Thirstier is Mackenzie Scott’s second Torres album for MergeRecords, following last years’s “Silver Tongue”. She co-produced the album with Rob Ellis and Peter Miles, recording Thirstier last fall at Middle Farm Studios in the United Kingdom. Zach Schonfeld wrote, “Thirstier” is exuberant and unguarded—the kind of music you make when you’re no longer testing out a new skin and instead revelling in the fervent joy that it brings you.”
Amid the seriousness of her 2017 album Three Futures—it was primarily about reckoning with religious trauma, after all—TORRES’ Mackenzie Scott predicts, in the glow of disjointed synth-pop, “There must be a greener stretch ahead.” And after what feels like a lifetime, it sounds like the Georgia-born, Brooklyn-based artist is finally basking on those green lawns she sketched out nearly four messy years ago. The music of TORRES has never been desolate, but there’s a clear change in tone on Scott’s fifth record under the moniker. Scott’s music has shifted from experimental rock to progressive pop and back again, and her career has been exciting to witness, but there was always the sense she was capable of something more energized, more her. In her latest release, Thirstier, we finally have the complete picture, and it’s as lively a rock album as you’ll hear this year.
Thirstier revolts against the gray drag of time, a searing and life-affirming eruption of an album that wonders what could happen if we found a way to make our fantasies inexhaustible.
Thirstiermarks a turn towards a bigger, more bombastic sound for Torres. The anxious hush that fell over much of Scott’s previous music gets turned inside-out in songs tailored for post-plague celebration. Guitar-driven walls of sound surge and dissipate like surf in high winds, carrying Scott’s commanding voice to the fore, as displayed in the album’s first two singles “Hug From A Dinosaur” and “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes In My Head”.
Today, she presents its title track, a thesis statement for the album as a whole that highlights its strive towards abundance. Scott sings of love that never knows scarcity: “The more of you I drink / The thirstier I get.” Following a stretch of melancholy guitar, thunderous percussion crashes in along with Scott’s voice: “Keep me in your fantasies / Even though you live with me.” It’s an urgent and intense encapsulation of desire.
“Each TORRES album has been a stylistic evolution, this may just be her boldest yet.” —FLOOD
“These songs ride the contact high of a love so consuming that it shifts your worldview and makes you write songs loaded with screamable choruses and conventional hooks” —Pitchfork
Ten years after its release, Wye Oak’s “Civilian” remains a raw, sinewy punch of a record—bleak and intense and lonely and self-assured all at once. It marked both the ascension and death of Wye Oak, or at least a version of it. Now, a decade later, “Civilian + Cut All the Wires: 2009–2011” delves back into that pivotal record and adds a lost album of 12 unreleased tracks and demos to Civilian’s universe.
The album unravels with the sort of self-questioning and uncertainty that come with youth, and its specific confidence in unflinchingly probing all of those emotions. When Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner released Civilian, it marked both the ascension and death of Wye Oak, or at least a version of it. Now, a decade later, “Civilian + Cut All The Wires: 2009-2011” delves back into that pivotal record and adds a lost album of unreleased tracks and demos to Civilian’s universe.
Today, Wye Oak share “Electricity,” a massive track from Cut All the Wires and the song that lends the 10th anniversary release its title: “There’s nothing about you that I don’t adore / Show me these rooms and I’ll show you the way to the door / Walk me through / I’ll cut all the wires and spend my life with you.”
Sonic paradoxes abound: The mellow “Sinking Ship” is preceded by the wall-of-sound grunginess that roars through “Half a Double Man.” A pared-down acoustic Daytrotter live session of “Two Small Deaths” dovetails into the jangling “Holy Holy” demo. The closing lyrics over the frenetic, screeching feedback of “Electricity” lend the anniversary release its title: “There’s nothing about you that I don’t adore / Show me these rooms and I’ll show you the way to the door / Walk me through / I’ll cut all the wires and spend my life with you.”
On the occasion of its 10th anniversary earlier this year, Stereogum described Civilian as “an album of hellos and goodbyes at the same time, introducing us to everything Wye Oak could be, before setting the stage for the other Wye Oaks we’d soon get to know, and the all the others we’ve still yet to meet.”
“Civilian” turning ten this year, we’re so excited to share “Civilian + Cut All The Wires: 2009-2011”, a deluxe reissue including a second disc made up of songs written during the Civilian era, demos, and live sessions. The first single, “Electricity,” is out everywhere today.
