Another week, another new music weekly.
We are celebrating vappu here in Finland, but that doesn’t stop this pointless playlist hitting yet another episode. So here’s the rundown of this week’s great new album and song releases.
The biggest one for me is the new Teenage Fanclub album. All regular readers are well-aware that my all-time favorite non-finnish bands are The Posies and Teenage Fanclub. So this is always a big deal and the new album sounds wonderful. That’s why we had a bit more pop start for this week’s episode, because it felt proper to follow TFC with another excellent pop record from The Legal Matters. Wes Tirey’s new double album is a must if you are looking for some wonderful folk/blues songwriting and Doc Feldman’s gorgeous record that I mentioned last week got a more official release this week and is now available everywhere. That’s just a tiny fraction of all the action and we also got awesome new albums from Joe Kaplow, Carsie Blanton, Roseanne Reid (EP), Amy Speace & The Orphan Brigade, Belle Tower (EP), Paper Beat Scissors, Dark Tea, Simon Linsteadt, Guided By Voices, Rosie Tucker, The Shootouts, Matt Sweeney & Bonnie Prince Billy, Kasey Anderson & The Honkies (two actually, reissue + live record), Sarah Louise (only singles on Spotify, full album on Bandcamp).
As for Finnish stuff, my favorite thing is actually a few weeks old. I had heard good things about Palor’s debut album, but sometimes I’m slow. I finally listened and instantly loved. There’s also new singles from Verandan, Olavi Uusivirta, Sepikka and (proto)Torvinen and an album from Took. A big Finnish release that I didn’t include is the new Moshimoshi EP. It’s objectively great but just not my cup of tea at all. However, if you are into things like At The Drive In that’s the one that you should definitely check out.
Finally the international singles. There’s a lot that I would like to highlight, but here are few that perhaps matter the most to me. First there’s Joe Bourdet album on the horizon and he just released the first single from it. I loved his Seamist / El Capitan double single a few years back and I’m thrilled to finally hear an album from him. Long time favorite The Deep Dark Woods released an amazing single and it also surfaced in the form of an equally magnificent music video. A big album announcement also came from Vincent Neil Emerson and the first single from his forthcoming Rodney Crowell-produced album saw the light of the day. There’s also great new singles from Jeremy James Meyer, Kings of Convenience (now there’s a most welcome comeback), Jeb Loy Nichols, Squirrel Flower and many others.
That’s all for this week. Love from a distance.
1. Teenage Fanclub – Back In The Day (Endless Arcade, PeMA / Merge Records, 2021)
2. Legal Matters – The Painter (Chapter Three, Futureman Records, 2021)
3. Doc Feldman & The Alt + Cntry + Delete – Help Never Comes from Above (A Healthy Dose Of Anxiety, 2021)
4. Wes Tirey – Overworked Underslept (The Midwest Book of the Dead, Dear Life Records, 2021)
5. The Deep Dark Woods – How Could I Ever Be Single Again (single, Six Shooter Records, 2021)
6. Vincent Neil Emerson – Learnin’ to Drown (single, La Honda Records, 2021)
7. Joe Kaplow – Tell Me Everything’s Gunna Be Alright (Sending Money and Stems, Fluff & Gravy Records, 2021)
8. Joe Bourdet – Songbird Revisited (single, 2021)
9. Roseanne Reid – Passing Through (Horticulture EP, Last Man Music, 2021)
10. Carsie Blanton – Down in the Streets (Love & Rage, 2021)
11. Amy Speace & The Orphan Brigade – River Rise (There Used to Be Horses Here, Proper Music, 2021)
12. Jeremy James Meyer – Cat on a Chain (single, American Standard Time Records, 2021)
13. Cat Clyde & Jeremie Albino – Freight Train (single, Cinematic, 2021)
14. Belle Tower – Swell (Tend To EP, Halfmoon Records, 2021)
15. Dark Tea – The End (single, Fire Talk, 2021)
16. Simon Linsteadt – Buckeye Bough (Gualala, Stormy Deep Records, 2021)
17. Paper Beat Scissors – La Unica (La Mitad, Seayou Records / Forward Music Group, 2021)
18. Palor – Eksyneet (Lähenee nyt, Musakonttori, 2021)
19. Verandan – Open Sea (single, Soliti, 2021)
20. Kings of Convenience – Rocky Trail (single, Universal, 2021)
21. Matt Sweeney & Bonnie Prince Billy – Good To My Girls (Superwolves, Drag City, 2021)
22. Kasey Anderson & The Honkies – Don’t Look Back (Let The Bloody Moon reissue, Nervous Kid Records, 2021)
23. The Shootouts – Rattlesnake Whiskey (Bullseye, Soundly, 2021)
24. Sturgill Simpson – Paradise (single, Oh Boy Records, 2021)
25. James Steinle featuring John Evans Band – Out Back Baby (single, 2021)
26. Guided By Voices – Trust Them Now (Earth Man Blues, GBV Inc, 2021)
27. Rosie Tucker – Different Animals (Sucker Supreme, Epitaph, 2021)
28. Squirrel Flower – I’ll Go Running (single, Polyvinyl, 2021)
29. Heka – (a) dab (single, Balloon Machine, 2021)
30. Annie Leeth – Alone (Anyway) (single, Super Canoe, 2021)
31. The Clear – Gaslighting (single, Clearmusic, 2021)
32. Bethany Johnson – Down by the Willows (single, Late Bloomer, 2021)
33. Carolyn Shulman – Matter of Time (single, 2021)
34. Del Amitri – You Can’t Go Back (single, Cooking Vinyl, 2021)
35. Radio Days – What Is Life? (single, Sounds Rad, 2021)
36. Jeb Loy Nichols – Can’t Cheat the Dance (single, Timmion Records, 2021)
37. Joey Quinones – Love Me Like You Used To (single, Colemine Records, 2021)
38. Kira Skov feat Bill Callahan – Love is a Force (single, Stunt Records, 2021)
39. Sarah Louise – Earth Wakes Up (Earth Bow, 2021)
40. Straight White Teeth – Flowering (single, Hunny Hawk Records, 2021)
41. Carter Tanton – Mirrors (single, Western Vinyl, 2021)
42. Wayne Graham – Everything Is Broken (single, Celebration / K&F, 2021)
43. (proto)Torvinen – FOMO (single, Humu Records, 2021)
44. Sepikka – Juoksee, juoksee (single, M.Dulor, 2021)
45. Took – Human Dynamo (Human Dynamo, Soundhill, 2021)
46. Olavi Uusivirta – Hilma af Klint (single, Johanna Kustannus, 2021)
47. Robin Bacior – Better Season (single, 2021)
48. Porlolo – Ain’t No Use (single, 2021)
49. Annie Keating – Kindred Spirit (single, 2021)
50. Vanessa Peters – Make Up Your Mind (Modern Age, Idol Records, 2021)
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.