Damon Albarn
Dr. Dee
(Virgin)
Releasing: 8 May

Pop maestro Paul McCartney has done it (perhaps a bit unsuccessfully) and so not to be outdone, the musical adventurer otherwise known as Damon Albarn has now also composed an opera. Albarn has come a long way since his storied, but musically limiting, Britpop days, having formed the genre-busting Gorillaz and performed superb collaborations with acclaimed artists in the worldbeat arena. Now, he’s flexing his artistic muscles even further tackling perhaps the most difficult musical form to master. The soundtrack for Dr. Dee will release in early May. Stay tuned.

The Flaming Lips worked with a bevy of top-notch artists (see the track list after the jump) for their Record Store Day release The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends. You can catch a preview via this stream of their performance with Bon Iver on “Ashes in the Air”.

Japandroids
Celebration Rock
(Polyvinyl)
Releasing: 5 June

Japanroids are back with their sophomore outing, Celebration Rock, following the critically acclaimed 2009 debut Post-Nothing. Guitarist Brian King recently told Pitchfork: “On a lot of this new record, we actually tried to simulate the sound of what we thought the crowd would do during the songs,” says King. “Dave (Prowse, drums) and I were in the studio just screaming out as if we were in the audience at our own show.”

You can check out the new tune “The House That Heaven Built” over at Soundcloud and catch the band live at one of the dates below.

Sigur Rós
Valtari
(XL)
Releasing: 28 May 2012

The eagerly awaited new album from Iceland’s Sigur Rós will be releasing 28 May and will contain seven new songs. “Ekki Múkk” is the first of the upcoming tunes to be released via the Net to promote the album. Shimmering, minimalist, ethereal beauty shines in “Ekki Múkk”, in other words another great addition to Sigur Rós’ catalogue. Tracklist and tour dates after the jump.

Bassnectar just dropped a banger of a new single “Vava Voom” featuring monster beats and MCing from none other than Lupe Fiasco. Way catchy, sounds like a dancefloor hit. This is the single for the new album Vava Voom releasing on April 10th.