Civilian was beloved upon release, complete with late-night TV appearances, sold-out concerts, and glowing reviews; The acclaim came inevitable burnout, thanks in part to Wye Oak’s workhorse mentality, the 200+ shows they performed on the back of the album’s release, and a persistently misogynistic narrative about Wasner’s guitar skills. But rather than recoil, the band decided to rethink: Civilian set the duo on a decade-long course of innovation. On “Shriek”, the follow-up to “Civilian“, they completely did away with guitars. And now, in 2021, Wye Oak seem to have fully ditched the album format. 2020’s “No Horizon”, their EP collaboration with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Wasner and Stack are fully committed to reinventing their sound over and over again. Devoting nearly 2,000 words to its 10th anniversary earlier this year.
Deluxe 10th anniversary reissue includes original album plus bonus LP “Cut All the Wires: 2009–2011“
The Civilian + Cut All the Wires: 2009–2011 double-LP is pressed on deluxe green swirl Peak Vinyl housed in a gatefold jacket that features each album’s cover when flipped.
After making a triumphant return courtesy of his concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre, an event organized by Pete Townshend and featuring any number of famous friends, Clapton’s confidence was restored and he returned to Miami’s Criteria Studios to begin work on a record that would stand as another milestone in Clapton’s career. “461 Ocean Boulevard” is the second studio solo album by the English musician. The album was released in late July 1974 for RSO Records, shortly after the record company released the hit single “I Shot The Sheriff” in early July the same year. The album topped various international charts and sold more than two million copies.
Eric Clapton was getting his life back together after a crippling heroin addiction, and his second solo album throws in a bunch of different styles to keep him occupied. It’s not all about guitar fireworks, either. There were blues covers, some heartfelt originals and a version of Bob Marley’s“I Shot the Sheriff” that went to No. 1. Eric Clapton had already undergone several transitions in his ever-evolving career by the time his album “461 Ocean Boulevard” was released in late July 1974. Having gained fame as a member of the Yardbirds and, later, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.
Perhaps the best way to describe guitar legend Eric Clapton’s in July 1974, as he prepared to unveil his watershed solo LP, “461 Ocean Boulevard”, was as a “wanted man.”
After laying low for the better part of three years while struggling with substance abuse, Clapton was sought after by his fellow musicians, by the countless fans of his prior exploits (the Yardbirds, Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Blind Faith and Cream plus the short lived period Derek and the Dominoes and by the savvy music industry suits, who knew they were dealing with a golden goose – sure to fill their coffers regardless of what music he put his name to. The impetus for the album was born from the guitarist’s fascination with the blues recordings that had inspired him early on. During his recovery, he found himself renewing his familiarity with those older records and listening to more recent offerings as well. So too, a demo tape given him by Dominos bassist Carl Radle shared songs Radle had written with drummer Jamie Oldaker. As a result, the two musicians became the core of Clapton’s new outfit, which also came to include guitarist George Terry and singer Yvonne Elliman. The album took its title from the house where Clapton and company ensconced, located at “461 Ocean Boulevard” in Golden Beach, Florida,
But rather than re-emerging as the famed blues purist, or even the psychedelic warrior of old, Clapton’s new work trafficked in mellow.
461 Ocean Boulevard was bookended by an urgently paced re-working of the traditional “Motherless Children” and the renewed vigour of “Mainline Florida.” In between, however, the ensuing laid-back fare ranged from the hymn-like “Give Me Strength” to the easy-grooving “Willie and the Hand Jive” to a slippery slide across Elmore James’ “I Can’tHold Out” and an acoustic “Please Be with Me.”
Sprinkled among these were three key tracks in “Get Ready” (a cowrite and duet with Yvonne Elliman); Clapton’s own, earnestly hopeful “Let it Grow” (an emotional reflection of his recent rebirth from the shadows of heroin addiction); and, most striking of all, a relatively straight cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” that went to No. 1, pulling the rest of the album right along with it.
Other covers are of similar significance. “Willie and the Hand Jive” tapped into the familiarity factor, a slow-rolling mesh of blues and funk written by singer and composer Johnny Otis. Elmore James’ “I Can’t Hold Out” and Robert Johnson’s “Steady Rollin’ Man” found Clapton going back to the basics of blues.
Throughout the sessions, Clapton was aided and abetted by bassist Carl Radle (late of the Dominos), drummer Jamie Oldaker, keyboardist Dick Sims, guitarist George Terry – and, perhaps most crucial of all, Tom Dowd. Most importantly, 461 Ocean Boulevardis the album that found Clapton renewing his confidence and shoring up his strengths as a bandleader who was no longer in need of simply sharing his efforts with others. In that regard, “461 Ocean Boulevard” can be considered a destination that seemed to serve him best. The album finishes with George Terry’s “Mainline Florida”, which “breaks away from the established tone of the record” and features Clapton’s using talk box during his outgoing solo.
