Alanis Morissette has released a new song called “Smiling,” It’s the second single from her upcoming album Such Pretty Forks in the Road, out May 1st.
On the morose yet ultimately uplifting track, Morissette reflects on her existence as a “bottom dweller,” dealing with the ups and downs of life as they come and mulling over personal failings. “This is my first wave of the white flag/This is the sound of me hitting bottom,” she sings. “This my surrender, if that’s what I call it/In the anatomy of my crash.” Rather than giving up, though, Morissette finds herself at peace with her imperfection.
Morissette originally co-wrote “Smiling” with Michael Farrell (Morrissey, Macy Gray) for the Broadway production Jagged Little Pill the Musical, inspired by Morissette’s classic 1995 album of the same name. She’s had some fun promoting the musical, disguising herself and busking on the subway with Jimmy Fallon in a recent Tonight Show segment.
To commemorate Jagged Little Pill‘s 25th anniversary — and in support of her new album — Morissette will be heading out on tour this summer, backed by fellow Nineties stalwarts Liz Phair and Garbage. On Friday, she announced a European leg of the tour, kicking off September 23rd in Copenhagen.
Anna Calvi is releasing a new album, “Hunted”, on March 6th via Domino Recordings. It is a new stripped down version of her 2018 album Hunterfeaturing various notable guest singers. On Monday she shared Hunted’s version of “Eden,” which features guest vocals from Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Calvi had this to say about the new track in a press release: “Charlotte Gainsbourg has taught me so much as a singer, in how the most quiet of utterances can be the most dramatic and powerful of all. When I was writing ‘Eden’ I had Charlotte’s voice in my head – there’s a secrecy and quiet power to this song that always made me think of her. It’s a dream come true to have collaborated with her.”
Previously Calvi had shared Hunted’s first single, a new version of “Don’t Beat the Girl Out of My Boy” that featured guest vocals from Courtney Barnett. Hunted also features Julia Holter and IDLES’ Joe Talbot.
Calvi had this to say about Hunted in a previous press release: “During a break from touring I went back and listened to the first recordings I ever made of Hunter. These recordings capture the very moment I first wrote these songs, and recorded them on my own, in my attic studio. I find something especially intimate about sharing these most private recordings with my favorite singers and asking them to lend their voices and artistic sensibility. Courtney Barnett is an amazing artist. Her voice and guitar playing together are mind blowing. Her ability to connect the profound to the smallest moments of human experience is the unique talent of a true artist.”
Hunter was Calvi’s third full-length album and the follow up to 2011’s Anna Calvi and 2013’s One Breath. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Last year Calvi shared an atmospheric new song, “You’re Not God,” that was done for the soundtrack of the Netflix/BBC show Peaky Blinders .
For the last 30 years, Greg Dulli, has been the frontman of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers, He has been the poet laureate of the bizarre whims and cruel tangents of desire. A foremost authority on the sell-your-soul rewards of carnal lust, the high voltage epiphanies of chemical enhancement, and the serotonin lows left in their wake. Therein lies “Random Desire”, the first solo album under Dulli’s own name, via Royal Cream / BMG.
The album opener. Pantomima, sets the tone from the sardonic taunts of the album’s first bars: desolation, come and get it. Random Desire started in the aftermath of the last Whigs record, 2017’s In Spades, which Pitchfork named one of the best rock records of the year, hailing it as a “heavy, menacing work of indie rock majesty…thrilling and unsettling.” Drummer Patrick Keeler was about to take a short sabbatical to record and tour with his other band, The Raconteurs. Dulli’s longtime collaborator, bassist John Curley went back to school, and there was the tragic death of the band’s guitarist, Dave Rosser. In response, Dulli returned to his teenage bedroom roots, finding musical inspiration via the model of one-man-band visionaries Prince and Todd Rundgren.
The Los Angeles-by-way-of-Hamilton Ohio native wrote nearly every part of the record from piano lines to drums to bass riffs. As always, the music came first and the lyrics were completed later. Recording and writing way stations included his home in Silver Lake, the village of Crestline high up in the mountains above San Bernardino, and New Orleans. But the bulk was finished amidst the arid beauty and stark isolation of Joshua Tree (at the studio of engineer Christopher Thorne). Dulli handled most instrumentation, but an all-star cast of characters appear across the track-listing including The Whigs’ guitarist Jon Skibic and multi-instrumentalist Rick G. Nelson, Mathias Schneeberger (Twilight Singers), pedal steel wizard, upright bassist, and physician Dr. Stephen Patt, and drummer Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta).
Clocking in at a lean 37 minutes, Random Desire is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike. A lucid, confident and self-assured document of the songs of experience, the perils of existence, and the possibilities that offer themselves anew with each breath. Another death and rebirth from an outlaw who has seen it all and somehow lived to tell.
“You said, do I have hope and I said I don’t… but I do,” riddles Hazel Wilde on the Newcastle band’s fourth album. Surveying the gathering storm, here’s an end-of-the-world address that finds stirring beauty and defiance in humanity’s final acts. To mark the occasion of our album coming out today we are sharing another live session video. ‘Swimming Lessons’ was recorded and filmed live at Blast Studios in Newcastle.
