Release Day Picks: August 18th New Album Highlights
By Team JamBase Aug 18, 2017 • 6:48 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 Grizzly Bear, Steven Wilson and Allison Moorer & Shelby Lynne. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
Grizzly Bear – Painted Ruins
The Scoop: It’s been a good year to be a fan of indie bands that emerged in the early to mid-2000s, as 2017 has been chock full of high-quality releases from a number of acts that shaped the sound of the aughts. You can now add Grizzly Bear to that list. The one-time Brooklyn-based band has moved to a major label for the release of their fifth studio effort, Painted Ruins, which is also their first in five years. While it is news that four-piece act is on RCA, the album itself was written and recorded before they had inked the deal. The 11-track effort inhabits lots of the same spaces of their previous releases with plenty ethereal freak-folk sounds and psychedelic-tinged harmonies, but also finds the band taking cues from bands like New Order and The Cure. Check out the music video for “Morning Sound”:
Label: RCA Records
Producer: Chris Taylor
Number Of Tracks: 11
Running Time: 48:00
Guest Musicians: N/A
Tracklist:
- Wasted Acres
- Morning Sound
- Four Cypresses
- Three Rings
- Losing All Sense
- Aquarian
- Cut-out
- Glass Hillside
- Neighbors
- Systole
- Sky Took Hold
Steven Wilson – To The Bone
The Scoop: British artist Steven Wilson today issues To The Bone, his fifth studio album and first full-length since 2015’s Hand. Cannot. Erase. The 11-track effort was said by Wilson to be inspired by progressive pop albums that influenced him in his early days including Tears For Fears’ The Seeds Of Love, Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love and So by Peter Gabriel. Wilson, who founded legendary English rock band Porcupine Tree, served as co-producer with Paul Stacey. Steven wrote each song on the album by himself with the exception of “Nowhere Now,” which he co-wrote with XTC’s Andy Partridge. Watch the video the album’s lead single, “Pariah”:
Label: Caroline International
Producer: Steven Wilson & Paul Stacey
Number Of Tracks: 11
Running Time: 59:46
Guest Musicians: David Kollar, Mark Feltham, Nick Beggs, Jeremy Stacey, Craig Blundell, Ninet Tayeb, Adam Holzman, Sophie Hunger, Jasmine Walkes
Tracklist:
- To The Bone
- Nowhere Now
- Pariah
- The Same Asylum As Before
- Refuge
- Permanating
- Blank Tapes
- People Who Eat Darkness
- Song Of I
- Detonation
- Song Of Unborn
Allison Moorer & Shelby Lynne – Not Dark Yet
The Scoop: Sisters Allison Moorer and Shelby Lynne teamed up for their first collaborative recording that resulted in the mostly covers album Not Dark Yet. The record’s title track is a Bob Dylan original and is featured alongside songs written by the likes of Nirvana, Townes Van Zandt, The Killers, Merle Haggard, Nick Cave, The Louvin Brothers and Jessi Colter. There’s also a newly penned track written by Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires and a song written by Moorer and Lynne. The sibling singer-songwriters enlisted Teddy Thompson, son of Richard and Linda Thompson, to produce the album that features contributions from Benmont Tench, Erik Deutsch, Doug Pettibone and others. Listen to the Isbell/Shires original “The Color Of A Cloudy Day” below:
Label: Silver Cross Records
Producer: Teddy Thompson
Number Of Tracks: 10
Running Time: 37:12
Guest Musicians: Erik Deutsch, Don Heffington, Michael Jerome, Val McCallum, Ben Peeler, Doug Pettibone, Taras Prodaniuk, Benmont Tench, Teddy Thompson
Tracklist:
- My List
- Every Time You Leave
- Not Dark Yet
- I’m Looking For Blue Eyes
- Lungs
- The Color Of A Cloudy Day
- Silver Wings
- Into My Arms
- Lithium
- Is It Too Much
Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.
