Video of the week – Sweeney Straddles The Sun

The first new album from Jason Sweeney since 2018’s sophomore effort ‘Tarantula’ is imminent, and the second taster from it, ‘Catharsis Dies’, is, as he describes it, “another brazen foray into hiphop/rap, via 80s electropop… about our obsession with stock narrative and points an ironic finger at those who push them.”

Album #3 from the side project of the sometime member of The Just Joans is as-yet untitled, and due in late June. The first single from it, ‘On The Surface‘, appeared in January, and both tracks do indeed show what he describes as an “upscaling of the overall recording sound whilst maintaining the home-recorded ethos and catchy, synthpop melodies that garnered the previous releases some good attention.”

Although the previous two long-players were collaborative affairs, this release is more of a solo and DIY effort – despite attempts to get his live band onto the recordings, only Rosie Stilloe provides backing vocals on the latest track, although Amanda Brown aka Jigsawtiger will, hopefully, rejoin the fray towards release time. Her absence does account for the rap on the new track – “I’d been watching ‘Wu-Tang: An American Saga’ and listening to ODB and just loving his sort of brazen, sing-songy approach to rap and lyric construction,” Sweeney reveals.

If your appetite is whetted but you can’t wait until June or thereabouts, also available on Bandcamp are 2010 debut ‘Erect‘ and 2018’s ‘Ducks At The Moon’.

More at linktr.ee/sweeneystraddlesthesun.