Matthew Berry has been a member of Happy Diving and Big Bite as well as Hotline TNT's live band, but he also makes Americana-tinged indie rock of his own under the moniker the Berries. Today he's announced his new self-titled album -- which he'll be releasing himself next month -- with the lead single "Angelus."
The Berries was co-produced by Jimmy Dixon and includes contributions from Narrow Head’s Kora Puckett, studio drummer Bryan De Leon (The Drums, Ethel Cain), Color Green’s Corey Madden, and poet/musician Julia Lans Nowak. "This record came out of a need to break from my old self, to break from a lifestyle that I could no longer bear waking up to everyday," Berry explains in a press release. "It’s equally fueled by remorse and relief -- I can rejoice a bit in having found a renewed purpose, but I had to finally stare down everything that was standing in the way of that sense of dignity first."
The laid-back, sparsely-arranged rocker "Angelus" is a fitting soundtrack for that type of self-reflection. I hear a bit of a '70s guitar-pop influence to it, but that could also be because the album cover looks like Born To Run. Either way, it's nice, and you can check that out along with the full The Berries tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Sedentary Blues"
02 "Vagabond"
03 "Angelus"
04 "White Peach"
05 "Wind Chime"
06 "Run You Down"
07 "Salt Of The Earth"
08 "Lie In The Fire Again"
09 "Something Better"
10 "Seventh"
The Berries will be self-released on 8/29.
