Beachwood Sparks

'The Tarnished Gold' (album stream)

BY Alex HudsonPublished Jun 18, 2012

It's been more than a decade since Beachwood Sparks released their last full-length album, Once We Were Trees, but that's about to change. On June 26, the psych-country band will drop The Tarnished Gold via Sub Pop. Until it officially arrives on shelves, you can hear the entire record at Exclaim.ca.

This album is surely to appeal to fans of the band's past work, as it features the classic lineup of Chris Gunst, Brent Rademaker, Farmer Dave Scher and Aaron Sperske, who re-teamed with Once We Were Trees producer Thom Monahan. There are also a number of guest players, most notably Ariel Pink.

A press release notes that the album was "meant to be played on a Sunday afternoon" with a sound that evokes "cobalt blue skies and smelling the night-blooming jasmine on a perfect spring day in Los Angeles." The songs were recorded live to tape, with most tracks reportedly only taking one or two takes to nail.

Rademaker said in a statement, "We're treading in areas that we never thought we'd go on this record. The theme has probably been touched on by some other bands, but it's our own way of looking at it. And we actually lived this. For a lot of years now, we've represented this part of the country, this town and music in this town. We've been through a lot of struggle in terms of money, music and the lifestyle, and I think The Tarnished Gold really gets into all that -- the meaning is right there in the title."

Hear what he's talking about by listening to the album below.

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