The dean of record producers, he’d worked with Clapton since his Dominos and Cream days, and contributed much to shoring up his shaky confidence.
Together, these players helped Eric Clapton fulfill most of the tall expectations harboured by his previous groups alluded to earlier, once his incomparable talents and this inspired song set were finally captured in the grooves of 461 Ocean Boulevard.
Rising indie stars The Lathums have announced their debut album “How Beautiful Life Can Be”, arriving 24th September on Island Records. They’ve broken the news with a re-recording of fan-favourite ‘The Great Escape’.
The news and the single celebrate how far the band have come, with a music video full of live footage and behind the scenes clips from over the years. The upbeat, infectiously optimistic sound of ‘The Great Escape’ shows exactly why they’ve become firm favourites in the UK music scene.
“How Beautiful Life Can Be” will feature some re-recordings of previous singles, along with some brand new cuts. You can pre-order the album and meet the band tomorrow (31st July) at Wigan Market at their Lathum’s Emporium stall.
While the outside world increasingly closes in on The Lathums’ close-knit bubble of offbeat humour, free-flowing jangle-indie and lyrics of unrestrained optimism, Britain’s most-tipped new guitar band finally announce their debut album, How Beautiful Life Can Be. Recorded at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool in the company of producers James Skelly and Chris Taylor, the band’s fuse was only lit a few summers ago by Tim Burgess, but supercharged by fans that found them slogging their gear into North England’s pubs and small venues. The Lathums’ story may just turn out to be the perfect not-all-nice-guys-finish-last tale.
“Shades of the Arctic Monkeys and The Smiths” – THE TIMES
“The sort of jangling indie that’s at its most irresistible live – think The Smiths” – OBSERVER
The Tubs were formed in 2019 by Owen Williams and George Nicholls, formerly of much-loved Welsh pop band Joanna Gruesome. The two hunkered down in rural North Wales to expand on the fuzzy, hook-laden sounds they propagated in their former outfit, this time incorporating elements of post-punk, traditional British folk, and guitar jangle seasoned by nonchalant Cleaners From Venus-influenced pop hooks & contemporary antipodean indie bands (Twerps/Goon Sax, et al). They hit the ground running, releasing the “I Don’t Know How It Works” 7-inch on Prefect Records in February 2020 and playing gigs with UK colleagues like Porridge Radio, Ex-Void and Marcel Wave, as well as support for Flasher & Public Practice. After a few line-up shuffles, they recruited Max Warren (bass), Steve Stonholdt (guitar) and Matthew Green (drums) to solidify the current line-up. Trouble In Mind is honoured to be co-releasing their newest effort worldwide, the “Names” 7-inch EP – our first 7-inch release in four years (that’s how good it is!) – alongside Prefect Records in the UK.
From note one, the “Names” EP is all business; “Illusion”s punchy riffs (suitable for stargazing or naval-gazing) gallop forward, with Williams pontificating on his reflected reality vs. the illusion of self; a two-minute earworm on gender confusion. “The Name Song” is next, with its persistent jangle, laundry list of Williams’ favourite Seventies names & instantly memorable chorus of “I don’t care about anyone” coyly delivered with a sardonic wink and nod. “Two Person Love”s fuzzy lead line opens side two, (an ode to “erotomania”) barreling forward like a Fairport deep cut on ephedrine. A woozy cover of Felt’s “Crystal Ball” ends the EP, a faithful love-letter to an obvious influence, draped in a gauzy flange. Wrapped in an eye-catching sleeve design by Total Control’s James Vinciguerra, the “Names” EP practically screams “essential”. Look for more music coming soon on Trouble In Mind from The Tubs as the band heads into the studio to record their debut album.
Released July 30th, 2021
Owen Williams- vocals George Nicholls- guitar Max Warren- bass Matthew Green- drums Steve Stonholdt- guitar
Liverpool’s Zuzu has today shared her new single ‘My Old Life’, along with details of her upcoming debut album “Queensway Tunnel”, which is set for release on 12th November on Planet Z Records. The album captures Zuzu’s take on everything from mental health to sci-fi. She has also been making music for Adventure Time: Distant Lands on Cartoon Network and re-working songs for The Sims.
