Don’t Miss New Albums Out Today From Sufjan Stevens, Iration, Mary Lattimore, Tré Burt & More

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 Sufjan Stevens, Iration, Mary Lattimore, Tré Burt, Joni Mitchell and Roger Waters. Read on for more insight into the records we have ready to spin.

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Sufjan Stevens – Javelin

Javelin is Sufjan Stevens’ “first album in full singer-songwriter mode since 2015’s Carrie & Lowell.” Released today on Asthmatic Kitty Records, the 10-track Javelin features Stevens joined by a litany of special guests “from a close circle of friends.” Among those who contributed harmonies on several songs were adrienne maree brown, Hannah Cohen, Pauline Delassus, Megan Lui and Nedelle Torrisi. The song “Shit Talk” features The National‘s Bryce Dessner on electric guitar. According to press materials:

Javelin pairs musical sweep with emotional breadth. At times, it has the feel of a big team album production — but it is decidedly not: almost every sound here is the result of Stevens at home, building by himself what sometimes feels like a testament to ‘70s Los Angeles studio opulence. Whether listened to individually or as an album, Javelin’s 10 songs become something much bigger, the entire experience of Stevens’ 25-year career brought to bear in four-minute bursts of choral, orchestral, and electric wonder.

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Iration – Daytrippin

Reggae rockers Iration are back with Daytrippin, their eighth studio album and first since 2020’s Coastin’. The Hawaiian-bred/California-based group tapped Suzy Shinn (Panic! at the Disco, Weezer, Dua Lipa) to co-write and produce along with longtime collaborator producer David Manzoor and the band themselves. Out now on Three Prong Records, Daytrippin features guest appearances from Maxi Priest on “Last Night” and Claire Wright on “Comedown.”

“The new album, Daytrippin is a return to our roots,” explained lead vocalist Micah Pueschel. “We set out to strike a balance between polished studio production and the energy of a live show. We leaned on our reggae and rock influences to find a natural evolution from earlier albums like Time Bomb and Hotting Up.”

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Mary Lattimore – Goodbye, Hotel Arkada

Harpist Mary Lattimore wrote, recorded and produced her new album, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, which was released today through Ghostly International. The sprawling six-song album includes contributions from Lattimore’s previous collaborators Meg Baird, Walt McClements and Roy Montgomery, co-founding member of The Cure Lol Tolhurst, Rachel Goswell of Slowdive and Samara Lubelski. “All of these people I asked to contribute have deeply affected and inspired my life,” said Lattimore. The album was titled after “a hotel in Croatia facing renovation.” Lattimore shared the following about the new record:

“There’s a big old hotel there called the Hotel Arkada, and you could tell it had been hosting holiday-goers for decades in a great way. I walked around the lobby and the empty ballrooms and it looked like a well-worn, well-loved place. My friend Stacey who lives there told me to ‘say goodbye to Hotel Arkada, it might not be here when you get back’ and I heard soon after that it was actually going to be renovated in a very crisp, modern way…

“When I think of these songs, I think about fading flowers in vases, melted candles, getting older, being on tour and having things change while you’re away, not realizing how ephemeral experiences are until they don’t happen anymore, fear for a planet we’re losing because of greed, an ode to art and music that’s really shaped your life that can transport you back in time, longing to maintain sensitivity and to not sink into hollow despondency.”

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Tré Burt – Traffic Fiction

Singer-songwriter Tré Burt released a new album entitled Traffic Fiction today via Oh Boy Records. Burt recorded the follow-up to 2021’s You, Yeah, You with producer Andrija Tokic at The Bomb Shelter recording studio in Nashville. Burt began work on the album during demoing sessions held at a friend’s apartment while on tour in Canada. Additional solo demoing sessions were held over nine days in a rented rural Canadian cabin. The death this year of Burt’s grandfather influenced Traffic Fiction. Press materials deemed the album “the music the two shared.” Detailing the creation of the 14-track new album, Burt described the Traffic Fiction recording process by stating:

“The demo versions of these songs and the way I wanted them to sound were already pretty spelled out with me playing all the instruments on them (of questionable quality) so, scared shitless, it dawned on me that to get this sound across I had to take the seat of co-produce for the first time and record this album with someone I could easily communicate ideas with, meet the songs where they’re at and then elevate them to a higher level and that happened to be my good friend and neighbor Andrija Tokic. The result is Traffic Fiction.”

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Joni Mitchell – Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)

The third installment in the Grammy-winning Joni Mitchell Archives series arrived today via Rhino. Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3 The Asylum Years (1972-1975) focuses on the period that saw Joni Mitchell releasing 1972’s For The Roses, 1974’s Court And Spark and 1975’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. The collection also boasts recording sessions with David Crosby, Graham Nash, Neil Young, James Taylor and more. While the era saw Mitchell cutting back on live performances, Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3 also contains live material including concerts from New York City’s Carnegie Hall, London’s New Victoria Theatre, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles and more. Along with the live material, the collection contains never-before-heard demos, early and alternate versions of classic songs and previously unreleased tracks. One of the latter previewed Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3 in September. Read Joni’s description of a song inspired by her realtor, which speaks to her immense talent as a songwriter.

“[‘Like Veils Said Lorraine’] was a piece of dialogue that happened with the real-estate woman. I had almost found the land where I would build my little (stone-cabin) house. Lorraine was the real-estate woman who showed me properties. She had a Marlene Dietrich kind of look. She was a platinum blond and she was elegant. She had lived in China with her husband, so she was kind of worldly… and glamorous. It’s an account of our conversation. At some point, I switched to another realtor, and found the property where I would live. It was a piece of an old lumber-jack town. It wasn’t on the market, but it called out to me. Houses are important to me, and I know how to pick them. I investigated it and I found out who owned it. I paid what she wanted, and she thought she took me. I thought I got a deal. (laughs) So we were both happy.”

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Roger Waters – The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux

Roger Waters reworked the classic Pink Floyd album The Dark Side Of The Moon via a newly recorded version released today entitled The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux. Pink Floyd originally released The Dark Side Of The Moon in 1973 featuring Waters, David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason. Waters recruited members of his touring band to contribute to the new version of the album, Gus Seyffert (bass, guitar, percussion, keys, synth, backing vocals), Joey Waronker (drums, percussion), Jonathan Wilson (guitars, synth, organ), Johnny Shepherd (organ, piano), Via Mardot (Theremin), Azniv Korkejian (vocals), Gabe Noel (String Arrangements, strings, Sarangi), Jon Carin (keyboards, lap steel, synth, organ) and Robert Walter (piano). The Waters and Seyffert co-produced The Dark Side of the Moon Redux ends with a 13-minute original composition inspired by the re-recording. Water detailed the revamped album, stating:

“When we recorded the stripped down songs for the Lockdown Sessions, the 50th anniversary of the release of The Dark Side Of The Moon was looming on the horizon. It occurred to me that The Dark Side Of The Moon could well be a suitable candidate for a similar re-working, partly as a tribute to the original work, but also to re-address the political and emotional message of the whole album. I discussed it with Gus and Sean, and when we’d stopped giggling and shouting ‘You must be ****ing mad’ at one another we decided to take it on.

“It’s turned out really great and I’m excited for everyone to hear it. It’s not a replacement for the original which, obviously, is irreplaceable. But it is a way for the 79 year old man to look back across the intervening 50 years into the eyes of the 29 year old and say, to quote a poem of mine about my father, ‘We did our best, we kept his trust, our dad would have been proud of us.’ And also it is a way for me to honor a recording that Nick and Rick and Dave and I have every right to be very proud of.”

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Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.