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Widowspeak Preview ‘Almanac’ LP With Mellow ‘Golden’ Strummer

Widowspeak

Widowspeak’s self-titled debut album last year on Captured Tracks showed the Brooklyn band had brighter pop charms than sublimely dusty early singles such as “Harsh Realm” had hinted. “Ballad of the Golden Hour,” the first track from the band’s upcoming sophomore album, Almanac, is another step in a more gleaming direction.

Though Molly Hamilton’s languorous drawl still evokes a cowboy-junkie bar fit for Cat Power or Mazzy Star, and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas still threads a knotty line between twang and twinkle, drummer Michael Staziak’s crisp backbeat harks unmistakably back to Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac. And Hamilton is similarly direct yet elusive, acknowledging, “we could never stay forever” before adding “it isn’t over till it’s over.” The track swells from brisk strums to bumptious cacophony before dying down again.

Surely some credit goes to Kevin McMahon, who recorded the album and has recently worked on Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor, Real Estate’s Days, Swans’ The Seer, and more. Almanac is due out on January 22, again via Captured Tracks.

Stream/download “Ballad of the Golden Hour” here.

Almanac track list:
1. “Perennials”
2. “Dyed in the Wool”
3. “The Dark Age”
4. “Thick as Thieves”
5. “Almanac”
6. “Ballad of the Golden Hour”
7. “Devil Knows”
8. “Sore Eyes”
9. “Locusts”
10. “Minnewaska”
11. “Spirit Is Willing”
12. “Storm King”

Widowspeak 2013 tour dates:
January 22 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
January 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
January 24 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat Backstage
January 26 – Middletown, CT @ Wesleyan University Eclectic House