Kicking off the holiday weekend playlist is a trio of singles from Jim James (of My Morning Jacket), first new music in 3+ years from Broken Bells (James Mercer of the Shins and Danger Mouse), and the ever prolific Sufjan Stevens with a timely release.

We also have albums from up and coming artists James Alexander Bright on !K7, Advanced Suite, Naima Bock on Sub Pop.

I don’t normally include movie soundtracks, but this week has two.

• The first is from Laurent Garnier, who is one of the OG French house/techno/electronic DJs and founder of f communications label. Assuming this will be more chill than his regular releases
• The second may seem like an odd pick, even if it is from a superb movie franchise, but I think this could be worthwhile given who participated: Diana Ross & Tame Impala have a collab, Brittany Howard & Verdine White cover Shining Star, St. Vincent covers Funkytown, and includes tracks from Caroline Polachek, Thundercat , Phoebe Bridgers , Gary Clark Jr. and many more

Rounding out week are albums from Angélique Kidjo & Ibrahim Maalouf, jazz legends Bobby Previte & Charlie Hunter, and Tedeschi Trucks Band.

Happy holidays to all who are celebrating, and happy listening…

Last Week’s Distilled Gems:

Stereolab was really great, and I am happy to see them making new music.

Soccer Mommy, Ron Trent, Damien Jurado, Goose and Brian Jonestown Massacre are all worth re-listening. I also liked the Music For Dreams album, but you need to like balearic chillout.

I was super excited for and wanted to like JB Dunckel’s album more than I did, but it sure was nice hear the familiar Air sounds and production value.