‘My Old Life’ shows Zuzu as one of the UK’s finest singer-songwriters. The song begins with a simple yet gutsy acoustic guitar before launching in with cinematic strings for the grand finale. She spoke about what the song means to her:
“This last 18 months have brought about some of the biggest changes in my life. I’ve had to learn how to set boundaries. Learn how to walk away from people and how to let people walk away from me. This song is about a particular period I had to dig really deep to find enough self-worth to move on from an emotionally exhausting situation that – at the time – felt like the end of the world. It’s about pushing through those dark times and coming out stronger and wiser. Writing ‘My Old Life’ really helped me to shake off all of the toxic energy I was holding onto and truly let go.”
The first record from the Liverpool artist is set to arrive on November 12th, and comes after she joined the likes of Blossoms and The Lathums in playing one of England’s first gigs after lockdown earlier this year.
According to an official release, it sees her tackling issues of “change, addiction, sci-fi, escapism, identity, community, and the protection of mental health”.
The first thing that strikes you about Skirts’ debut record “Great Big Wild Oak” is its cover photo. In the background, a lush, bright green landscape stretches out, rising into a hill that is cut short by the parameters of the photo. Clusters of conifers thrust from the ground, others towering over them. In the foreground, a pool of water reflects the vista before it. Everything is still but for the gentle ripples around four swimming figures, tiny and faceless with the distance. It’s a beautiful photo, calming, the kind of scene you might envision if you closed your eyes and tried to slow your heart rate in an anxious moment.
The photo was taken by Alex Montenegro, the singer-songwriter behind Skirts, on a trip to Mount Rainier before the record ever existed. “I was on a hike with my best friend, and there were these people swimming in a no swimming pond, and it just looked so magical,” she says. She tucked it away, knowing she’d use it for something. It couldn’t have found a better fit than Great Big Wild Oak, an indie folk record so gentle and soothing it becomes an idyll of its own.
Montenegro, 26, grew up in the suburbs of Dallas. Her dad was a DJ who showed her how to play a vinyl record when she was barely old enough to talk and raised her on ’70s disco. Aged nine, Montenegro was inspired by School Of Rock to ask for her first guitar, and by high school she was discovering indie rock on Tumblr. She was especially excited by the bedroom lo-fi of Flatsound: “I learned, ‘This guy’s doing this all at home. I should try that too.’” Later came artists like Alex G and Frankie Cosmos, and soon Montenegro started posting her own demos on Tumblr, originally under her surname before switching to the Skirts moniker.
A little later, she was working at a record store in Dallas, where she befriended people who were plugged into Dallas DIY — until then, she hadn’t known such a thing existed. One new friend was Evan Gordon, an artist who ran a huge house venue called “The Compound”. She started playing and attending shows there and discovered how deep the community ran. “There’s so much local love, and so many people coming out to the shows,” she says. “The Texas love is very awesome.” Before long, she self-booked her first tour and headed up the East Coast.
Skirts is still based in Dallas, despite Montenegro’s complicated relationship with the city. “I used to hate Dallas growing up,” Montenegro says. “[But] as I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed a love for Texas and Dallas. I love it the most because of all the people I know here, everyone I’ve met.” Yet it can be difficult to ignore that she lives in a deeply red state. “It’s hard. It’s so discouraging. During the Bernie campaign, a lot of Dallas was really excited and hopeful. And then after it, you’re sort of hit with the reality of, oh yeah, Texas would never let something like this happen.
“Texas is such a weird state. I have no idea what’s in store for it for the future. I can talk to my people and spread awareness through my personal communities, but as a whole, there’s only so much you can do.”
Great Big Wild Oak has been in the works since 2018. “It felt like a whirlwind, recording and writing all of it,” says Montenegro. “It was like a million little parts coming together.” Though Skirts is officially a solo project, the record was a full-band effort, and songs were built collaboratively. Skirts’ live band members — Vincent Bui, Victor Bui, and Joshua Luttrull — were on guitar/pedal steel, bass, and drums respectively. Vincent Bui is also credited as co-producer alongside Montenegro. For its release, Skirts signed to Double Double Whammy, a label that’s been one of Montenegro’s favourites since her days at the record store. “[Signing with them] was always a dream, but a dream that was too good to be true,” she says. “It’s big to me, finally finishing an album and releasing it on one of my favourite labels; there’s a meaning behind it, I like to believe that.”
The album’s Americana sound was inspired by the Band and Bob Dylan: “Older acts, where you’re like, ‘Whoa, listen to that pedal steel, or that guitar twang.’” There were contemporary influences, too, among them Montenegro’s longtime favourites Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver. The woodwinds on “Easy” were directly inspired by the National track “So Far Around The Bend” — “There’s this one part where you hear all these little flute flutters, and I really wanted that for ‘Easy,’” says Montenegro. The instrumentals across the album are warm and mostly traditional — pedal steel, acoustic guitar, piano — though it’s exciting when electronic textures do show up, like the drum machine on “Easy” or the synth on “Dayspell.”
