Album of the Week – 22/05/26

There’s a lovely new release from Future Islands, with From a Hole in the Floor to a Fountain of Youth. Technically, it’s not a new album, though, as it “comprises alternate hits, rarities, and fan favorites that showcase the band’s palette and bring further color to their uniquely universal appeal”.

There’s also Marisa Anderson with her new release, The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music. It’s an unusual one…

For our album of the week, we went with the side project from a member of Radiohead! Yes, it’s Ed O’Brien with his new release, Blue Morpho. It’s well worth checking out.

Album of the Week —  Marisa Anderson – The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music

Ed O’Brien likes to quote a line from the great Kentucky poet and farmer Wendell Berry: “To know the dark, go dark.” It is the insight, after all, that ultimately led O’Brien from one of the darkest spans of his life to Blue Morpho, his absorbing second solo album. To wit, as soon as O’Brien’s solo debut was out, he heard its faults. That was April 2020, the month O’Brien turned 52 and the month the world began to reckon truly with what it meant to be shut down. O’Brien regretted that he’d waited so long to record those songs, putting them on pause for the better part of a decade to accommodate the schedule of his teenage band, Radiohead. Some of its impulses had been lost in the gap, and there was only so much he could do to support his first album—Earth, released under his initials, EOB—as the world confronted catastrophe.

And then fall began to give way to winter, and O’Brien stumbled into the deepest hole of a depression that he had ever known. Late in 2020, as new waves of lockdowns roared, he found himself barely able to function. His wife, Suzi, encouraged him to sit in the fire of these feelings, reminding him that the only way out was through. During his very dark year, O’Brien would wake up and shock his system with the teachings of Wim Hof, the Dutch athlete-cum-philosopher who employs deep breathing and shallow tubs of cold water to induce focus. As his kids attended virtual school in the neighboring rooms, O’Brien would lock himself in his tiny London studio with his guitar and play until his brain began to fray around lunchtime.

Albums of Note: 

Future Islands – From a Hole in the Floor to a Fountain of Youth

— The Cranberries – Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? (Deluxe Edition)

Marisa Anderson – The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music

May 22nd:

— 6LACK – Love Is The New Gangsta

— A Good Year – Play

— Aja Monet – The Color of Rain

— Ali Sethi & Gregory Rogove – Room Jhoom

— Arc Iris – iTMRW

— The Band CAMINO – NeverAlways Vol. 2

— Beck Zegans – Engraving of Armor

— Bill Orcutt & Mabe Fratti – Almost Waking

— Bleachers – everyone for ten minutes

— The Cranberries – Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? (Deluxe Edition)

— David J – Tracks From the Attic Revisited

— Dimmu Borgir – Grand Serpent Rising

— Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa (Live From Mexico)

— The Early Years – Modern Moonlight

— Ecca Vandal – LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW

— Ed O’Brien (of Radiohead) – Blue Morpho

— fakemink – Terrified

— Fugue State – After Nothing Comes

— Future Islands – From a Hole in the Floor to a Fountain of Youth

— Hammock – The Second Coming Was a Moonrise

— Hyd – Hold Onto Me Infinity

— Ian Harrison – Jealous EP

— Kevian Kraemer – only if it matters EP

— LE SSERAFIM – PUREFLOW pt.1

— Little Barrie – Gravity Freeze

— Lowertown – Ugly Duckling Union

— Marisa Anderson – The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music

— Marmozets – CO.WAR.DICE

— Moses Sumney & Joe Shirley – Is God Is (Original Soundtrack)

— Nora Kelly Band – So Wrong For So Long

— PIG – Hurt People Hurt

— Skylar Grey – WASTED POTENTIAL

— Steep Canyon Rangers – Next Act

— Ted Lucas – Images of Life

— Thomas Dollbaum– Birds of Paradise

— Tommy Lee – Tommyland Rides Again

— Visible Cloaks – Paradessence