Search "muse" 415 Items

Awareness Edition: Amber Galaxy Vinyl + Laptop Sticker.From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory issonically different from Van Etten's previous work. Writing andrecording in total collaboration with her band for the first time,Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The resultof that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound andsongwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon - life andliving, love and being loved - but the sounds are new, whollyrealized and sharp as glass.Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind, Van Etten muses,"Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's scary, sometimes you feelstuck. It's like every day feels a little different - just being at peacewith whatever you're feeling and whoever you are and how yourelate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense ofopenness while knowing that my feelings change every day, thatis all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can bewhile letting other people be who they are and not taking itpersonally and just being. I'm not there, but I'm trying to be thereevery day."Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is a quantum leap inthat direction.- Lol Tolhurst

Awareness Edition: Amber Galaxy Vinyl.From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory issonically different from Van Etten's previous work. Writing andrecording in total collaboration with her band for the first time,Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The resultof that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound andsongwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon - life andliving, love and being loved - but the sounds are new, whollyrealized and sharp as glass.Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind, Van Etten muses,"Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's scary, sometimes you feelstuck. It's like every day feels a little different - just being at peacewith whatever you're feeling and whoever you are and how yourelate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense ofopenness while knowing that my feelings change every day, thatis all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can bewhile letting other people be who they are and not taking itpersonally and just being. I'm not there, but I'm trying to be thereevery day."Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is a quantum leap inthat direction.- Lol Tolhurst

From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory issonically different from Van Etten's previous work. Writing andrecording in total collaboration with her band for the first time,Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The resultof that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound andsongwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon - life andliving, love and being loved - but the sounds are new, whollyrealized and sharp as glass.Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind, Van Etten muses,"Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's scary, sometimes you feelstuck. It's like every day feels a little different - just being at peacewith whatever you're feeling and whoever you are and how yourelate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense ofopenness while knowing that my feelings change every day, thatis all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can bewhile letting other people be who they are and not taking itpersonally and just being. I'm not there, but I'm trying to be thereevery day."Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is a quantum leap inthat direction.- Lol Tolhurst

The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personalterritor y while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It 's a true level up album whichsees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything fromsoulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop(Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a `vast world of moods and muses' andCotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in theprocess.This is in no small part down to Owen `O' Williams' vocal performance- often compared to a youngRichard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into hisfavourite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behaviour, and the humiliations of being amusician in London. This time around, however, there's a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions.No more so in the track's closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaningsocial interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer CharlotteGreig.) As Williams says: "I'd tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed eithermawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because itlooked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, actedafter the dust settled." The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greigin a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which wasfeatured in The Guardian in 2023.)The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams' lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blastsof pop perfection. This is largely down to th...

The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personalterritor y while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It 's a true level up album whichsees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything fromsoulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop(Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a `vast world of moods and muses' andCotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in theprocess.This is in no small part down to Owen `O' Williams' vocal performance- often compared to a youngRichard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into hisfavourite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behaviour, and the humiliations of being amusician in London. This time around, however, there's a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions.No more so in the track's closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaningsocial interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer CharlotteGreig.) As Williams says: "I'd tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed eithermawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because itlooked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, actedafter the dust settled." The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greigin a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which wasfeatured in The Guardian in 2023.)The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams' lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blastsof pop perfection. This is largely down to th...

The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personalterritor y while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It 's a true level up album whichsees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything fromsoulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop(Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a `vast world of moods and muses' andCotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in theprocess.This is in no small part down to Owen `O' Williams' vocal performance- often compared to a youngRichard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into hisfavourite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behaviour, and the humiliations of being amusician in London. This time around, however, there's a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions.No more so in the track's closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaningsocial interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer CharlotteGreig.) As Williams says: "I'd tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed eithermawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because itlooked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, actedafter the dust settled." The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greigin a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which wasfeatured in The Guardian in 2023.)The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams' lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blastsof pop perfection. This is largely down to th...

As Patois Counselors close in on a decade of existence, they are back to confirm their standing as one of America’s most consistently forward-thinking rock units. Although it’s been an entire presidential term since the Counselors acclaimed sophomore album The Optimal Seat came out, Bo White’s group hasn’t been lying fallow. Over the last few years, the seven-person line-up has been busy writing, recording and gigging, resulting in Enough: One Night at the Daisy Chain, a live-in-the-studio document captured in Brooklyn while on tour. Released at the beginning of 2024, Daisy Chain works splendidly as both a greatest hits primer and a forthcoming album teaser. Alas, the teasing is over with the arrival of Limited Sphere, the third album from Charlotte, NC’s Patois Counselors. Once again, Ever/Never steps up to the plate to demonstrate their confidence in this hard-working crew. In most contexts, a septet band configuration signals either a jazz ensemble or a mishmash of madcap noise. Beholden to no rules, Patois Counselors pluck from a selection of tactics as needed. Even augmented by extra players, each member reinforces their specific role, performing exactly what is needed for the track at hand. White’s post-modern muse needs plenty of room to stretch out and breathe and the big band spreads out the tent as far as it will go. White’s songs are rife with earned skepticism, sly asides and deft twists of tongues and licks. The manner in which the little details accumulate into the structure of the whole keeps the listener engaged. In other words, this is pop music for benevolent, discerning brainiacs, but regular people can dig it too. For Limited Sphere, Patois Counselors relax their grip on the tense post-punk that they mastered long ago. Songs like “Fountain Of UHF,” “Serious Rider” and “Ranking Set” still touch on this style, but now White’s voice shares the air with woodwind instruments that add even more depth and texture to his songs. The effortlessly groovy, vaguely loungey “Marge Attack” conjures fond memories of early Stereolab, while “Return To Sensitivity” evokes the magic hour of twilight, insects buzzing and zipping through dusky sky. Foregrounding the haze and mist in these songs, you can detect traces of Eno’s Another Green World in Limited’s atmoSphere, particularly on the closing “Cathy Music.” For their third proper album, Patois Counselors have crafted another seamless set of songs for practical fantasists and head-in-the-clouds cynics. The sphere outlined here may be limited, but the boundaries have been expanded significantly. —Erick Bradshaw

