Release Day Picks: September 9th New Album Highlights

By Team JamBase Sep 9, 2016 • 4:55 am PDT

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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 Wilco, Okkervil River, Zach Deputy and The Head and the Heart. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

Wilco – Schmilco

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The Scoop: Last summer Wilco out Radiohead’d Radiohead when they unexpectedly dropped their ninth studio album Star Wars seemingly out of thin air making it available as a free download. For their follow-up, the Chicago-based band have gone back to the more traditional album release route, while still retaining their tongue-in-cheek sensibilities when it comes to naming their albums with – Schmilco. With his third release in as many years, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy is in midst of one of his most prolific songwriting periods of his career. The 12-track effort finds the band continuing to evolve, this time stripping things back a bit for a more organic feel, while still pushing sonic boundaries. Give a listen to the album’s lead single “If I Ever Was a Child”:

Label: dBpm Records

Producer: Jeff Tweedy, Tom Schick

Number Of Tracks: 12

Running Time: 36:22

Guest Musicians: Spencer Tweedy

Tracklist:

  1. Normal American Kids
  2. If I Ever Was A Child
  3. Cry All Day
  4. Common Sense
  5. Nope
  6. Someone to Lose
  7. Happiness
  8. Quarters
  9. Locator
  10. Shrug & Destroy
  11. We Aren’t the World (Safety Girl)
  12. Just Say Goodbye

Stream / Download / CD/LP

Okkervil River – Away

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The Scoop: Back in 2007, Okkervil River helped usher in the age of what NPR Music dubbed “Smart Rock” (or what would likely now be classified as “Dad Rock”) with their fourth studio album The Stage Names – a punchy collection of wordy story songs that reflected about life being in a “mid-level” touring band. In the almost decade since the band has gone through a number of changes, with just frontman Will Sheff being its only constant. The band’s latest – Away – finds Sheff backed by an entirely new set of musicians, but what hasn’t changed is his deeply personal and emotional songwriting. While the nine songs veer towards heavy-hearted subjects and melancholy, there is something to be said for a “sad” album as summer turns to fall. Check out the video for the album’s lead single “Okkervil River R.I.P.”:

Label: ATO Records

Producer: Will Sheff

Number Of Tracks: 9

Running Time: 57:11

Guest Musicians: Marissa Nadler, yMusic, Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater)

Tracklist:

  1. Okkervil River R.I.P.
  2. Call Yourself Renee
  3. The Industry
  4. Comes Indiana Through the Smoke
  5. Judey On The Street
  6. She Would Look For Me
  7. Mary On The Wave
  8. Frontman In Heaven
  9. Days Spent Floating (In The Halfbetween)

Stream / Download / CD/LP

Zach Deputy – Wash It In The Water

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The Scoop: One-man band Zach Deputy continues to fuse reggae, funk and soul music with sounds of the Caribbean on his new solo album, which comes just months after he released an album with a band called The Hashtags. Wash It In The Water is an 11-track effort that includes his signature looping and beat-boxing skills. Deputy explains why tropical sounds are so integral to his music, “Because of the music I was raised on, I’ve always heard rhythm in a very tropical, Latin-esque way—it’s something that resonates in the deepest parts of me … When I was a kid my grandma would play a lot of salsa and soca and make me get up and dance to it, so in a way this is me putting my own spin on all that and bringing those sounds into a whole new era.” Listen to the album’s first single, “Chevrolet”:

Label: Organic Soul

Producer: Zach Deputy

Number Of Tracks: 11

Running Time: 43:04

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

  1. Wash It In The Water
  2. Put It In The Boogie
  3. Chevrolet
  4. Scrambled Eggs
  5. The Music
  6. Edna
  7. You Got It All
  8. Loving You
  9. Jump In The Water
  10. Some Days Are Harder
  11. It’s All Right

Stream / Download / CD/LP

The Head And The Heart – Signs Of Light

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The Scoop: Recorded in Nashville, The Head And The Heart make their move from Sub Pop to Warner Bros. Records with the sextet’s third LP and follow-up to 2013’s Let’s Be Still. The group members – drummer Tyler Williams, bassist Chris Zasche, pianist Kenny Hensley, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Charity Rose Thielen, guitarist Jonathan Russell and frontman Josiah Johnson – spent time apart following the conclusion of an extensive tour in 2014. They regrouped last summer, taking over a bungalow in Stinson Beach, California to begin work on what became the new album. Here’s the video for the single “All We Ever Knew”:

Label: Warner Bros. Records

Producer: Jay Joyce

Number Of Tracks: 13

Running Time: 49:06

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

  1. All We Ever Knew
  2. City of Angels
  3. Rhythm & Blues
  4. False Alarm
  5. Dreamer
  6. Library Magic
  7. Turn It Around
  8. Colors
  9. Take a Walk
  10. Oh My Dear
  11. I Don’t Mind
  12. Your Mother’s Eyes
  13. Signs of Light

Stream / Download / CD/LP

Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein

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