Julia Holter’s last album Loud City Song was amongst our Best Albums of 2013.  Thankfully, Holter has announced that her next offering, Have You in My Wilderness (the album has its own website), will be released on September 25th on Domino. To accompany the announcement, Holter released a new video for the album’s first track entitled Feel You.  We’re not exactly sure what to make of the video, which features the singer and her scruffy-sweet dog within and without her Los Angeles environs, but the song soars throughout and is a return to form for Holter.  We know others who have been similarly saved by a dog’s love.  Let it be so.

According to a press release: “Have You in My Wilderness was written from the heart – warm, dark and raw – and explores love, trust, and power in human relationships.” Check it out below and, after, the song’s handwritten, enigmatic lyrics (zoom in).

Above photo by Tonje Thilesen.

Leon Bridges is receiving raves for his new neo-soul album Coming Home.  In an increasingly-crowded field, Bridges stands out with his Sam Cooke-stylings and his thoughtful, evocative lyrics.  Today La Blogothèque gives us a unique glimpse of Bridges (with acoustic guitar and sweet singers) performing his song River in a cafe in Paris next to the Seine River.  The song is surely an homage lyrically to Al Green’s Take Me To The River, though the river metaphor runs deep in the genre.  Check it out.  Gospel beauty right there.

River:

“Been traveling these wide roads for so long
My heart’s been far from you
Ten-thousand miles gone

Oh, I wanna come near and give ya
Every part of me
But there is blood on my hands
And my lips aren’t clean

In my darkness I remember
Momma’s words reoccur to me
‘Surrender to the good Lord
And he’ll wipe your slate clean’

Take me to your river
I wanna go
Oh, go on
Take me to your river
I wanna know

Dip me in your smooth waters
I go in
As a man with many crimes
Come up for air
As my sins flow down the Jordan

Oh, I wanna come near and give ya
Every part of me
But there is blood on my hands
And my lips aren’t clean

Take me to your river
I wanna go
Go on,
Take me to your river
I wanna know

I wanna go, wanna go, wanna go
I wanna know, wanna know, wanna know
Wanna go, wanna go, wanna go
Wanna know, wanna know, wanna know
Wanna go, wanna go, wanna go
Wanna know, wanna know, wanna know

Take me to your river
I wanna go
Lord, please let me know
Take me to your river
I wanna know”

Sometimes you just need a sweet and sultry voice traveling over a torpid tune just in from pops-ville.  Such is the case with Deadwater, a track off of young Brooklyn Western Massachusetts band Wet’s recently released debut album, Don’t You on Columbia.  Check out the song via its official video below (lyrics at bottom).  We love singer Kelly Zutrau’s pure and unaffected vocals (which remind of Hem’s great vocalist Sally Ellyson) on the song in particular, but also the low-key effects layered on by the band.  The video also has multiple heartwarming moments to dull the song’s ache (beware of gratuitous kitten and kid-on-bike glimpses).

Afterwards check out a compelling remix of the song by Jam City.

Deadwater:

“If I could be stronger
And if you were just older
We might last this out longer
But the task just gets harder
And my face turned to red
From drinking all that dead water
And the again when you said
That I was my mother’s daughter

Shaky when he comes to me
Shaky but I believe
Shaky and I’m on my knees
There are better things for me
Shaky when I came to be
When they left, they left me in pieces
Shaky, but I believe
There are better things for me

If my legs were longer
They might carry us further
But we waited too long
And so the task just gets harder
And the thoughts that come in
They come on stronger and stronger
And it takes all of me
To just stay out of the water

Shaky when he comes to me
Shaky but I believe
Shaky and I’m on my knees
There are better things for me
Shaky when I came to be
When they left, they left me in pieces
Shaky, but I believe
When you left, you left for a reason

Ohhhh, take me to the things I see I see
My eyes can reach passed all that’s been laid out for me

Shaky when he comes to me
Shaky but I believe
Shaky and I’m on my knees
There are better things for me
Shaky when I came to be
When they left, they left me in pieces
Shaky, but I believe
There are better things for me”

We lauded the recent Torres show we attended at the Echo.  One regret that night was that Torres’ highly-affecting song Ferris Wheel was not included in the setlist.  Thankfully Sound Opinions today has released their capture of the band performing the heart-rending song.  Check it out below (lyrics at bottom).  At bottom is an equally superb solo-acoustic version.

