New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: June 30, 2023

New Music Friday has come around again! This week we bring to your attention a new classic from Lucinda Williams plus four more albums you need to know about released today.

Here are Marty’s top 5 picks for today:

1. Lucinda Williams – Stories From A Rock N Roll Heart (Highway 20/Thirty Tigers) Despite suffering a debilitating stroke in 2020 Lucinda is sounding better than ever of her new album which is very rock n’ roll. Williams gets help from Bruce Springsteen, Angel Olsen, Margo Price and Buddy Miller, not that she needs it. Click here to read the 13th Floor album review. 

2. The Baseball Project – Grand Slam Time! (Omnivore) The fourth studio album from this ‘supergroup’ made up of Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), former R.E.M. members Peter Buck and Mike Mills, along with Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows) and Linda Pitmon (Filthy Friends, Alejandro Escovedo). Produced by formative R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter, Grand Salami Time! brought together former R.E.M. members in the studio again for the first time in over three decades, and it’s The Baseball Project’s first release in nine years.

3. Brigid Mae Power – Dream From The Deep Well (Fire) The Irish chanteuse’s fourth album. Here’s what Brigid has to say about it: “It’s a deep dig, as the title track suggests. I was sick of the superficial nature of politics and music; it was written out of frustration at people who talk a lot but do nothing, especially in the sad and difficult times we’ve all just encountered.” And you can hear more from Brigid, just click here to watch the 13th Floor interview with her. 

4. Joanna Sternberg – I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum) It’s the second studio album from Joanna. Recorded in Brooklyn and produced by Matt Sweeney who says, “For me, this album is a dead-on example of how the more brave and clear an artist is in expressing their own world, the stronger it resonates with strangers.”

5. sparkle*jets u.k. – Best Of Friends (Big Stir) Obscure power pop group from the late 90s reunites and records a double album of covers by other obscure power pop groups from the late 90s. Do you need to hear all 21 songs? Of course you do!