While the songs are Lanterns On The Lake’s’ leanest yet, fusing dreamy pop melodies with Paul Gregory’s soaring post-rock guitar, it’s Wilde’s lyrics that quicken the pulse. On Swimming Lessons, she marvels at “Vincent’s starry night with the colour drained”.
Blue Screen Beams laments mobile phone addiction, while lead single Every Atom is a potent shot of glorious romanticism.If we are sleepwalking towards apocalypse, Lanterns On The Lake are here to sing us out in style. “The waters are rising/ our leaders unhinged,” sighs Wilde in majestic 3/4 on Before They Excavate. “Let’s break out the good stuff and toast to the end.” .
The Spook Sessions: When It All Comes True Recorded live at Blast Studios, Newcastle Upon Tyne
When It All Comes True is taken from the album ‘Spook The Herd’ is now out in the world.
This album is an important one for us. We are extremely proud of it and we have been bowled over by the responses so far.Thanks, as always, for all the love and support you’ve given our music over the years. It means more than you could ever know. ‘Spook The Herd’ is available on lush 180g vinyl,
Band Members
Hazel Wilde, Paul Gregory, Ol Ketteringham, Bob Allan, Angela Chan
The Strokes will release their first new album in seven years on April 10th, “The New Abnormal” (Cult/RCA), and the latest preview of the record arrived this week in the form of the track “Bad Decisions,” a slick rocker built around an anthemic, New Order-esque guitar riff. The retro infomercial-style “Bad Decisions” video, directed by Andrew Donoho, sends The Strokes back to the ‘70s scene Julian Casablancas’ lyrics set (“Dropped down the lights, I’m sitting with you / Moscow 1972”), imagining a world in which anyone can order their own cloned iteration of the band, customizing The Strokes’ looks and personalities to fit their exact specifications.
The New Abnormal is the long awaited new album from The Strokes, and the band’s first album in seven years. TheNew Abnormal is The Strokes’ sixth studio album and was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California, with producer Rick Rubin.
The album’s cover artwork is a painting called ‘Bird on Money,’ by famed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The Strokes are singer Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr, bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti.
Best Coast have always been a delightful embodiment of catharsis. The California rock duo of Bethany Consentino and Bobb Bruno have been rattling off intensely personal guitar pop songs since their 2010 classic debut “Crazy For You”, but their new album, “Always Tomorrow”, out now via Concord Records, provides a different kind of catharsis.
A decade ago, Best Coast were the definition of a hype band. Every cool blog was raving about them, they had A-list actors in their music videos, they toured the world and even Cosentino’s cat became famous. But beyond their sun-soaked, emotional indie rock songs and cloud of fame, Consentino was having trouble dealing with success. After their 2015 album California Nights, she isolated herself, feeling miserable and creatively uninspired. But then a song fell out of her, which became the golden ticket she needed. It was called “Everything Has Changed,” and it envisioned a healthier version of herself, one that was much more in tune with her physical and emotional needs.
In late 2017, she decided to make that song a reality by becoming sober. Her creative gears eventually began to turn again, and she brought in guitarist Bobb Bruno to write songs with her for the first time. He sent music for her to write to, and four of his songs ended up on their new album Always Tomorrow. Ultimately, it’s a record about embracing your full self, flaws and all, even if it’s for the first time—in Cosentino’s case, she feels like she’s finally found herself at the age 33.
I didn’t want to write a song about you, yeah/ In case it was too good to be true” is a genius opening line to a song (True), with its multiple meanings and reflexive ironies. You can hear that Bethany Cosentino is proud of it, because she really drags out its delivery, almost to the point that its punchy brilliance is lost. What’s disappointing about Best Coast’s first album in five years is that not much else feels as shocking or powerfully true.
This is Cosentino’s first set of sobriety songs, but not enough of the shame or damage that must have attended her decision to give up drinking informs the duo’s politely executed indie rock. “If everything’s OK/ Then what the hell do I complain about?”, from the outstanding song Everything Has Changed, says it all. Written at one of Cosentino’s low ebbs, tormented by writer’s block and booze, it flags an issue that is wrestled with yet never resolved by this solid but unchallenging album. Great art doesn’t have to come from a place of great discomfort, but it often helps. Always Tomorrow always chooses cosseting its audience over confronting more painful truths.
Best Coast recently released “Different Light,” the opening track from duo Bethany Cosentino and Bob Bruno’s fourth studio album, “Always Tomorrow”. One of the most-anticipated albums of this month, Always Tomorrow follows Best Kids (2018) and California Nights (2015). It was produced by Carlos de la Garza (M83, Paramore) with assistance from Justin Meldal-Johnsen.
