User:Ethanabelar/sandbox

Recording & Release

Friday Night is a solo live album by American musician Will Butler, who is also a member of Arcade Fire. It contains live versions of many songs from his debut album Policy as well as five new songs and two of the songs that he recorded for The Guardian in a one-week song-a-day project. The album was released on June 17, 2016 by Merge Records.

Recording and concept
Most of the songs for Friday Night were recorded at Lincoln Hall in Chicago on June 4, 2015.

The second track "Introduction" features the voice of comedian Jo Firestone. This played into Butler's press release for the album, saying to "Think of this as a comedy record" because of the comedian's presence, but also because "it’s an album based on working out ideas in a room full of people, playing off their energy and expectations. It’s about taking complicated emotions and wringing communal joy from them, and then translating that joy onto record".

Track listing
Time Of The Blue is a single released by Swedish indie folk musician The Tallest Man On Earth. It was the first single to be released since the album Dark Bird Is Home's release that did not feature a song from the ocean. It shows a departure from Matsson's previous release, which featured heavy instrumentation apart from only him and his guitar. Time of The Blue is more acoustic, recalling past releases like There's No Leaving Now. The song was released on June 15, 2016.

Sleep Cycle received very good reviews upon its release. On Metacritic, which records an average score of critical reviews, the album received an 85/100, certifying "universal acclaim"

A Lot of Sorrow is a box set by American indie rock band The National. It is a recording of The National's performance of their concert, "A Lot of Sorrow", which was an art exhibit created by the band itself as well as performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson. The exhibit consisted of The National on a blank stage at the VW dome at MoMA PS1, playing their song "Sorrow" from their 2010 album High Violet on a loop for six hours.

Her (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score for 2013 Spike Jonez film Her. The score was composed by Owen Pallett as well as Will Butler of Arcade Fire. At the 86th Academy Awards, the soundtrack was nominated for Best Original Score.

Awards & nominations
The score to Her was nominated at the 86th Academy Awards for Best Original Score. Additionally, another song from the film entitled "Moon Song", written by Spike Jonez himself and Karen O was nominated for Best Song. At the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, Pallett, Butler, and the rest of Arcade Fire won for Best Original Score. The soundtrack was nominated at 16 different awards events, and it won 6 times. The score placed 2nd at the Awards Circuit Community Awards.

Policy is the debut solo album by Will Butler, best known for his work in Canadianindie rock band Arcade Fire. The album was released on March 10, 2015 by Merge Records.

Concept
Butler set out to make an album akin to what he calls "American Music". Butler has stated that "Policy is American music—in the tradition of the Violent Femmes, The Breeders, The Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, The Magnetic Fields, Ghostface Killah. And John Lennon (I know, but it counts)." He has called this type of music "Music where the holy fool runs afoul of the casual world".

Recording & Release
Policy was recorded in a week in Jimi Hendrix's old living room, which is now a part of Electric Lady Studios. Butler recorded it during a short break on Arcade Fire's Reflektor tour. Most of the instrumentation had been done by Butler, with the acceptation of drums that were done by Jeremy Gara, also of Arcade Fire. He also "Had a couple of friends come in to do clarinet, saxophone and backing vocals."

The album was released on March 10, 2015, on the Merge Records website. The album was released digitally as a CD and an LP. Two singles were released before the launch of the album. They were "Take My Side" and "Anna". Both songs were released on the label's [[Soundcloud] page]], and a music video for "Anna" was released on Butler's [[YouTube] channel]].

Reception
Policy received very positive reviews upon its release. As of March 17, 2015, it holds a Metacritic score of 73/100, dignifying "generally favorable reviews". A review from Rolling Stone praised the album for it's intent on making what Butler calls "American Music", while still retaining a little bit of Arcade Fire, saying that "The first solo album by the younger Butler sibling in Arcade Fire is less than half the length of his band's 2013 Reflektor. Policy is also more playful, a montage of impulses — crunchy rock, apocalyptic electro-disco, solo-John Lennon balladry — that come like whiplash... In the melodic arc of "Son of God," a slice of The Suburbs skinned down to the folk-rock jitters of the Violent Femmes." SPIN said "This is the birth of Will Butler, solo artist, whose career seems just as woozily unpredictable and captivating as that of his 'day job.'" Dean Essner of Consequence of Sound had mixed feelings about Policy "May just be too slight to be successful, forcing its shortcomings to be amplified even if there are, in fact, many things to enjoy about this record."

