Release Day Picks: June 22nd New Album Highlights

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 Nine Inch Nails, Dawes, Kamasi Washington, The Record Company and T. Hardy Morris. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

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Nine Inch Nails – Bad Witch

The Scoop: Industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails concludes a trilogy with the release of the full-length album Bad Witch. The six-track effort comes on the heels of 2016’s Not The Actual Events and last year’s Add Violence. NIN masterminds Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were running into creative difficulties when recording Bad Witch. “Unexpectedly, we bogged down in quicksand. We started working, and it just wasn’t feeling right,” Reznor told Entertainment Weekly. “A lot of the music felt like posturing. Depression was setting in on some level. I think leading to a point of frustration kind of snapped us into the breakthrough that we needed, which was, let’s try some things that would be exciting and risky to do.” The pair wound up incorporating saxophone and other unorthodox (for NIN) sounds as Bad Witch aims to answer the question of just where we belong in this world. Watch the video for the single “God Break Down The Door”:

Label: The Null Corporation

Producer: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

Number Of Tracks: 6

Running Time: 30:14

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Shit Mirror
2. Ahead of Ourselves
3. Play The Goddamned Part
4. God Break Down The Door
5. I’m Not From This World
6. Over & Out

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Dawes – Passwords

The Scoop: For their sixth studio album Dawes went back to their roots by reuniting with Jonathan Wilson who produced the band’s two first releases. Wilson’s adventurous sonic touches are heard throughout Passwords as the band offers up everything from SoCal country rock, to psychedelic-tinged 1980s synth rockers, to plaintive ballads. While Wilson has a knack for dialing up the weirdness when necessary it’s Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith’s songwriting that has always been at the heart of this band. Goldsmith described the 10-track collection as an “attempt to come to terms with the modern world, while always trying t consider both sides of the story … Songs can be passwords because they’re a means of giving access to someone else’s perspective, thereby elaborating your own.” Check out the music video for “Living In The Future”:

Label: HUB Records

Producer: Jonathan Wilson

Number Of Tracks: 10

Running Time: 51:34

Guest Musicians: Holly Laessig & Jess Wolfe (Lucius), Drew Erickson, Ina Veli, Jonathan Wilson, Josh Johnson, Luis Mascaro, Oliver Newell, Peter Jacobson, Tom Lea, Trevor Menear

Tracklist:

1. Living In The Future
2. Stay Down
3. Crack The Case
4. Feed The Fire
5. My Greatest Invention
6. Telescope
7. I Can’t Love
8. Mistakes We Should Have Made
9. Never Gonna Say Goodbye
10. Time Flies Either Way

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Kamasi Washington – Heaven And Earth

The Scoop: Saxophonist/bandleader Kamasi Washington established himself as a primary figure in the current jazz scene with his aptly named 2015 triple-LP debut The Epic. Though that release came well into Washington’s recording career, the time since has seen the talented musician’s profile continue to rise. His sophomore album Heaven And Earth is a double-disc set that was recorded at Henson Studios in Los Angeles. A typically massive and impressive roster of talent surrounded Washington during the sessions, including his band The Next Step and members of The West Coast Get Down as well as Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Ronald Bruner Jr., Cameron Graves, Brandon Coleman, Miles Mosley, Patrice Quinn, Tony Austin and others. The album presents new arrangements of Freddie Hubbard’s “Hubtones” and the kung fu film “Fists Of Fury” theme According to Washington, “the Earth side of this album represents the world as I see it outwardly, the world that I am a part of,” while, “the Heaven side of this album represents the world as I see it inwardly, the world that is a part of me. Who I am and the choices I make lie somewhere in between.” Here’s the video to “Street Fighter Mas”:

