Name: Sides
Brand: Lean Year

Tax rate EU

Default:19

Supplier EU

375 Media

Total Cap

Format detail

Colour details

Discogs ID

Limited edition

Colour

Format Music EU

Extended format

Extended format: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Download code

Download code: No

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Release date

2022-09-09

Format multiplier

Catalogue number

153295

UPC / Barcode

843563149768

2022-09-02

153294

843563149744

Artist

Lean Year

Label EU

Western Vinyl

Genre EU

Indie Pop / Shoegaze

Western Vinyl is a music label based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 1998 by Brian Sampson, the label has established itself as a prominent force in the music industry. With a diverse roster of talented artists and performers, Western Vinyl offers a wide range of musical genres and styles to its listeners.

Known for their commitment to quality and innovation, Western Vinyl strives to bring unique and groundbreaking music to the forefront. The label's dedication to nurturing talent and supporting artistic vision has earned them a reputation as an influential player in the independent music scene.

Whether you're a fan of *indie rock*, *experimental electronic*, or *ambient soundscapes*, Western Vinyl has something for everyone. Explore their catalog and discover new sounds that will captivate your ears and expand your musical horizons.

Newest Listed Items

Alverson has released five records as Spokane, and four as Drunk on the label Jagjaguwar. There is a moment on Sides, the new album from Richmond, Virginia-based duo Lean Year, in which a hospital room floor is filled with white chrysanthemums. This imagery, based on an opiate-induced hallucination experienced by vocalist Emilie Rex’s mother as she recovered from surgery, is a perfect encapsulation of the band’s second album: dreamlike and beautiful, yet burdened with cold, stark reality. Sides is a harrowing journey through realms of grief and memory, a meditation woven into a tapestry of synth pads, woodwinds, and Rex’s instantly recognizable voice.The duo of Rex and Rick Alverson who also works as a film director (The Mountain, Entertainment, The Comedy) originally set out to write an album about conflict, but during the writing and recording process, they were confronted with a number of personal tragedies. Alverson lost both of his parents in rapid succession, Rex’s mother received a cancer diagnosis, and the couple’s beloved family dog, Orca, died. These events transformed the album into an exploration of loss an attempt at processing the painful, complex, and private emotions that bubble to the surface when confronted with death. “We thought we’d do a concept album called Sides where we could reflect on all of the division in the world, and some in our own families, but then COVID transformed everything / everyone, and we suffered our own specific losses. The record became about loss and grief,” Rex explains. “In this way, the title Sides was still appropriate: our individual grief and collective grief, the margins of before and after, the act and feeling of during and enduring. It felt like straddling a threshold between two opposing sides the moment before conflict and the moment after it passes, life and death, the act of living and the memory of the act. Grief feels like a contention between what you knew and what you now know, and often both feel real and unreal at once.”Sides produced by Alverson alongside Erik Hall (In Tall Buildings) and featuring contributions from Elliot Bergman (Nomo, Wild Belle) and Joseph Shabason (Destroyer, The War on Drugs) has a distinctly cinematic quality, perhaps due in part to Alverson’s other career.Moments of jazz, slowcore, and dirgelike R&amp;B find their way into the sorrowful, ambient suite, lulling the listener into a state of calm while the lyrics speak of ghosts, childhood, and mortality. Despite the gravity of the subject matter, Sides succeeds in mastering a balancing act between pathos and pop. Each song is indelible and haunting, with melodies that have the kind of broad appeal reminiscent of Karen Dalton, Aldous Harding, and FKA twigs.

Sides

Music EU