Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
SEVEN IN SEVEN
Welcome to Seven in Seven, where each week we typically take a look at shows coming to the region over the next week. And while venue doors are slowly opening again, due to the current pandemic they aren’t quite there yet. That doesn’t mean the music stops, and new releases are coming out weekly from artists you know and love and some waiting to be discovered. Each week we’ll be looking at some of the best hitting shelves and streaming services and a can’tmiss show in the region.
Whether your musical tastes are rock and roll, jazz, heavy metal, R&B, singer-songwriter or indie, there’ll always be something to check out. Here’s what’s on the docket for the week of Nov. 19:
Show of the week
1 Kevin Morby + Hamilton Leithauser — Union Transfer — Nov. 22
Last October, Kevin Morby released the folk heavy “Sundowner,” and a few months earlier, in April, Hamilton Leithauser released his acclaimed album “The Loves of Your Life,” which is one of the best solo outings from the Walkmen frontman. Now, Morby and Leithauser have embarked on a “Fall Mixer” U.S. tour. Both are performing with a full band and are focusing on their respective latest releases. The musicians have been extra excited on this run as their previous release tours were cut short by the pandemic in early 2020.
New releases 2 Chris Liebing — “Another Day”
After three decades working dance floors with pummeling techno, Chris Liebing has a formidable reputation as a DJ and is certainly comfortable with being in the spotlight, but for his solo work he has chosen a different avenue. “Another Day” sees him once again collaborating with an eclectic mix of artists, including several who were involved with his 2018 Mute Records debut, “Burn Slow.” Miles Cooper Seaton, in one of his last performances following his sad and untimely passing earlier this year, and Polly Scattergood lend vocals to a track each, while Ralf Hildenbeutel returns to produce. Despite Liebing very much directing and driving the shape, tone and essence of the album, he ultimately views it as one rooted in collaboration.
3 Darrell Katz — “Galeanthropology”
The artistic vision of jazz composer Darrell Katz recognizes no boundaries, and “Galeanthropology” is a varied showcase of his genre-spanning interest in American music from Jimi Hendrix’s “Belly Button Window” to original jazz-art song settings of the poetry of Paula Tatarunis. Working with the drummerless ensemble OddSong, which gracefully blends composition and improvisation into seamless performances, the album ranges from gritty blues to sublime meditations on the vagaries of life.
4 The Darkness — “Motorheart”
UK glam rock giants the Darkness have delivered a record of immeasurable rock ’n’ roll extravagance in “Motorheart.” Brimming with their trademark blazing guitar riffs, solos and frontman Justin Hawkins’ soaring falsetto, it’s a piece of work meant to be cranked up. Drop the needle anywhere on “Motorheart” and be instantly transported from this moaning and weeping vale of tears to Elysian fields
of rock where all hands are raised, the drinks are free, and everyone wears a pleasingly salacious grin.
5 Godless — “States of Chaos”
Hyderabad, India-based Godless deliver their inaugural LP, “States of Chaos,” which sees the band unleashing eight intense and unfaltering tracks of their thrash-laced death metal that promise to pummel the listener into submission. Thematically, the record explores topics hinging on psychological trepidation and terror and phantasmagorias of dreamscapes that are sure to induce nightmares. Overall, it’s a uniquely vicious-sounding record that takes no prisoners.
6 Palm Ghosts — “The Lost Frequency”
“The Lost Frequency” follows up Nashville-based outfit Palm Ghosts’ acclaimed album “Lifeboat Candidate,” which was released earlier this year. The latter is a giant ear worm on unrest, isolation and frustration. While the world has not changed much since then, the new record is different. It is an album lost to the pandemic — literally, as it was supposed to be released last year — and hearkens back to before this life in stasis, back to when things were almost normal, which is what we are all clamoring for. It’s the sound of an ’80s prom in a war zone, located in the dead heart of country music, Nashville, as far from the honky-tonks and pedal taverns of their adopted city as one can get.