Andy Shauf’s The Party is one of the most criminally underrated albums of 2016. Truly beautiful in its production alone, The Party focuses on orchestral arrangements that vary between grandiose and understated, while its upfront vocal crispness gives Shauf a quiet confidence. The Party serves as the ultimate outsider’s guidebook. It focuses on an array of situations you never want to find yourself in: being the first person to arrive to a party while visibly annoying the host, counting on someone to stick with you throughout the night and having them ditch, and pining over painfully unrequited love. His second single, “Quite Like You” focuses on overstepping the boundaries between friends and lovers, and asks the listener to choose between allegiances with friends or with potential romantic conquests. Andy Shauf’s 2015 debut, The Bearer of Bad News, announced the arrival of a new talent possessing more than a passing fancy for the darkened pop chime of Elliott Smith and Paul Simon. But on the Saskatchewan-based musician’s 2016 ANTI–Records debut The Party, his subtle and gorgeous tunes capture the characters, ebbs, and ending of a run-of-the-mill suburban fete with all the mature songwriting sensibility
The final track, “Martha Sways,” is a simple tune accompanied by hushed vocals, heart wrenching orchestral lines and lightly plucked guitar. It asks the listener to confront the ghosts of his or her own past within the prism of new love. Ultimately, if you ever want to get misty about the past, feel your feelings, and have a good cry: this is the record for you
Kenny Anderson, the Fife-born singer-songwriter known as King Creosote, has always kept up an impressive work-rate – since 2014’s acclaimed From Scotland With Love alone, Anderson has put out three albums independently. The excellent Astronaut Meets Appleman doesn’t contain the conceptual framework of his last few records – 2011’s Diamond Mine, a collaboration with Jon Hopkins, and From Scotland…, a soundtrack to Virginia Heath’s documentary of the same name – Astronaut… succeeds through its bounty of affecting songs.
You Just Want is a brooding, seven-and-a-half-minute opener, incorporating circular acoustic guitar, strings and cut-up samples of harp and female backing vocals; it’s an appropriately intense backdrop to Anderson’s tale of desperate devotion, and sets the scene for much of Astronaut…. Elsewhere, Anderson raises the tempo, most successfully on the ska-influenced Wake Up To This, and Surface, a hymn to being ignored complete with saw-tooth synth tones and a motorik beat. On the latter, and the propulsive Melin Wynt, he enlists the chanter – a simpler version of the bagpipes – and it fits surprisingly well with the arrangements’ electronic elements.
What makes King Creosote so interesting is not just his songs, however, but his experimental leanings, and they’re certainly indulged on Astronaut…. The closing Rules Of Engagement begins as a dour look at arguments with a loved one, before transforming into an ambient, submarine coda of harp and electronics. Peter Rabbit Tea, meanwhile, mixes Anderson’s accordion, hand drums, cello & harp with a sample of a small child endlessly repeating the title, eerie & cute at the very same time.
With so many releases to his name, it might be tricky to pinpoint just one classic Creosote album, but AstronautMeets Appleman is right up there among his greatest achievements.
Sunderland-bred brothers Peter and David Brewis have somehow managed to become acclaimed cult artists while ploughing some very overlooked furrows; most likely because their mix of nervy prog, spindly post-punk and jazz-inflected funk is usually paired with the most robust, infectious melodies.
On their fifth album, and their first for four years, their influences are given room to breathe across a full, schizophrenic hour. At times, the rich contents are too much to take in – lead single and album opener The NoisyDays Are Over unravels over six and a half minutes, its taut funk bizarrely giving way to an eccentric, orchestrated ending straight off Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle. Similarly, I’m Glad mixes a 6/4 time signature with jerky guitars, analogue synths and an acoustic interlude – it hangs together in the air in a way it wouldn’t on paper. Commontime is Field Music’s funkiest full-length yet: Don’t You Want To Know, It’s A Good Thing and Stay Awake are the slickest tracks here, combining Genesis’ dynamics with the wit of Steely Dan and Sly And The Family Stone’s syncopation. Yet, for the most part, this is awkward, nervous music, taking the exultation and liberation of funk and, like Bowie’s Station To Station, passing it through a more anxious, English filter to result in something much more interesting.
At times reminiscent of the ’80s feel of Peter Brewis’ The Week That Was side-project, Commontime’s production is uniformly excellent too, with the Brewis’ wiry guitars supplemented by blasts of brass, strings, pianos and synths. Field Music’s fifth is their most crafted and impressive yet, another milestone on their unique journey. A good thing, indeed.
Paul McCartney backed by the most accomplished Wings line up took to the road to give epic performances across the world recorded in the summer of 1976, “Wings Over America” released on December. 10th 1976 feeling like a triumphant musical summation of the summer tour for Paul McCartney and his band Wings.
