Social Media Program Titles Released This Week:
Brendan Benson – Dear Life CD/LP (Third Man)
Benson finds himself in an enviable spot as he enters the third decade of a remarkably creative, consistently idiosyncratic career – an accomplished frontman, musician, songwriter, producer, band member, husband, and dad. Benson’s seventh solo album, and first new LP in almost seven years, Dear Life is this consummate polymath’s most inventive and upbeat work thus far, an 11- track song cycle about life, love, family, fatherhood, and the pure joy of making music. The album sees the Michigan-born, Nashville-based artist – and co-founder, with Jack White, of The Raconteurs – reveling in a more modernist approach than ever before, fueled by a heady brew of cannabis, hip-hop, and a newly discovered interest in software drum programming.
Other Lives – For Their Love CD/LP (ATO)
Other Lives, the Oklahoma-bred outfit fronted by Jesse Tabish, return with the long-awaited follow-up to 2015’s Rituals. For Their Love is a 10-track collection with a nod to the past while progressing positively towards the future. “The album is a record reflecting human feeling in the current state of affairs – economy and politics on the individual, while the latter still has to deal with the basic struggles of finding meaning of their existence,” says Tabish. The resultant tracks show the band “trying to capture the vibe of something altogether more instant. I was adamant there would no tricks and nothing to obscure me which I had been doing psychologically and musically,” says Tabish. Joined again by drummer Danny Reisch, who played on Rituals, the band is bolstered by an array of musicians featuring strings, brass and percussion, as well as Kim Tabish and Onstott contributing choral-style backing vocals reinforcing the overall cinematic feel that permeates the album. [Limited clear vinyl pressing also available.]
Lucinda Williams – Good Souls Better Angels CD/2xLP (Highway 20)
Three-time Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams unabashedly takes on some of the human, social and political issues of our day with her boldest and most direct album to date, Good Souls Better Angels. During the course of her celebrated four-decade, pioneering career Williams has never rested on her laurels as she continues to push herself as a songwriter. On Good Souls Better Angels, she has much she needs to get out.
