WIL BUTLER - Will Butler + Sister Squares (Natural W/ Blue Swirl Vinyl)

These four-Miles, Julie, Jenny, and Sara-are Sister Squares. What made them a musical unit was working with Will Butler. They've all just finished a new record together: Will Butler + Sister Squares. "After Generations [Merge, 2020], I considered making a weird solo record. Me alone in the basement, etc., etc. Mostly I realized that what I wanted was the opposite," says Will. He increasingly turned to the band for feedback on lyrics and song structures. He asked Miles if they'd produce the record. The album projects widescreen emotional landscapes. Lead-off single "Long Grass" is like a Harry Styles song with 20 more years of life behind it. Standout track "Saturday Night" has a beat, according to Miles, "with that robot-alien-dancing-at-a-haunted-dive-bar feeling that we were going for." The back half of the album is a danceable, weird choral record with harmonies both beautiful and dissonant. Closing song "The Window" is the comedown after the party-Julie playing a Chopin Nocturne on a three-years-out-of-tune piano, slowed to half-speed on tape with Will singing over it in a voice exactly as tired as he was. It's a record with a warm, humane soul. Miles, on a moment of synchronicity captured to tape: "It came out uniquely ours, a tiny bespoke musical bloom that can never be exactly reproduced. Those kinds of moments between all of us are embedded all over this album."

Vinyl release of Wil Butler, Will Butler + Sister Squares - Will Butler + Sister Squares (Natural W/ Blue Swirl Vinyl). Released through Merge Records and available on LP.