Name: Myth Of A Man
Brand: Night Beats

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

HVNLP154

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Discs

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Red Vinyl. 

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Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2019-01-18

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Orchard

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

5400863002688

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1 / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Night Beats

Genre US

Rock-Pop

Label US

PIAS

Ex:Re - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/ex-re-ex-re">Ex:Re</a>

Available on Rough Trade Exclusive Limited Blue Vinyl with Download and Bonus CD. This is the only Colored Vinyl Version available in the world.

The first solo album from Daughter's Elena Tonra, under the moniker Ex:Re, is a lingering love-note to a companion now gone, and although there is little comfort in her sadness, Tonra is able to find beauty and eloquence.

"I miss you". The on-going narrative of the album. The hazy memory of a relationship is stitched together with anecdotes. Moods of isolation, pining and despair. The song Romance speaks of an empty and almost angry one-night stand, in The Dazzler she drinks alone in the protective limbo of hotel, all the time hauntingly reminded of a missing piece. What once was and is no more. Like Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U, the relationship is only referenced as a point of comparison to the sadness she feels now. The spectral relationship hangs around in the shadows, without ever revealing its true form.

The sheen and clarity of Daughter is gone with Ex:Re, in exchange for more tender and textured sound. The light-touches elevate Tonra's voice, allowing her to work within her emotion and without the need to accentuate. There are flashes of Jeff Buckley, gentle reminders of Laura Veirs and even a raw Sun Kil Moon touch on the song New York.

This is not an album that screams empowerment, in fact fragility and self doubt are the key themes, but the eerie approach strikes a chord we all know well and all should have experienced. The album goes to the very heart and does not flinch in handling the comedown and despair of a love lost.

Albums of the Month - February 2019

2. Prefab Sprout - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/prefab-sprout-i-trawl-the-megahertz">I Trawl The Megahertz</a>

3. Sharon Van Etten - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/sharon-van-etten-remind-me-tomorrow">Remind Me Tomorrow</a>

4. Unloved - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/unloved-heartbreak">Heartbreak</a>

5. Toro Y Moi - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/toro-y-moi-outer-peace">Outer Peace</a>

6. Toy - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/toy-happy-in-the-hollow">Happy In The Hollow</a>

7. Beirut - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/beirut-gallipoli">Gallipoli</a>

8. Mara Simpson - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/mara-simpson-285-days">285 Days</a>

9. Night Beats - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/night-beats-myth-of-a-man">Myth Of A Man</a>

10. Sneaks - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/sneaks-highway-hypnosis">Highway Hypnosis</a>

Albums of the Month - February 2019

Rough Trade Album of the Month - February 2019

Myth Of A Man is the fourth studio album by Night Beats, and their second for Heavenly Recordings. Available here on Red Colored Vinyl and Standard CD.

While Blackwell has always fed off the musical legacy of his Texas roots - Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, The Red Krayola, The Black Angels and more paving the way for the the napalm-coated psych-rock headtrip of past albums - Myth Of A Man has him pulling from the surrogate wellspring of Nashville, Tennessee. It was there that he worked with the eminent Dan Auerbach, and a murderer’s row of battle-worn session musicians - the combined weight of experience that comes from working with every legend from Aretha Franklin to Elvis not lost on Blackwell.

The moody organ comps and slow stroll of the 12-string on "Her Cold Cold Heart" evoke the noxious feeling and hypnotic state of toxic love, the spirit of Bill Withers is flowing through the acoustic guitar and sun-soaked shuffle of "I Wonder," and string-trimmed ballads like "Footprints" and "Too Young To Pray" evoke the imaginative, cowboy psychedelia of fellow Texan, Lee Hazlewood. "Let Me Guess" with its searing riff and Elevators-esque organ assures us that the scuzzy sound we know and love is alive and well, while "One Thing," a song about being used and abused—or as Blackwell sharply puts it, “being rolled up and smoked”—has plenty of fuzzed-out guitars to let us know he might just be happy about it.

Written during a particularly destructive period of the band, the album is populated by fallen angels, blood-sucking wanderers, and vindictive lovers—sketches of people the band has surely come across during their cosmic roving through the underground—but the character most present is Blackwell, himself. With its bold steps forward, Myth Of A Man serves as both a takedown and reintroduction of the band as we know it—the strongest evidence that you’ll never be able to pin Night Beats down.