Label: Young Turks

Producer: Kamasi Washington

Number Of Tracks: 16

Running Time: 2:24:32

Guest Musicians: Stephen Bruner, Miles Mosley, Gabe Noel, Carlitos Del Puerto, Dominic Thiroux, Amber Joy Wyman, Peter Jacobson, Ginger Murphy, Adrienne Woods, Nia Andrews, Thalma de Freitas, Jackie Fiske, Taylor Graves, Angelo D. Johnson Jr., Dawn Norfleet, Sonnet Simmons, Dustin Warren, Amaya Washington, Steven Wayne, Mashica Winslow, Patrice Quinn, Cameron Graves, Tracy Wannomae, Ryan Porter, Ronald Bruner Jr., Robert Miller, Jonathan Pinson, Robert “Sput” Searight, Tony Austin, Rickey Washington, Laura Brenes, Amy Sanchez, Brandon Coleman, Greg Martin, Kahlil Cummings, Allakoi Peete, Jameal Dean, Terrace Martin, Dontae Winslow, Marc Bolin, Caroline Buckman, Brittany Cotto, Chad Jackson, Landon Jones, Tom Lea, Morgan Matadero, Molly Rogers, Paul Cartwright, Yvette Devereaux, Yvette Holzwarth, Rocío Marron, Reiko Nakano, Jen Simone, Ray Suen, Dwight Trible

Tracklist:

I. Earth

1. Fists of Fury
2. Can You Hear Him
3. Hubtones
4. Connections
5. Tiffakonkae
6. The Invincible Youth
7. Testify
8. One of One

II. Heaven

9. The Space Travelers Lullaby
10. Vi Lua Vi Sol
11. Street Fighter Mas
12. Song for the Fallen
13. Journey
14. The Psalmnist
15. Show Us the Way
16. Will You Sing

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The Record Company – All Of This Life

The Scoop: Los Angeles-based trio The Record Company achieved both commercial and critical success with the release of their self-titled debut album in 2016. Chris Vos, bassist Alex Stiff and drummer Marc Cazorla assembled at Boulevard Recording in Hollywood to record what turned out to be All Of This Life, their 10-track sophomore LP. “Our lives got crazier and bigger and more complicated in the best possible ways, and our sound and our songwriting just naturally grew alongside that,” Vos said about the last few years. “This record to me is about making yourself better,” Vos added about the Stiff-produced album. “It’s about owning your spot in the world. If you’re not on the right path, the only person who can take that next step to fix it is you.” Check out the video for the album’s lead single “Life To Fix”:

Label: Concord Records

Producer: Alex Stiff

Number Of Tracks: 10

Running Time: 44:48

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Life To Fix
2. I’m Getting Better (And I’m Feeling It Right Now)
3. Goodbye To The Hard Life
4. Make It Happen
5. You And Me Now
6. Coming Home
7. The Movie Song
8. Night Games
9. Roll Bones
10. I’m Changing

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T. Hardy Morris – Dude, The Obscure

The Scoop: Athens, Georgia-native T. Hardy Morris went to Nashville to record his third solo album at producer Adam Landry’s Playground Studio. The title of the resulting 11-song effort is a nod to the author Thomas Hardy’s novel Jude, The Obscure. “Thomas Hardy is my given name, and Dude, The Obscure is a moniker I considered using as an artist,” Morris stated. “The hat tip to the novel seemed appropriate for the album because it deals with doubts, joys, regrets and spirituality, a lifelong journey and such.” Stream the album’s opener “Be”:

Label: Normaltown Records

Producer: Adam Landry

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 45:56

Guest Musicians: Vanessa Carlton, Julian Dorio, Vaughan Lamb, Adam Landry, John McCauley, Thayer Serrano, Nick Sterchi, Matt “Pistol” Stoessel

Tracklist:

1. Be
2. Homemade Bliss
3. The Night Everything Changed
4. Cheating Life, Living Death
5. When the Record Skips
6. Stage Names
7. No Reason
8. NY
9. Lit By Midnight
10. 4 Days of Rain
11. Purple House Blues

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Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.