Georgia-based band Neighbor Lady have announced the July 1 release of their new album For The Birds. Pre-order the album, out via Park The Van, here. Today the band shares a new taste of the LP by way of the infectious and playful single “Felt.” The song is a glimpse into the band’s bright and cozy world on For The Birds, where even the most pedestrian feels like magic. They say, “the song serves as a reminder that blame isn’t always so straightforward, and that forgiveness is often attainable by addressing our own faults.”
“Felt” follows earlier single “Haunting” of which We All Wants Someone To Shout For called, “a warm folk glow with a bit of a retro feel thanks to the cinematic string arrangements that provide the perfect backdrop for the harmonies that are practically begging to break your heart.”
Once primarily associated with indie-country, on For The Birds, Neighbor Lady push the boundaries of their music into more atmospheric and even unconventional realms, with songs that are just as inspired by the ornately arranged storytelling of Andy Shauf as the baroque experimentalism of Scott Walker. While gorgeous top-line melodies, spirited rock hooks, and Braden’s richly emotive vocals (and plenty of twang) remain the core components of their sound, on For the Birds, Neighbor Lady expands their purview to encompass an elegant style of lush and textural guitar pop sprinkled with, as Braden puts it, with “reverb and magic.” For The Birds was mixed by Noah Georgeson, whom the band admired for this work with Shauf, Cate Le Bon, Devendra Banhart, and Joanna Newsom—“Albums that kind of have their own little universes,” says guitarist Jack Blauvelt. “And that’s how we tried to treat this one, with all the tiny magical noises in between things.”
Though Neighbor Lady began life as Braden’s solo project, the band is now a quartet consisting of Braden, Blauvelt, drummer Andrew McFarland, and bassist Payton Collier. Braden still writes all the songs, but the band agrees that For The Birds is a record that could only have been made by the four of them together. “Even after I came in, this idea of the band being this really tight knit group was pretty immediate—just the respect between everybody in the band, and the willingness of everybody to to hear anybody out on a part or an idea that pertains nothing to your personal instrument. It’s so collaborative and that was like from day one,” says Collier, who is the newest member of the group.
The mutual trust in each other’s instincts is key toFor The Birds’ kaleidoscopic yet cohesive approach. Neighbor Lady finished recording basic tracks with Jason Kingsland (Kaiser Chiefs, Band of Horses, Belle & Sebastian) at Diamond Street Studios in Atlanta right before lockdown, and spent quarantine tinkering with the arrangements and the tracklisting, sending emails back and forth to nail down the pacing and figure out what kind of emotional story they wanted to tell. They also ended up re-recording many of the songs, creating multiple iterations in order to drill down to their true essence. “Being able to spend the time and have that intention behind it, and really being able to trust our own ears and feelings about it was a really cool exercise, a big growing exercise for the band,” says McFarland.
This is both the heart and foundation of For The Birds, where every song is infused with the rare magic created by a group of musicians who are just as happy on a festival stage as they are at a last-minute house show as they are in the studio, relying on each other’s talents and ideas to transform the music they make into something beyond what they could achieve on their own. Though For The Birds is hallmarked by big sonic flourishes and brave moments of experimentation, the overall feeling is still intimate and personal—four people in a room, making music together; fitting for a group of musicians who say they feel less like a band and more like a family. “This record came out of a lot of love and hard work and us caring so much about the music and each other,” says Braden. “And that’s pretty much what we’re about.”
Neighbor Lady is Emily Braden (vocals), Jack Blauvelt, (guitars, keyboard), Payton Collier (bass), and Andrew McFarland (drums).
