M. Ward - Duet for Guitars #2 - VINYL LP

Short, sweet and exactly as they used to make 'em, 'Hits To Spare' does exactly what it says on the cover. A collection of simple, uplifting pop songs with a positive message is exactly what Glaswegian multi-instrumentalist Joe Kane, working as The Poppermost, accomplishes on this FAB debut record. The Poppermost exist to remind us of a time when the world shook to the giddy monophonic thunk of Merseybeat, to a time of Dansettes and desert boots, when R&B didn't mean Rhianna and Beyonce and an MP3 was Harold Wilson and a couple of his Westminster mates out on the razz down Carnaby Street. 14 tracks. InchGives me priceless moments of happiness...Inch -KOTJ

It was in winter 18/19 - I flew to Montreal to meet with Tim Kingsbury, Richard Reed Parry, Craig Silvey and Teddy Impakt at Le Studio Du Arcade Fire. It was a fine time with a dream team in a city I love. Winter in beautiful Quebec. Les semaines les plus froides de ma vie. I had a bunch of demos that were inspired by migration stories I had heard from friends or read in newspapers while on tour in Europe and North America. I remember being struck by the similarities of the stories I heard from both continents and how really only the names of the powerful and the powerless had changed - thinking, Is this the future? Is this our future?InchSome time went by, the stories wove together and I remember them now closer to characters in a dream of how people could treat each other than any kind of front-page news realism. I think music subconsciously - whether writing or listening - is a filter for me - helping to process all the bad news into something new to build from - some records to me are like self-fulfilling prophecies - visualizing change to wish something into being - those records inspired this one.Inch - M. Ward

In 2003, everything broke open for Ward with the of Transfiguration of Vincent. Critically lauded and long beloved, Pitchfork hailed it as an album that Inchbroadcasts timelessness and defies genre constraints,Inch and Slant placed it on their list of the best albums of the 2000s. On Transfiguration of Vincent, Ward's elegant fingerpicking, evocative croon, and heartrending lyricism came into full bloom, casting a spell so powerful that even a song as universal as David Bowie's InchLet's DanceInch felt not only new but irrevocably his. One of the most cherished albums in the Merge catalog, Transfiguration of Vincent is both a great place to begin your love affair with M. Ward and a deep, stunningly realized work that listeners have returned to over and over again for 20 years.