I’ve spent the past couple of weeks exploring the new Courtney Barnett album, but it’s not the only new record I’ve picked up recently. I won’t go through the others track by track, but I will give them some love the rest of this week.
I’ll start with Jose Rouse’s The Embers of Time. This is Rouse’s 11th studio album in 16 years — he’s a lot more prolific than I give him credit for.
It’s always exciting to hear about upcoming music from one of my favorite artists. The neat thing about my more obscure favorites — Tift Merritt, say, or today’s featured artist, Josh Rouse — is that those announcements usually sneak up on you.
Such was the case with Rouse’s new album, The Embers of Time, due out on April 7.
I usually pick weekday songs for the blog based on some sort of theme and rely on my Random Weekends to surface the odds and ends.
But occasionally I happen upon a song in my daily adventures and want to find a place for it on the blog. Such was the case with today’s SOTD, Josh Rouse’s ‘Jersey Clowns.’
Best Songs of 2013 – #12
Here’s the Josh Rouse song I alluded to during the most recent Random Weekend.
Rouse has always reminded me of Paul Simon, even before he started dabbling in exotic rhythms. He has a similar knack for infectious melodies, usually based around an acoustic guitar with occasional horn flourishes. Stylistically, much of Rouse’s discography could fit comfortably on Simon’s early solo albums.
The Random iTunes Fairy is giving us a little sneak peek at one of next week’s featured artists.
Josh Rouse’s The Happiness Waltz is a breezy, sun-drenched album full of songs just like this one. Most of them take the perspective of a man who has lived a full but troubled life and finally arrived at a place of peace and (as the album title suggest) happiness.
