Another week, another new music weekly.
A really slow release week probably because of the US election. Grateful that it turned out well and we can breathe a bit more easily after this result. Love speaks louder still like VanWyck sings on the Ballad of the Quiet Citizen. Of course following the election also took all my time and attention, so it’s a big possibility that I also missed some releases entirely. Anyway, here’s the short release round up and playlist of the week.
There’s new albums from Kristofer Åström, David James Allen, Andrew Collberg, Herman Dune, Donovan Woods and Honey Made. I also featured the Chris Acker album for the first time. I stumbled upon A Song Catcher’s video of Orion’s Gut a few weeks ago and been listening to it ever since and finally bought it on Friday on Bandcamp day. It came out early in the year, so I’m really late to this one. Thankfully music is relevant whenever it hits your heart. Sometimes it may seem like a life span of an album is like two weeks around the release date and new music blogs such as this might even contribute to this feeling. It’s load of rubbish though. It doesn’t matter if the music was released in 1935 or tomorrow, if it hits your soul today. That Normal Heights EP is also some weeks old. Here’s the full list of album/EP releases that were on my radar this week:
Chris Acker – Good Kid (March release, first time on the new music weekly and playlist)
Kristofer Åström – Hard Times (Startracks)
David James Allen – Radiations (Garment District Records)
Andrew Collberg – 1986 (Papercup Records)
Herman Dune – Notes from Vinegar Hill
Donovan Woods – Without People
Normal Heights – The Trees EP (OCT 20 release)
Honey Made – Brand New
Outside of the streaming world there’s bunch of good ones too.
Daniel Romano – White Flag (Another 2020 album from Daniel Romano. If I get lazy with the year-end lists, I can make a great top10 AOTY list just by using Daniel Romano albums.)
No. 1 Knife – Mr. Nickelsworth (Cafe Rooster Records) (New band by Brian Wright and Sally Jaye)
Matthew ‘Doc’ Dunn – Rain, Rain, Rain (OCT 26 release from Canadian cosmic cowboy, I just bought it myself)
Fred Thomas – Another Song About Riding the Bus (Selected Songs 2002-2020) (Antiquated Future Records) (This is the one that I meant to mention a week ago, a rarities comp from the great Fred Thomas)
The Finnish section is pretty small. Only revisiting the gorgeous Message Field album from the past week and adding the new Mauri Dark single to the playlist. Helmi Levyt also released a beautiful album by A O I D E, which is not yet on the streaming services.
And finally the international singles. The playlist starts with a protest song by Chris Pierce. I know him from War & Pierce, but this solo stuff is also very powerful. There’s an album coming out in 2021. Chris Velan’s first song in French sounds gorgeous even though I don’t have any idea what he is singing about. Black trans artist Apollo Flowerchild also released a wonderful single as did Terra Spencer, Adam Lee, Ordinary Elephant and Pickering Pick. I also featured Emma Swift’s fabulous song from the 19th of October. I missed it at the time, because even the thought of looking for her songs on Spotify didn’t occur to me, but looks like she has made an exception with a single. Oh and as for Spotify, what garbage news they again presented us this week with the lower promotional royalty rate. You need to pay more, not less. I’m starting to feel ashamed doing this weekly round up that revolves around a Spotify playlist.
That’s it for this week. Love from a distance.
1. Chris Pierce American Silence (single, Pierce Records, 2020)
2. Chris Acker – Orion’s Gut (Good Kid, 2020)
3. Chris Velan – Ma baleine (single, 2020)
4. Kristofer Åström – Another Love (Hard Times, Startracks, 2020)
5. David James Allen – Birthday Cake (Radiations, Garment District Records, 2020)
6. Apollo Flowerchild – Bloody Hands (single, Trans Trenderz, 2020)
7. Andrew Collberg – Magnolia (1986, Papercup Records, 2020)
8. Terra Spencer – Saigon (single, 2020)
9. Tanya Tucker – Pack Your Lies and Go (single, Fantasy Records, 2020)
10. Herman Dune – Heartbroken & Free (Notes from Vinegar Hill, 2020)
11. Pickering Pick – On the Edge of the Light (single, 2020)
12. Kacy & Clayton and Marlon Williams – Isn’t It (single, New West Records, 2020)
13. Trevor Beld Jimenez – Moment (single, Curation Records, 2020)
14. Frankie Lee – Bad Love (single, 2020)
15. Ordinary Elephant – Let Me Tell You What I Think (single, Berkalin Records, 2020)
16. Emma Swift – The Soft Apocalypse (single, Tiny Ghost Records, 2020)
17. Adam Lee – I Am a Coward (single, 2020)
18. Mauri Dark – Dreams of a Middle-Aged Man (single, 2020)
19. Christian Kjellvander – Trouble (About Love and Loving Again, Tapete Records, 2020)
20. CJ Stranger – Hey Stranger (single, 2020)
21. Melissa Erin – Golden (single, 2020)
22. Donovan Woods feat Katie Pruitt – She Waits For Me To Come Back Down (Without People, Meant Well, 2020)
23. I Am Oak – Furrows (single, Snowstar Records, 2020)
24. Normal Heights – Remember Who Came (The Trees EP, 2020)
25. Honey Made feat Tamara Mack – Be True (Brand New, 2020)
26. Daniel Markham – Glamourous Like Godessess (Burnout, 2020)
27. Austin Lucas – Cry Over (Alive in the Hot Zone, Sabotage Records / Cornelius Chapel Records, 2020)
28. Ian Daniel Kehoe – Sci Fi Lover (Rock and Roll Illusion, Tin Angel Records, 2020)
29. Floating Room – Dancer (Tired and True EP, 2020)
30. Sam Burton – Why Should You Take Me There (I Can Go With You, Tompkins Square, 2020)
31. VanWyck – I Wish You Well (God Is on a Detour, Maiden Name Records, 2020)
32. McCarthy Trenching – Winter Solstice, Post Office (Perfect Game, 2020)
33. Message Field – 135 (A Brief Visit to Skull, Soit Se Silti, 2020)
34. Selah Broderick – Rainy Day (Anam, Western Vinyl, 2020)
35. C.A. Jones – Aquarius Moon (The Velvet Hour, 2020)
Oh and do buy the vinyl/cd/download. Spotify and other streaming services are perfect for these introductory purposes, but try to buy at least the music that matter the most to you
If you are looking this after a week has gone, the embedded Spotify will show the latest playlist. I’ll just update the same playlist because a) if someone wants to follow it, they can just follow that one list and will get a new set of songs each Sunday b) so that I don’t have a trillion of different playlists on my Spotify account.