New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: August 9, 2024

It’s New Music Friday again and again we bring you five new releases we think will brighten up your weekend. Its a musical potpourri today so check them all out.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda picks these five new releases for your consideration:

1. Amos Lee – Transmissions (Hoagiemouth/Thirty Tigers) Transmissions is Lee‘s first new collection of original songs in more than two years. It sees Amos Lee continuing to expand his sonic range while sharpening his closely observed lyrics that squarely address death, aging, and love. Self-produced by Lee for only the second time, the Philadelphia, PA-based artist returned to an old-school style of recording, working with his longtime band in a studio in rural Marlboro, NY built by drummer Lee Falco and his dad out of reclaimed wood from an old church. Playing live on the floor for long hours in close quarters, Lee and his fellow musicians were able to capture the album’s 12 songs in less than a week.

2. Nathan Haines – Notes (Loop) This is the 11th studio album from Nathan Haines, and his first solo album release since 2014. While still maintaining the jazz sound & influence he is renowned for, the album sees Haines embracing the electronic/house/disco scene with the album sitting on the jazz end of the electronic spectrum. In the years since his last release, Haines has undergone transformative change in both his personal and professional life, including moving back to NZ, becoming a father, and setting up his own recording studio. Throughout this time, he was also diagnosed and has recovered from throat cancer, a hugely difficult time for a person who has made his career using his throat.

3. Elles Bailey – Beneath The Neon Glow (Cooking Vinyl) This is the 4th studio album from this genre-blending UK-based roots singer songwriter. “This album broke me apart and made me whole all at the same time and It’s been a real journey of discovery both melodically, lyrically, musically and personally with some of the songs written through some really dark moments and others during the highest of highs,” Elles said of Beneath The Neon Glow. “It’s definitely been the hardest, but most rewarding record I have made to date”.

4. Futurebirds – Easy Company (Dualtone) The Athens, Georgia band’s new album features four sharply-written songs apiece from each of the three frontmen and features Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, who trades verses on the album’s title track, and Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood, who delivers a spoken-word monologue during Soft Drugs. A brass section even makes a brief appearance. The result is a bold blend of old and new, delivered by a band of brothers who’ve never sounded so invigorated.

5. Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge – Wine On Venus (Grace Bowers) The 17-year-old guitar prodigy releases her debut album. “I’m so excited to share my first album with the world! It’s been a long time coming, and I’m proud of what was created with the incredible Hodge Podge and John Osborne producing,” shares Bowers of the album, revealing “We recorded everything live, as it should be, for this sonic journey. I hope you love it as much as I do.”