M. Ward - More Rain - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Several times, as I listened to M. Ward's Supernatural Thing, I asked myself what year it was. Was it 1952, and was I listening to a track from the Harry Smith Anthology? Was it 1972, and was I eavesdropping on the recording session for After the Gold Rush?No, it's 2023, and M. Ward is one of the special contemporary artists who invite such questions. Ward has clearly mastered the whole vocabulary of American popular music and made serious decisions about how to employ it for his own ends. What Ward shares with Harry Smith's artists and Neil Young is a context of musical and human values authenticity and intimacy. Supernatural Thing's original songs sound freshly pulled from the ground, with a little earth sticking to them. Ward's lyric delivery has that slight rawness the ear loves, and his voice has quiet dignity and great tenderness. Supernatural Thing is an open-hearted, inviting album.The album's guest stars - First Aid Kit, Shovels & Rope, Scott McMicken, Neko Case, Jim James, others - enliven the album with surprises. On Too Young to Die,Inch the women's voices in First Aid Kit spread a light frosting over the melody, and their Beach Boys-like chorus on InchEngine 5Inch makes the song sound like an instant hit. Eight of the album's ten songs are Ward originals. There's an unusual Bowie choice, InchI Can't Give Everything AwayInch from Blackstar, and a live rendition of Daniel Johnston's InchStory of an Artist.Inch-By James CushingBoth as a solo artist and as one-half of She & Him, M. Ward became one of the defining voices of the American indie landscape in the 2000s, earning fans and critical acclaim for his distinctive brand of breezy West Coast Americana which pulled from folk, country, blues, pop, and experimental indie rock elements. Ward established himself with warm, analog-minded releases like 2003's Transfiguration of Vincent and 2006's Post-War before

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 Album Tracks 1. Migration of Souls 2. Heaven's Nail and Hammer 3. Coyote Mary's Traveling Show 4. Independent Man 5. Stevens' Snow Man 6. Unreal City 7. Real Silence 8. Along the Santa Fe Trail 9. Chamber Music 10. Torch 11. Rio Drone

Inspired by his increasingly itinerant lifestyle, Ward set forth to create something of a musical travelogue on the highly anticipated sixth solo album, a WASTELAND COMPANION. Ward's honey-soaked vocals, deft finger-picking, innate sense of melody and beguiling lyrics have already cemented his reputation as one of America's true musical treasures and a WASTELAND COMPANION features some of the finest songwriting and most striking delivery of his career. A WASTELAND COMPANION features the talents of Zooey Deschanel, Howe Gelb, Mike Mogis, Steve Shelley, and more! Album Tracks 1. Clean Slate 2. Primitive Girl 3. Me and My Shadow 4. Sweetheart 5. I Get Ideas 6. The First Time I Ran Away 7. A Wasteland Companion 8. Watch the Show 9. There's a Key 10. Crawl After You 11. Wild Goose 12. Pure Joy