ANIMAL JOY (VINYL)

Led by Jonathan Meiberg, and featuring drummer Thor Harris, and bassist Kimberly Burke, Shearwater present their their eighth album, Animal Joy, On Animal Joy, Meiburg has opted to ditch an approach that paid huge artistic dividends over his last three Matador albums for a record that seems shockingly direct, immediate and intensely personal, He's no stranger to lush, crafted recordings, but this one sounds like no prior Shearwater incarnation.