“I’ve always thought that my reckless side was both a gift and a curse, leading me to my best choices on stage but my worst choices in life,” vocalist and bassist Julia Cumming explained in a statement about the song. “I don’t have control sometimes is admission, acceptance, and almost celebration of the parts of yourself that are impulsive or maybe even insane.”
Headful of Sugar is set for release on May 6 via Lucky Number.
Sharon Van Etten has announced her new album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. The follow-up to 2019’s Remind Me Tomorrow will be released on May 6 via Jagjaguwar. Check out a trailer for the record below.
Van Etten’s recent singles ‘Porta’ and ‘Used To It’ do not appear on We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. In fact, there will be no advance tracks leading up to the release of the album. “I wanted to approach this release differently, to engage my fans in an intentional way, in an effort to present the album as a whole body of work,” Van Etten commented in a statement. “These 10 songs are designed to be listened to in order, at once, so that a much larger story of hope, loss, longing and resilience can be told.”
Daniel Knowles co-produced We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, which features Van Etten’s touring band of Jorge Balbi on drums, Devon Hoff on bass, and live musical director Charley Damski on synthesizers and guitars. According to a press release, the album “concerns itself with the questions we ask ourselves when we think the world – or at least, our world – might be ending. Have we loved as well as we could? Did we try hard enough? How do we protect the things most precious to us from destructive forces beyond our control? And how do we salvage something worthwhile when it seems all is lost?”
The cover art is intended to reflect Van Etten’s approach to these questions. “I wanted to convey that in an image with me walking away from it all,” she said, “not necessarily brave, not necessarily sad, not necessarily happy.”
Joan Shelley has announced her first album in three years. The follow-up to 2019’s Like the River Loves the Sea is called The Spur, and it’s due out June 24 via No Quarter Records. Today, Shelley is previewing the record with its lead single and title track. Check it out and find the album’s cover art (by Rob Carmichael and Amber Estes Thieneman) and tracklist below.
The 12-track LP was recorded in the spring of 2021 at Earthwave Farm in the Kentucky countryside. James Elkington produced the album, which includes collaborations with Bill Callahan, Meg Baird, and the British novelist Max Porter, as well as Nathan Salsburg, whom Shelley married in June of 2021. The songs on the record were written between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2020. At the time of recording, Shelley was seven months pregnant with her first child.
“The Spur is the result of a period of opposite extremes: of intellectual hyper-connection and physical isolation,” Shelley explained in a press release. “This album will forever be fused with the memory of our marriage, the birth of our child, and the intense joy despite the darkness.”
The Spur Cover Artwork:
The Spur Tracklist:
1. Forever Blues
2. The Spur
3. Home
4. Amberlit Morning
5. Like The Thunder
6. When The Light Is Dying
7. Breath For The Boy
8. Fawn
9. Why Not Live Here
10. Bolt
11. Between Rock & Sky
12. Completely
Nilüfer Yanya has shared a new music video for ‘the dealer’, which appears on her latest album PAINLESS. The clip is directed by Molly Daniel, who also helmed the video for ‘anotherlife’. Watch it below.
PAINLESS, Yanya’s third full-length, arrived last month. Following its release, the London singer-songwriter performed the single ‘midnight sun’ on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The US leg of her world tour in support of the album begins this month.
Black Country, New Road have announced their first tour dates since the departure of founding vocalist and guitarist Isaac Wood. “We’re incredibly pleased to announce our touring dates for 2022,” the band wrote on social media. “We’re looking forward to sharing what we’ve been working on with you. The six of us will be performing a set of brand new music.” Tickets go on sale on Thursday, April 7 at 10am BST here. Check out the list of dates below.
The band noted that they won’t be playing any music from their debut LP For the first time and the recently released Ants From Up There. “Although the majority of our performances will be at festivals, we’ve arranged a short run of smaller shows around the UK in May to debut and road-test this new material,” they added. “We hope to see as many of you as we can over the summer.”
