Whitney - Forever Turned Around (August 30, 2019) Album

zmtr · Jun 6, 2019

1. Giving Up
2. Used To Be Lonely
3. Before I Know It
4. Song For Ty
5. Valleys (My Love)
6. Rhododendron
7. My Life Alone
8. Day & Night
9. Friend Of Mine
10. Forever Turned Around

Out 8/30/19 via Secretly Canadian

trevorshmevor · Jun 6, 2019

Song is wonderful. Easily one of my most anticipated records for the year

Aaron Mook · Jun 6, 2019

This is smooth as hell

trevorshmevor · Jun 6, 2019

May as well throw this in here too. A reworked version of the last song on the record

zmtr · Jun 6, 2019

It's a shame this isn't coming until the end of summer. They're perfect for pool side tunes.

trevorshmevor · Jun 6, 2019

Press release

Restlessness is at the heart of Whitney’s resonant and stunning sophomore album Forever Turned Around. As Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek realized over the past three years, life can change drastically. Priorities shift, relationships evolve, home can become far away, and even when luck momentarily works out, there’s still that underlying search for something better.

While the success of their 2016 debut Light Upon The Lake uprooted them away from Chicago to seemingly endless tours across the world, Ehrlich’s and Kakacek’s partnership only strengthened. “Our friendship has kept us going even though so much has happened in the years since we started the band,” says Ehrlich. Their bond has been the one constant as they’ve weathered the transitional period of their mid-twenties, supporting each other through bouts of heartache, loss, and uncertainty. But lately, as they’ve found home through themselves, their romantic relationships, and their friends, there’s an uneasiness that comes from stability. When Ehrlich sings on “Valleys (My Love),” “There’s fire burning in the trees / Maybe life is the way it seems” it’s a mission statement of the existential questions raised throughout.

This is what Forever Turned Around grapples with: the anxiety and acceptance that time is limited. Across 10 songs, Ehrlich and Kakacek skeptically yet masterfully navigate questions of mortality, doubt, love, and friendship in a grander scope than they’ve attempted before. It’s an album about partnership — romantic, familial and communal, but most importantly a love in friendship: the bonds between two best friends and creative partners and the joy and stress that comes with it. As Ehrlich sings on “Used To Be Lonely:” ‘Well it made no sense at all / Until you came along.” It tackles the blissful confusion that comes from seeing the way things unexpectedly change over time.

Forever Turned Around came together over several sessions across the country with its earliest material written during tour dates in Lisbon, Portugal. Though Ehrlich is Whitney’s lead singing drummer while Kakacek is the lead guitarist, when writing, both transcend their roles to piece together each offering lyrically and compositionally. “The way it ends up working is one of us comes up with a basic idea for a song and the other person serves as the foil to complicate that idea. We ask, ‘What can we change to make it more interesting?’” says Kakacek. Challenging each other is the core of their songwriting partnership. “A big thing for us is our ability to take criticism. We’re always open to new ideas. We approach it where we try to stretch a new idea as far as it can go,” adds Kakacek.

After a session with producers Bradley Cook (Bon Iver, Hand Habits) and Jonathan Rado (Weyes Blood, Father John Misty) helped color in the arrangements, the album truly revealed itself when they reunited with original rhythm guitarist Ziyad Asrar in his basement Chicago studio—the same place where they hashed out much of Light Upon The Lake. “Getting down there was so important because we’ve always used that basement for music. The comfort and familiarity mattered but having Ziyad be a buffer between us was so helpful,” says Ehrlich. With Asrar’s help, songs like “Song For Ty” and “Forever Turned Around” effortlessly came together. There, the band enlisted Chicago musicians Lia Kohl and OHMME’s Macie Stewart to provide strings throughout the record and their lush swells colorfully accent the arrangements.

Risks and experiments make Forever Turned Around a triumph like opener “Giving Up.” The track started from a stream-of-conscious revelation when Ehrlich improvised the chorus while Kakacek played Wurlitzer. What began as a nod to Neil Young’s Live at Massey Hall 1971 in an afternoon turned into a heart-rending and relatable song about the ups and downs of long-term relationships. Over twinkling piano, Ehrlich sings, “Though we started losing touch / I’ve been hanging on because / You’re the only one I love.” He explains, “In a relationship, you don’t stay at the same level at all times. You go through periods where you’re closed off.”

