The best album releases of the month, August 2013 edition

As July saw only a few decent releases, I've made up for it in August by expanding this list back to the regular ten. It's almost a straight split between talented female performers and noise bands this month. I'm also not feeling like writing a lot, so I've grabbed official videos to illustrate each album.

Julianna Barwick 'Nepenthe'

The more I listen to this the better it gets. My review is here (the 405).
"So much music gets described as ethereal, but there is no better adjective for this.
After a while you get lost in Nepenthe and forget that this is mostly voices, it manages to transcend its constituent parts and make a beautiful noise from start to finish."

Braids 'Flourish // Perish'

Their debut 'Native Speaker' had some stellar moments and this builds on it. A slightly more electronic feel and the ambitious songwriting that first brought them to attention is still there.

Julia Holter 'Loud City Song'

Often confused with Julianna Barwick (and to compound this their albums came out on the same day!) I reckon Holter's new one is her best work to date. Built around voices that are as clear as a bell, this is another beautiful album.

Mark Kozelek & Desertshore

There's no stopping Kozelek now that he has his own label. When you count live recordings he will have released six albums during 2013. This one with Desertshore, who include Red House Painters guitarist Phil Carney, should please long-standing fans ('You Are Not My Blood' and 'Sometimes I Can't Stop' are the most RHP thing MK has done for a while). The lyrics focus on similar areas to his recent albums - the loss of family and friends (Jason Molina and American Music Club's Tim Mooney in particular), watching boxing matches, the endless cycle of touring, etc. It either comes across as hugely self-indulgent or a revealing peek into his personal diary.

LISTEN to 'Katowice or Cologne'

Medicine 'To The Happy Few'

Another shoe-gaze comeback, although Medicine always seemed to mean more in the US than UK.
my review is here (the 405)

No Age 'An Object'

This still sounds like No Age, but this time it seems the main influence is post-punk not post-hardcore. Wire rather than Husker Du if you like. Just 29 minutes in duration, this rewards repeated listens. They are doing interesting things with noise that set them apart from run-of-the-mill punk duos. There are even a couple of catchy anthems hiding close to the surface.

Superchunk 'I Hate Music'

They don't REALLY hate music of course, I mean two of them run Merge records after all. This is as joyous and as catchy and you would expect from Superchunk.
my review is here

Laura Veirs 'Warp and Weft'

Nine albums down the line, Laura Veirs is still remarkably consistent, although this new release is her most varied to date. Perhaps furthest from her folk roots, embracing occasionally noisy guitars and a tribute to jazz legend Alice Coltrane, and featuring guests such as Neko Case, kd Lang and Jim James, it's a very welcome return.

White Hills 'So You Are.. So You'll Be'

This is their seventh full album and by now White Hills have convinced that they aren't just a psych/ garage band, they fully embrace the hard rock and space rock made by the like of Hawkwind. Another impressive outing with some gloriously loud synth parts as well.

White Hills - In Your Room from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Zola Jesus 'Versions'

Apparently some quarters have received this collaboration with less than enthusiasm. Here we have the songs and voice of Zola Jesus working with Jim Thirlwell (aka any project with the word Foetus in it) and the Mivos Quartet. The end result is stripped back versions of material that has graced the ZJ albums to date. It certainly works for me.

Watch: Mark Kozelek/ Sun Kil Moon appears with the Roots on Fallon [UPDATED]

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the show that offers up so much in terms of decent live performances, managed something a bit unique last night. They got Mark Kozelek aka Sun Kil Moon, who often plays live as a solo artist, to play with the Roots! They played two songs, both embedded below.
The first one, 'The Moderately Talented Young Woman', is from his excellent new album Among the Leaves, and the second is a faithful rendition of Red House Painters 'Mistress'.





and a few days later a bonus track arrived from the same night, just Kozelek on his own this time- here is 'Track Number 8'

review: Sun Kil Moon 'Among The Leaves'

