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Juanita Stein

Snapshot

    Juanita Stein returns with her new album, Snapshot, the Howling Bells singer and guitarist’s third solo LP. Working with the producer Ben Hillier (Blur, Doves, Nadine Shah), Snapshot was written and recorded over a period of eight months following the sudden death of Stein’s father, Peter, in 2019. Juanita was exceptionally close to her dad - he was her earliest introduction to music and gifted her a childhood “exploding with sounds of 60s folk, rock’n’roll, delta blues, country and soul”. She describes feeling “a compelling inspiration I’d not felt before” during songwriting sessions for the album, which is entirely given over to Stein and her family’s changed world following Peter’s death. The title track, Snapshot, was the last song to be written and, she says, “is me clinging on to what I have left of him in my mind.”

    Along with Hillier, Stein recruited her brother (and Howling Bells bandmate), Joel, on guitar, jazz drummer Evan Jenkins, and Jimi Wheelwright (bass) to help realise the songs. The album is a progression from her two previous solo LPs, which had both been recorded during intensive sessions of just a few weeks, and both in the U.S. The benefits conferred by the extra time and space, plus being close to home during this time of grief, can be heard in its more expansive, exploratory, sometimes downright psychedelic sound. Despite the album’s tough subject matter, Stein’s voice is, as ever, a balm.

    TRACK LISTING

    SIDE 1
    1. 1,2,3,4,5,6
    2. L.O.T.F
    3. Lucky
    4. Snapshot
    5. Hey Mama

    SIDE 2

    1. From Peace
    2. The Mavericks
    3. Reckoning
    4. Take It Or Leave It
    5. In The End

    Juanita Stein

    Until The Lights Fade

      Juanita Stein’s second solo album arrives less than a year after her first, ‘America’, saw the former Howling Bells front-woman exploring the iconography and cultural landscapes of a country that had always fascinated her from afar. Yet, while ’Until The Lights Fade’ is cut from the same musical cloth as its predecessor - the crepuscular twang of bar-room guitars, the keening romanticism of its melodies, the sparseness and simplicity of its arrangements - the album’s ten songs are concerned with thoughts, feelings, stories and characters rooted far closer to home. The album was produced by Stuart Sikes (The White Stripes, Cat Power, Loretta Lyn) at his studio in Austin, TX.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. All The Way
      2. Forgiver
      3. Get Back To The City
      4. In Your Hands
      5. Cool
      6. Release Me
      7. Silver Linings
      8. Easy Street
      9. Fast Lane
      10. French Films

      Stein formed Howling Bells with her brother, Joel, and friends when they moved to London together in 2004. Four acclaimed albums followed, along with headline tours and festival shows around the world, and huge support dates including several US tours with Coldplay and The Killers. A break from Howling Bells around the arrival of her first child saw the first shoots of her solo work start to emerge, and now we find ourselves here. America, an unpredictable place, forever bound up in a uniquely widescreen hope and romance. An evocative and beautiful record (produced by Gus Seyffert (Beck, Ryan Adams) in L.A.), Stein’s honeyed voice weaves stories of heartbreak and optimism, from the unmistakably Western-influenced Dark Horse, to the moody love song, Cry. Florence is inspired by a real-life photograph by Dorothea Langue, taken during the Great Depression, of the eponymous Florence Owens Thompson, a tale of a struggle for themselves and their children that’s as relevant to women of the world today as it ever was. The songs on the LP tell tales of characters real and imagined, Stein’s own experiences woven amongst them.

      Says Stein of the album: "This record is an ode to the dark heart of America. Of times gone and times to come. Dusty trails, a whimsical 50s suburbia and the haze of the 1960s. I've forever idealised American life - growing up in Australia we were fed the American dream through film and television. The dichotomy between what was real and a dream is forever intriguing to me. The music of Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield, Lee and Nancy and Patsy Cline all informed my musical sensibilities. They opened up this wide screen universe for me.”

      STAFF COMMENTS

      Barry says: Thumping psych-rock, echoing guitars and the brittle but perfectly fitting vocal workouts from Stein, shimmers of classic Americana mix in with brilliantly evocative songwriting. A stunning outing.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Florence
      2. Dark Horse
      3. Black Winds
      4. I'll Cry
      5. Stargazer
      6. Shimmering
      7. Someone Else's Dime
      8. It's All Wrong
      9. Not Paradise
      10. Cold Comfort
      11. America

      Lou Rhodes

      Theyesandeye

        Lou Rhodes’ fourth solo album defies categorisation. Yes, there are elements of the singer-songwriter roots she bathed in growing up but these are embroidered with a rich palette of stark piano, vocal layering, transcendent harp and strings all wrapped up within a heady smattering of vintage reverbs.

        “I had a bunch of songs”, says Rhodes, “but I wasn’t sure which way to go with them. I had a gut feeling I wanted to experiment with a slightly psychedelic feel and, by chance, met up with Simon Byrt (co-producer) in a friend’s studio. It turned out that he has a strange passion for vintage spring and tape echoes and, before long, we’d decided to make a record together.”
        Recorded in that same friend’s studio in rolling Wiltshire countryside crammed full of an analogue nerd’s paradise of vintage desks (one of which was used in the Beach Boys “Smile Sessions”), microphones and tape machines supplemented by Byrt’s own collection of reverb boxes. Acoustic guitar was played by Rhodes, additional guitar, bass, piano and synths by Byrt, abstract pedal steel by Ian Kellet, drums by NikolajBjerre, string arrangements by Danny Keane and harp by Tom Moth.

        After six albums with electronic genre-benders Lamb and three solo albums to date, including the Mercury nominated “Beloved One”, Rhodes’ capacity as a songwriter and interpreter of songs is fully road-tested but never formulaic.


        Malcolm Middleton

        Summer Of '13

        His first album for seven years and the sixth solo album from the ex-Arab Strap man, is set for release on the relaunched Nude Records. In Malcolm's songs hope and optimism have always existed (they were just well hidden) and ‘catchy’ has always been his prime prerogative, but with the new album glimmering with heady production, this clearly shines through. Calling upon the expertise of Glasgow-based dance producer Miaoux Miaoux, the album also features guest appearances by Beta Band/The Aliens founder Gordon Anderson aka Lone Pigeon (also creator of the album’s artwork, technicolour photography and who became a 'soundboard' for Malcolm after he moved into the cottage next door). De Rosa's Martin John Henry and First Aid Kit’s Scott Simpson also add to the albums sonic swirl and sense of fun.

        A wonky tonk fun-land of squelching synths and sweeping strings, ‘Steps’ is a cosmic space ride through pitch bends and vocal manipulation whilst ‘Information In The Voice’ unexpectedly drops pop RnB hip hop. But it’s never without feeling; take the romantic ‘You & I’ or shimmering and rhapsodic ‘Big Black Hole’ with its twinkling piano hook. Put together, there’s a neon glow of 80s new wave, alongside smoggier shades of the Chromatics or Johnny Jewel‘s Glass Candy. Malcolm has always enjoyed challenging his listeners and this time around is no exception.

        TRACK LISTING

        1: Steps
        2: You & I
        3: Information In The Voice
        4: Brackets
        5: Like John Lennon Said
        6: Little Hurricane
        7: Music Ticks
        8: Summer Of '13
        9: Big Black Hole
        10: Lullaby


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