New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: March 22, 2024

New Music Friday is here and what a bounty of musical riches we have for you today! We’re finding it difficult to whittle it down to just 5 new releases to recommend, but here they are.

There are a lot of quality albums being released today…new albums s include those by Gary Clark, Jr, Elbow, Julia Holter, Waxahatchee and Cody Jinks…here are our top 5 picks:

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

1. Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (4AD) Another solo album from the Big Thief bandmember and its a beauty. Recorded live, all analogue, in a 150 year old studio in a forest, Bright Future sounds warm, intimate and immediate. According to Lenker, “No one stopped a take. We didn’t listen back. I only listened after everybody else left.” Adding, “It was magical.” We agree!

2. Delaney Davidson – Out Of My Head (Rough Diamond) Delaney’s 10th solo album finds him, standing on the precipice of 50″.  Featuring guest appearances by Marlon Williams and Reb Fountain and co-produced with Mark Perkins, (aka Merk). Says Delaney, “I have always helped other people like Tami, Marlon and Troy Kingi make these rich albums and when I asked Mark to come co produce with me I think what I was really wanting to do was finally make one of these albums for myself.”

3. The Jesus And Mary Chain – Glasgow Eyes (Fuzz Club) 40 years on and the Reid Brothers are still making a racket. Glasgow Eyes is the band’s 8th studio album and it sounds just like…The Jesus And Mary Chain. Jim Reid elaborates, “Don’t expect ‘the Mary Chain goes jazz.’ People should expect a Jesus and Mary Chain record, and that’s certainly what Glasgow Eyes is. Our creative approach is remarkably the same as it was in 1984, just hit the studio and see what happens. We went in with a bunch of songs and let it take its course. There are no rules, you just do whatever it takes. And there’s a telepathy there – we are those weird not-quite twins that finish each other’s sentences.” Click here to watch the 13th Floor interview with JAMC’s Jim Reid. 

 

4. Sierra Ferrell – Trail Of Flowers (Rounder/Concord) One of the year’s most anticipated Americana albums. Sierra says, “With Trail of Flowers, I wanted to make a fuller sound with bigger drums, but still stay true to the stripped-down feel of old-time music whenever it felt right. I wanted to create something that makes people feel nostalgic for the past, but excited about the future of music. I’m just trying to put words and melodies together and build it into something people can pour their feelings into, all their happiness and sorrows, so that it changes their reality a little bit and gives them some comfort. To me music is like medicine. Whenever I write a song and it feels healing to me, I know it can heal other people too.”

5. Fraser Ross – Thunderhead (Lil Sister) This is the Christchurch-based artist’s third album. Fraser has been dubbed a ‘Kiwi Billy Connolly‘ for his tongue-in-cheek stage presence. Named after Thunderhead Artist’s Refuge in Montana, Fraser says that his experience at the artist camp was one of recovery and redirecting: “It was the physical and metaphorical place I turned around and stopped running away from the guilt of leaving.”