{"product_id":"lean-year-sides","title":"Lean Year - Sides","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a moment on Sides, the new album from Richmond, Virginia-based duo Lean\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eYear, in which a hospital room floor is filled with white chrysanthemums. This imagery, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ebased on an opiate-induced hallucination experienced by vocalist Emilie Rex's mother \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eas she recovered from surgery, is a perfect encapsulation of the band's second album: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003edreamlike and beautiful, yet burdened with cold, stark reality. Sides is a harrowing \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ejourney through realms of grief and memory, a meditation woven into a tapestry of synth \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003epads, woodwinds, and Rex's instantly recognizable voice. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe duo of Rex and Rick Alverson-who also works as a film director (The Mountain, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEntertainment, The Comedy)-originally set out to write an album about conflict, but \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eduring the writing and recording process, they were confronted with a number of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003epersonal tragedies. Alverson lost both of his parents in rapid succession, Rex's mother \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ereceived a cancer diagnosis, and the couple's beloved family dog, Orca, died. These \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eevents transformed the album into an exploration of loss-an attempt at processing the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003epainful, complex, and private emotions that bubble to the surface when confronted with \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003edeath. \"We thought we'd do a concept album called Sides where we could reflect on all \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eof the division in the world, and some in our own families, but then COVID transformed \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eeverything\/everyone, and we suffered our own specific losses. The record became \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eabout loss and grief,\" Rex explains. \"In this way, the title Sides was still appropriate: our \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eindividual grief and collective grief, the margins of before and after, the act and feeling \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eof during and enduring. It felt like straddling a threshold between two opposing \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003esides-the moment before conflict and the moment after it passes, life and death, the act \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eof living and the memory of the act. Grief feels like a contention between what you knew \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand what you now know, and often both feel real and unreal at once. \" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSides-produced by Alverson alongside Erik Hall (In Tall Buildings) and featuring \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003econtributions from Elliot Bergman (Nomo, Wild Belle) and Joseph Shabason (Destroyer, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe War on Drugs)-has a distinctly cinematic quality, perhaps due in part to Alverson's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eother career. Moments of jazz, slowcore, and dirgelike R\u0026amp;B find their way into the sorrowful, ambient suite, lulling the listener into a state of calm while the lyrics speak of ghosts, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003echildhood, and mortality. Despite the gravity of the subject matter, Sides succeeds in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emastering a balancing act between pathos and pop. Each song is indelible and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehaunting, with melodies that have the kind of broad appeal reminiscent of Karen Dalton, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAldous Harding, and FKA twigs.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Spinster Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":68197206229177,"sku":"rzr1794077908380","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0792\/9875\/6793\/files\/lean-year---sides_1.jpg?v=1794077914","url":"https:\/\/seatcovers.shop\/products\/lean-year-sides","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}