New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: March 24, 2023

New Music Friday is here again. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda presents this week’s 5 new albums for your consideration with Lana Del Rey leading the pack.

1. Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Interscope) Lana’s ninth album finally emerges after being delayed for “undisclosed reasons”. Collaborators include Jon Batiste and Father John Misty and Jack Antonoff produces. “There’s a girl who sings ‘Hotel California,’ Del Rey declares, dropping the Eagles reference into the title track “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.” Welcome to Lana’s Life In The Fast Lane.

2. Depeche Mode – Memento Mori (Mute) The band’s 15th album, and the first Depeche Mode studio album to be released after the death of co-founder and keyboardist Andy Fletcher. Says Marin Gore: “We started work on this project early in the pandemic, and its themes were directly inspired by that time. After Fletch’s passing, we decided to continue as we’re sure this is what he would have wanted, and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning.”

3. Caroline Rose – The Art Of Forgetting (New West) Born on Long Island and based in Austin, Caroline has this to say about making her fifth album, “Sometimes you’ve got to express yourself because if you don’t you’ll explode,” says songwriter/producer Caroline Rose of their latest album, The Art of Forgetting. “…and I felt like I was going to explode.”

4. Nickel Creek – Celebrants (Repair) The band’s (now a trio) first new album in nine years! Celebrants is a record about embracing the friction inherent in real human connection. We begin the record yearning for and pursuing harmonious connection. We end the record having realized that truly harmonious connection can only be achieved through the dissonance that we’ve spent our entire adult lives trying to avoid. The album was produced, recorded and mixed by Eric Valentine (also produced Nickel Creek albums Why Should The Fire Die [2015], A Dotted Line [2014]) and contains 18 tracks, two of which are instrumental, “Going Out…” and “…Despite The Weather.”

5. Eric Bibb – Ridin’ (Stoney Plain) The 72 year old blues man is still on the saddle. Ridin’ was inspired by the painting “A Ride For Liberty (1862)” by Eastman Johnson, depicting an African American family fleeing enslavement in the South during the civil war. Bibb says, “As a songwriter, studying African American history has always been a deep well of inspiration. The true stories of my ancestors and their communities are at the heart of many of the songs on my new album – Ridin’.”