Name: The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania
Brand: Damien Jurado

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

CD-MQR-0001

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2021-05-14

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Redeye

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

634457044012

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Damien Jurado

Genre US

Rock-Pop

Label US

Maraqopa Records

American indie/folk singer/songwriter and guitarist. His solo career began during the mid-1990s, releasing lo-fi folk based recordings on his own cassette-only label, [l188419] Gaining a local cult following in Seattle, he was brought to the attention of Sub Pop Records by Sunny Day Real Estate singer [a=Jeremy Enigk].

His musical career is marked by periods of close collaboration with various musicians. Until about "I break chairs" his work was closely linked to [a=Pedro The Lion] and [a=David Bazan]. From then until "Caught In The Trees", [a=Eric Fischer] became his companion as a musician and producer. The most significant change in sound came when he met  the late [a=Richard Swift (2)], with whom he collaborated from "St. Bartlett" to "Visions Of Us On The Land."Since "The Horizon Just Laughed" [a=Josh Gordon] has been his new musical partner.

Other frequent contributors were the members of [a=Gathered In Song], [a=Rosie Thomas] and [a387255].

His full-length albums have been released on [l77343], [l35538], [l44370] and [l363414]. In 2021 he founded [l=Maraqopa Records]. From 2004 to 2007 he also co-ran  [l77015].

On The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania, Damien Jurado gathers up ten stories of people determined not to be broken by their dire circumstances. “The world is a liar, the stars are a must,” he sings over brushed drums, a circling bassline, and acoustic guitar on “Helena,” which opens his 17th album, the first release from Damien’s own Maraqopa Records. Dire circumstances have long been fixtures of Jurado’s songs, which are filled with ghosts, killers, cruel lovers, and the occasional UFO cult or false messiah. But here, the scenes are earthy, drawn from ordinary but no less immense calamities: hurricanes moving toward town, strained connections, amnesiacs in the front yard. On The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania, Jurado pulls the curtains shut, blocking out “the light now embarrassed and afraid of the dark,” as he sings on “Tom,” one of the album’s haunting numbers, only to throw them open the exact moment sunshine needs to come flooding in.

Jurado has certainly made sparser records than The Monster, but sonically it is among his most exposed, stripping away the cosmic gloss that defined his trio of albums with the late Richard Swift in favor of dry, homespun ambiance. Had the producer not passed away in 2018—he’s been memorialized in a number of Damien’s recent songs—it’s likely the duo would have found themselves drawn in this direction too, Damien suspects, noting that the addition by subtraction approach imbued the new album with a certain quality of “emptiness,” creating the feel of a sort of spiritual karaoke track, tailor made for personal projection.

The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania

Music US