The first of this week’s smashers takes us back to March 2011, when Catherine Anne Davies aka The Anchoress recorded her debut, Communion, at London’s legendary Church Studios with an all-female string section. Recorded live in a single afternoon, Communion is a collection of songs stripped of drums and modern technology. The mini-album was named as one of NME’s best cult albums of the year but was only released on a limited-edition CD; now, 14 years to the date of recording, Communion is finally getting a full release on LP and CD.
There are few bands who’ve created a canon as determinedly innovative and critically acclaimed as The Horrors. Since the beginning they’ve roamed between genres and atmospheres freely: emerging as zeitgeist-shaking garage-goths on their 2007 debut, Strange House, before taking a shoegaze-nodding sharp left on their Mercury-nominated follow-up, Primary Colours. While the end results vary, at their core has always been the same unbending commitment and bloody-minded allegiance to the cause. The Horrors are not and will never be a band that approach the job lightly: they’re musicians who’ll funnel everything they are into the process, at the expense of health, wealth and sometimes sanity. And so, while their sixth album, Night Life, sees the band once more shapeshift into a new form, with a new sonic outlook and – this time – a new line-up, in some ways The Horrors are still as they ever were.
The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis was recorded in just four days in Nashville and features Lewis’s Voltage touring band of Brent Cole on drums, Mem Pahl on bass and Mallory Feuer on violin and keyboard. Jeffrey’s style of ‘anti-singing’ continues to reach for the humanity behind the artifice, mirroring the nudity of the album cover. Speaking of which: One snowy February day in 1963, Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo were photographed in New York City for the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan LP, around the corner from Dylan’s 4th Street apartment. 60 years later, lifelong 4th St resident Jeffrey Lewis had the idea to try to take the same chilly photo but with no pants on, to prove himself ‘even more’ freewheelin’ than Bob! This plan was foiled by global warming, as New York City winters no longer offer snowy photo ops, but at least Jeffrey tried.
KOKO is Lottery Winners’ most adventurous album while being home to their most infectious songs yet. It’s a captivating album that will surely see their vast fan base continue to grow. KOKO’s 12 tracks include a beautiful ode to friendship, a deliriously catchy duet with Reverend and The Makers’ Jon McClure about being unhealthily obsessed with your ex, a literally escapist chant-along funk anthem, a power ballad featuring Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, a tender song of regret, plus the most uplifting, celebratory songs about panic attacks, ADHD and being expelled from school you’ll ever hear. There’s even a dance routine.
For more than 25 years, My Morning Jacket have achieved an incredibly rare feat in rock & roll, upholding a long-established cultural legacy while sustaining the curiosity and creative hunger of their earliest days. For their tenth studio album, Is, the band teamed up with Grammy Award-winning producer Brendan O’Brien (Springsteen, Pearl Jam) for what may be their most masterfully realised work yet, once again expanding the limits of their sound while elevating their artistry to unprecedented heights.
Our release of the week is The Great Western Road, whose songs reflect the journey that Deacon Blue has taken over the past 40 years, and remain honest to the age and experience they all share. Joyous lead single ‘Late ’88’ fondly remembers the care-free excitement of those early days. The Great Western Road was recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios, with Ricky Ross and (Deacon Blue guitarist and long-term collaborator) Gregor Philp returning to production duties, having produced the band’s last full-length album, 2020’s City of Love. The album was recorded by Matt Butler, who first worked with the band on their debut, Raintown.
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