M. Ward will release his eight solo album More Rain on March 4th through Merge Records. In anticipation, the full 12-track effort is streaming below via NPR.
Despite the dreary title, the album is somewhat more upbeat than Ward’s past efforts. This could be due in part to the doo-wop inspiration the folk songwriter took when approaching the recording sessions. “The original idea was just to use voices and guitar, and use vocals to create all the other layers,” he explained to Glide. “I wanted to emulate the way early doo-wop singers made their voices sound like strings and horns and percussion and all the other instruments. So that was the original intention and it just started to grow and snowball into other areas. So it still has that backbone in my mind, but I wanted to take every song to its conclusion and that meant adding other layers. So that’s how the record was made.”
Some of those added layers are actually special guests. Peter Buck of R.E.M. plays mandolin on “Phenomenon” and guitar on “Temptation, Neko Case sings on “Time Won’t Wait”, and k.d. lang provides harmony on “Little Baby”. The Secret Sisters and Joey Spampinato of NRBQ also make appearances. There’s even a cover of The Beach Boys, “You’re So Good to Me”, tucked neatly near the end of the album.
Pre-orders are ongoing.
More Rain Tracklist:
01. More Rain
02. Pirate Dial
03. Time Won’t Wait (feat. Neko Case)
04. Confession
05. I’m Listening (Child’s Theme)
06. Girl From Conejo Valley
07. Slow Driving Man
08. You’re So Good To Me
09. Temptation (feat. Peter Buck)
10. Phenomenon (feat. Peter Buck)
11. Little Baby (feat. k.d. lang)
12. I’m Going Higher