Live Current always feels a bit like a love letter, and I'm especially excited to deliver Live Current 16 as your album of the week.
Each year, The Current reflects on the live music we've been able to create together - either in our studios or around the Twin Cities - and carefully curates some of those sonic memories into one sweet package as an expression of our gratitude to you, our members. (After all, the performances you hear on Live Current 16 were captured at sessions at events that are only possible with your support!)
It's no surprise that Live Current hits different in 2020 (because of, y'know...everything), and it'll sound a little different, too.
While many of the tracks were recorded in The Current studios, you'll also hear two very special performances on Live Current 16 that were captured at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul. In a year when concerts have come to a grinding halt, these live recordings seemed particularly meaningful to include as part of Live Current. The album kicks off a tender rendition of Brittany Howard's "Stay High" from her debut solo album. Later in the tracklist, riot grrrl stalwarts Sleater-Kinney rip through the title track of their latest album, The Center Won't Hold.
Par for the course, Live Current 16 places beloved Minnesota musicians alongside international acts and your longtime favorite bands next to ones you might be discovering for the first time. Some of my favorite juxtapositions are Dua Saleh's "Sugar Mama" dissolving into ethereal sounds from Aurora on "It Happened Quiet," and Yola's "Walk Through Fire" blossoming into album closer "Everything Has Changed" by Best Coast.
I hope Live Current 16 brings you fond memories of music we've been able to enjoy together, and optimism for the concerts we'll get back to someday. Thanks to members for making these performances possible!
Tracklisting
1. Brittany Howard - Stay High
2. Dua Saleh - Sugar Mama
3. Aurora - It Happened Quiet
4. Polica - Driving
5. Seratones - Gotta Get To Know Ya
6. Rodrigo y Gabriela - Terracentric
7. Sudan Archives - Nont 4 Sale
8. Jay Som - Get Well
9. Heart Bones - Open Relations
10. Sleater-Kinney - The Center Won't Hold
11. MaLLy - Black Moses
12. Yola - Walk Through Fire
13. Best Coast - Everything Has Changed