Don’t Miss New Albums Out Today From Billie Eilish, Shellac, Avett Brothers, Ani DiFranco, Little Feat + More
Guster, Rising Appalachia, Blitzen Trapper, of Montreal, and Sylvan Esso also have new releases out today, Friday, May 17.
By Team JamBase May 17, 2024 • 6:35 am PDT
Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by Billie Eilish, Shellac, The Avett Brothers, Ani DiFranco, Little Feat, Guster, Rising Appalachia, Blitzen Trapper, of Montreal, and Sylvan Esso. Read on for more insight into the records we have ready to spin.
Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard And Soft
Billie Eilish released her new album, Hit Me Hard And Soft, through Darkroom/Interscope Records. Eilish, who recently called out other musicians for wastefully producing excessive vinyl variants, offered eight vinyl variants of Hit Me Hard And Soft. Eilish added a “Sustainability” section to her online store detailing her efforts to produce the various editions of Hit Me Hard And Soft “with the most sustainable practices available.” The singer-songwriter did not issue any singles ahead of the arrival of her third full-length album. According to a description accompanying Hit Me Hard And Soft, the album is Eilish’s “most daring body of work to date, a diverse yet cohesive collection of songs — ideally listened to in its entirety from beginning to end — does exactly as the album title suggests; hits you hard and soft both lyrically and sonically, while bending genres and defying trends along the way. With the help of her brother and sole collaborator, FINNEAS, the pair wrote, recorded, and produced the album together in their hometown of Los Angeles.”
“[N]ot doing singles, I wanna give it to you all at once,” Eilish shared. “Finneas and I truly could not be more proud of this album and we absolutely can’t wait for you to hear it.”
Shellac – To All Trains
Shortly after the recent unexpected and untimely death of guitarist Steve Albini, his influential band Shellac today released a new album entitled To All Trains. The album is the Chicago noise rock trio’s first album in 10 years. Shellac — which also consists of drummer Todd Trainer and bassist Bob Weston — captured To All Trains, their sixth studio album, at Albini’s Electrical Audio recording facility in Chicago between November 2017 and March 2022. Albini and Weston mastered the record at Chicago Mastering Service. Too All Trains follows the trio’s 2014 album, Dude Incredible. Shellac did not release an advance single from the album that “was manufactured by Green Vinyl Records using an injection molding process. This new process uses 100% recyclable PET (like soda bottles) and is environmentally friendly, containing no PVC or Phthalates. The process also uses 79% less CO2 than conventional hydraulic PVC vinyl presses. The records weigh 180 grams.”
“[T]his record will have no formal promotion,” as per the band. “There will be no advertisements, no press or radio promotion, no e-promotion, no promotional or review copies, no promotional gimmick items, and other-wise no free lunch.”
The Avett Brothers – The Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers return with today’s release of their new self-titled album, The Avett Brothers. Produced by Rick Rubin and issued by Ramseur Records/American Recordings/Thirty Tigers, the record is the first in five years from the band led by siblings Seth Avett and Scott Avett. The Avett Brothers recorded the album with Rubin, with whom they have a long history of collaboration, at his Shangri-La Studios in Malibu. Additional sessions were held in Nashville, Mar Vista (Los Angeles) and The Avetts’ hometown of Concord, North Carolina. The nine-track album serves as the follow-up to 2019’s Closer Than Together. According to the album’s announcement:
The Avett Brothers is a collection of songs seen through a lens of independently studied spirituality; questions and considerations in the interest of the divine unknowable. In an ongoing attempt to comprehend existence and our interpersonal connectedness, these songs seek the sacred in the commonplace: a cheap cup of coffee, the smallest movement of love, broken hearts and school bus lessons, a baby’s first and second steps, growing older and holding on to one’s roots, losing someone and accepting fate, rediscovering hope and finding sanctity in tragedy … ultimately reveling in the fun and surrender of what we cannot understand.
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Ani DiFranco – Unprecedented Sh!t
On her 23rd studio album Unprecedented Sh!t, Ani DiFranco handed production duties over to BJ Burton, making it just the second album in the acclaimed singer-songwriter catalog to not be self-produced. The 11 songs making up the new record were written by DiFranco for various projects and from various sources of inspiration between 2011 and in 2022. A few tracks feature contributions by Andy Stochansky, Terence Higgins, Todd Sickafoose, Jharis Yokley, Joy Clark and Lilli Lewis. Speaking about the album and working with Burton, DiFranco stated:
“I believe there is a rhyme and a reason as to why these songs have come together in this way now and I want people to experience this album as a journey, a piece of art, without being influenced by a cacophony of surrounding narratives. I really wanted to lean into the power of machines in a way that I never have before, so BJ and I communicating through many layers of them in order to collaborate, seemed apropos. This record was made almost entirely by me and BJ alone, bouncing things back and forth.”
