New Mix: Brian Eno Sings, New Dirty Projectors, Leonard Cohen, More
Clockwise from upper left: David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors, The Gift, Leonard Cohen, Johnnyswim, Julia Jacklin Courtesy of the artists hide caption
While Bob was gallivanting about Nashville last week for AmericanaFest, I was hiding under a pile of covers fighting a case of Hand-Foot-And-Mouth disease (it's as Medieval as it sounds). But show business never sleeps, which means Bob made it back home, I recovered and we're back in the studio this week to geek out over our favorite new music.
Bob kicks things off with a big surprise: Brian Eno is singing! The ambient pioneer and producer hasn't released a vocal record in years. But he was lured back into the studio to record a new track by the Portuguese rock band The Gift. It's called "Love Without Violins" and Eno says it's one of the only times you'll ever hear him utter the word "love" in a song.
I follow with a cut all about those late-night hours when you're alone with your thoughts and fear the worst about yourself. Appropriately enough it's called "Savages" and it's from Savoir Adore, the Brooklyn-based musical project of Paul Hammer.
Also on the show: Bob is so overwhelmed by the insanely warped sounds of a new Dirty Projectors song that he scarcely notices its profoundly bleak lyrics; Australian singer Julia Jacklin has a searing, slow-building rock anthem to an old flame; Leonard Cohen turns 82 and celebrates with some of the darkest music of his incredible, 50-year career; And the folk-pop duo Johnnyswim covers what they call one of the sexiest songs of all time: Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game."
-- Robin Hilton
Songs Featured On This Episode
The Gift
- Song: Love Without Violins
- from Love Without Violins
This is the lead single off The Gift's forthcoming album, yet to be titled, and features the legendary Brian Eno. The song is one of the only times you'll hear Eno uttering the word "love," but only to address it without the rose-colored glasses — he's talking about tough love, love without violins.
Savoir Adore
- Song: Savages
- from The Love That Remains
Lead vocalist and son of famed keytar player Jan Hammer, Paul Hammer of Savoir Adore penned this track after finding inspiration in turning introspective. Hammer sings about a specific feeling of becoming a monster and losing yourself, particularly late at night.
Julia Jacklin
- Song: Hay Plain
- from Don't Let The Kids Win
This Australian native has a buoyant, lilting voice reminiscent of Adrienne Lenker of Big Thief. This song comes from her debut LP, Don't Let The Kids Win, slated to be released Oct. 7 release. "Hay Plain" builds itself up, and Robin confirms that there is payoff from that.
Dirty Projectors
- Song: Keep Your Name
- from Keep Your Name
The group's first new release since 2012, the latest single from the Dirty Projectors is bleak and sonically warped. David Longstreth sings, "What I want from art is truth / what you want is fame," though it's unclear to whom (to someone else in the band?). "Keep Your Name" also has a video that's equally tortured as the song.
Leonard Cohen
- Song: You Want It Darker
- from You Want It Darker
Released on his 82nd birthday, this song is the first track off Leonard Cohen's upcoming album of the same name, and is perhaps his darkest yet. Bob imagines that Cohen's voice seems to get deeper and deeper with each record, until one day it will be subsonic so that you feel it rather than hear it.
Johnnyswim
- Song: Wicked Game
- from Wicked Game
This closing track from Johnnyswim's Georgica Pond, out Oct. 14, is a Chris Isaak cover. It's sultry, it's sexy and it conveys the dissonance between desire and angst. The married duo, Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano, who first played the song alone in his car, inject passion into a correctly combustive close to its second full-length.