Lucius Announce New Acoustic Album, NUDES
By Jim Vorel
We’re simple folks, here in the Paste office. We hear about a new Lucius album, we get excited. Pretty knee-jerk reaction, right there. And thus, we happen to find ourselves quite excited this morning.
The beloved Brooklyn four-piece indie pop band has announced a new 10-track acoustic album, titled NUDES, coming our way March 2, 2018 on Mom + Pop Music. Recorded at Electric Lady Studios, it will coincide with an acoustic tour of the U.S. (and a few Australian dates), kicking off in L.A. before wrapping up in Knoxville, TN at the Big Ears Festival. Full dates can be found at the bottom of this post.
The heralding press release for NUDES announces that the album is “a collection of songs chosen specifically to showcase the soulful, powerful voices and gorgeous harmonies” of co-lead singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, who spent much of 2017 lending those voices to Roger Waters’ “Us + Them” tour. The album includes three new songs, four new interpretations of songs from the Lucius back catalog, and three covers. It also features a few sit-ins, from Wilco’s Nels Cline on “Million Dollar Secret” to the legendary Roger Waters himself on “Goodnight Irene.” You can hear one of the new tracks, “Neighbors,” below.
Of choosing to record an acoustic album, Wolfe and Laessig say the following:
“Amidst nearly every performance over the past few years, we’ve had the opportunity to strip away everything – be it at the center of the crowd, or on stage around one microphone, or in tiny, unexpected rooms around the world – all to share and create an intimate, heartfelt connection with our audience. It’s these moments that have inspired our newest project, NUDES. Recorded over two days at New York’s legendary Electric Lady Studios, NUDES is a collection of acoustic songs: new, from our back catalog – reimagined, and covers we’ve always wanted to record. It is a record giving homage to what has been…and a hint at what’s to come.”
In a word, that sounds utterly amazing to us, as videos of Lucius performances have often included these stripped-down arrangements to mesmerizing effect. But it’s good to have the band back in any context, following their breakout debut album Wildewoman and sophomore follow-up Good Grief in 2016, which led to the following sparkling session in the Paste Studio.
Check out both the tracklist and upcoming tour for NUDES below.
NUDES tracklist:
1. Woman
2. Right Down the Line (Gerry Rafferty cover)
3. Tempest
4. Something About You
5. Neighbors
6. Eventually (Tame Impala cover)
7. Until We Get There
8. Million Dollar Secret %
9. Feels Like a Curse
10. Goodnight, Irene (traditional) ^
% featuring Nels Cline
^ featuring Roger Waters
LUCIUS TOUR DATES
February
22 – Perth, Australia@ Perth Festival
24 – Brisbane, Australia @ The Brightside
25 – Melbourne, Australia @Howler
26 – Sydney, Australia @ Oxford Art Factory
March
3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo (SOLD OUT)
4 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo (SOLD OUT)
5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo (SOLD OUT)
7 – Bozeman, MT @ The Rialto
8 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room (SOLD OUT)
9 – Fort Collins, CO@ Washington’s
10 – Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theatre(SOLD OUT)
12 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
13 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall (SOLD OUT)
15 – Burlington, VT – First Unitarian Church (SOLD OUT)
16 – Portland, ME – The State Theatre
17 – Providence, RI – Columbus Theatre (SOLD OUT)
18- Woodstock, NY – Levon Helm Studios (SOLD OUT)
20 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church (SOLD OUT)
22 – New York, NY – The Town Hall (SOLD OUT)
23 – Washington DC – Lincoln Theatre (SOLD OUT)
24 – Durham, NC – The Carolina Theatre
25 – Knoxville, TN – The Bijou Theatre (Big Ears Festival)