Little Feat – Sam’s Place
Little Feat released their new album Sam’s Place, marking several firsts for the legendary band. The nine-track album available now via Hot Tomato Productions/MRI is Little Feat’s first blues album, first new LP since 2012’s Rooster Rag, first recorded by the current lineup and — as the title references — first to feature longtime percussionist Sam Clayton on lead vocals on every song. Little Feat — Clayton, longtime keyboardist Bill Payne, bassist Kenny Gradney and multi-instrumentalist Fred Tackett, along with guitarist Scott Sharrard and drummer Tony Leone — gathered at the famed Sam Phillips Recording studio in Memphis last August to record Sam’s Place. While eight of the tunes come from those sessions, Little Feat also tacked on a live version of “Got My Mojo Working” captured during a concert at the Boulder Theater on December 17, 2022. The band also took on blues classics by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Walter Jacobs, Bobby Charles and Preston Foster. Opening track “Milkman” is the effort’s lone original. Little Feat called upon old friend Bonnie Raitt to sing Muddy Waters’ “Long Distance Call” with Sam Clayton for Sam’s Place. Other guests include Michael “Bull” LoBue on harmonica, Marc Franklin on trumpet, and Art Edmaiston on saxophone. Payne came up with the idea of creating a blues album starring Sam Clayton and the percussionist jumped at the opportunity.
“I’m very happy because I was never expecting anything like that,” Clayton explained. “I mean, I have wanted to, but I just wasn’t expecting it to come to fruition. It was a long wait, but it’s satisfying.”
Guster – Ooh La La
Guster today put out their ninth album, Ooh La La, through Ocho Mule Records. Guster’s last studio album was issued five years ago when they released 2019’s Look Alive. The band took a different approach with Ooh La La than its predecessor, describing the new record as “carved out [of] a lush and acclaimed expansive sound rich in acoustic guitars and graceful piano work.” The new 10-song album was mostly produced by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman at Isokon Studio in Woodstock, New York. Additional production was provided by Ron Aniello and Rich Costey.
“Most of these songs were written against the backdrop of what felt like an apocalypse,” said Guster lead vocalist/guitarist/bassist Ryan Miller. “It was such a transformative time, and we were dealing with a lot of existential questions about what it means to be a father, a husband, a creative person in the midst of all the chaos.”
“One thing we’ve continually done as a band is acknowledge what’s going on in our world but still bring some positivity to the music,” guitarist Adam Gardner added. “We’re always going to be real about what’s happening, but we still want to leave people with a feeling of hope … We feel lucky that we’ve created a dynamic where there’s no real separation between us and our fans. We’re all part of a community, and it’s theirs just as much as it’s ours.”
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Rising Appalachia – Folk And Anchor
Rising Appalachia – the duo co-led by sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith – shared their new album, Folk And Anchor, consisting of covers of their favorite songs. Folk And Anchor includes a recording of “The Bones,” featuring singer-songwriter Maren Morris. The song was originally recorded by Morris for her 2019 album GIRL, with fellow singer-songwriter Hozier featured on the track. The Folk And Anchor tracklist also sees Rising Appalachia putting their spin on songs by Bob Dylan, Erykah Badu, Willie Nelson, Lord Huron, James Blake with Bon Iver and Beyoncé’s recent smash hit “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
“We grew up immersed in a musical family, and our songwriting and performance has been deeply influenced by so many Americana genres over the years,” Leah Song stated. “We wanted to create a body of work where all those influences could be showcased under one roof … [The songs] tell a story together, and that story weaves the listener into the sonic tapestries of the roots of Rising Appalachia.”
Blitzen Trapper – 100’s Of 1000’s, Millions Of Billions
100’s Of 1000’s, Millions Of Billions is Blitzen Trapper‘s new album, available now via Yep Roc Records. The album was produced by primary singer-songwriter Eric Earley and recorded by guitarist Nathan Vanderpool at his studio located in rural Washington State. The follow-up to 2020’s Holy Smokes Future Jokes includes backing vocals by Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats/Bonny Light Horseman) and Anna Tivel on the song “Planetarium,” with Tivel providing violin and additional vocals across the 12-track album. Earley’s interest in Buddhist texts and meditation was a significant influence on lyrical content of the new album whose title “comes from a phrase that appears over and over in the Mahayana sutras.”
“Buddhism tells us that suffering comes from clinging to illusions, to rigid ideologies, to the idea of an individuated self,” Earley stated. “The doorway to ridding yourself of all that is meditation, and I found that a lot of these new songs started flowing very naturally from the state of consciousness I was getting myself into during those meditation sessions.”
of Montreal – Lady On The Cusp
Lady On The Cusp is the 19th studio album by of Montreal, which was released today through Polyvinyl Records. Frontman Kevin Barnes wrote and recorded the album in the months leading up to a significant relocation from Athens, Georgia — where he arrived in 1996 — to Southern Vermont where he and his partner, fellow musician Christina Schneider moved to. The 10-song follow-up to Freewave Lucifer F
“Christina has been extremely helpful,” Barnes said, “in realizing that who you’ve been doesn’t make you who you are.”
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Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso
Sylvan Esso will release an expanded 10th-anniversary edition of their debut album, Sylvan Esso, through their Psychic Hotline label on May 17. The celebratory reissue features remixes by Helado Negro, Dntel, J. Rocc, Rick Wade, Hercules and Love Affair and Charles Spearin.
The pending 10th-anniversary version of Sylvan Esso also comes with a cover of the Porches track, “Cosmos.” The duo of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn recorded Sylvan Esso in a small bedroom studio in Durham, North Carolina, where they contiune to reside. The album introduced now-staples of the band’s catalog, including “Coffee,” “Play It Right,” “H.S.K.T.” and “Hey Mami.”