The whole album has an intimate lo-fi feel, though Montenegro laughs at that: “We’re so used to my lo-fi lo-fi stuff that we listen to Great Big Wild Oak and we’re like, ‘Holy crap, whoa!’” It was all home-recorded, with the exception of “True,” an especially Southern-flavoured cut driven by piano and seesawing drums. “I wrote that during a band practice and everyone came in, and it just happened like that, like magic,” says Montenegro; they ended up in a studio to capture that one.
Some way into the process, COVID hit and the band had to start working remotely. “It became this weird, distant, ‘Hey, we’re gonna upload these stems and you see what you wanna do,’” says Montenegro. “It took a really long time to record, just because of the strain of not seeing each other, or really [having] a good plan. I’m definitely to blame for that. I kinda wanted to just go with it and see how things end up, but then it ended up being really hard.”
“I don’t know how it would have sounded if we would have done it all in two weeks and then sent it off to mix, versus the two years it took,” she continues. “It made me figure the songs out more. Because I guess I didn’t really know them. I thought I knew them, but I ultimately didn’t until I had worked with them for so long.” Montenegro admits that she’s something of a perfectionist; the pretty piano ballad “Swim” — out today as the album’s third single — was re-recorded something like five times, and the vocals on “True” took countless takes. “Sometimes I feel like it holds me back, and at a point I did just settle. There became a point where me and Joshua and Vincent had to be like, ‘Okay, let’s just finish.’ Especially because a lot of the takes that we ended up using ended up being one of the first few ones.”
Almost all of the album’s lyrics were born out of a heartbreak. Montenegro’s words often call on streaks of imagery — an oiled puddle, rusty strings, plastic flowers. But there are also moments of sharper focus, that pull you into the immediate shock of heartbreak. This line from “Always” is particularly breath-taking if it catches you on the right day: “I turn left when the light is red/ I hope it’s you who slams on the brake.”
“[The album’s lyrics] came from a place of comfort, in trying to feel better about a situation that I felt really upset about,” she explains. And the album is comforting, from the homespun production to Montenegro’s tender vocals. It’s intimate without being heavy or demanding on the listener. “They used to feel hard to perform, ’cause I felt like an open book singing them,” Montenegro admits. “They feel like a direct look inside my brain sometimes. Sometimes I feel silly or goofy for feeling as intensely as I did. But also, thanks to those feelings, I feel like I’ve grown so much from where I was when I wrote those songs. I feel more in touch with myself, and like I have a better understanding of what I want or need out of life, and what’s important.”
Great Big Wild Oak‘s penultimate track, “Sapling,” is the key to that evolution: “I wrote that the day before my birthday, and it was one of the last songs I wrote for the album. It was a super emotional experience, ’cause I let myself be emotionally aware and in touch with this feeling of losing someone – whether it’s romantically or through death.” On the second verse, over plucked acoustic guitar, she sings, “Another year has passed, and I don’t feel as old/ As it says on my license, until I am told/ That I have grown into a great big wild oak/ And I’ll always be a sapling to my mother.” “That lyric linked everything; a similar feeling in every song of not having any control of a situation, just a powerlessness. That song is incredibly special to me ’cause it’s like, I feel powerless, but there are people that see that another way.” So she surrenders to powerlessness, realizing it may just be the same thing as growth.
Great Big Wild Oak is available everywhere July 30th.
Nicholas Wood and Kat Day are The KVB and for around 10 years they’ve been crafting an immersive, hypnotic, melodic atmospheric sound without ever allowing the quality to ever dip below excellent.” Their latest track “World On Fire” is a coruscating slice of driving danceable drone psych-pop and was inspired by the double meaning behind the tracks title. For example, when you’re encouraged to go out and “set the world on fire” by your well-meaning mum she probably isn’t expecting you to turn into an arsonist or go full-on Jimmy Cagney style surrounded by gas-filled Horton Spheres- “Top of the world ma!”
The duo says ““World On Fire” was written in late 2019 and at its core, it’s about duality and how a phrase like “set the world on fire,” which sounds so destructive, is also about doing something remarkable. We wanted it to be a phrase that is deliberately open to interpretation in this song. Over time we have all become desensitized to bad news and horrific events through television and social media. In much the same way as people slow down to look at a car crash, it feels like we’ve all become more and more obsessed with watching the world on fire.”
New single released 21st July 2021 via Invada Records
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