Release Day Picks: September 13th 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 The New Mastersounds, Pixies, The Lumineers, Jeremy Ivey and Devendra Banhart. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

The New Mastersounds – Shake It

The Scoop: After 20 years The New Mastersounds are still going strong. Today, the band releases Shake It via guitarist Eddie Roberts’ Color Red label. The core quartet recruited vocalist Lamar Williams Jr. to contribute to the majority of the LP’s 11 tracks. Shake It also includes cameos from the horn section of trumpeter Mike Olmos and saxophonist Jason Mingledorff, who also plays flute at points on the album.

Pixies – Beneath The Eyrie

The Scoop: The seventh full-length studio album from Pixies since their forming in 1986, Beneath The Eyrie was produced by Tom Dalgety who also produced the band’s previous album, 2016’s Head Carrier. The new record is the band’s third since 2014, each of which were recorded without founding bassist Kim Deal. The 12-track Beneath The Eyrie was recorded at Dreamland Recordings outside Woodstock, New York by the current Pixies lineup of co-founding members guitarists Black Francis and Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering, along with the newest member, bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band detailed the recording process in a 12-part podcast series It’s a Pixies Podcast.

The Lumineers – III

The Scoop: The Lumineers are back with a bold new concept album titled simply III. The follow-up to 2016’s critically acclaimed LP Cleopatra, III chronicles the world of the Sparks family. Told in three parts with each one centering on a different member of the family, the record carries a darker tone than previous efforts. The lead single “Gloria,” for instance, takes a look at the “love between an addict and her family,” frontman Wesley Schultz said in a statement. Schultz co-wrote the album with fellow Lumineer and multi-instrumentalist Jeremiah Fraites. “This collection of songs worked out in a beautiful way, and I feel with this album we’ve really hit our stride,” Fraites said.

Jeremy Ivey – The Dream And The Dreamer

The Scoop: At age 41, Jeremy Ivey had crossed off many items from his musical bucket list but releasing a solo album wasn’t one of them. Ivey now unveils his debut solo album, the nine-track The Dream & The Dreamer via ANTI- Records. Margo Price, Ivey’s wife and longtime collaborator both produced and contributed to the LP as a performer and co-writer. The pair recorded the album in their hometown of Nashville. “The best thing I could say is that I’m trying to fill the holes that I can see in the scene,” Jeremy Ivey said of his music. “Whether it be Americana or country or rock or whatever. There’s a certain type of song that isn’t being written.”

Devendra Banhart – Ma

The Scoop: Singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart returns with his first album of original material since 2016. The 13-song Ma was produced by Noah Georgeson, with initial sessions held in a temple in Kyoto, Japan. Additional recording was done in California in Los Angeles at Sea Horse Studios and 64 Sound and at Anderson Canyon in Big Sur. The track “Now All Gone” features Cate Le Bon‘s backing vocals and Banhart’s “mentor, muse, and dear friend” Vashti Bunyan appears on “Will I See You Tonight.” Three songs are sung by Banhart in Spanish, one in Portuguese and the rest in his native English. “I may not have a child and I thought, maybe I should make a record where I can put in everything I would want to say to them,” Banhart told Apple Music. “And while doing that, you kind of realize, well, maybe it’s also everything I wish someone had said to me.”

Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.