Although the majority of our performances will be at festivals, we’ve arranged a short run of smaller shows around the UK in May to debut and road-test this new material. We hope to see as many of you as we can over the summer…………………………………
May 19 – Brighton, Patterns
May 20 – Manchester, YES (Pink Room)
May 21 – Bristol, Strange Brew
May 22 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
May 23 – Glasgow, King Tut’s
May 26-28 – Germany, Immergut Festival
Jun 3 – France, Levitation Festival
Jun 4 – Barcelona, Primavera Sound
Jun 5 – Switzerland, Bad Bonn Kilbi
Jun 10-12 – Oxfordshire, Kite Festival
Jun 17-19 – Lithuania, 8 Festival
Jul 7-9 – Slovakia, Pohoda Festival
Jul 13-17 – Belgium, Dour Festival
Jul 16 – Latvia, Positivus Festival
Jul 23 – London, Visions Festival
Aug 5-6 – Czech Republic, Beseda U Bigbitu
Aug 11 – Sweden, Way Out West Festival
Aug 15 – Switzerland, Winterthurer MusikFestwochen
Aug 18-21 – Wales, Green Man Festival
Aug 28 – Scotland, Connect Festival
Sep 2-5 – Netherlands, Into The Great Wide Open Festival
Companion, the Fort Collins, CO-based duo of identical twin sisters Sophia and Jo Babb, have shared a new song called ‘Snowbank’. Following previous singles ’23rd Street’ and ‘How Could I Have Known’, the track is taken from their forthcoming debut LP. Check out a video for it below.
“In the snowy depths of a few Februarys ago, I found myself star-crossed with another, pining for something that would never come to be,” Jo Babb explained in a press release. “‘Snowbank’ was written the morning after a blustery night that left me confused, while certain at the same time. I was full of feelings and this song was born out of them in an instant. Writing it out was extremely cathartic and to this day, playing it feels like an outlet for displaced longing.”
Melody’s Echo Chamber has shared a new single, ‘Alma’, lifted from her upcoming third album Emotional Eternal. The track arrives with a music video directed by Hyoyon Paik (Chloë), who also helmed the visual for lead cut ‘Looking Backward’. Check it out below.
“To me this song is a butterfly,” Melody Prochet remarked in a statement. “It feels more like a little poem to life than a song; it was the first song to arise from the echoes of silence since Bon Voyage. I think I recorded the emotion of that kind of spiritual experience of the essential yet heart-breaking separation from the pure love bubble to the world of others.”
She continued: “We recorded ‘Alma’ in Swahn’s studio in Stockholm again; I remember we gave special attention to the groove, to give it a swing and emphasis on the light side, with a minor sound of danger in the veil of the mist somewhere. Johan Holmegaard played drums, Gustav Estjes played the piano and little velvet flute; Josephin Runsteen created transcending strings and noises directed by Reine and Swahn.”
Emotional Eternal is out April 29 via Domino. Along with ‘Alma’ and ‘Looking Backward’, it includes the previously released single ‘Personal Message’.
Hercules & Love Affair and ANOHNI have shared ‘Poisonous Storytelling’, the second single from the upcoming album In Amber. Following previous offering ‘Grace’, the track finds the two artists reuniting for the first time since Hercules & Love Affair’s self-titled 2008 debut. Check it out below.
Hercules & Love Affair’s Andy Butler said in a statement about the track: “‘Poisonous Storytelling’ started as a song called ‘Sacral’ – The music evoked sacred rites, but the word “Sacral” also speaks to one of the sources of our rootedness and stability.” ANONHI added: “We must be careful with new narratives, because everyone is rotted out from poisonous storytelling.”
Also out today are two remixes of the track by Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh) and techno duo Giant Swan, which you can find below, too. In Amber, Hercules & Love Affair’s first new album since 2017’s Omnion, arrives on June 17 via Skint/BMG.
Brooklyn-based artist Grace Ives has announced her new album Janky Star with a video for the new single ‘Lullaby’. The follow-up to 2019’s 2nd drops on June 10 via True Panther/Harvest/EMI. Check out the Logan White-directed visual for ‘Lullaby’ below, and scroll down for the album’s cover artwork and tracklist.
Speaking about the new track, which follows February’s ‘Loose’, Ives explained in a statement: “Living the same day over and over again. This song is about the comfort and anxiety that comes with isolating yourself. Homebody’s anthem.“
Ives made Janky Star with co-producer Justin Raisen in Los Angeles. “Some people go through a version of something called rejection therapy, where they ask for things they simply can’t have,” Ives said, adding: “Everyone has a shitty star tattoo/stick n poke, that’s never perfect, or is rough around the edges. A beautiful thing to think about is that stars on earth look like blobs but in space really defined structures.”
Janky Star Cover Artwork:
Janky Star Tracklist:
1. Isn’t It Lovely
2. Loose
3. Burn Bridges
4. Angel Of Business
5. Lazy Day
6. Shelly
7. Back In LA
8. On The Ground
9. Win Win
10. Lullaby
Pinegrove performed a cover of Radiohead’s OK Computer song ‘Let Down’ for SiriusXMU. Check it out below.
The Montclair, New Jersey band released their latest album, 11:11, via Rough Trade earlier this year. They’re currently on an extensive tour in support of the album, which will take them to the UK and Europe in May before heading back to North America in July. Last month, they performed the track ‘Cyclone’ on Corden.
