Dine Alone Records has announced the
addition of the band SPAIN to their North American roster. The critically
acclaimed Los Angeles based band will release Sargent Place, their highly
anticipated fifth studio album, and first in the U.S. in over 10 years, on November
4.
Dine
Alone Owner/President Joel Carriere recalls his first taste of Spain,
"Seven years ago Mark Lanegan's Soulsavers project introduced me by way of
a cover of a Spain song called ‘Spiritual.' From that first listen I dove
headfirst into the the music of Spain. Here I am seven years later announcing
one of my favourite bands to our Dine Alone Roster. I couldn't be more excited
and grateful to be working with such an amazing band and an amazing
songwriter."
For
nearly 20 years the music of Josh Haden and Spain has provided a soundtrack for
the dreams and waking life of fans the world over, with a singular style that
often stirs something deep in the soul of the listener. 2014’s Sargent Place,
builds on that decades long legacy and pushes it into inspiring new
directions. From the opener, “Love At
First Sight,” detailing the initial spark of a romance to the contemplative
closer, “Waking Song,” the album falls solidly in line with the highly regarded
early discography of the band, The Blue Moods Of Spain (1996), She Haunts My
Dreams (1999) and I Believe (2001), as well as their most recent recording, The
Soul Of Spain (2012).
In some
respects, Sargent Place acts as a truer return to form than 2012’s The Soul Of
Spain, for while that album marked the band’s first recorded work in over a
decade, the album featured material written by Haden in the 1990s in earlier
incarnations of the band. With the exception of “It Could Be Heaven,” “Waking
Song” and “Love at First Sight,” all written previously by Haden, the songs for
Sargent Place were written in the run up to this album, with many songs only
truly taking shape during the recording process.
Key to
that process was the work of enigmatic producer Gus Seyffert (The Black Keys,
Norah Jones, Sia, Beck). On Sargent Place, Seyffert’s influence is heard
immediately in the opening notes of the lead track, “Love At First Sight.” The
first sound you hear is Seyffert’s Brazilian Pandeiro hand drum, which is then
immediately joined, almost in duet, by the steady, pulsating hum of Haden’s
bass. In addition to bringing the band into his personal studio, located on the
street in Echo Park that graces the album’s title, Seyffert helped to shape
many of the tracks on the album, some of which were radically rearranged in the
process of recording. Given how much of the album’s songs revolve around
beginnings and endings, it is fitting that the album’s title (unique among the
others in the band’s catalog) ties the recording to a specific moment in time
and a specific inspirational place in their home of Los Angeles.
Another
clear inspiration on Sargent Place is the music and life of Haden’s father,
jazz legend Charlie Haden. “To Be A Man” and “You And I” were songs written
with the elder Haden in mind, with “You And I” featuring the final studio
recording from the acclaimed and beloved musician. If not for Seyffert’s
intervention, “You and I” might have been a very different song. The band
initially recorded a vastly different version, but Seyffert suggested that they
search for a different way of arranging the song. An informal discussion
between Seyffert and Josh Haden eventually led to a trip to his father’s home
to record his bass parts. The result is one of the most moving expressions of
love the band has ever recorded.
As Haden
describes, “It’s important to me that this is my dad’s last recording and I
think it says a lot to his life and his love for his kids and what he has
taught everybody over the years…about how to treat each other and how to
interact and view each other and view the world.”
The
influence of the Haden family is also directly felt on the stately and elegiac
“The Fighter.” In addition to his father, the music of his sisters, Rachel,
Petra and Tanya, was instrumental in helping Haden to find Spain’s signature
sound when he began the band in the early 1990s. In recent years, Haden has
taken to writing songs on an acoustic guitar given to him by his sister Rachel.
“The Fighter,” began its life on that guitar, as a few strummed chords came
together with the idea of a strong and violent boxer represented in a slow and
delicate melody, before being transformed into a song of terrific beauty here
on Sargent Place, with backing vocals and strings from Petra Haden.
As the
standout tracks from Sargent Place, “Love At First Sight” and “You And I,” “The
Fighter,” (which was featured in a recent episode of the hit MTV show Finding
Carter) take their place amongst the other iconic songs from Spain’s past, “Ray
Of Light,” “Our Love Is Gonna Live Forever,” “Born To Love Her” and perhaps
Haden’s most well known song “Spiritual.” When added together with this already
rich body of work, these songs further cement Josh Haden’s legacy as one of
America’s great songwriters, a modern troubadour for the impassioned, forlorn
and tender-hearted.
Sargent
Place marks Spain at a specific time, but it also makes clear that even as the
band continues to evolve, the sound of Josh Haden and Spain remains as
evocative and timeless as ever.
SPAIN
Sargent
Place
1. Love
At First Sight
2. The
Fighter (ft. Petra Haden)
3. It
Could Be Heaven
4. From
The Dust
5.
Sunday Morning
6. Let
Your Angel
7. To Be
A Man
8. In My
Soul
9. You
And I (ft. Charlie Haden)
10.
Waking Song
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