We generally tend to avoid short ‘news’ posts, especially those concerning the more well-known acts that will no doubt be covered by the Blogosphere Big Boys and tweeted repeatedly until we’re all begging for mercy. And given his track record and stature, it’s likely Owen Ashworth’s Advance Base will get this treatment, but we’re going to make an exception on account of the fact that he is one of our very favourite writers and musicians. Basically, we’re very excited. Okay?
So as you can probably guess, Advance Base has announced a new album. Nephew in the Woods, coming this summer, will be Ashworth’s second full release under the Advance Base moniker, following his début A Shut-In’s Prayer (which we wrote about here) and his exalted spell as Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. The only bad news here is that weird sort of apprehension which surrounds a new release from one of your favourites, the faint possibility that they’ll betray your ideas of what makes them great, possibly alienating you in the process. What would I do if Ashworth reinvented himself and declared that lonely people are actually all nerds and recorded a decadent autotuned pop album about drinking champagne in gold-plated swimming pools with bikini-clad ladies?
Fear not! If the opening track ‘Tricia Please Come Home’ (which is streaming now over at Brooklyn Vegan) is anything to go by, we are in safe hands. It sees Ashworth plying his own unique brand of folk storytelling scored with lo-fi electronics. If that’s not enough, the press release will quell your fears:
“Sweetly sad stories about lonely Midwesterners trying to make sense of their troubled pasts… Disappearance, displacement, hell-raising, child-raising, Christmas, Michigan, arson, aging & animals are recurring themes throughout the album”
Nephew in the Wild is out on the 21st August via Orindal (North America) and Tomlab (UK/EU) and you can pre-order it right now.