As most of you are aware, Sun Kil Moon is the band name used by Mark Kozelek, once of Red House Painters, and Among the Leaves is their 5th album release. It is an epic collection of 17 new songs, featuring mostly Kozelek with his nylon stringed guitar, although a couple of tracks do feature a full band.
Last summer I saw Kozelek play two solo shows at either end of the country, a week apart. One was at London's Field Day festival, one was in the Black Box in Belfast. He is known for his grumpy on -stage demeanour and it was obvious that he wasn't happy at either show. At Field Day he had a point – you could hardly hear him, but in Belfast he had the attention of a seated room and he played a very long set. I'm a long standing fan of his and I didn't recognise a lot of the songs, some of which were works in progress, but I knew that I wanted to hear those songs again. That night it seemed that Kozelek was deciding to write spontaneously and was documenting exactly what was happening to him in his job as a travelling songwriter. The results are here on 'Among the Leaves' and those gigs are documented here as one of the highlights – 'UK Blues'.
Maybe it's because I felt I was there as some of the songs took shape, but I can't recall the last time I enjoyed a set of new songs so much. This review is about a week late because I would rather sit and listen to the album than write about it. I'm only putting words on the screen so that I can persuade you to listen to it as well.
As I said, these are 17 new songs, no AC/DC or Modest Mouse reversions or cover songs in sight. Musically it fits very well with Kozelek's other releases, and fans of his voice and guitar playing will be very happy. It's a deeply personal album, taking minor details from the songwriter's life and making them into something larger and more significant. A word of caution though, if anyone is writing this off as one long moan, because Kozelek has managed to temper his depressive tales about getting older and the pains of touring and writing with a large dose of humour. One track, about an age-gap friendship, is entitled 'The Moderately Talented Yet Not So Attractive Middle Aged Man'.
It's hard to single out specific songs, because with every listen new delights emerge. 'Sunshine in Chicago' was written just before he went on stage in that city and combines memories of his long years as a travelling musician with stories he has heard about his father's upbringing. 'That Bird Has A Broken Wing' is about the tendency to lapse into casual encounters when you are out of your routine - “we're all half men, half alley cats.”
'Elaine' is a beautiful song about someone battling addiction, whilst 'Song for Richard Collopy' is a lovely homage to San Francisco's guitar repair man. 'King Fish' is the electric guitar tune, when they resemble a very fluid version of Crazy Horse as the guitars entwine, and 'Black Kite' is a beautiful closing song, with a beautiful acoustic guitar arrangement.
The collection is laced with regret, sadness and quite a bit of humour. I've already mentioned 'UK Blues', which is actually two separate songs about that period, and although it details the trials of that tour there are plenty of genuinely funny lines there.
'I Know It's Pathetic but that Was the Greatest Night of My Life' bares the detail of a long distance relationship formed whilst on tour, and 'Not Much Rhymes with Everything's Awesome at All Times' questions the credentials of a potential poet who is just too damn happy to be genuine.
Even way back with Red House Painters, Kozelek has a skill for dropping in little scenes that made perfect sense to the song. Here, that would-be artist or poet is sleeping alone with her laptop beside her, and he admits using up all his minutes in pursuit of the woman in 'Greatest Night'. The little details are set against something which could be life-changing.
Red House Painters struck a chord with me nearly 20 years ago, and I'm delighted to find that I'm feeling the same about Sun Kil Moon right now. I won't hear a finer album of this kind all year, I'm sure of that.

DOWNLOAD: Sun Kil Moon 'UK Blues'

In years to come my children will ask me, "what did you do during the summer riots of 2011?" And I will reply "I saw the great American songwriter Mark Kozelek play two grumpy gigs at either end of the country." Happily he has chosen to immortalise this particular jaunt in a song called 'UK Blues' from the forthcoming Sun Kil Moon album. The title is slightly misleading in that it is actually a story song documenting his European tour, featuring such tongue-in-cheek lines as "Denmark, Denmark, everyone rides bikes and everyone is white", and "London, London, it's all the rage if your favourite colour's beige." The song documents his barely audible Field Day set and his visit to Belfast, which were the two gigs I saw.

'UK Blues' appears on the upcoming Sun Kil Moon album, Among The Leaves, out May 29th on Caldo Verde. Download it at the link below (via Stereogum)

DOWNLOAD Sun Kil Moon 'UK Blues'