Why you'll love it...
Sound-wise, 1971’s Willie Nelson & Family is no different than the 11 studio albums that precede it: They are awash in the Countrypolitan sound, with strings, horns and backing singers. But the version of ‘’Sunday Mornin,'' complete with its guitar solo — one of the first on Nelson’s legendary Trigger guitar — feels like the first act of defiance and a statement of intent. ‘’If Kris Kristofferson can do this, I can do it too,'' Nelson seemed to be saying. Within 18 months, he’d be in New York making Shotgun Willie, free to follow his muse wherever he went, cementing Kristofferson’s outlaw country jumpoff point. And that’s why Willie Nelson & Family is such an interesting artifact: It’s the last album Willie made in his ‘’Before'' timeline; it’s the point where he started putting it all together and asserting his creative ideas in tangible ways.

Black & White Smash Vinyl.Since first splashing on to the Southern California circuit in the midaughts,Geneva Jacuzzi (née Garvin) quickly cemented herself as thequeen of the Los Angeles underground. Her immersive and unhingedmultimedia performances are the stuff of legend, a psychotropic galleryof masks, costumes, confrontation, and massive art installations.Jacuzzi's recordings are equally revered, catchy hooks and crypticmoods dusted in 4-track grit. The arrival of her third official full-length,and Dais Records debut, is cause for such celebration. Triple Fire vividlyexpands and crystallizes Jacuzzi's signature fusion of midnight melodyand mutant aerobics across a 12-track hit parade of wildcard synth-popand sly post-apocalyptic camp. Her enthusiasm for the album is as boldas her body of work: "Halfway through, we started calling this the recordof the prophecy, the record that's going to save mankind."Opener "Laps of Luxury" sets the template - a strobe-lit dreamer'sdelight of swaggering synth bass, Haçienda drum machinery, and sultryvocal spellcasting ("Tragic mysteries I've known for centuries / I burnedall memories and turned to fantasy"). The collection burns throughshades of sardonic strut ("Art Is Dangerous," "Nu2U," "Keep It Secret"),coldwave kiss off ("Speed Of Light," co-produced by Andrew Clinco ofDrab Majesty), retro-futurist body music ("Dry," "Scene Ballerina," "BowTie Eater"), and cheeky glitterball pop ("Take It Or Leave It," "Heart FullOf Poison" co-produced by Roderick Edens and Andrew Briggs). Shelikens the eclectic spectrum of moods to the continuum of humanemotions: "Funny, sexy, sad, scary, witty, hopeful, menacing. Eventually itdeconstructs, turns into a party, and then ends sweet and soft."Taken as a whole, Triple Fire comes as close as any document yet tocapturing Jacuzzi's kaleidoscopic alchemy of pop sugar and chaosenergy, flickering between icy and ironic, chic and surreal, hungry andheartsick. Hers is a muse as rare as...

Since first splashing on to the Southern California circuit in the midaughts,Geneva Jacuzzi (née Garvin) quickly cemented herself as thequeen of the Los Angeles underground. Her immersive and unhingedmultimedia performances are the stuff of legend, a psychotropic galleryof masks, costumes, confrontation, and massive art installations.Jacuzzi's recordings are equally revered, catchy hooks and crypticmoods dusted in 4-track grit. The arrival of her third official full-length,and Dais Records debut, is cause for such celebration. Triple Fire vividlyexpands and crystallizes Jacuzzi's signature fusion of midnight melodyand mutant aerobics across a 12-track hit parade of wildcard synth-popand sly post-apocalyptic camp. Her enthusiasm for the album is as boldas her body of work: "Halfway through, we started calling this the recordof the prophecy, the record that's going to save mankind."Opener "Laps of Luxury" sets the template - a strobe-lit dreamer'sdelight of swaggering synth bass, Haçienda drum machinery, and sultryvocal spellcasting ("Tragic mysteries I've known for centuries / I burnedall memories and turned to fantasy"). The collection burns throughshades of sardonic strut ("Art Is Dangerous," "Nu2U," "Keep It Secret"),coldwave kiss off ("Speed Of Light," co-produced by Andrew Clinco ofDrab Majesty), retro-futurist body music ("Dry," "Scene Ballerina," "BowTie Eater"), and cheeky glitterball pop ("Take It Or Leave It," "Heart FullOf Poison" co-produced by Roderick Edens and Andrew Briggs). Shelikens the eclectic spectrum of moods to the continuum of humanemotions: "Funny, sexy, sad, scary, witty, hopeful, menacing. Eventually itdeconstructs, turns into a party, and then ends sweet and soft."Taken as a whole, Triple Fire comes as close as any document yet tocapturing Jacuzzi's kaleidoscopic alchemy of pop sugar and chaosenergy, flickering between icy and ironic, chic and surreal, hungry andheartsick. Hers is a muse as rare as it is regenerative, forever re...

I Can Make A Mess (aka Ace Enders) "Silver & Gold" available on 12" vinyl for the first time w/ all new artwork!