Britta Phillips – “One Fine Summer Morning” (Evie Sands Cover) (Stereogum Premiere)

Britta Phillips – “One Fine Summer Morning” (Evie Sands Cover) (Stereogum Premiere)

On the heels of last year’s Luna reunion, Britta Phillips is set to release her first solo full-length Luck Or Magic this spring. Today she shares the album’s lead single, a cover of Evie Sands’ 1969 track “One Fine Summer Morning.” Exploring the desirable allure of spending time alone with another person, the song evokes a feeling of serenity through Phillips’ romantic voice and the sound of her nylon acoustic guitar. It feels blissful, like the promise of endless possibilities at the dawn of a summer day.

Luck Or Magic has been in the works since 2012, when electronic music pioneer Scott Hardkiss came to Phillips with the idea. Between projects, the two began working together, Phillips recording vocals and piano and Hardkiss remixing the tracks. After a year of collaboration, shockingly in March 2013 Hardkiss passed away at age 43. Finding it difficult to carry on the project, Phillips took on a number of other ventures before continuing her solo work. With time, though, she began writing again and finished the album with producer/mixer Eric Broucek, who previously worked with LCD Soundsystem and Eleanor Friedberger.

Now complete, her album consists of five original songs and five covers, each exploring love and desire through different personas. A lyric fragment that stood out to her, the title Luck Or Magic relates to Phillips’ experiences in both love and music. At a young age she moved to New York in hopes of becoming a musician, but only found a spark of magic until she met Dean Wareham, her husband and bandmate in Luna and Dean & Britta. You can hear that spark in “One Fine Summer Morning” below.

Tracklist:

01 “Daydream”
02 “Do It Last”
03 “One Fine Summer Morning” (Evie Sands, 1969)
04 “The Million Dollar Doll”
05 “Drive” (The Cars, 1984)
06 “Fallin’ In Love” (Dennis Wilson, 1970)
07 “Luck Or Magic”
08 “Landslide” (Fleetwood Mac, 1975)
09 “Wrap Your Arms Around Me” (ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog, 1983)
10 “Ingrid Superstar”

Luck Or Magic is out 4/29 via Double Feature Records. Pre-order it here.

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