advance base A Shut-In's Prayer (LP, £12.95)

Advance Base is the new musical project by Chicago, Illinois singer, songwriter, & producer Owen Ashworth (formerly of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone). A Shut-In's Prayer is Ashworth's first full-length release in over three years, & his first under the name Advance Base. Recorded at home & in piano practice rooms at the Chicago Public Library, A Shut-In's Prayer is an intimate collection of deliberately crafted but decidedly lo-fi torch songs, waltzes & ballads. Ashworth sings nostalgic stories about lost loves, childhood friends, estranged siblings, & hard feelings over simple drum machine rhythms & spare percussion. The arrangements that fill out these ten songs intertwine gentle electric & upright piano melodies, filling the spaces between plainly-sung harmony vocals & strummed autoharp chords, with the occasional creaking floorboard or snapping reverb spring to remind you of the cramped roomswhere this album was recorded. It's a different sound than one might expect from the dude from Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, but Ashworth's keen ear for melody & idiosyncratic skill as a lyricist have only improved in recent years, pushing his memorable songwriting in all new directions. At age 35, Ashworth has a lot of music left in him, & he's just getting started again. Tracklist: 1. Summer Music 2. New Gospel 3. More Trouble 4. David Allen 5. Christmas In Oakland 6. Riot Grrrls 7. Goldfish In A Robin's Nest 8. My Sister's Birthday 9. The Sister You Never Had 10. Shut-In River Blues