Track listing
All songs are written by Will Butler.
 * 1) Take My Side - 3:48
 * 2) Anna - 3:52
 * 3) Finish What I Started - 2:21
 * 4) Son of God - 2:53
 * 5) Something's Coming - 3:18
 * 6) What I Want - 4:10
 * 7) Sing to Me - 3:24
 * 8) Witness - 3:29

Personnel
All other artists who worked on Policy are unnamed by Butler.
 * Will Butler – guitar, vocals, bass
 * Jeremy Gara – drums

Concept
Upon announcing Sauna, Phil Elverum said that the album was inspired by "Vikings and zen and real life". On his label's website, Elverum had this to say about the title:

"The sauna that this album was inspired by is not a sauna that actually exists anywhere. It is about the idea of a small man-made wooden room crushed beneath a universe’s worth of bad weather; a concentration of extreme heat within a vast tough world. Inside this deliberate space a transformation occurs. The exaggerated atmosphere of flames, steam, smoke and dim light obliterate the usual sensations and new kinds of perception are exposed. Then the shocking plunge under cold water and the razor sword through sky."

"All of the song titles are single words and some of the songs are very long," he said in a press release, "This is music meant to weigh heavy on you like a lot of cold water at night, and also the sword glimmering at the bottom of the lake at night.”

The album's first song opens with a heavy and relaxing sigh, and then an organ comes in. The song (it is the title track of the album), is 10:00 in length and seems like it had been made to replicate the relaxing atmosphere of the fictional sauna mentioned in Elverum's press release.

Recording & Release
The album was recorded between June 27, 2013, and August 13, 2014, at The Unknown, a church-turned recording studio in Anacortes, Washington.

Elverum began to first tease his new release by premiering a stripped-down version of the song "DRAGON" on the Pinball Sessions studio in Ontario, Canada. The video from this session was shared via the studio's website on September 16, 2014.

Phil Elverum announced the album through a series of teasers on his label's YouTube channel. Following that, he released a music video for two songs on the album, "THIS", and "SAUNA".

Sauna, after beginning production in 2013, was released on February 3, 2015. It exists on his Bandcamp page, and was also released as a double LP, as well as a CD. Both the LP and CD are packaged containing photography done by Elverum.

Reception
Sauna received critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 81 out of 100, based on 13 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In a review from No Ripcord Magazine stated that "Sauna not only proves itself to be one of Elverum’s most personal and intimate releases, it’s also one of his most artistically inspired as well," also commenting on its use of ambient music as a strong advancement in Elverum's use of setting to create mood, saying that "The crushing, almost melody-less ambience of Sauna might suggest that this is the album where Elverum goes fully native on us, with Elverum completely disappearing into the ether of the solitary natural world which has always been his fascination". However, the review also praises Sauna for its sense of intimacy.

Other critics have also praised Sauna for its use of setting. The 405 stated in their review that "Although it starts in a relaxing atmosphere, there is certainly an unease the underscores the album. 'Dragon' features gentle singing from a gathering of females, trading off lines with Elverum beautifully, until they are gradually drowned out by what sounds like a field recording of a jet overhead."

However, in a review from Tiny Mx Tapes, the album was criticized for its lyrics being to clear about the metaphors and images in which Elverum wrote about in his working, saying that "Perhaps with the sole exception of Don’t Smoke/Get Off The Internet, never before has Elverum’s work seemed so boldly transparent, so artificial". However, in another review by Pitchfork the lyric are praised, saying htat "There is something almost aggressively quotidian about the scenarios he paints, like an indie film that aims to test your patience for how little action constitutes a "motion picture." Coffee is poured, windows are gazed at pensively, tractors idle".

Track listing
All song titles in Sauna are capitalized, with the exception of the song "(something)".
 * 1) SAUNA - 10:00
 * 2) TURMOIL - 1:50
 * 3) DRAGON - 3:15
 * 4) EMPTINESS - 3:23
 * 5) (something) - 2:16
 * 6) BOAT - 2:13
 * 7) PLANETS - 1:24
 * 8) PUMPKIN - 5:12
 * 9) SPRING - 13:21
 * 10) BOOKS - 3:30
 * 11) THIS - 3:18
 * 12) YOUTH - 5:27

Personnel
The personnel of Sauna according to Mount Eerie's Bandcamp page and the liner notes of the albums LP release:
 * Phil Elverum – guitar, vocals
 * Geneviève Castrée – vocals
 * Allyson Foster – vocals
 * Ashley Eriksson – vocals
 * Paul Benson – vocals
 * Evin Opp – flutes
 * Timothy Stollenwerk - mastering