Today’s New Albums: St. Vincent, The Black Keys, Molly Tuttle & More
By Team JamBase May 14, 2021 • 5:59 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 St. Vincent, The Black Keys, Molly Tuttle, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home
The Scoop: Daddy’s Home, out today on Loma Vista Recordings, is the first St. Vincent (Annie Clark) album in four years. The follow-up to 2017’s MASSEDUCTION again finds Clark collaborating with co-producer Jack Antonoff. Others who contributed to Daddy’s Home along with Clark (vocals, guitar, lap steel, sitar, modular synth) and Antonoff (drums, percussion, bass, synths, Mellotron, Wurlitzer, guitar, background vocals) include frequent Clark collaborator keyboardist Thomas Bartlett, pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz, drummer Cian Riordan, percussionist Sam KS, bassist Patrick Kelly, multi-instrumentalist Evan Smith, violinist Daniel Hart, horn player Michael Leonhard and backing vocalists Lynne Fiddmont and Kenya Hathaway. The 11-track LP was recorded primarily at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, with additional tracking done at Brooklyn’s Rough Customer Studios and in Los Angeles at Conway Recording Studios and Compound Fracture Studio. Press materials regarding Daddy’s Home detailed the circumstances that influenced St. Vincent’s sixth album, stating:
In the winter of 2019, as MASSEDUCTION’s title track won the Grammy for Best Rock Song and the album won Best Recording Package, St. Vincent’s father was released from prison. She began writing the songs that would become Daddy’s Home, closing the loop on a journey that began with his incarceration in 2010, and ultimately led her back to the vinyl her dad had introduced her to during her childhood. The records she has probably listened to more than any other music in her entire life. Music made in sepia-toned downtown New York from 1971 – 1975.
Gritty.
Grimy.
Sleazy.
The Black Keys – Delta Kream
The Scoop: The Black Keys released their tenth studio album, Delta Kream, today via Nonesuch Records. The 11-track covers LP is an homage to Mississippi hill country blues and features songs from two of the genre’s key figures, Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside, among others who were early influences on The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney even before the inception of the band. Delta Kream — recorded at Dan’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville — features contributions from blues veterans Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton who played in bands with Burnside and Kimbrough. “We made this record to honor the Mississippi hill country blues tradition that influenced us starting out,” Auerbach said in a statement. “These songs are still as important to us today as they were the first day Pat and I started playing together and picked up our instruments. It was a very inspiring session with Pat and me along with Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton in a circle, playing these songs. It felt so natural.” The Black Keys previewed the record with Kimbrough’s “Crawling Kingsnake” as well as Burnside’s “Going Down South.”
Molly Tuttle – …but I’d rather be with you too
The Scoop: Surprise! Singer-songwriter Molly Tuttle today released …but I’d rather be with you too, a mostly unannounced companion EP to her covers album, …but I’d rather be with you, which came out last year. For the new set of covers, Tuttle recruited special guests to duet with on each of the three songs that were once again produced by Tony Berg. Tuttle was joined by Madison Cunningham on a version of Sheryl Crow’s hit “Strong Enough.” Iron & Wine teamed with Tuttle on a cover of Phantogram’s “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore.” And Nathaniel Rateliff accompanied Tuttle on a cover of the Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty rocker “Stop Dragging My Heart Around.”
“Nathaniel has been someone whose music helped get me through the struggles of this past year,” Tuttle said, “and it was such an honor to sing with him on this song that I love. I have always wanted to work up this classic Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty duet with someone and it was a thrill to do it with one of my favorite singers. We recorded our parts remotely but I hope we get to do it in person someday!”
Rodrigo y Gabriela – Jazz
The Scoop: Acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela have never shied away from covers with songs by Metallica, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin and Rage Against The Machine among the most played live by the pair. So it’s only fitting that Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero’s first release of the decade is Jazz, a three-song EP that Rubyworks/ATO issued today on streaming services following a vinyl release in February.
Sánchez and Quintero picked tunes from artists as diverse as the duo’s influences. The pair put their own spin on Kamasi Washington’s “Street Fighter Mas,” which was the only way two guitarists could replicate such a layered song. Rod y Gab also kept with contemporary jazz by covering Snarky Puppy’s “Lingus” for the EP but went in a different direction in offering a take on Argentine musician/composer and arranger Astor Piazzolla’s 1982 gem “Oblivion.” Gabriela and Rodrigo were joined by renowned flamenco guitarist Vincente Amigo for their tribute to Piazzolla, who would have turned 100 this year had he not died in 1992 after composing nearly 750 concertos, operas and scores. “When you play someone else’s music, you need to get outside your own headspace, and learn from scratch, it’s a real challenge,” Sánchez explained. “We had great fun, we hope you like it too.”
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
The Scoop: The 50th anniversary edition of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s landmark 1970 album Déjà Vu arrived today via Rhino. The 4-CD/1-LP box set includes the original album on vinyl as well as 38 demos and outtakes, most of which are previously unheard. Those include a version of the Graham Nash-penned “Our House,” featuring the song’s inspirational figure, Joni Mitchell, an alternate take of Neil Young’s “Helpless” with harmonica, a demo of David Crosby’s “Almost Cut My Hair” and more. The 50th anniversary deluxe edition of Déjà Vu also boasts a 12 x 12 hardcover book with rare photos from the era as well as annotation and liner notes from famed filmmaker and rock writer Cameron Crowe, who wrote: “Déjà Vu caught the zeitgeist perfectly… [it] might just be the legendary band’s most accurate portrait of their fiery individualism.” Rhino previewed the collection with the previously unheard Young/Nash collaboration “Birds” as well as the Stephen Stills-penned “Ivory Tower.”
Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.
