[MP3] new John Vanderslice: "Fetal Horses"

Today I’m spinning the new album from John Vanderslice, Romanian Names, his first release for Dead Oceans. Stereogum’s Progress Report got me a little more excited when John, notorious for creating gorgeous melodies without appearing to be trying to do so, said: “On a superficial level, my goal was to write a bunch of shorter, faster songs that were all about melody lines. It was just about vocal melody and developing harmonies and making a pop record.”

Apparently 24 songs were recorded and half were pushed out. If you’ve heard the album, you know the songs that made it are truly the cream of the crop– accessible, experimental, replayable. If 2007’s Emerald City was the straw that broke Barsuk’s back, letting John go was the worst mistake they’ve made since signing Say Hi. As for Dead Oceans, kudos for putting out Dirty Projectors, Citay, Evangelicals, and These Are Powers.

Here’s “Fetal Horses,” one of Romanian Names‘ standouts:

[MP3] John Vanderslice – Fetal Horses

KEXP recently had John over to record a few songs. Check out the videos here »

Romanian Names drops on May 19th.

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