ALC #18: Superwolves

[dihansse]

I think it’s my turn now.

This weekend I listened to a lot of new albums which were nearly all focused on fairly simple rock structures and tended to americana (Dispatch) although also created by Belgian (The Calicos) and Dutch (Bertolf). But I think the best album in this sector was released a month ago:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Superwolves by Matt Sweeney & Bonni...nce' Billy

I think this new one hasn’t received enough love from the BEA community “yet” so I thought it would be a good thing to promote this album for the ALC 2021.

In fact it’s their second collaborative album, the first being Superwolf from 2005 and the two albums are fairly similar, both in their tone and in the way the songs are constructed. Matt Sweeney used to be a member of Chavez and Zwan, not the most appealing names, but on these two albums his electric guitar textures added to the really fine songs of Will Oldham give these tracks that little extra to let them grow from good to great.

Before I listened to Superwolves I didn’t know Superwolf so I listened to that album as well and to me this second albums is somewhat superior to the first. This is roots rock at its best going from African desert blues (Hall Of Death) to British folk but the best track is the opening track, the vey dangerous sounding Make Worry For Me with also a fantastic guitar part.

Notwithstanding the electric guitar touches this is by no means a heavy rock album and it’s only a bonus to the song writing capabilities of Will Oldham that there is not a bad track to be found on the album.

Let me know what you think about it.

[EyeKanFly]

This is super interesting. Didn't realize Billy did a colab with the former Gomez guy, very cool.

I listened to Superwolf since I had never heard of it, and then listened to this. Superwolf was meh, and this was a solid improvement. I thought it was a nice little piece of indie folk. Probably not gonna climb my chart super high, but it was well worth a listen.

EDIT: apparently it's Chavez, not Gomez. Much lamer (imo) haha, but still quite interesting.
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51 Washington, D.C. albums!

[dihansse]

Of course you’re right about Gomez/Chavez: I changed it. I quite like Gomez and don’t really know much about Chavez.

[Purplepash]

Thanks for selecting this. I wasn't really interested enough to add it to my to listen to list when it came out so who knows if/when I would have heard it otherwise, but this was a really nice listen that I enjoyed quite a bit. It had a bit of darkness to it, but with if not a positive darkness, at least an acceptance and ability to cope with it. At least that's the vibe I got from it. Musically and lyrically it kept my attention. ALC comes through again with a good album outside my normal listening sphere.

[KitchenSink]

good pick, haven't listened to Bonnie Prince Billy in forever which is weird given how much I enjoy almost everything I've heard from him. And yeah this is no exception. With other BPB albums I've found it hard to resist the urge to compare everything to I See A Darkness, but either I've gotten over that hangup since my last BPB listen or this is the most distinct from that album I've heard thus far. So yeah free from that impossibly unfair comparison this has become probably my favorite modern Bonnie Prince Billie affair. he's still rocking that deeply-personal-yet-still-abstract evocative lyrical style, vocals gently skating over the Americana-tinted strings, mirroring them in a really beautifully. mixing is kinda weird (particularly in regard to where the vocals are placed in the mix) but not necessarily in a bad way, dude's voice (and the tasteful layering thereof) makes it work. to more or less echo Purplepash it's a kind of dark album but ultimately a very comforting one, like a hug from a friend who's going through a lot of the same shit you are, which tbh is a lot of what I look for in music like this
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A Variety of Artists