Jordan Lee’s folk collective Mutual Benefit had a breakout year back in 2013, when their independently released album Love’s Crushing Diamond was lauded by critics after it came out on the streaming platform Bandcamp. After touring behind the record for quite some time, the group followed that up with 2016’s equally beautiful Skip A Sinking Stone release, the band’s first album for the Brooklyn-based Mom + Pop records. However, in the last two years they’ve jumped labels again, and this year’s newly announced record, Thunder Follows The Light will be out September 21 on Transgressive Records.
To kick off the announcement of the new album, today Lee shared not one but two tracks from it. “Storm Cellar Heart” and “New History” are both cut from the same cloth as the collective’s previous work, guided by Lee’s simplistic yet wise songwriting, and an underlying sense of melodic folk that emphasizes strings, piano, harmonies, and gentle percussion. There are references to thunder on “Storm Cellar Heart,” indicating that theme might be prevalent in this new record. That song also features guest vocals from Johanne Swanson who is in a band of her own called Yohuna. As for “New History,” it’s a slightly slower song, featuring plenty of harmonica. Listen to both below.
Thunder Follows The Light is out 9/21 via Transgressive. Pre-order it here.