Originally, Wings over America was to be a two-record set of highlight performances but this was rethought due to the success of a bootleg called Wings from the Wings, which was released as a triple record set on red, white, and blue vinyl, and contained the entire 23r June 1976 concert recorded at The Forum in Los Angeles
In stark contrast to his modern-day globe-trotting ways, McCartney hadn’t up to this point toured the U.S.A in 10 years , and those concerts dated to his time in the Beatles. Only one of his former bandmates had even attempted such a thing. Highlights of this tour included not just the American concert debuts of a number of ’70s hits with Wings but also – and this was of particular interest at the time – Beatles favorites like “Blackbird,” “The Long andWinding Road” and “Lady Madonna” — all of which were recorded after the Beatles had stopped touring.
From the opening chords of Rock Show which sets the scene and creates plenty of anticipation, Of course, after so many successive McCartney tours since he retook the road in 1989, much of what made WingsOver America so exciting then seems like nostalgia today. It’s much easier, decades later, to separate the music from the moment. This multi-disc set can come off like the sum of its weakest parts.
The second half of Wings Over America was weaker than the first as McCartney and company delve into some of the most lightweight (but biggest selling, mind you) songs from their polyester-era oeuvre, including the smash “My Love” from 1973’s Red Rose Speedway, the 1975 Venus and Mars hit “Listen to What the Man Said,” and “Silly Love Songs” from their then just-released Wings at The Speed Of Sound.
Too often, it seems, Wings Over America threatens to run out of gas as it couples throwaways like “You Gave Me the Answer” and “Magneto and Titanium Man” or “Hi Hi Hi” and “Soily” with stronger material.
Apart from the songs, listen to McCartney’s bass playing on this record. On ‘Time To Hide’ for example. The rest of the band is also worthy of mention. Jimmy McCullough’s solo on ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ is inspired as is his solo track ‘Medicine Jar’ from the ‘Venus And Mars’ album from 1975. So much better than the album version, not least due again to McCartney’s bass playing.
Later, the project’s reputation took a hit when it was revealed that no small amount of post-production fixes had been employed before release.
“While everybody’s parts were spot-on musically – maybe not the harmonies, maybe not every note was exactly right but the general feel was pretty good,” Wings stalwart Denny Laine said in Luca Perasi’s Paul McCartney:Recording Sessions (1969-2013). “ I had the feeling it could have been a better feeling, a fuller sound, so I double-tracked the guitars, just to fill it out [and] added little bits when you get an obvious mistake. We kept most of the solos, and most of the bass parts as it was.” Drummer Joe English put a finer point on which elements most needed to be retouched, overdubs were necessary because of “people singing out of tune – and I don’t mean Paul.”
So, maybe Wings Over America wasn’t the career exclamation point that it once seemed.
This fizzy rush of anticipation still surrounds the album’s initial trio of songs — “Venus and Mars/Rock Show” combined with incandescent take on “Jet,” even now the best opening Paul McCartney’s ever constructed. Then there’s this set’s definitive version of “Maybe I’m Amazed.” And a remarkable take on “Call Me Back Again,” from Venus and Mars with Jimmy McCulloch’s blistering guitar matched stride for stride by a tough trio of horn players led by saxophonist Thaddeus Richard.
Along the way, McCartney came to feel the Wings had finally come into their own, that fans were ready to accept them on their own terms. “I don’t know for sure, but I’ve got a feeling that they go away thinking, ‘Oh, well, it’s a band,’” “It lets them catch up. I think the press, the media is a bit behind the times, thinking about the Beatles a lot. And I think the kids go away from the show a lot hipper than even the review they’re going to read the next day.”
Wings Over America also stands as the pinnacle of Denny Laine’s often-overlooked career with Wings, from his featured vocals on “Spirits of Ancient Egypt” and “Picasso’s Last Words,” to a vital take of his Moody Blues hit “Go Now” But check out “Time to Hide,” a deep cut from Speed of Sound, where we find Laine brilliantly recapturing the raw emotion of his early R&B-sides with the Moodies.
Then, just as the mawkish distractions of “Let ‘Em In” threaten to sink the whole thing, Wings unleashes the feverish “Beware My Love” — another Speed of Sound track which, though tissue thin lyrically, begins a run of three muscular tracks that secure this album’s enduring legacy: The Venus and Mars cut “Letting Go,” which is shot through with this jagged sexuality, and then the ageless “Band on the Run.”
Two related releases followed the album: A TV documentary Wings Over The World and a film titled Rockshow purporting to contain a complete show from Seattle. it contains only five songs that were filmed at Seattle’s Kingdome the remainder of the film’s 30 songs come from the band’s New York and Los Angeles shows, these additional releases appeared three and four years, respectively, after the 1976 live album.
