Frank Turner, Bryan Hansen Band, Valley, Camera Obscura, Alastair Greene in the New Music Bin

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Frank Turner: International Hide and Seek Champions

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Photo by Shannon Shumaker

Some of the tracks on his brand-newm, 10th studio album, Undefeated, are angry about the state of the world. Some are just fun (e.g. the single "Girl From The Record Shop"). This one is a humorous take on feeling "trapped in a time of hysteria" and wanting to escape: "I've got two parachutes and a caseload of cash ... I can't wait to disappear with you / Let's take the leap before the world goes down in flames."

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Bryan Hansen Band: Kissing My Love

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This New Jersey band's music was once described by a New York DJ as "blue-eyed soul." With bassist Will Blakey providing the funky propulsion and Bryan Hansen's high-register voice recalling soul singers of the past, there's no arguing with that. Joined here by Pete Andrews on drums and Matt Cook on piano, they do a fine job with a 1972 Bill Withers song.

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Valley: When You Know Someone

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We've been keeping an ear on this Toronto indie-pop band since catching them live back in 2018, before the release of their first LP, Maybe, and have a dozen or so of their songs in our huge playlist. This new single strikes us as having a bit more grown-up sound (compared to, say, "Sucks to See You Doing Better"). It's the first release since the departure of guitarist Mickey Brandolino to focus on producing and writing. Drummer Karah James says the remaining members wrote the song with Nashville singer-songwriter Trent Dabbs, "who helped us channel the emptiness we were feeling."

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Camera Obscura: Big Love

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Photo by Robert Perry

The Scottish band's new album is its first since Desire Lines in 2013, and since the death of keyboardist and singer Carey Lander from cancer in 2015. Paste magazine reports the group reconvened in 2018 for a handful of gigs and, after a pandemic-elongated delay, have returned with Look to the East, Look to the West. "Although the band retains a knack for lush songs that are at once dreamy and catchy, the 11 tracks here are subtler than in years past," the mag writes. "In place of the bold string charts and sweeping orchestrations [are] a more basic sound that favors keyboards, particularly organ and piano." On this track, a warning to a lovesick friend, "warm pedal steel guitar slides around underneath a marching beat and grainy electric guitar."

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Alastair Greene: Standing Out Loud

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Here's the title track from the latest LP, due this week, by this blues-rock guitarist. Born in California, now living in Texas, he decamped to guitarist/producer JD Simo's House of Grease studio in Nashville, to record most of the tracks on the album, with Greene and Simo co-producing.

Iron and Wine + The Lemon Twigs + La Luz + Church of Trees + Late Night Trouble = Variety!

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Iron and Wine: Sweet Talk

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For Sam Beam, the Covid pandemic proved an obstacle to songwriting rather than a source of material. The result was a six-year gap between 2017's Best Epic and his new album of original Iron & Wine music, Light Verse. "Perhaps because of the time lag, the songs ... [have] a more positive tone, focusing on acceptance, the need for human connection, and even joy," writes AllMusic, which calls it "one of the most enjoyable, varied, and well-crafted of the band's records." 

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The Lemon Twigs: How Can I Love Her More?

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Brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario, known for music that sounds like it came through a time warp from the late 60s-early 70s, are out with their fifth studio album, A Dream Is All We Know. Michael says that on this track, "we tried to bridge the gap between professional Brill Building writing and the more off the wall writing style of the post Sgt. Pepper psychedelic scene. There are a lot of musical ideas but it’s still a catchy pop song. We had a lot of fun with the recording of this one, overdubbing two drum sets, some theremin, and strings and horns (all played by Brian)."

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La Luz: Strange World

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This Seattle band is bringing out its fifth album, News of the Universe, this month. Discussing this song, band leader Shana Cleveland says: "The best advice a friend gave me during a time when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed and battling consecutive panic attacks was to go outside, take my shoes off, and sit with my feet on the earth. This seemed to slow the universe down in a way that made it feel easier to handle. So this chorus is something of a mantra to myself ‘we’ll be fine, just take your time.’"

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Church of Trees: Where Is Love

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We recently caught up with this Canadian band's latest LP, Transience, released in February, and dropped "That's All" into our New Music bin last month. The album incorporates many styles of synth-pop, incorporating strains of rock, pop and dance. We're dipping in again for this track with its late-disco-era echoes.

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Late Night Trouble: Pretty Little Thing

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This flat-out rocker is from another Canadian band's album that's been out for a few months but just reached our ears, thanks to a video release for this single. Lead singer Roxanne and her bandmates are about to start an eight-city U.S. tour behind the album, Candyland.