Jennifer Castle Returns with Monarch Season.

$9.00 – $32.00

Or support via: Bandcamp (LP+songbook/CD/DL) | Other Options (physical/digital/int’l)

In our ongoing campaign to dilate and enhance your few, fugitive moments of calm amid these equally turbulent and tedious end times, we humbly offer Jennifer Castle‘s ravishingly ruminative new record.

Castle’s sixth full-length album, the moon-suffused Monarch Season—an album as delicate and diaphanous as its namesake butterfly—stands, in a literal sense, as her first proper “solo” album, performed alone in her coastal kitchen, windows open to the insects and the wind and the reflection of the moon on Lake Erie, entirely without human accompaniment (though a chorus of crickets provides rich interstitial support throughout.)

The limited first-pressing deluxe LP edition includes a songbook of sheet music to every song, inner sleeve with lyrics, and high-res Bandcamp DL code. Thanks to The FADER for premiering Jesi Jordan‘s beautiful animated video for “Justice,” Jennifer’s timely take on a big-tent protest anthem, which you can also watch below.

“There is so much space left in the mix that she might consider crickets and lapping lake water to be collaborators. But despite its apparent fragility on first listen, ‘Monarch Season’ contains all of the intensity that Castle refuses to shy away from…” – The FADER

The duality of being heartbroken and hopeful at once unfolds from my heart into a continuum. Even in the broken place where I have only questions and fists, there is another, more powerful place, where I have hope and courage. Thrust upon many mothers is the assumption we can find hope at all costs, in any condition, even when great injustices have occurred. The world looks to mothers as a symbol of hope and strength. This song is by them, for them. And for all the people, young or old, who might need it. – Jennifer Castle

This animation is about the symbiotic relationship humans have with earth and about a mother’s journey to seek justice for her child. – Jesi Jordan

LP and CD preorders will ship approximately a week before the November 20, 2020 physical release date, along with any additional items purchased as part of the same order. The first pressing of 1000 vinyl LPs includes a limited-edition songbook featuring sheet music and lyrics for the entire album, as well as exclusive photos. Subsequent vinyl pressings will not include the songbook.

The album will be released digitally on October 16, 2020. For digital-only preorders and high-res digital files, please visit Bandcamp. All pre-orders, physical and digital alike, include an immediate download of lead single “Justice,” as premiered by The FADER. Thank you for your support.

Like last night’s dream you can’t remember … The melody seems called up by the cadence, the instrumentation feels like a reflection of the voice, and you can find yourself listening for those tiny lifts, the suspensions in the songs replacing the songs themselves.  

– Greil Marcus

No hyperbole, Jennifer Castle is a spectacular songwriter. Her singing carries the joy of life.

– The FADER

Flickers between the broadly universal and the devastatingly personal… She effortlessly conveys the conflicting emotions that accompany loss.

– Pitchfork

Ethereal, deeply poetic.

– Associated Press

Castle channels the lunar radiance of Emmylou Harris and the heartfelt barroom blues of Jimmie Dale Gilmore, quietly gleaming with a rustic beauty and a deep, patient understanding of the mystic. This record is a genuine masterpiece. 

– Aquarium Drunkard

Through October 16, get 40% off orders of Castle’s previous masterpiece Angels of Death with coupon code MONARCH, only on the PoB website.

$9.00 – $30.00