CURRENT JOYS – East My Love – LP – Black Vinyl [OCT 11]

Description

LP – Standard Edition Black Vinyl.

East My Love, the resplendent, country-tinged 12th album by Current Joys, feels familiar. Its meant to: the 12 songs contained within divedeep into the rich folklore of the American West to tell time-worn tales of loveand trauma, heartbreak and spiritual renewal. Cast with a warm glow andfinding Current Joys Nick Rattigan tapping into some of his lushest, mosthigh-fidelity production to date, its the kind of album that listeners could seethemselves within, and, hopefully, keep close when theyre most in need ofreassurance or escapism. For Rattigan, though, its all that and more.

Rattigan wrote East My Love alone in the woods in Tennessee, withno cell reception and nobody in earshot for miles. Composed three yearsbefore Love + Pop, the experimental pop double record he released in 2023and 2024, the songs on East My Love felt too raw to confront until he felt welland truly out from underneath the cloud that had been cast over him.

Rattigan describes the songs as landmines that, for years, threatened to upend his carefully balanced mental state. They were just triggers that would put me back in this emotional space, and I think eventually I got to aplace where they were more comforting, he recalls. Thats what I hopepeople find out of the record a solace from any anxieties or depressions.

Along with that comfort comes pain, and an acknowledgementthat any repair requires some level of breakage. Lead single California Rainacts like a tableau depicting Rattigans attempt to escape his demons, itsplacid lyrics a distinct counterpoint to the tidal-wave production: Isnt it niceto get away?/Clearing my head up, and dull away the pain. It speaks to thealbums constant coin-toss between peace and chaos: Its like youre tryingto outrun your demons, but at a certain point, they become your friend, and youhave to walk alongside them, says Rattigan. I feel like you dont know thatwhen youre suppressing them when youre hiding them in the rain.

At other points, Rattigan is more clear-eyed about the struggle ofmoving forward; opening track Echoes of the Past, aches with theacknowledgement that inner peace exists on a knifes edge. The world wontend in blazing fire and brimstone itll end from us not learning from our pastand our mistakes, says Rattigan.

Theres a purity of catharsis that runs through these songs; writtenwithout pretense, they take base human needs and desires and fit them intoa grander tradition of American songwriting that takes in everything fromWillie Nelson to Bright Eyes. True to that, many of the songs on East My Love,due to their outside-looking-in perspective, play like standards. Slowly LikeThe Wind, a simple voice-and-guitar ballad, finds Rattigan reassuring hissubject that slowly like the wind hell help push them in the right directionin times of need. On Lullaby for the Lost, which feels parched butemotionally rich, he urges himself to remember that well get oh so strongdespite the depths of despair he may be feeling in the moment. I wanted itto be very slow and meditative, with these punctuations of lyrics that I reallywanted to stick out. I felt like it was powerful to accentuate certain points, butalso let the song be a meditative comfort to the listener. That comfort can betraced back to an idea at the core of East My Love that Rattigan describessimply: Everyone deserves peace of mind.

Tracklist:

Side A
1.) Echoes of the Past
2.) California Rain
3.) Days of Heaven
4.) Never Seen a Rose
5.) Lullaby for the Lost
6.) Oh, Sister

Side B
7.) They Shoot Horses
8.) Tormenta
9.) Sister Christian
10.) East My Love
11.) Feelin Groovy