Lightheaded & Jeanines both announce new albums, share new singles & announce UK tour
Lightheaded & Jeanines both announce new albums, share new singles & announce UK tour
Both albums will be released June 27 via Slumberland (US) / Skep Wax (UK)
Today, like minded Slumberland recording artists Lightheaded and Jeanines both announce new albums, share the first singles from those very same albums and announce a joint UK tour this July. The albums will both be released on June 27 via Slumberland Records (in North America) and on Skep Wax (in the UK & EU). Full details below!
JEANINES & LIGHTHEADED UK TOUR DATES:
Jul 17 – London – Skep Wax Weekender
Jul 19 – London – Skep Wax Weekender @ The Lexington
Jul 20 – Brighton – The Albert
Jul 21 – Exeter – The Cavern
Jul 22 – Bristol – The Exchange
Jul 23 – Oxford – Common Ground
Jul 24 – Coventry – Just Dropped In
Jul 25 – Manchester – Gullivers
Jul 27 – Glasgow – Mono
Over the course of nearly a decade making music as Jeanines, Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith have charted a distinctive course through the history of pop, evoking influences as varied as the 60s folk of early Fairport Convention and Vashti Bunyan, the sunshine pop of Margo Guryan and Laura Nyro, and indiepop touchstones like Dear Nora, Marine Girls, Dolly Mixture, and the post-Black Tambourine projects of Pam Berry.
Their new album, How Long Can It Last, finds Jeanines grappling with themes of personal upheaval and self-excavation, adding weight to their finest set of songs yet. With Alicia’s lyrics incisively interrogating connections, ruptures, and time and its reverberations, songs like “Coaxed a Storm,” “What’s Done Is Done,” and “On and On” combine richly melodic tunes with multi-instrumental producer and co-composer Jed’s crisp arrangements (featuring contributions from longtime live show bassist Maggie Gaster) to stellar effect.
Where How Long Can It Last really shines is, as always, in the songs. While the themes might be heavy, the melodies and harmonies are simply heavenly, elevating these economical songs to give each the feeling of a lost classic. From the first notes of opener “To Fail” to jaunty closer “Wrong Direction,” this album announces itself as the work of a band in full command of their art (and craft).
Jeanines
How Long Can It Last
(Slumberland / Skep Wax)
Street Date: June 27, 2024
Pre-order it HERE
Track Listing:
1 To Fail
2 You Can’t Get It Back
3 You’ll Figure It Out
4 Coaxed A Storm
5 That’s What You Say
6 What’s Done Is Done
7 On And On
8 What’s Lost
9 What You Do
10 One Art
11 Satisfied
12 How Long Can It Last
13 Wrong Direction
Carrying on the long tradition of sentimental jangle pop songwriters, Lightheaded distills decades of lovelorn tunes into sounds for modern softies. They have the sunshine sparkle of The Left Banke and Margo Guryan, the C86 charm of Dolly Mixture and Would-Be-Goods, and the cinematic swell of Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura.
Formed on the Jersey Shore in 2017 by Cynthia Rittenbach and Stephen Stec, Lightheaded took time to hone their sound with a rotating crew of drummers, guitarists and backup vocalists. They found a community of like-minded bands in a vast but tight-knit international indie pop scene, which eventually led them to the iconic California label Slumberland Records. Their debut EP, Good Good Great! landed in 2023 followed by the full-length Combustible Gems in 2024. A European tour and gigs opening for bands like Heavenly, The Softies, and The Ladybug Transistor rounded out their breakout year.
Their latest LP — Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming! — is their most collaborative and earnest release to date, and marks their first collaborative release with Slumberland and the UK’s Skep Wax label. Recorded bi-coastally with Gary Olson (The Ladybug Transistor) and Alicia Vanden Heuvel (The Aislers Set, Poundsign) and drenched in lush reverb on tape by Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me), the songs are rendered in a dreamy soft focus that perfectly suits their starry-eyed themes. Adding to all the fun are the cameos and contributions from the new generation of New York indie pop goodness, featuring members of Starcleaner Reunion and Trinket, pushing the songs on this record to a high point in the young band’s discography.
The Laurel Canyon folky jangle of “Same Drop” and the chamber pop of “The View From Your Room” nod to the ‘60s without feeling antiquated. Cynthia’s syrupy-sweet vocals are well suited to the girl group harmonies of “Crash Landing of the Clod,” a lovesick, Shangri-Las-style ballad. The tumbling melodies in “The Lindens, The Lindens, The Lindens!” mirror the song’s sun-dappled fantasy, while the tribute “Me & Amelia Fletcher” sounds, fittingly, like a long-lost Talulah Gosh track. “Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming!” builds on the foundation of Lightheaded’s first two releases, their sound even more perfectly bittersweet and fully-realized than ever.
– DJ Poindexter
Lightheaded
Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming
(Slumberland / Skep Wax)
Street Date: June 27, 2025
Pre-order it HERE
Track Listing:
1 Same Drop
2 The Lindens, The Lindens, The Lindens!
3 Me and Amelia Fletcher
4 The View From Your Room
5 Crash Landing of the Clod
6 Mercury Girl
7 Orange Creamsicle Head
8 The Garden
9 Patti Girl
10 Love Is Overrated
