Album of the Week – 23/02/24

Another working week comes to an end, but if you’re wondering what new sounds to treat yourself to this weekend, we’ve a few recommendations! First, there’s a new release from Eric Hilton (of Thievery Corporation) called Sound Vagabond. There are also new albums from Elephant Stone (Back Into the Dream), Mama Zu (feat. members of Those Darlins’ – Quilt Floor) and MGMT (Loss of Life).

For our album of the week, we’d like to recommend the country vibe contained in the new album by Hurray for the Riff Raff. It’s called ‘The Past is Still Alive’. Wise words indeed! Expect a few familiar voices such as Conor Oberst and S.G. Goodman to feature along with Alynda Segarra.

Album of the Week — Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Past Is Still Alive

The Past Is Still Alive sees Hurray for the Riff Raff reunite with Brad Cook, while further expanding their creative cast of collaborators. Anjimile, Conor Oberst, and S.G. Goodman all join Alynda Segarra on vocals at various points throughout the LP, with a band of musicians including Cook, Libby Rodenbough, Matt Douglas, Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, Mike Mogis, Phil Cook, and Yan Westerlund. Mike Mogis also mixed the album, and it was mastered by Heba Kadry.

The “nature punk” of Life on Earth marked a departure for Hurray for the Riff Raff, as they contemplated surviving and thriving amidst a world in crisis. The Past Is Still Alive brings the focus back inwards, with arrangements that are raw, melodies direct and indelible, and lyrics that are personal yet largely rooted in family and community. There are love songs to real characters, locations and mythic figures like Sky Red Hawk (“Buffalo”); the first trans woman Segarra ever met (“Hawkmoon”); queerness and sacred spaces for outsiders and the vulnerable, in the aftermath of the Club Q shooting (“Colossus of Roads”); leaving home behind and discovering oneself on the edge of the world (“Snake Plant”); and short-lived romances and the wisdom gained through chaos (“Vetiver”). Elsewhere, in the self-portraits painted on “Alibi,” “Ogallala,” and other album highlights, Segarra reflects on the land they have traveled, the hardships witnessed, and bravery gained while running away from everything and everyone they knew at age seventeen, hopping freight trains and hitchhiking across the country with a band of street urchins.

Albums of Note:

— Can – Can Live in Paris 1973

— Colouring – Love to You, Mate

— Elephant Stone – Back Into the Dream

— Eric Hilton (of Thievery Corporation) – Sound Vagabond

— Mama Zu (feat. members of Those Darlins’) – Quilt Floor

— MGMT – Loss of Life

Albums Released on February 23rd:

— 310babii – Nights and Weekends

— Ace Frehley – 10,000 Volts

— Allie X – Girl with No Face

— Amigo the Devil – Yours Until the War is Over

— Austrian Death Machine – Quad Brutal

— Bill Fay Group – Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Reissue)

— Blaze Bayley – Circle of Stone

— Bombay Bicycle Club – Fantasies EP

— Borknagar – Fall

— Can – Can Live in Paris 1973

— Cavetown – little vice EP

— The Children’s Hour (Josephine Foster, Andy Bar, and David Pajo) – Going Home

— Church Chords – elvis, he was Schlager

— Colouring – Love to You, Mate

— Corb Lund – El Viejo EP

— The Cult – Dreamtime (Vinyl Reissue)

— Daymé Arocena – Al-Kemi

— Darkest Hour – Perpetual | Terminal

— Disastroid – Garden Creatures

— The Body and Dis Fig – Orchards of a Futile Heaven

— EARTHGANG – ROBOPHOBIA

— Elephant Stone – Back Into the Dream

— Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – Souvenirs

— Eric Hilton (of Thievery Corporation) – Sound Vagabond

— Erick the Architect (of Flatbush Zombies) – I’ve Never Been Here Before

— Essence Martins – Dear in the Headlights EP

— Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life (Vinyl Reissue)

— Geographer – A Mirror Brightly

— Ghost Funk Orchestra – A Trip to the Moon

— Gina Volpe (of Lunachicks) – Delete the World

— glaive – a bit of a mad one EP

— Glitterer – Rationale

— Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Past Is Still Alive

— iDKHOW – Gloom Division

— Jazmin Bean – Traumatic Livelihood

— JJ Grey – Olustee

— Job for a Cowboy – Moon Healer

— John Bramwell – The Light Fantastic

— John Glacier – Like a Ribbon EP

— Kanii, Riovaz & Nimstarr – The Heart Racers EP

— Laetitia Sadier – Rooting For Love

— Liam Bailey – Zero Grace

— Mama Zu (feat. members of Those Darlins’) – Quilt Floor

— Mark Trecka – The Bloom of Performance

— Mary Timony – Untame the Tiger

— MGMT – Loss of Life

— Mick Mars (of Mötley Crüe) – The Other Side of Mars

— Modern English – 1 2 3 4

— Monkey3 – Welcome to the Machine

— Morgan Harper-Jones – Up to the Glass

— Motörhead – The Löst Tapes

— Nadine Shah – Filthy Underneath

— Neil Young – DUME (Vinyl Release)

— Persher – Sleep Well

— Psymon  Spine – Head Body Connector

— Real Estate – Daniel

— Remo Drive – Mercy

— Revival Season – Golden Age of Self Snitching

— Rod Stewart with Jools Holland – Swing Fever

— Royal Tusk – Altruistic

— Shaina Hayes – Kindergarten Heart

— Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – Sleepytime Gorilla Museum of the Last Human Being

— The Snuts – Millennials

— Sybris – Gold On Hold

— TEETHE – TEETHE (Reissue)

— Toadliquor – Back in the Hole

— TWICE – With YOU-th

— The Waterboys – 1985

— William Brittelle – Alive in the Electric Snow Dream