Musicians:
Wings
Paul McCartney – vocals,bass,guitar,piano
Linda McCartney – vocals,keyboards
Denny Laine – guitar,vocals
Jimmy McCulloch – guitar,vocals
Joe English – drums
Horn section
Tony Dorsey
Howie Casey
Steve Howard Jr.
Thaddeus Richard
Newbury Comics have been hoping to release some Jason Molina music ever since they started putting out records three years ago, so couldn’t be happier about announcing this Newbury Comics exclusive edition of Songs: Ohia’s ‘Magnolia Electric Co’. Released midway through his career (and preceding a band name change to Magnolia Electric Co.), this double lp deluxe edition sees the Songs: Ohia sound open up in ways that had been only hinted at on previous releases. The lyrics, as always, are worth the price of admission alone.
Our version is pressed on two slabs of Blue Swirl vinyl, in a lovely gatefold sleeve (with printed inner sleeves) in an edition of 600 pieces (+ download).
The hallmark of Jason Molina’s career, Magnolia Electric Co., is both a confluence of all he would create and a line in the sand to mark a shift in his song writing approach. It was the last statement under his iconic Songs: Ohia moniker, and the moment before he began making new legends as Magnolia Electric Co. for the next 10 years. Now — here at the end of that decade — with Molina gone, his work gathers more weight and meaning. This expanded 10-year anniversary edition of Magnolia Electric Co. features one never-before-released track plus many rarities. The full-band studio outtake of fan favorite “Whip Poor Will” is a sweet and spare version that ended up being played far differently on Magnolia Electric Co.’s final album Josephine (2009). Also included is the studio version of “The Big Game Is Every Night.” Previously only available on the Japanese version of the album, this opus serves as Molina’s thesis statement, its poetry weaving through the 20th Century, through art and sporting culture — ultimately questioning what it means to be an American in the autumn of the American Era.
The edition also gathers Molina’s gutting demos for the record, including those two outtakes. Nearly each begins with audible sound of the RECORD button being pressed down on the tape player. They are so close and intimate, it’s hard to look them right in the eyes. But you should.
Wild Nothing, aka Brooklyn-based musician Jake Tatum, released his debut album ‘Gemini’ in 2010 to critical acclaim. Five years on, with an equally impressive sophomore release and a series of EPs under his belt, Tatum is pleased to announce his third-studio album and self-proclaimed most “mature and honest” work to date, ‘Life Of Pause’.
When Jack Tatum began work on ‘Life Of Pause’ he had fascinating ambitions. “I desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me,” he says. “I’m terrified by the idea of being any one thing, or being of any one genre. And whether or not I accomplish that, I know that my only hope of getting there is to constantly reinvent. That reinvention doesn’t need to be drastic, but every new record has to have its own identity, and it has to have a separate set of goals from what came before.”
‘Life Of Pause’ is an exquisitely arranged and beautifully recorded collection of songs that marry the immediate with the indefinable. “I allowed myself to go down every route I could imagine even if it ended up not working for me,” he says. “I owe it to myself to take as many risks as possible. Songs are songs you have to allow yourself to be open to everything.”
After a prolonged period of writing and experimentation recording took place over several weeks in both Los Angeles and Stockholm, with producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Beachwood Sparks) helping Tatum in his search for a more natural and organically textured sound. In Sweden, in a studio once owned by ABBA, they enlisted Peter, Bjorn & John drummer John Ericsson and fellow Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra veteran TK to contribute drums and marimba. In California, at Monahan’s home, Tatum collaborated with Medicine guitarist Brad Laner and a crew of saxophonists.
From the hypnotic polyrhythms of ‘Reichpop’ to the sugary howl of ‘Japanese Alice’ to the hallucinogenic R&B of ‘A Woman’s Wisdom’, the result is a complete, fully immersive listening environment. “I just kept things really simple, writing as ideas came to me,” he says. “There’s definitely a different kind of ‘self’ in the picture this time around. There’s no real love lost, it’s much more a record of coming to terms and defining what it is that you have – your place, your relationships. I view every record as an opportunity to write better songs. At the end of the day it still sounds like me, just new.”
Julianna Barwick’s revelatory third album, ‘Will’, is the Brooklyn experimental artist’s most surprising left turn to date. Conceived and self-produced over the past year in a variety of locations, the compelling ‘Will’ departs from the weighty lightness of 2013’s ‘Nepenthe’.
If ‘Nepenthe’ conjured images of gentle fog rolling over desolate mountains, then ‘Will’ is a late afternoon thunderstorm, a cathartic collision of sharp and soft textures that sounds ominous and restorative all at once.
