We just celebrated the fourth birthday of Karaoke, the debut EP from ex-Pinegrover Nick Levine under the moniker Jodi, which until a few months ago appeared to be a one-off bedroom recording mastered by the master of bedroom recordings Warren Hildebrand. That was until Levine announced a proper debut album, Blue Heron, back in April, which drops this Friday, and which eases off the lo-fi pop influence and instead sees Levine exploring the alt-country, lush acoustic sounds hinted at on Karaoke—not to mention incorporating loose slowcore and psych-drone influences (the latter specifically provided by the metal-for-hangovers that is Earth’s The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull).
To get a better understanding of where the subtle country twang and other sounds on Blue Heron were pulled from, Levine shared with us the playlist they made for Tommy Read—who produced, mixed, engineered, and mastered the record—when Levine first met with him back in 2019. “I made this to give him an idea of some of the recorded sounds I was feeling excited about and inspired by so we could get on the same page about the sonic territory we might want to explore together,” Levine shares. “It’s honestly mostly stuff I love the drum sounds on (those Tweedy tracks in particular), and that ended up being what we spent a lot of time on at first, just moving mics around a drum kit trying to get something really rich and full and expressive. Time well spent. There’s a lot of vibe inspiration here, too—that Earth album is basically country sludge, and it’s really stuck with me through the years.”
Hear the full playlist below, and claim a pre-order of Blue Heron via Sooper here.
