Love’s Crushing Diamond, the debut album by Mutual Benefit, aka the amorphous project of Jordan Lee‘s sometimes one-man-band, sometimes sprawling collective, is a powerful and heartfelt record of lush, watery, pop songs, inspired by the kinetic energy, goodbyes, and blurred landscapes of life on the road as Lee moved throughout the last several years from Ohio to Austin to Boston, and most recently, Brooklyn. The songs present Lee’s gentle and beautiful voice as the centerpiece surrounded by a mix of lush studio productions, featuring keys, guitar, violin and banjo, clattering homemade percussion and found sounds, resulting in an instantly inviting blend of high and low fidelity. While the album is certainly Lee’s brainchild, the recordings are very much a collaborative effort featuring contributions by friends and others met along the way.
After sharing album tracks “Advanced Falconry” and “‘Let’s Play’ / Statue of a Man,” Other Music Recording Co. offers another window into the lucid, sonorous world of Lee and his chosen collaborators via “Golden Wake.” Flecked with a befitting autumnal hue, the delicate orchestration hints at both a rare sincerity and the emergence of a strikingly defined new voice. As such, “Golden Wake” is yet another example of Lee’s soft-voiced insistence and a worldview cracked just enough so the light pours through.
Mutual Benefit will tour North America in January and February 2014. The live band will feature Jordan (guitar, synths, vocals), his sister, Whitney Lee (vocals, synth), plus a bassist, guitarist and percussionist/vocalist. The initial dates are below and more will be added.
Love’s Crushing Diamond will be available on CD on December 3rd (January 13th in the UK/Europe), and on LP on January 7th. The album is available digitally now. Additionally, Other Music will be selling the last remaining 50 copies of the original Soft Eyes‘ 250-LP pressing of Love’s Crushing Diamond at their Manhattan store as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday celebration on November 29th.
MUTUAL BENEFIT TOUR DATES:
Mon. Dec. 2 – New York, NY @ Other Music NYC [Album Release Party]
Mon. Jan. 13 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott
Tue. Jan. 14 – Montreal, QC @ Il Motore
Wed. Jan. 15 – Toronto, ON @ Drake Underground
Sat. Jan. 18 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club
Wed. Jan. 22 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Sat. Jan. 25 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Tue. Jan. 28 – Los Angeles, CA @ Centre for the Arts – Eagle Rock
Wed. Jan. 29 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
Sat. Feb. 1 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgeralds (downstairs)
Mon. Feb. 3 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
Tue. Feb. 4 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
Thu. Feb. 6 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle
Fri. Feb. 7 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
Sat. Feb. 8 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade