Album of the Week – 22/09/23

The Breeders’ classic The Last Splash is 30 years old this week! Eek. If that doesn’t make me feel old, nothing will. It’s just been remastered and reissued with a couple of new tracks! There is another release from a band of the same era, with Teenage Fanclub releasing a new album called Nothing Lasts Forever. Did both of these bands support Nirvana at the Point Depot a hundred years ago or is that my imagination?

There are new EPs from A Certain Ratio (2023) and Soccer Mommy (Karaoke Night EP) which are both worth a listen.

We’ve gone for one of our favourite folk singers for the best album nod this week, with Sally Anne Morgan’s new release Carrying. It’s a gem!

Album of the Week – Sally Anne Morgan – Carrying

Multi-instrumentalist Sally Anne Morgan’s rich, intimate and modern music is cultivated with the seeds sown by folk, contemporary music and psychedelia. Her work exists in conversation with the living tradition of reinterpreting folk practices, from her music to her letterpress artwork to her microbrewery Leveller Brewing Co. Alongside new interpretations of traditional songs, Morgan also composes her own pieces drawing on her a vast knowledge of folk forms, and experience with her work as part of The Black Twig Pickers and House and Land (with Sarah Louise). Her music is traditional in the sense that she continues the practice of folk songs’ rich history in social and emotional narratives yet remains completely unbound by traditional song structures and forms. Infused with her singular perspective, Morgan’s music is elevated by her deft musical skills and her remarkably expressive voice that together create wholly new folk forms, familiar in their instrumentation yet distinctly her own. Carrying tills the rich soil of Appalachian traditions and Sally’s rural North Carolina surroundings into warm, reflective songs about navigating challenges, as well as the most joyous and personal emotions surrounding Morgan’s own pregnancy and recent birth of her first child. “The process of creating this album was intimately connected to the process of conceiving and birthing and raising a child,” says Morgan.

Carrying finds unity in life’s burdens and joys, shared experience of our day-to-day lives. “So much of what we accumulate and carry around with us burdens us, but we also can’t or don’t know how to let go,” says Morgan. The album weaves a thread of common experience wrapping the listener in the intimacy of emotional response while simultaneously demonstrating the universal nature of many of these moments. Says Morgan, “I use my own music, the creation, formation and shaping of songs and compositions, as a way to explore and articulate the deepest, often most hidden and spiritual, parts – of myself, but also since we are all connected at the deepest level, it reaches a common connected force of some kind.” A deeply affecting process for Morgan was contemplating the awesome power of the human body and spirit; the complicated and unpredictable wash of emotions that come with nurturing and nourishing another life, while also starting a new venture with her and her partner’s microbrewery. The album’s songs are snapshots of Morgan’s own self-reflection as these changes came to define the upcoming chapter of her life.

Albums of Note:

— The Breeders – Last Splash (30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition)

— A Certain Ratio – 2023 EP

— Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene) – Aging (Physical Release)

— Sally Anne Morgan – Carrying

— Soccer Mommy – Karaoke Night EP

— Teenage Fanclub – Nothing Lasts Forever

September 22nd:

— 2Rare – Rare Story Pt. 2

— 3TEETH – EndEx

— A Certain Ratio – 2023 EP

— Adam Melchor – Fruitland EP

— Al Menne (of Great Grandpa) – Freak Accident

— The Alchemist, Wiki, and MIKE – Faith is a Rock

— aldrch – industry standard

— Amindi – Take What You Need

— Another Michael – Wishes to Fulfill

— Arny Margret – dinner alone EP

— Babe Rainbow – Mushroom EP

— Bakar – Halo

— Ben Goldsmith – The World Between My Ears

— Benét – Can I go again?

— Bibio – Sunbursting EP

— Big Wett – P*SSY EP

— Bleach Lab – Lost in a Rush of Emptiness

— The Breeders – Last Splash (30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition)

— Brent Cobb – Southern Star

— Briston Maroney – Ultrapure

— Buddy Miller & Julie Miller – In The Throes

— Candlebox – The Maverick Years

— Cannibal Corpse – Chaos Horrific

— Careful – Promise / Practice EP

— Carrie Underwood – Denim & Rhinestones (Deluxe Edition)

— Carriers – Blue EP

— CHAI – CHAI

— Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

— Cinema Hearts – I Want You

— Colleen – Le jour et la nuit du réel

— corook – serious person (part 2) EP

— Das Koolies (feat. members of Super Furry Animals) – DK.01

— Dead Feathers – Full Circle

— Declan Welsh & The Decadent West – 2

— Devendra Banhart – Flying Wig

— Dio – The Studio Albums 1996-2004

— Doja Cat – Scarlet

— Dominique Fils-Aimé – Our Roots Run Deep

— Emily Kinney – Swimteam

— Equivocator – Equivocator EP

— Femke – Safe in the Suburbs

— Final Gasp – Mourning Moon

— Flat Worms – Witness Marks

— Ghost Train Orchestra and Kronos Quartet – Songs and Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog

— Grails – Anches En Maat

— Grrrl Gang – Spunky!

— heka – swan songs EP

— Helena Hauff – fabric presents Helena Hauff

— The Holy Ghost – Ignore Alien Orders

— Jackson Browne – Jackson Browne (Reissue)

— Jason Mraz – We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. We Deluxe Edition.

— Jayli Wolf – God Is An Endless Mirror EP

— Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders – New Earth Seed

— Jenny Owen Youngs – Avalanche

— JOHN – A Life Diagrammatic

— JP Saxe – A Grey Area

— K. Michelle – I’m the Problem

— Kelly Clarkson – chemistry (deluxe)

— Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene) – Aging (Physical Release)

— Kid Francescoli – Sunset Blue

— Kiefer – It’s OK, B U

— Kylie Minogue – Tension

— Laurel Halo – Atlas

— Mad Honey – Satellite Aphrodite

— METTE – METTENARRATIVE EP

— Le Couleur – Comme dans un penthouse

— Loraine James – Gentle Confrontation

— Lord of the Lost – Blood & Glitter

— Lydia Loveless – Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again

— Madonna – Madame X: Music From The Theatre Xperience (Vinyl Release)

— Matteo Bocelli – Matteo

— Meltt – Eternal Embers

— My Lament – The Season Came Undone

— Mykki Blanco – Postcards from Italia EP

— Neil Young – Harvest Moon (Vinyl Reissue)

— The New Pornographers – Electric Version (Vinyl Reissue)

— NZCA Lines – Universal Heartbreak EP

— Parmalee – For You 2

— Patio – Collection

— Paul Rodgers – Midnight Rose

— Petey – USA

— Pkew Pkew Pkew – Siiick Days

— Portair – The Place to Star EP

— POSTDATA – Run Wild

— Radian – Distorted Rooms

— The Replacements – Tim: Let It Bleed Edition

— Roosevelt – Embrace

— Sally Anne Morgan – Carrying

— Samantha Urbani – Showing Up

— Say Anything – Baseball (Vinyl Reissue)

— Say Anything – Junior Varsity EP (Vinyl Reissue)

— Say Anything – Menorah/Mejora EP (Vinyl Reissue)

— Shadwick Wilde – Easy Rider

— Slaughter Beach, Dog – Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling

— Soccer Mommy – Karaoke Night EP

— Stephen Sanchez – Angel Face

— Stu Brooks – 40HZ

— Susan Tedeschi – Just Won’t Burn (25th Anniversary Edition)

— The Taxpayers – God, Forgive These Bastards (Reissue)

— Teenage Fanclub – Nothing Lasts Forever

— Teenage Sequence – Teenage Sequence

— underscores – Wallsocket

— Various Artists – More Than a Whisper: Celebrating The Music of Nanci Griffith

— Various Artists – Yellowjackets Season 2 Official Soundtrack: Music from the Original Series

— WaqWaq Kingdom – Hot Potato

— Will Butler + Sister Squares – Will Butler + Sister Squares

— Winterstorm – Everfrost

— Wormhole – Almost Human

— Yawning Man – Pot Head EP (Reissue)

— yeule – softscars

— Yoke Lore – Toward a Never Ending New Beginning

— zzzahara – Tender