Album of the Week – 14/07/23

Despite being the middle of summer, this is a surprisingly slow week, with no new releases from the big names of the last few weeks.

There are still a number of albums worth checking out, and we’d recommend you check out Claud (Supermodels) and Night Beats (Rajan).

The album of the week comes from Lon Angeles-based singer-songwriter Sam Burton, for his chilled new album; Dear Departed.

Album of the Week – Dear Departed by Sam Burton

“Los Angeles-based singer Sam Burton will release his forthcoming album ‘Dear Departed’ on July 14th via Partisan Records, his debut for the label (IDLES, Fontaines DC, Beth Orton, Fela Kuti).

For Burton, ‘Dear Departed’ arose from a time of rebirth. In the last few years, the LA-based singer basically started over. He temporarily abandoned the life he’d built in LA to live in Utah where he grew up, moving again to hole up in a cabin on a rural northern California farm. Sam describes the album as being wracked with pain and loss, and he spends much of the time saying goodbye to a version of himself.‘Dear Departed’ was recorded at Wilson’s Topanga Canyon studio with some of the best studio players in LA. From the production to the performances to Burton’s core compositions, there’s a timelessness across its ten songs. Together with Wilson, Burton is able to achieve a sound that never descends into retro pastiche, but rather becomes an evocative echo, a dream of the past. Like Sam and his band are crammed onto the corner stage of a smoke-filled bar in a long-lost time. Recalling a modern-day.

Campbell, Orbison, or Nilsson, the album showcases Burton’s inherent knack for mining pure Laurel Canyon AM gold. In scope, the music finds Burton using a far bigger canvas than on his acclaimed 2020 debut ‘I Can Go With You,’ giving the emotions therein a new sense of urgency and intensity

Albums of Note:

— Claud – Supermodels

— Night Beats – Rajan

— Rita Ora – You & I

July 14th:

— a kid named rufus – whatever works

— The Adolescents – Caesar Salad Days

— Alana Springsteen – Twenty Something: Figuring It Out

— Alaska Reid – Disenchanter

— Being Dead – When Horses Would Run

— Birdy – Portraits

— Blake Mills – Jelly Road

— Blondes – In Separation EP

— Blusher – Should We Go Dance? EP

— Bobby Darin – Bobby Darin Sings Doctor Doolittle (Reissue)

— Bobby Darin – Bobby Darin Sings the Shadow of Your Smile (Reissue)

— Bobby Darin – If I Were a Carpenter (Reissue)

— Bobby Darin – In a Broadway Bag (Reissue)

— Bobby Darin – Inside Out (Reissue)

— Brian May + Friends – Star Fleet Project (Deluxe Edition)

— Chance Peña – Lovers to Strangers EP

— Cher – It’s A Man’s World (Vinyl Reissue)

— Cinema Cinema – Mjölnir

— Claud – Supermodels

— Colter Wall – Little Songs

— Current Affairs – Off the Tongue

— Daniel Ellsworth – WHAT EP

— DDG – Maybe It’s Me…

— Disclosure – Alchemy

— Duane Betts – Wild & Precious Life

— End Reign – The Way of All Flesh is Decay

— Evile – The Unknown

— Far Caspian – The Last Remaining Light

— George Benson – Live At Montreux 1986

— glaive – i care so much that i dont care at all

— Gordon Lightfoot – At Royal Albert Hall

— Haviah Mighty – Crying Crystals

— IDMAN – Risk EP

— Ilhan Ersahin, Dave Harrington, and Kenny Wollesen – Your Head You Know EP

— J HUS – Beautiful and Brutal Yard

— John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy – Evenings at the Village Gate

— Kevitch – Secrets EP

— King Von – Grandson

— Kool & the Gang – People Just Wanna Have Fun

— Lauren Spencer Smith – Mirror

— Lead Pony – Lead Pony

— Lil Tjay – 222

— Lindstrøm – Everyone Else is a Stranger

— Little Richard – The Complete Atlantic & Reprise Singles

— Lo Village – Yellow Brick Road

— Lukas Nelson + Promise of the Real – Sticks and Stones

— Madge – ravepack EP

— Mahalia – IRL

— Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog – Connection

— Marshall Crenshaw – Field Day (Reissue)

— Mike Cooper – Life and Death in Paradise (Reissue)

— MisterWives – Nosebleeds

— MOODRING – Your Light Fades Away EP

— Moonshine Bandits – Pour Decisions

— Natural Wonder Beauty Concept (Ana Roxanne and DJ Python) – Natural Wonder Beauty Concept

— Neil Young – Official Release Series Volume 5

— Night Beats – Rajan

— Palehound – Eye on the Bat

— Peace Flag Ensemble – Astral Plains

— PVRIS – EVERGREEN

— R.E.M. – Around the Sun (Vinyl Reissue)

— R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now (Vinyl Reissue)

— Ravi Shankar – Shankar Family And Friends (Reissue)

— Rita Ora – You & I

— The Rolling Stones – Metamorphosis (Vinyl Reissue)

— Royston Langdon (of Spacehog) – President Alien

— Rusty Santos – New Wave in California

— Sally Potter – Pink Bikini

— Shapednoise – Absurd Matter

— Simona Castricum – SINK

— Snõõper – Super Snõõper

— Stella Santana – Distant EP

— Tech N9ne – BLISS

— Temple of Angels – Endless Pursuit

— Tessa Violet – My God!

— Tiny Leaves – Mynd

— Trap Girl – Diva’s Inferno EP

— Various Artists – Red Hot & Ra: Nuclear War REMIXES EP

— Vendetta – Black As Coal

— Voyager – Fearless In Love

— Weite – Assemblage

— WHOKILLEDXIX – Lore, Vol. 2 EP

— Zardonic – Superstars