retrospective of British post-punk group Orange Juice. The set comes from Domino Records, a British indie label started in 1993. Given our penchant for classic underground music, sets like these often catch our eye, but Coals to Newcastle stands out from some others thanks to an important detail: the music. Orange Juice truly epitomized the term “alternative,” combining the popular post-punk sound with funk and pop. The box-set has a retail price of 70not bad for a compilation of the band’s early singles, a CD of radio sessions, four remastered studio albums, and a bonus DVD.A slightly-later, slightly-more popular indie rock group returned in 2010Superchunk, presenting their ninth studio album Majesty Shredding. The band manages to retain their early energy and style, even though it’s been nine years since the band’s last album, 2001′s Here’s to Shutting Up. Some listeners today may not even be familiar with the band, even though several bands on their label have achieved indie superstar status (The Arcade Fire, Spoon, and She & Him among them). As a reintroduction to a seminal group, and one of the greatest bands to ever come out of North Carolina, Majesty Shredding is well worth plunking down a few dollars for.Kings of Leon released their 5th studio album, Come Around Sundown. If you heard lead single “Radioactive” on the radio, you’ve pretty much gotten the gist of the album. There’s nothing on here that surpasses the band’s earlier material, and little that lives up to it. Many have pointed to the band’s massively successful Only by the Night as the reason, seeming to think that the band was unprepared for being hauled into the spotlight. Whateverwhile the band’s earlier albums are fine for what they are, we can’t justify this one even as a guilty pleasure.For winner of the most poetic album name of the year, we’re definitely going with Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird EP by The Tallest Man on Earth. Luckily, the music backs it up. At only 5 tracks totaling a little over 17 minutes, you definitely don’t have much to lose by checking this one out. The Tallest Man on Earth is the pseudonym of Swedish folk singer Kristian Matsson, whose star has been steadily rising after touring with Bon Iver in 2008 and John Vanderslice in 2009. On this EP, Matsson breaks out the electric guitar for the first time, but doesn’t sacrifice the mystique he’s built up on his two full-length acoustic albums, Shallow Grave (2008) and The Wild Hunt (2010). Our guess is this record will convince you to track those down if you haven’t already.