Best Coast performs “Different Light” LIVE at Phaser Control Recording Studio in San Diego, California for a 91X X-Session.
new album ‘Always Tomorrow’ out February 21st, 2020:
Columbus, Ohio, four-piece Snarls have shared a new track, “What’s It Take,” from their forthcoming debut album Burst, due out on March 6th via Take This to Heart Records. “What’s It Take” is the kind of lustrous, yearning indie anthem that could only come from a group of bright young minds. Lyrically, it’s an emotional hurricane with Chloe White’s forlorn lyrics exploding into their guitar shimmers.
The song melds widescreen dream-pop with sputtering background guitars as White’s rich vocals hover in heartbreakingly beautiful fashion.
Band Members
Chlo White – Vocals, Guitar
Riley Hall – Bass, Vocals
Mick Martinez – Guitar
Max Martinez – Drums
Snarls – “What’s It Take?” From their upcoming album “Burst” Out March 6th via Take This To Heart Records
The new solo project of Joseph D’Agostino, formerly of Cymbals Eat Guitars (which broke up in 2017). His self-titled album as Empty Country is due out April 24th via Get Better and this week he shared another song from it, epic six-minute album closer “Swim.”
D’Agostino had this to say about the song in a press release: “SWIM = Someone Who Isn’t Me. It’s a character sketch, as many of the songs on Empty Country are. The narrator is a composite of several people I met or observed while living in Kensington, a neighborhood in Philadelphia gravely affected by the ongoing opioid emergency in the United States. One day my wife Rachel pointed out in passing that some of our neighbors had old faces. She didn’t mean ‘old’ in the sense that they were aging prematurely (though some certainly were), but that they had the faces of Dustbowl-era farmers we had seen in books and films. I began imagining a young man suffering from temporal dysphoria (feeling that one was born into the wrong era and strongly identifying with a bygone time), drinking and otherwise numbing himself to tamp down overwhelming anemoia and sadness. Robbing condos freshly erected in adjoining neighborhoods. Doing harm. Blacking out, driving drunk, hurting those he should love, but simply cannot. Dreaming of leaving forever the bricky mazes of row homes that open into wide empty avenues.”
Empty Country was originally due out last week on Tiny Engines, but when that label came under scrutiny due to late royalty payments to Adult Mom and other artists, D’Agostino decided to find a new label and delay the release to April.
Brigid Mae Power’s stunningly beautiful latest solo full-length – and Tompkins Square debut – is an album drenched in reverb-soaked emotion and lament. Enchantingly performed and produced, the record showcases a songwriter of immense talent in a soundscape that naturally merges itself to Brigid Power’s engulfing sound. The magic lies in the songwriter’s expression of raw emotion, in all its delicate beauty. Themes include transformation, change, motherhood, acceptance, strength, courage and trust. The album is about “trusting if you lose yourself or your way — you can come back.”
Such is the album’s timeless brilliance, the nearest parallels that can be drawn to Power’s quietly unassuming, divine artistry are those blessed folk spirits of bygone times such as Sibylle Baier, Tia Blake or Margaret Barry.As reflected in the lyrics of closing heartfelt lament of ‘How You Feel’, this deeply personal and intimate set of songs become a place of hope and solace where the path laid out in front you is filled with the light of day and sea of love.
Ireland’s Brigid Mae Power (fka Brigid Power Ryce) released her first album under her current name and first for the esteemed Tompkins Square Label last month. Brigid’s a new-ish artist, but her music recalls the type of forgotten-then-rediscovered ’60s/’70s folk artists that Tompkins Square often reissues music by, like Bob Brown and Michael Chapman. Brigid played accordion, baritone ukulele, piano and harmonium on the album, and her talents are even more fleshed out by the production work of Peter Broderick (Efterklang, Horse Feathers). She’d played shows with Peter and also collaborated with him live, and eventually ended up in his studio in Oregon to record the new album.
All the arrangements give the album a gorgeous backdrop, but it’s Brigid’s voice that drives this thing home. She’s similar in approach to Jessica Pratt or earlier Angel Olsen, with a sound that really taps into what made that ’60s/’70s era so great without sounding retro. The album’s opening (and longest) song, “It’s Clearing Now,” nears eight minutes and never really drifts from its somber tone, and Brigid has enough command over it to keep it from ever getting boring
With producer Andrew Sarlo (Bon Iver, Big Thief, SASAMI) at the helm, Wilsen’s new album “Ruiner” dissolves both the heavy reverb and ethereal moments found on their first recording by instead letting the band’s essentials – drums, bass, guitar, and vocals – have centre stage. In the album’s opening moments, you might hear a knotted wash of guitars and Wilson (Tamsin Wilson – the singer) softly humming, for a very brief moment returning you to their dreamscape but sharply, a driving rock rhythm comes into focus and so too does a revitalised band.
“Making this record was somewhat of a coming of age process,” Wilson explains,“We’re getting older and becoming more deliberate, less precious, less measured. Overthinking less and trusting instincts.”
Brooklyn-based trio Wilsen are today sharing the follow-up to their debut album I Go Missing In My Sleep. They’re back with Ruiner, a record that singer Tamsin Wilson described as going through a “coming of age process.” “We’re getting older and becoming more deliberate, less precious, less measured,” she said in a press release. “Overthinking less and trusting instincts more.
