Two new releases by relative unknowns that are absolutely awesome. Deloyd Elze (pronounced “L Z”) has kind of an indie twang sound that should get him plenty of playlist placements, but when you dig into the music he has almost a electronic producer’s sense of experimentation. This new EP is my introduction to him and seems like a palette cleanse before his debut full length layer this year. Found it on Stereogum and it blew me away. Morgan Nagler has writing credits with Phoebe Bridgers (“Kyoto”), Haim (“Falling”), Madi Diaz, Margo Price, and dozens of other fantastic artists. Her debut solo album under her own name was released today, and it’s full of humorous and heart-forward country folk. One of my most anticipated albums of the year and on first listen it’s definitely paid off.
Pretty bummed out about the new Flatland. Seems very meh and alot of songs I feel sorta blend together. Basically background music.
This Deloyd Elze EP is special and your description is spot on. To add to it, I’d say it’s like if Ethan Gruska (pop artist / producer) did country rock.
Courtney Marie Andrews was predictably excellent last night in SF. If yall haven’t checked out her latest album, Valentine, it’s definitely worth a spin. Margo Cilker was a fun opener to have as well.
saw her in Copenhagen a month ago and it was also a magical show. worked really well with the full album set of the new record into the greatest hits set. she handed us one of the decorative birds from the stage after the show, so now we have a li'l cardinal by our home stereo which is a fun bit of memorabilia. jealous you guys got Margo Cilker as support!!
Good day for country songwriters! Haven’t dug into a ton yet but this new Tenille Townes album The Acrobat is hitting the spot on my morning walk. Throws back to her acoustic workstapes and foregrounding her incredible voice. Favorite songs on first listen are “what’s meant for you”, “grey like Emmylou”, “in love with the sky”, and the title track.
The album I wanted her to make the first time around. Kind of astounding it took this long for her to actually do it, but I'm glad it happened.
She wrote some great stuff in the meantime ("When's It Gonna Happen" should have been a hit imo) but yeah this is a great back-to-basics swing.
I'm definitely bummed out by the Ella Langley album. There's good stuff on here but the singles were definitely the cream of the crop by comparison. Should probably be 12 tracks instead of the 16 + intro/outro.
I think Masquerades on the whole is great; I especially love "Shared Walls." But her debut full-length was, to me, a clear example of her label not understanding what made her special. Just a glaringly overproduced album that stripped all the magic out of the Worktapes songs. Seemed like they were trying to make her into a Miranda Lambert when they should have just let her be a Lori McKenna.
More money in Miranda! I agree though. There are a few nice songs on there, especially the closer, but the production just... doesn't work. Jay Joyce has produced some absolutely incredible work.
More money there if it works! It just wasn’t the right fit. I generally really like the sound Jay Joyce gets out of artists he works with. He just made her sounds so plasticky.