Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Grateful Dead, St. Paul and The Broken Bones, Jennifer Hartswick and Papadosio. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
Paul McCartney – Egypt Station
The Scoop: At 76-years-old Paul McCartney seems to be working harder than a lot of musicians that are 50 years younger than him. The bass player’s latest Egypt Station is his fifth album of original music in the 2000s. The 14-track effort, produced by Greg Kurstin (Adele, Beck, Foo Fighters) sans one track, was recorded in studios in Los Angeles, London and Sussex. The record is a loose concept album, with Macca sharing “Egypt Station starts off at the station on the first song and then each song is like a different station. So it gave us some idea to base all the songs around that. I think of it as a dream location that the music emanates from.”
Paul Simon – In The Blue Light
The Scoop: Legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon reworked 10 of his “personal favorites from his body of work” for a new album entitled In The Blue Light out today on Legacy Recordings. Simon tapped longtime collaborator Roy Halee to produce the LP, which comes just as he embarks on the final leg of his farewell tour. Paul recruited an impressive array of contributors including Wynton Marsalis, Bill Frisell, Jack DeJohnette and Steve Gadd. In addition, chamber ensemble yMusic adds to such songs as “Can’t Run but” and “René And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War.”
Grateful Dead – Pacific Northwest ’73 – ’74
The Scoop: Pacific Northwest ’73 – ’74: The Complete Recordings is the latest in the line of archival releases from the Grateful Dead from their ongoing partnership with Rhino Records. The massive 19-disc box set features six previously unreleased complete shows that the iconic San Francisco act played during the Spring of 1973 and 1974 in Vancouver, Portland and Seattle, mastered in HDCD from the original tapes by Jeffrey Norman. “The shows contain some of the most famous moments in Grateful Dead live history, including the ‘Bird Song’ from Vancouver ’73, the Portland ’74 ‘Truckin” jam, and the 47-minute ‘Playing In The Band’ from Seattle ’74,” said Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux. Additionally, the band and Rhino compiled highlights from the box as Pacific Northwest ’73 – ’74: Believe It You Need It and will issue their performance from May 19, 1974, at Portland Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon on vinyl.
St. Paul and The Broken Bones – Young Sick Camellia
The Scoop: Birmingham, Alabama-based St. Paul and The Broken Bones worked with producer Jack Splash whose prior credits include Solange, Kendrick Lamar, Diplo, Alicia Keys, Mayer Hawthorne to expand their sonic palette on Young Sick Camellia, whose title references the Alabama state flower. “I was dwelling on my family and the complexity to all the men’s relationships,” frontman Paul Janeway stated. “My papaw was not a warm person, but he showed his affection through hard work. He and my father had a complicated relationship and didn’t communicate well. This record is about me growing up in a digital age, and my father and papaw growing up in their different times and exploring the dynamics of those relationships.” Originally designed as three EPs, with each coming from the perspective of Janeway’s grandfather, father and himself, the decision was instead made to include them all as one complete narrative.
Jennifer Hartswick – Nexus
The Scoop: Vermont native, trumpeter/vocalist Jennifer Hartswick utilized The Barn recording studio in her home state owned by Trey Anastasio to record her new studio album Nexus. JHa’s longtime cohort, guitarist and fellow Vermonter Nick Cassarino of The Nth Power as well Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist Christian McBride contributed to the eight-song record. Hartswick’s band mates in the Trey Anastasio Band, trombonist/vocalist Natalie Cressman and drummer Russ Lawton also apper on the album.
Papadosio – Content Coma
The Scoop: Asheville-via-Ohio quintet Papadosio took a new approach towards their latest album. Keyboardists Billy Brouse and Sam Brouse, multi-instrumentalist Anthony Thogmartin, drummer Mike Healy and bassist Rob McConnell took ideas they developed using the online collaborative platform Splice and entered a professional recording studio for the first time to track drums, grand piano and bass. The result is the new full-length album Content Coma. “We have self recorded and produced all of our releases in order to make the final product as unique and personal as possible. By recording the raw drum tracks in a professional setting, it really opened up the sonic range of what we had to work with while mixing,” the band said in a statement announcing the LP.
Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.
