NOISE Annoys has new album-related news for you this week from two very different local artists.
First up comes fair warning of Watercourse, the forthcoming new record by Belfast indie heads Sea Pinks, due out on May 26 via the band's own imprint, CF Records.
It's the follow-up to their rather good Soft Days LP from last year, on which crooner/guitarist Neil Brogan, bassist Steven Henry and drummer David Agnew embraced their three-piece format with the first Sea Pinks record written with full band sound and performance in mind.
The trio's sixth album builds upon the solid song-focused groundwork laid by its predecessor across its two somewhat contrasting yet complimentary sides.
Side one, which features groovy melancholia of lead single Into Nowhere, is packed with their trademark effervescent indie jangle.
On the flip, Brogan and co push their songwriting in a punkier, power poppy direction with tunes like the enjoyably bratty boogie of How Long Must I Be Denied and Playin' For Pride.
"The songs on side one are all about movement," elaborates Brogan in the album's official press release.
"They are dreamy and more upbeat. Side two is more about being static, whether it's a fixed place or a moment in time. They are more urgent sounding and a little more bittersweet."
He adds: "I do think we are still improving as a band, and this is the best record we’ve made as a three piece.
"It may surprise a few people, maybe not. We're often typecast as being a particular thing, be it surf or jangle-pop or whatever, which can be reductive. The songs are the thing with us."
You'll find out in a couple of weeks, when Sea Pinks will also be heading out on tour to support their magnum opus: they kick off with a pair of Irish dates at Rosin Dubh in Galway on May 25 and Dublin's Grand Social on May 26.
Belfast will have to wait until the end of the tour for a show at The Black Box on June 17, by which point everyone should be thoroughly familiar with the new songs.
Start with Into Nowhere at Seapinks.bandcamp.com/album/watercourse, where you can also pre-order the album in digital or limited edition LP format.
Another new record which you can own this very day is Ephrata, the debut album from Lisbane, Co Down, experimental singer-songwriter extraordinaire, Joshua Burnside.
He first made his mark a few years ago with a series of EPs, notably 2013's If You're Going That Way, which featured a nicely schizophrenic Americana-tinged folk explosion called Black Dog Sin.
Informed by his recent travels in South America, the Quiet Arch released Ephrata finds Burnside weaving together his wild musical mood swings into a striking debut album that stubbornly refuses to slot easily into any genre pigeonhole.
Stand-outs include the psychedelic folk antics of the title track (named for a the fire-ravaged Pennsylvanian town which inspired its feverish lyrics), 26 St's sweeping piano and strings-augmented ode to political unrest and public execution, the Latin-flavoured Fightorflight, the driving, horn-tinged rock atmospherics of Tunnels Pt2 (Pt1's experimental collage of vocals, samples and grooves ain't bad either) and the stark banjo-pluckin' lovelorn lament of Holllllogram, the latter bolstered by swoonsome guest vocals from Alana Henderson.
You can hear some of these live tomorrow afternoon at Sick Records in Belfast where Burnside will be giving a special instore performance and signing copies of a debut LP he can be very proud of indeed.
THIS WEEK'S MOST ANNOYING NOISES (Summer special)
Here Comes The Sun – The Beatles
Seasons in The Sun – Terry Jacks
Holidays in The Sun – The Sex Pistols
Island in The Sun – Weezer
Blister in The Sun – Violent Femmes
Blinding Sun – Mudhoney
Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden
Invisible Sun – The Police
The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore) – The Walker Brothers
Sunday Bloody Sunday – U2
