New Release Highlights for August 17: Toadies, Kem, John Mellencamp, an Illinois expatriot and more.

(New albums are typically released on Tuesdays, i.e., today. What can you spend your hard-earned pennies on this week? Find out below.)

Iron Maiden's Final Frontier

*Iron Maiden, The The Final Frontier
Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray says the new album features "straight-ahead, uptempo rock songs with good grooves with some other tracks that are kind of longer and more complex." Listen to Maiden's new record in its entirety via Myspace.

*Lissie, Catching a Tiger
The now LA-based singer-songwriter is originally from Illinois and has toured alongside huge acts such as Lenny Kravitz and Ray Lamontagne. Check out her the video for "When I'm Alone" below and listen to the new record here.

*Lissie - "When I'm Alone"

Foundling

*David Gray, Foundling
Daniel B. Yates at Drowned in Sound says, "Judging by the absence of singles, obvious or otherwise, it actually seems that a mature David Gray is making the music he wants to make." Foundling is streaming in its entirety on Much Music's First Spin.

*Matthew Dear, Black City
Joe Colly at Pitchfork.com says of the new record: "It's worth noting on a general level that Black City isn't always an easy listen-- there's a lot of detail that can take a couple of spins to get comfortable with. Part of this is structural. Dear doesn't really do clean electro-pop; his approach is more about pushing contrasting sounds together and leaving the edges jagged. The other part is his vocals. Dear is not a classically strong singer and can often sound pretty flat; importantly he knows how to make up for it. He uses technology to stretch his natural range, wrapping choruses around beats in creative ways and sometimes layering multiple vocals together to create depth." Listen to "I Can't Feel," the first single from Black City, here.

Alive as You Are

Darker My Love, Alive As You Are
Pitchfork.com's Larry Fitzmaurice says of the new album, "After a supreme early demonstration of pastiche, Alive As You Are's back half reveals a capable pop band writing capable pop songs. Ignore the slow-drawled intro of "Trail The Line" and you'll find the best Lemonheads jangler that band never wrote within. "Dear Author's psych-out breakdowns are satisfying in a would-be Top 40 way, while "A Lovely Game" benefits from the record's clear-headed sound via its swooning vocal interplay." Stream Alive As You Are here.