NPR STREAMS NEW JASON LYTLE ALBUM VIA FIRST LISTEN SERIES
Grandaddy front-man JASON LYTLE will have his new album Dept. of Disappearance premiered this week on NPR’s First Listen Series. First Listen is part of NPR’s All Songs Considered and allows listeners to preview selected upcoming albums in their entirety. To listen to JASON LYTLE’s Dept. of Disappearance go to: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/07/162299665/first-listen-jason-lytle-dept-of-disappearance
Lytle first made an impact with his revered band Granddaddy. As a solo artist, he subsequently built a catalog of highly inventive and emotionally resonant works. Dept. of Disappearance is the follow up to Lytle’s critically heralded 2009 release Yours Truly, the Commuter which American Songwriter called "one hell of a re-emergence."
The new record plays like an emotionally resonant soundtrack for some non-existent cinematic masterpiece. On it the sometimes reclusive but always intriguing musician infuses the toil of ordinary existence with a sweeping sonic beauty.
The obvious home for Lytle's latest feels like the silver screen. One of the album's high points entitled "Your Final Setting Sun" is soaked in the indelible ink of film noir. Lytle says the songs hypnotic dangerous feel was inspired by the writings of author Cormac McCarthy, “It's the one song on the album that had a film playing along in my head as I was writing it,” Lytle explains. “The chorus came to me while I was driving down a deserted Montana road into a beautiful and spooky sunset."
Lytle describes the tracks on his new album to “a roomful of strange, brilliant autistic kids with very peculiar social skills. But there are a few conventional, good-looking ones who go out and shake hands and get the good jobs then they come home and help take care of the other weird, wonderful ones."
Early Critical Acclaim:
“On an album of depth and scale, Lytle is aiming to move mountains. It’s big. A reassuringly mournful sadcore epic.” – BBC.co.uk
“The whispery songwriter who led Grandaddy, Jason Lytle, bends the lush, harmony-loving, studio-proud California pop of bands like Fleetwood Mac and Buffalo Springfield toward his own obsessions - particularly mortality and solitude - on his second album, "Dept. of Disappearance." - New York Times
“Antique synths in varying states of dilapidation spring into life… and rarely does the comfort of sadness feel so apt” - Mojo
“Inventively employing computer “tweakery”, Lytle concocts synthesized symphonies and celestial chorales, with emotionally charged results”. - Uncut
“Lytle’s melodic warmth provides a protective layer against the heartbreak and horror” – Q Magazine
JASON LYTLE Live Dates:
10-16 Barboza, Seattle, WA 10-17 Holocene, Portland, OR 10-19 Swedish American Hall, San Francisco, CA 10-21 Soho Santa Barbara CA 10-22 Casbah, San Diego CA 10-23 The Bootleg Theater, Los Angeles CA 10-24 Largo at the Coronet Theatre, Los Angeles CA