New Releases: Bjork Takes Out The Volta

The last time we heard from Bjork, she was constructing elaborate symphonic pop using only voices. It turns out that shit is a little hard to reproduce live (see the no touring for Medulla), so she's gone back to big beats and brass for Volta, which also features guests galore. The album, which comes out Tuesday, has production from Timbaland and vocals courtesy of Antony, and should be just as polarizing as every other Bjork record.

After battling vocal ailments through much of the touring in support of his last LP, Sage Francis hopes for better luck with this week's Human The Death Dance. And with a title like that, how could he not get it? Seriously, though, the Epitaph album features some of the best beats you'll hear in 2007, including one from Nova Scotia's Buck 65.

Maximo Park were all the rage when the dance punk revolution was at its peak a couple of years ago. Now dance punk is deader than 15 corpses, so they've apparently coined their new music as sounding like a cross between The Smashing Pumpkins and The Smiths. Judge that curious combination for yourself when Our Earthly Pleasures hits shelves this Tuesday.

Also, DJ Jazzy Jeff's back!

Here are some of this week's other releases:

AWOL ONE & FACTOR Only Death Can Kill You (Cornerstone/Fontana North)
THE CLIENTELE God Save The Clientele (Merge)
DJ JAZZY JEFF Return Of The Magnificent (!K7/Rapster/Outside)
EARTHLESS Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky (Tee Pee)
ELECTRELANE No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure/Beggars)
ELEPHANT MAN Five-O (Bad Boy/Warner)
FIELDS Everything Last Winter (Atlantic/Warner)
GOOD MOON Licker's Last Leg (Ipecac/Fontana North)
GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara (Nettwerk/Sony BMG)
LAVENDER DIAMOND Imagine Our Love (Matador/Beggars)
THE MARY TIMONY BAND The Shapes We Make (Kill Rock Stars)
MICE PARADE S/T (Fat Cat)THE MYSTERY JETS Zootime (Dim Mak)
OF MONTREAL Icons, Abstract Thee (Polyvinyl/Sonic Unyon)
RAWLUCK The Rawluck Movement (Urbnet/Fontana North)
THE SEA AND CAKE Everybody (Thrill Jockey)
TRAVIS The Boy With No Name (Epic/Sony BMG)