This week’s Timely Tunes features new music from John Moreland, Robyn Hitchcock, Waxahatchee, La Santa Cecilia and Gas. Check it out!

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Timely Tunes

John Moreland “Sallisaw Blue” (From “Big Bad Luv”)

Oklahoma treasure John Moreland is one of the great modern country revivalists working today. If you have seen him in concert or listened to his previous album, 2015’s “High on Tulsa Heat”, you already know that Moreland is capable of reducing you to a tear-soaked mess. “Sallisaw Blue” reminds me that he also has a playful, honky-tonkin’ side that is just as endearing. There is a gritty looseness to this track that hints at his roots in punk rock bands during Moreland’s youth. “Big Bad Luv” comes out on May 5^th and is his first on legendary label 4AD.

Robyn Hitchcock “Virginia Woolf” (From “Robyn Hitchcock”)

As the leader of neo-psychedelic cult band The Soft Boys in the late-70’s, Hitchcock took his Lennon/Barrett worship and injected it with just enough venom to make his band palatable to the punks (see: “I Wanna Destroy You”). His subsequent solo career has been a winding, lysergic stroll through the mind of one of Britain’s great eccentrics. I saw him play an intimate acoustic show last month and his humour was sharp, weird, and wild as ever, and his new record is an especially strong addition to an already magical discography.

Waxahatchee “Silver” (From “Out in the Storm”)

I began last week’s playlist with a song from Waxahatchee’s excellent third album “Ivy Tripp”…unaware that Katie Crutchfield’s project would release a brand new song the same week. “Silver” is a straight-ahead blast of assured indie rock balanced between melancholy and resolve. “I went out in the storm and I’m never returning,” she sings and lifts into the air.

La Santa Cecilia “Amar Y Vivir” (From “Amar Y Vivir”)

Los Angeles-based La Santa Cecilia blends a wide range of Latin American influences (cumbia, bolero, mariachi, bossa nova) into an intoxicating mixture. On May 12 they will release a new visual album recorded live in Mexico City focused on the band’s roots in Latin culture. The band is named for the Mexican patron saint of music and they are great ambassadors for the power of music in a fraught socio-political climate.

Gas “Narkopop 3” (From “Narkopop”)

Cologne-based electronic artist, and Kompakt Records co-founder, Wolfgang Voigt has over 160 releases under at least 30 different pseudonyms(!), but his abstract ambient project Gas is perhaps the best-known and most-beloved. This is the first album in seventeen years under this moniker and it’s as close to perfect as anything he has ever released. Whereas much ambient music is made to passively blend into the environment, Voigt’s work envelops you and pulls you into ITS world.

TIMELY TUNES, VOL. 45

Tracklist:

1. Guy Clark “Rita Ballou”
2. John Moreland “Sallisaw Blue”
3. Terry Allen “Lubbock Woman”
4. Neil Young “Albuquerque”
5. The Kinks “Arthur”
6. Robyn Hitchcock “Virginia Woolf”
7. Julian Cope “An Elegant Chaos”
8. R.E.M. “Strange Currencies”
9. Waxahatchee “Silver”
10. Mitski “Thursday Girl”
11. Grupo Latino de Uruguay “Resalsa”
12. La Santa Cecilia “Amar Y Vivir – En Vivo”
13. Andres Landero “Virgen de la Candelaria”
14. Gas “Narkopop 3”

What are YOU listening to this week?