NEW ALBUMS
ETHAN GOLD
Earth City 1: The Longing
First in a planned post-accident comeback trilogy
ELECTRIK GOLD
7/10
Perhaps best known for his soundtrack work and for producing Elvis Perkins’ 2007 album Ash Wednesday, Ethan Gold recorded just one longplayer of his own before suffering a devastating head injury. A decade on, he credits relearning music with helping him “rewire” his brain. The songs on The Longing pull from a range of classic rock influences but have a yearning, nostalgic quality in common: the sad Beach Boys swing of “Pretty Girls”; college rock California ghost story “Alexandria And Me”; “Firefly”, a tough-love pep talk by way of Tom Petty; and “Storm Coming”, which pairs a sweeping universalism with an accordion bridge lifted from The Pogues.