Vinyl Pre-Order Roundup: Kendrick Lamar, The National, Tom Petty, Grizzly Bear & more

May 23

May 23 Vinyl Pre-Order Roundup: Kendrick Lamar, The National, Tom Petty, Grizzly Bear & more

Kendrick Lamar, Damn

After offering an autographed, red-vinyl edition of Damn that was only available for a limited time, some were wondering if Kendrick's latest opus would even get a standard release. There was some brief hypothesizing that maybe Kendrick was going the way of Frank Ocean, and only selling his new album on vinyl for a limited time. And if you didn't pick it up immediately, the window would be closed. This would have been out-of-character, however, since the past two K-Dot albums have all gotten wide vinyl releases.

Now we have an answer, as Damn—one of the strongest albums in 2017— will be arriving on 180-gram black vinyl on June 30. List price is around $35 though, so be warned.

The National, Sleep Well Beast

Anyone thinking The National would fade away like so many mid-2000s indie bands must be impressed by its durability since then. The National has become an indie mainstay for the last decade, dropping critically-acclaimed albums and headlining festivals, while many of its peers from the Aughts have dropped off the map. Sleep Well Beast is the Brooklyn band's first album since 2013's Trouble Will Find Me, and it's got a very National-y lead single, "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness," to kick things off.

The band is currently offering two different versions of Sleep Well Beast for pre-order. One is its standard, double white vinyl (which already looks nice, honestly) and the other is limited blue vinyl (shown above) that'll hit indie retailers. Both versions are currently available on the band's online shop for pre-order now for $21, which is a great price, and will be released in September. If you want the blue, I wouldn't wait.

Grizzly Bear, Painted Ruins

Speaking of 2000s acts that keep on keepin' on, Grizzly Bear are back with its first new album in five years, Painted Ruins. The record was produced by multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor, who has helmed previous Grizzly Bear albums. This is the first album Grizzly Bear are releasing on a major label, RCA, after having previously been with the smaller indie Warp. In a recent interview with P4K, the band says the album was recorded in full before signing with RCA, so that really shouldn't impact the sound or songwriting at all. The spacey, atmospheric lead single, "Three Rings" sounds promising, almost recalling elements of Radiohead. Painted Ruins is out in August, and you can pre-order the standard LP here.

Tom Petty, Various

Most collectors have had a hard time finding Tom Petty vinyl. That's because many of his biggest albums haven't been reissued, until now. Modern Vinyl reports all of these releases are out June 2 and getting 180-gram black vinyl pressings:

Full Moon Fever (p re-order)
Southern Accents (pre-order)
Hard Promises (pre-order)
Pack Up The Plantation-Live (pre-order)
Into The Great Wide Open (pre-order)
Damn The Torpedoes (pre-order)
Long After Dark (pre-order)
Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) (pre-order)

Those still waiting on a reissue of Petty's classic 1994 solo album, Wildflowers, will have to keep waiting. (And you know what they say about that.)