“We couldn’t be happier as we wait on the arrival of our twins. Hefner, 30, simultaneously announced the news on social media, writing: “Scarlett and I will be welcoming two new members of the family this spring. The couple already have a 16-month-old daughter, Betsy Rose, and Byrne posted a photo showing their family standing together while she holds her baby bump. Cooper and I are very excited to share that we will be welcoming twins at the beginning of 2022. “How will we escape this hell?” he wonders in the title track, before conceding defeat in the closing “Welcome/Goodbye”, “Welcome to this record, and goodbye to this world/May a new one soon unfurl”.The 31-year-old said: “Thankful for our growing family.
These 10 songs are like soundings from between the cracks, faint echoes from an inveterate wanderer whose revulsion at our anthropocentric ruination of the world leads him to ever-darker places. I don’t know much about Peter Oren, and I get the impression, listening to Anthropocene, that he likes it that way. “Joanna”, for instance, is a rape revenge ballad told without judgement, in spartan Nebraska style, while the title-track tale of youthful love is a crisp, punchy heartland rocker with kids staving off the future on their own Oregonian Thunder Road: “If I ever get old, and I’m looking back on these wild and reckless times, well, they’re the best days of our lives.”ĭownload: Burden Of Proof Anthropocene Falling Water River And Stone But he’s more successful when augmenting those country modes with different musical colours – most notably in “Prisoner’s Dilemma”, where blaxploitation flutes and brass underscore the titular jailbird’s blaming of the “rotten tooth of my wasted youth” and, ultimately, God for making him the way he is.įrom there, the journey swings between ebullient celebrations of life and sombre tales of misfortune, with the shadow of Springsteen looming large over songwriter Eric Earley’s material. In lighter spirit, “Playing Guitars” blends exuberant layers of country guitar lines to offer a jaunty reflection on the ubiquity of musicians which concludes with White himself startled by yet another one staring back from his mirror.
The traditional country/folk forms are subtly shaded in songs like “Silver Threads” (“they say silver threads can mend a broken heart”) and the troubling “Reason To Cry”, in which melancholy is characterised almost as some contagion of the soul.
This 25th anniversary release comes in the usual range of editions featuring bonus demos, out-takes and live tracks.ĭownload: Prisoner’s Dilemma Playing Guitars Reason To Cry Silver Threadsįormer catwalk model, pro surfer and cab driver Jim White brings a diverse wealth of worldliness to his arcane observations, which on Waffles, Triangles & Jesus finds familiar Americana tropes and sounds given his distinctive twist. It’s not all romantic, though: the undulating roll, combined with fiddle and whistles, of “SOS” disguises the underlying theme of what is apparently a refugee plaint, while the song to an unborn child “No Go Baby” raises thorny but timely issues of termination.Įlsewhere, “Everybody Hurts” offers anthemic uplift with a power undreamt of by Coldplay, while the Andy Kaufman tribute “Man On The Moon” provides a brilliant climax, celebrating the mystery surrounding the comedian’s death as the ultimate confirmation of his trickster spirit. Just as important is Caroline Corr’s slap-beat command of rockier tracks like “Chasing Shadows” and “Bulletproof Love”, a mandolin-led folk-rocker in REM vein. T-Bone Burnett has been drafted in as producer, and brings his usual taste and expertise to songs such as “Son Of Solomon”, which opens with delicate guitar picking reminiscent of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” before expanding through touches of flugelhorn, fiddle, etc. In “Dear Life”, Andrea Corr sings of wanting to “live life like I’m losing, and holding on for dear life” – a neatly turned expression of constant striving, though not one reflected much in Jupiter Calling, which still relies too heavily on routine romantic fluff like “Hit My Ground Running” and the glutinous “Butter Flutter”.