{"product_id":"lean-year-sides-cd","title":"Lean Year - Sides Music CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere is a moment on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSides\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSides\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe 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 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSides\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e where we could reflect on all of the division in the world, and some in our own families, but then COVID transformed everything\/\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c!--filtered--\u003e\u003cspan\u003eeveryone, and we suffered our own specific losses. The record became about loss and grief,” Rex explains. “In this way, the title \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSides\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSides\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—produced by Alverson alongside Erik Hall (In Tall Buildings) and featuring contri-butions 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\u0026amp;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, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSides\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e succeeds in mastering a balancing act between pathos and pop. Each song is indelible and haunt-ing, with melodies that have the kind of broad appeal reminiscent of Karen Dalton, Aldous Harding, and FKA twigs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cdiv data-bt-autogen\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklist:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLegs\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNitetime\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnd\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Trouble with Being Warm\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePanes\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBend\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBad Woman\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMarriage of Heaven and Hell\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHome\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUPC:\u003c\/strong\u003e 843563149768\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLabel:\u003c\/strong\u003e Western Vinyl\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelease Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9.2.22\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e CD\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Broadtime","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42112934740043,"sku":"263275","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7223\/1499\/files\/4113768-2852672.jpg?v=1770186477","url":"https:\/\/rockbandmerch.com\/products\/lean-year-sides-cd","provider":"Rock Band Merch","version":"1.0","type":"link"}