Whitney has long been a full-fledged band with keyboardist Malcolm Brown, guitarist Print Choteau, bassist Josiah Marshall, and trumpeter Will Miller backing them live, along with Asrar who’s returning to the fold on their upcoming tour. On the album, the wider and more maximalist songs match the tight-knit chemistry of their electric performances thanks to Tucker Martine’s immaculate mixes. “We’ve become such a well toured band and developed this groove that you can hear it all over the LP,” says Ehrlich. Though the stoner instrumental freakout “Rhododendron” is the most obvious example of this vibe, with its slinking guitar leads and Miller’s flailing trumpet lines, other songs like “Before I Know It” evoke the breezy melancholy of Labi Siffre.

Forever Turned Around is an album about relationships. It deals with how they evolve or flounder and how loneliness can creep in unexpectedly. Penultimate track “Friend of Mine” captures this sentiment beautifully. The emotional centerpiece of the album, it builds to a crescendo during the chorus with Ehrlich singing of an old acquaintance, "While you’re drifting away / Like a cloud hanging over the pines.” Happiness can be fleeting but this album proves that even when it feels like time is turning on its head and there’s either a moment of clarity or crippling doubt, there’s still beauty in figuring it all out.

username · Jun 6, 2019

Too bad this isn’t coming in early summer, last one was a great summer cruising record. New track is solid.

Aaron Mook · Jun 6, 2019

Wow I really can't stop listening to this one lol I was getting a little worried about where this band disappeared to and what was taking them but this one's gonna be worth the wait

radiodead · Jun 6, 2019

Shit. I really love this song. I remember trying and absolutely failing with their last record.

Jay Som
Alex G
Whitney

.....been a really good 36 hours

trevorshmevor · Jun 6, 2019

Aaron Mook said:

Wow I really can't stop listening to this one lol I was getting a little worried about where this band disappeared to and what was taking them but this one's gonna be worth the wait

Yeah I think I’m on listen like, 20 of this right now lol. Did the same thing when No Woman was released though and I’m still not burnt out on that one. Band’s got infinite lasting power

Elder Lightning · Jun 6, 2019

This is great. This band's sound always reminds me of Wilco's Sky Blue Sky so I might jam that this afternoon.

Aaron Mook · Jun 6, 2019

KidLightning said:

This is great. This band's sound always reminds me of Wilco's Sky Blue Sky so I might jam that this afternoon.

First Wilco album I ever heard. Underrated imo.

Elder Lightning · Jun 6, 2019

Aaron Mook said:

First Wilco album I ever heard. Underrated imo.

It's pretty easily my favorite album of theirs. But I agree, it never gets the love it deserves.

whitenblue88 · Jun 6, 2019

New song is awesome

vidiviciveni · Jun 6, 2019

What fantastic album art, and what a sexy little jam. Giving Up reminds me of listening to my mom's old James Taylor/Carly Simon tunes

Impossible Germany is my favorite Wilco song

jdr2187 · Jun 12, 2019

Song is great. Their last album never got the love it deserved.

sean_rugy · Jun 18, 2019

been listening to their last a TON ever since this was announced. in turn my roommate is now a big fan.

mattfreaksmeout · Jul 16, 2019

I am sooooo late to this party but damn this band is incredible. Seeing them at Pitchfork Sunday so I finally gave Light Upon the Lake a long overdue listen. Took a couple listens for me to “get it”, but now I’m hooked.

radiodead · Jul 16, 2019

So I was just able to listen to “Valleys” from the new record on Apple Music. It’s great. But it’s still greyed out. Strange.

Edit: nvm. It’s available. Was this announced/released

sean_rugy · Jul 16, 2019

radiodead said:

So I was just able to listen to “Valleys” from the new record on Apple Music. It’s great. But it’s still greyed out. Strange.

Edit: nvm. It’s available. Was this announced/released

as of a couple minutes ago haha

Whitney - "Valleys (My Love)" Video

trevorshmevor · Jul 16, 2019

Surprise surprise, Valleys is perfect

radiodead · Jul 16, 2019

They just have a lovely sound. They remind me of the prettiest moments from The Band.

sean_rugy · Jul 16, 2019

easily one of my most anticipated for the rest of the year. light upon the lake never gets old, expecting the same from this.

Leftandleaving · Jul 16, 2019

Valleys is good. Album art is lovely

Elder Lightning · Jul 16, 2019

I want this album now! New song is great.

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Whitney - Forever Turned Around (August 30, 2019) Album

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