St. Vincent celebrates Father’s Day early, The Black Keys get the blues, Paul Weller pops up for the second time in a year, Juliana Hatfield sees red, Sons Of Kemet make a power play and CSNY have Déjà Vu all over again. Here are your plays of the week:
The Black Keys
Delta Kream
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Black Keys’ tenth studio album Delta Kream celebrates the band’s roots, featuring 11 Mississippi hill country blues standards that they have loved since they were teenagers, before they were a band, including songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded Delta Kream at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville; they were joined by musicians Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, long-time members of the bands of blues legends including R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. The album takes its name from William Eggleston’s iconic Mississippi photograph that is on its cover. Auerbach says of the album, “We made this record to honor the Mississippi hill country blues tradition that influenced us starting out. 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.” Carney concurs, “The session was planned only days in advance and nothing was rehearsed. We recorded the entire album in about 10 hours, over two afternoons, at the end of the Let’s Rock tour.”
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Déjà Vu 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Déjà Vu was the most-anticipated new album in America in 1970. More than 50 years later, it’s one of the most famous albums in rock history with legendary songs, including Carry On and Teach Your Children, that still resonate today. The Déjà Vu 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition will honor the intense creative journey that led to this milestone album with an expansive four-CD/one-LP collection that includes a pristine version of the original album on both 180-gram vinyl and CD, plus hours of rare and unreleased studio recordings that provide incredible insight into the making of the record. Presented in a 12 x 12 hardcover book, the collection comes illustrated with rarely seen photos from the era and annotated by writer/filmmaker Cameron Crowe, whose revealing liner notes recount the making of the album through stories told by the people who were there, including David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young.”
Juliana Hatfield
Blood
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Over the past four years, Juliana Hatfield has kept fans engaged and intrigued as she oscillates between impassioned original releases (Pussycat, Weird) and inspired covers collections (Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police). This year she returns with her latest album of originals, Blood. Her 19th solo studio album takes a deep dive into the dark side with a lens on modern human psychology and behaviour. “I think these songs are a reaction to how seriously and negatively a lot of people have been affected by the past four years,” says Juliana. “But it’s fun, musically. There’s a lot of playing around. I didn’t really have a plan when I started this project.” With the pandemic limiting studio safety and availability, Juliana took the opportunity to learn to record at her Massachusetts home with recent collaborator Jed Davis assisting from Connecticut. “Usually I work in a studio,” explains Juliana. “I did more than half the work in my room — with Jed helping me to troubleshoot the technology, and helping with building and arranging some of the songs — and then I finished up with additional overdubs and mixing with engineer James Bridges at Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA.”
https://youtu.be/eltZcQZnZh4
St. Vincent
Daddy’s Home
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Daddy’s Home, the sixth album from Annie Clark aka St. Vincent, is the latest facet of an ever-evolving artist regarded by many as the most consistently innovative and intriguing presence in modern music. 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 album was produced by Annie Clark and Jack Antonoff, recorded by Laura Sisk, mixed by Cian Riordan, and mastered by Chris Gehringer. The music was performed by Annie, Jack, Cian, Thomas, Evan Smith, Sam KS, Greg Leisz, Daniel Hart, Michael Leonhard, Lynne Fiddmont and Kenya Hathaway. And Candy Darling lived within and presided over it all.”
Sons of Kemet
Black To The Future
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Saxophonist, composer, philosopher and writer Shabaka Hutchings returns with Black To The Future, the fourth LP from his Mercury Prize-nominated outfit Sons of Kemet. Musically, Black To The Future is a bigger affair than previous Sons of Kemet records. The core group — Theon Cross (tuba), Edward Wakili-Hick (percussion), Tom Skinner (percussion) — is enhanced by guests such as U.K. saxophonist Steve Williamson, Chicago bandleader and vocalist Angel Bat Dawid, American poet Moor Mother, legendary British grime MC D Double E, British artist/rapper/spoken word musical artist Kojey Radical, and more. Hutchings also adds complex layers of woodwind instrumentation throughout the record, which he did during lockdown. He says, “Black to the Future is a sonic poem for the invocation of power, remembrance and healing. It depicts a movement to redefine and reaffirm what it means to strive for black power.”
Paul Weller
Fat Pop (Volume 1)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Fat Pop is Paul Weller’s 16th solo album since his self-titled debut in 1992, his fourth in as many years and his second in just under 12 months following June 2020’s magnificent, chart-topping On Sunset. It’s not hyperbole to state that this new album is among his most compelling collections, bar none, including all of his era-defining work in the 1970s and ‘80s with The Jam and The Style Council. It’s an absolute scorcher. When lockdown was declared in March 2020, Paul Weller decided immediately that he wanted something to focus on, since it seemed unlikely he’d be able to tour On Sunset as planned. “I had lots of ideas stored up on my phone,” he explains down that same handset, speaking from outside his London home, “and at least this gave me an opportunity to develop them.” So he started to record songs on his own, doing just vocals, piano and guitar, then sending those sound files to his core band members such as drummer Ben Gordelier, Steve Cradock on guitar and various other instruments, and bassist Andy Crofts for them to add their parts. “It was a bit weird not being together, but at least it kept the wheels rolling. I’d have gone potty otherwise.”
