The National’s Matt Berninger made his second solo album, Get Sunk, around his move from Los Angeles to Connecticut. After a period of writers’ block—and a sense he was “drowning” in his own voice—he cracked open a new songwriting idiom, before assembling musicians including Booker T. Jones, Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, National touring member Kyle Resnick, and members of the Walkmen, mostly recording with Berninger in a basement. “Our heart’s are like old wells filled with pennies and worms,” he said of the album’s themes. “I can’t resist going down to the bottom of mine to see what else is there. But sometimes you can get yourself stuck.”
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Shura: I Got Too Sad for My Friends [Play It Again Sam]
Shura glides between rallying and confessional synth-pop on I Got Too Sad for My Friends, the six-years-coming follow-up to Forevher. The British singer-songwriter applies her lithe pop sensibility to topics such as social anxiety, pandemic isolation, and, as ever, the tumult of love on the Luke Smith–produced album, which features guest turns from Cassandra Jenkins, Helado Negro, and Becca Mancari.
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