Ferris Wheel:

“Do I have reason to be sad
Crying over something I never had
You borrowed my car a couple times
You don’t like me, you just like my ride

You hide behind glasses and music and wit
You laugh at yourself and hand roll cigarettes
There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do
To show you that I’ve got the sadness too
To show you that I’ve got the sadness too

I talk about you like you’re mine
My friends just laugh, and roll their eyes
When I tell them I don’t mind the way it feels
To ride an empty Ferris wheel

You hide behind glasses and music and wit
You laugh at yourself and hand roll cigarettes
There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do
To show you that I’ve got the sadness too
To show you that I’ve got the sadness too

You hide behind glasses and music and wit
You laugh at yourself and then roll cigarettes
There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do
To show you that I’ve got the sadness too
To show you that I’ve got the sadness too”

The great Glen Hansard has announced that on September 18th he will release his second solo album, Didn’t He Ramble on Anti-.  Evidently, Doveman produced it, and Hansard received support from Sam Beam of Iron & Wine amongst others.

Hansard has today offered up a winning sample via song Winning Streak and the video therefor.  Hansard told NPR this about the song:  “‘Winning Streak’ is simply a well wish to a friend, to someone who’s been finding it hard to see the goodness in their lives. It’s a pat on the back and an encouragement to try see the good and a blessing in the everyday. Each day we’re alive is a day we can reinvent or look at life from a different perspective. Nothing changes until we do, so it’s a song of encouragement to see these things and act on them.” Listen/watch below.  The song’s timing is as perfect.  Bravo! What the world needs now….

You can pre-order the album HERE.  The additional good news about the album’s release is that Hansard (who is sublime in concert) will undoubtedly make his way to the States in support of the album.  Get ye tickets.

Track list:

1. Grace Beneath The Pines
2. Wedding Ring
3. Winning Streak
4. Her Mercy
5. McCormack’s Wall
6. Lowly Deserter
7. Paying My Way
8. My Little Ruin
9. Just To Be The One
10. Stay The Road

Glastonbury wrapped up last night. In honor, we give you the great Jamie T. performing his raving song Zombie off of last year’s phenomenal return-album, Carry On The Grudge.  Matters really get wound up at the 1:13 mark in the video below!  We loved his show at the Roxy last December.  Hard to believe he could barely fill the Roxy in LA when he has such a huge following in England and elsewhere.  Come on America, let’s go!

Kendrick Lamar took aim at the BET Awards last night and scored a direct hit with his performance of Alright off of one of the best albums of the year so far, To Pimp a Butterfly.  Replete with police car, giant American flag, and an ensemble of seemingly millions, it was a powerful performance from an artist who is now expected to deliver the goods every night.  Yet another enlivening showing from Lamar.  Check it out.

Courtney Barnett has a winning way with words, and never more so than on her recent song Depreston, which is on our short list for Best Song of the Year.  Barnett is a master of lyrical irony and inflection (lyrics at bottom).  Watch below as the Tonight Show craftily captured Barnett rendering the song solo.  We are particularly struck on “Streaming Monday” by the closing coda:  “If you’ve got a spare half a million, you should knock it down and start rebuilding.”  Yeah, which musician doesn’t these days?

“You said we should look out further,
I guess it wouldn’t hurt us.
We don’t have to be around all these coffee shops.
Now we’ve got that percolator,
never made a latte greater.
I’m saving twenty-three dollars a week.

We drive to a house in Preston,
we see police arresting
a man with his hand in a bag.
How’s that for first impressions?
This place seems depressing.
It’s a “Californian bungalow in a cul-de-sac.”

It’s got a lovely garden,
a garage for two cars to park in
(“or a lot of room for storage if you’ve just got one”).
And it’s going pretty cheap you say?
“Well it’s a deceased estate…
aren’t the pressed metal ceilings great?”

Then I see the handrails in the shower,
a collection of those canisters for coffee, tea and flour,
and a photo of a young man in a van in Vietnam.

And I can’t think of floorboards anymore,
whether the front room faces south or north,
and I wonder what she bought it for.

(If you’ve got a spare half a million, you should knock it down and start rebuilding)”