Bob Mould: Beauty & Ruin

"Bob Mould's new album Beauty & Ruin may very well be the most epic emotional rollercoaster ever pressed into 36 minutes," writes the Current's Mary Lucia in her review of the album that's released today. "Well into his fourth decade as a singer-songwriter, Mould is as relevant, ferocious and poignant as he has ever been." But don't take our word for it: the album is also winning raves from the likes of Pitchfork (Mould "seems joyously unconcerned with proving anything to anyone other than the fact that he can still craft hook after hook"), Rolling Stone ("The former Sugar and Hüsker Dü frontman sounds fully invigorated here"), and the A.V. Club ("Mould slashes his way through timeless-sounding melodic punk-pop cuts"). Expect forceful renditions of Beauty & Ruin cuts when Mould takes the State Fair Grandstand stage for MN Music-on-a-Stick.

Franz Diego: Equinox EP

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Minneapolis rapper Franz Diego likes to take a conceptual turn in his recording projects: his album Retrograde was entirely recorded during various planetary retrogrades, and his new EP was written and recorded during the 2013 and 2014 spring equinoxes. Someone send Neil deGrasse Tyson a copy of Equinox, produced by St. Paul electronic guru Xanja. If you're a Hearts of Space listener looking for some summer jams, nab your copy on Bandcamp. Key track: "New Era," which opens with a sweet sax interlude that breaks into the apt declaration, "Planets align, we in this b---h!"

#MPLS: HELLO

http://youtu.be/6hKI5PdJtyc

The title of the debut full-length from #MPLS is a little ironic, given that the band is peppered with veterans of the local music scene—including Ashley Commodore (Sounds of Blackness), Bree Turner (Loyal), Jesse Larson (Next), David Glen (Hustle Rose), David Billingsley (Sounds of Blackness), Brandon Commodore (Mint Condition), Beeph, and Rob Coleman. HELLO features a vintage soul sound with splashes of hip-hop and rock; between the Purple Rain 30th anniversary and the release of the "new" Michael Jackson album, there's never been a better time to spin a track like "Dance With Me" and party like it's 1984. Hit up their release show Thursday at the Fine Line, and read about the Nordeast studio where HELLO was recorded—appropriately, it's the studio that's now home to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis's hitmaking console.