DC February 21 New Release Recap

We're leaning pretty heavy on the British Isles this week for our fill of interesting new releases, from the fine neo-folk songs of Irish troubadour Fionn Regan to the long-awaited (and expanded) U.S. release from English songstress Nerina Pallot. We're also recommending the propelled indie Brit pop of Jonquil to Sinead O'Connor's How About I Be Me (and You Be You). From our very own Pacific Northwest, we were frankly blown away by the latest from Damien Jurado and we also made room for the surprisingly gentle "lullabyes" of Josh Ritter's Bringing in the Darlings. Lots more, too, on the DC release list including The Chieftains (with Bon Iver, The Decemberists and The Civil Wars), Jim White, Cursive, Lambchop, Field Music and Tindersticks. Dive in below for more verbiage, links to listen and more...

 Fionn Regan - 100 Acres of Sycamore (Heavenly) - "I'm a man...with a child's heart" sings the Mercury Award-nominated Irish songwriter on this third album of sophisticated, unpretentious neo-folk -- released this past summer in Europe, finally hitting the U.S....Regan's 2006 one-man show U.K. debut found its way to American shores via a deal with Lost Highway a year later, but he still remains pretty much an unknown on this side of the pond...mellow and unpretentious, intelligent and never cloying, Regan channels Brit folk icons like Nick Drake but finds his own particular niche, thanks to literate, poetic and heartfelt lyricism -- with the occasional sharp bite -- and an artisan's skill with a melody...more DC

Nerina Pallot - New Year of the Wolf (Digital) - (Sm)art/pop-ping British singer and songwriter returns with a belated digital-only U.S release of her newly-expanded, Bernard Butler-produced 2011 album...we first discovered Pallot with Fires, her fine 2005 album that eventually netted a Brit Award nomination, but her appealing, well-crafted music has curiously eluded a more prominent Stateside presence...Pallot, who describes her music as "songs with a heart and a tune you can whistle", balances thoughtful balladry with a more uptempo and mainstream pop flair, ultra-melodic and irony-free songs that more recently have flirted with a cheeky, nostalgic aura...more DC

Jonquil - Point of Go - Described by one critic as "Paul Simon's take on The Smiths", Oxford-based deliver their third collection of percolating, Brit alt/pop...Taking a cue from the danceable New Romantic period of the 80's while adding Afro-pop guitar lines and a vibrant Vampire Weekend rhythm mindset, Jonquil sums up the ten new songs as “far more poppy and accessible” than earlier works. While the dense layers of skittering rhythms and careening production jumble that defined 2010's One Hundred Suns remain intact -- what we saw as "akilter folk pop songs reimagined as jittery swoons and hummable tunes" -- the Point of Go sound is leaner and the melodies more pronounced...more DC

Damien Jurado - Maraqopa (Secretly Canadian) - For fifteen years, Jurado has been the guiding creative force of the Pacific Northwest's indie alt/folk community -- "Seattle's folk-boom godfather" opined one scribe -- turning out one quietly momentous album after another...new project, his latest with producer Richard Swift, boldly crashes the stylistic boundaries with aplomb, an ever-evolving mash of stark folk, churning psychedelica, 50's-styled Latin rhythms, childrens' choirs and ramshackle retro-rock...from the shaggy folkster croon to the Spector-ian kitchen-sink production approach to the peyote dream atmospherics, Jurado conjures up the loose, inventive and unrestrained ambition of Neil Young in a rain and sweat-soaked version of Laurel Canyon...more DC

Sinead O'Connor - How About I Be Me (and You Be You) (One Little Indian) - It's understandable to approach O'Connor's ninth album with a certain amout of trepidation and cynical curiosity. This, after all, Sinead O'Connor -- the popular perception of overwrought oddball airing her grievances and personal foibles like some defiant raw nerve. But the Irish songwriter has mellowed and matured over her 25-year career and her newest  confirms what we've always found so inexplicably compelling despite the quirks. Quality albums always come down to quality songwriting and performances and O'Connor's first full length in five years has an abundance of both...more DC

Josh Ritter - Bringing in the Darlings - After the 2011 release of his Live at The Iveagh Gardens concert album and DVD last year, Ritter is immersed in the studio successor to his So Runs The World Away along with a new novel. But eager to get some new songs out -- a group of tracks he describes as his versions of lullabies -- Ritter is releasing this new six-song collection of mostly acoustic ballads...“It’s more autobiographical, which I’ve never really been a fan of, but I feel it’s pretty cathartic right now,” says Ritter. “With these, I’d say there might be lullabies, but there’s a razor blade in them. I’m loving the stuff"...more DC

More February 21 releases:

Barna Howard - S/T
Bright Moments - Native
Christopher Paul Spelling - Songs of Praise & Scorn
Cursive - I Am Gemini
Dot Hacker - S/T EP
Field Music - Plumb
fun. - Some Nights
Grimes (Claire Boucher) - Visions
Hanne Hukkelberg - Featherbrain
Irene Nelson - Sun Generation 
James Vincent McMorrow - We Don't Eat (EP)
Jim White - Where It Hits You
Kevin Kinney/Golden Palominos - Good Country Mile
Lambchop - Mr. M
Leland Sundries - The Foundry EP
Onward, Soldiers - Monsters
Peter Broderick - It Starts Here
Sara Radle - Same Sun Shines
Spiro - Kaleidophonica
The Chieftains - Voice of Ages
Tindersticks - The Something Rain (UK)