‘Will’ comes after Barwick’s busiest period to date in her career following ‘Nepenthe’ – a spate of activity that included playing piano for Yoko Ono, performing at the 25th annual Tibet House Benefit Concert alongside such kindred spirits as The Flaming Lips and Philip Glass, releasing the ‘Rosabi’ EP and delivering a reimagining of Bach’s ‘Adagio’ from Concerto In D Minor.
Her life over the past several years has largely been lived in transit and as such the genesis of ‘Will’ was not beholden to location; Barwick reflects on this cycle of constant motion. “You’re constantly adjusting, assimilating, and finding yourself in life-changing situations.” That sense of forward propulsion is largely owed to ‘Will’s synth-heavy textures, an ingredient she was inspired to add to her vocal loop-heavy formula after demoing a new prototype analogue sequencer for Moog.
Another new wrinkle ‘Will’ introduces in Barwick’s sound: Mas Ysa’s Thomas Arsenault, who lends his richly complex vocals to ‘Same’ and ‘Someway’. The beguiling, beautifully complicated ‘Will’ is the latest proof yet of Barwick’s irresistibly engaging talent as a composer and vocalist. Julianna has recently collaborated with Moog and MoMa, lending her prestige as both a musician and artist as a whole.
Bat For Lashes came back in July with their fourth album The Bride, The ‘band’ is of course Natasha Khan and the new record sounds promising; a concept album that follows the story of a woman whose fiancé has been killed in a crash on the way to the church for their wedding. In the narrative ‘The Bride’ flees the scene to take the honeymoon trip alone, resulting in we are told “a dark meditation on love, loss, grief, and celebration”. You can hear In God’s House from the album, it is probably one of my favourite ‘new’ albums of the last few years. So if you’re not familiar with their music, it’s worth checking out.
The Bride was released on Parlophone Records on 1 July 2016.
The Decemberists have announced a reissue of their 2006 album The Crane Wife to celebrate the albums 10th Anniversary Edition 5xLP+Blu-ray (Capitol)
This is a five-LP box set is out December 9th on Capital Records in addition to the original album on two LPs will come with three records of rare b-sides, bonus tracks, and previously unreleased material. The reissue also contains a plus Blu-ray set containing the 2006 album, and a complete live video performance from the 9:30 Club on The Crane Wife tour. Housed in a lift-top box. In celebration of The Crane Wife’s 10th anniversary, it’s being reissued as five LPs featuring the original album across two LPs plus three additional records full of b-sides and bonus tracks, previously unreleased outtakes, alternative versions, and solo acoustic demos. The set also includes a Blu-ray of The Decemberists: Live at the 9:30 Club 2006 and a 20-page booklet with foreword by Lin-Manuel Miranda and liner notes from David Fricke of Rolling Stone. On black vinyl.
There is also a 20-page booklet, with liner notes by rock writer David Fricke and an essay by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is a big Decemberist fan . Five hundred limited-edition copies of the reissue will be printed on marbled red vinyl. Check out the full Crane Wife reissue tracklist
LP 1: The Original Album
01 The Crane Wife 3
02 The Island: Come and See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel the Drowning
03 Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
04 O Valencia!
05 The Perfect Crime #2
06 When the War Came
07 Shankill Butchers
LP 2: Original Album Plus Outtakes
01 Summers0ng
02 The Crane Wife 1 & 2
03 Sons & Daughters
04 After the Bombs
05 Culling of the Fold
06 Hurdles Even Here
LP 3: Outtakes and Alternates
01 The Perfect Crime #1 + The Day I Knew You’d Not Come Back
02 After the Bombs (Early Take)
03 Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) (Alternate Take With Alela Diane)
04 Culling of the Fold (Alternate Take With Sean Nelson)
05 Hurdles Even Here (Full Band Take)
06 The Perfect Crime #2 (Early Take)
LP 4: Home Demos
01 The Island: Come and See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel the Drowning
02 O Valencia!
03 The Perfect Crime #2
04 Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) (With Carson Ellis)
05 The Capp Street Girls
06 Culling of the Fold
07 Hurdles Even Here
LP 5: Home Demos
01 Shankill Butchers (Demo)
02 Summersong (Demo)
03 The Day I Knew You’d Not Come Back (Demo)
04 The Perfect Crime #1 (Demo)
05 The Crane Wife 1, 2 & 3
06 Sons & Daughters
Blu-ray: Live at the 9:30 Club, October 29, 2006
01 The Crane Wife 3
02 The Island
03 We Both Go Down Together
04 The Gymnast, High Above the Ground
05 The Perfect Crime #2
06 Shankill Butchers
07 Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect
08 O Valencia!
09 The Legionnaire’s Lament
10 16 Military Wives
11 The Crane Wife 1 & 2
12 Sons & Daughters
13 Red Right Ankle
14 Culling of the Fold
15 I Was Meant for the Stage
