Every Friday, 88Nine music director Erin Wolf and Lilliput Records co-owner Tanner Musgrove tell you about the new albums you can’t miss on a new episode of On Vinyl. Check out their top picks and a list of this week’s other releases, and listen to their full conversation using the player on this page or on the 88Nine airwaves at 1 p.m. every Friday.
This Friday, as we start to ease into the year, it’s apparent some introspection’s in order. And if it’s introspection you want and soul-soothing songs you need, we’re gonna deliver both today.
In the folky, singer-songwriter vein, we have releases from Courtney Marie Andrews, whose confessional vibrato is accompanied by sweeping orchestrals (compliments of Grizzly Bear’s Chris Bear) on new album Valentine. Staying in folk land, Texan Jana Horn keeps it slow and deliberate in her creaking, quietly loud approach that’s indebted to a slowcore movement having a bit of a resurgence.
If you seek something more spritely to catapult yourself into the stratosphere, avant vocalist Julianna Barwick and harpist Mary Lattimore head heavenwards with their celestial vocal layering dotted with Lattimore’s strings. Rounding out the transcendence, a little doo-wop and soul never fails to help hit that reset button on a rough day (or week … or month!), so let Bill Schalda and sons take you away with their soothing and tender harmonies as The Sha La Das.
Happy New Music Friday!
Best new albums out Jan. 16
Courtney Marie Andrews, Valentine
The Phoenix-based singer-songwriter amply plies her songs with heightened emotion and soul-searching, and for her ninth album, she got a little help in highlighting those elements. Chris Bear of indie-rock band Grizzly Bear assisted in fleshing out the songs for Valentine, giving her folk-based song structures an ethereal appeal.
Andrews is a poet and painter in addition to her songwriting, and her multidisciplinary nature creates a vivid depth in her music. For the vinyl-minded, there are gatefold versions in Coke bottle clear, indie-exclusive gold and classic black, available via Thirty Tigers Records.
Jana Horn, Jana Horn
After finishing her master’s of fine arts degree in Virginia, Texan singer-songwriter Jana Horn packed her bags and moved to New York, where she wrote this newest collection of songs. In an interview, she talked about being unhappy at first after her big move, experiencing a feeling of disconnect from her life back home. Naturally, these new songs reflect that.
Listening to Horn’s third album makes it feel like you’re on a journey with her as she drifts through this new place called home, trying to find her footing. The self-titled record is available on classic black vinyl from No Quarter Records at a local record shop near you.
Mary Lattimore & Julianna Barwick, Tragic Magic
Harpist Mary Lattimore and vocalist Julianna Barwick deal in contemporary experimental and electronic music, and here they’ve joined up for a unique collab at the Philharmonie de Paris. What makes this such a rarity is their access to the Musée de la Musique’s instrument collection in partnership with the French label InFiné.
The duo said Tragic Magic was guided by the human spirit and grounded in friendship, both earthly and cosmic. Co-produced by Trevor Spencer (Fleet Foxes, Beach House), the songs were created in just nine days and are a testament to the “musical telepathy” that has developed between Barwick and Lattimore over years of being friends and touring together.
For vinyl collectors, the wax is bio-vinyl, pressed in forest canopy green. The release from InFiné Records comes in a plain black disco bag and has a double-sided gatefold insert and printed labels, as well as exclusive hand-scored paper doll cut-out sheets for each artist.
The Sha La Das, Your Picture
Family doo-wop group The Sha La Das consists of 79-year old Bill Schalda and sons Will, Paul and Carmine, who became known for backing artists like Charles Bradley along with Menahan Street Band. This is their sophomore album that follows their 2018 debut, which the group originally thought might just be a one-off.
We were big fans of Love in the Wind, and it’s likely that many Exclusive Company (now Lilliput Records) patrons heard that one playing in the background of the shop after its release. It’s really cool to see a family band like this still being active and really digging in with those unmatched, relational harmonies. Their sound is pretty special and shines through on the new record, available now via Daptone.
More of our picks
- James Hunter Six, Off the Fence
- Langhorne Slim, The Dreamin’ Kind
- Sleaford Mods, The Demise of Planet X
- Together Pangea, Eat Myself
- Xiu Xiu, Xiu Mutha Fuckin' Xiu: Vol. 1
