SCRATCHING that seven-year itch was a good idea.
Yep, it’s been seven looong years since Greg Cartwright’s Memphis-meets-garage aesthetic, as propounded by his lovely Reigning Sound, brought any new music to the table for us; hell, let’s do it again, he thought, getting that original line-up together for A Little More Time with Reigning Sound, out later this month on Merge.
Three is the magic number, as they follow their previous single drops “A Little More Time” and the sweet Americana lament of “Oh Christine” with the warm, organ-driven garage boogie of the album’s opening track, “Let’s Do It Again”; watch the video, below.
While pointing at the buzz of reforming and finding that old chemistry entirely intact , “Let’s Do It Again” captures that pandemic-year craving to connect and to the simple things: play records! Dance! Be with your nearest and dearest!
It’s a song for a decent bourbon and chairs shoved back against the wall, and good friends, and volume. And putting the needle back to the start again.
Greg says the song very quickly felt like the natural choice to open the album: “I remember sending our bass player Jeremy the first rough mix for ‘Let’s Do It Again’ and he immediately messaged back, ‘That’s your opener right there.’ I hadn’t even considered sequencing yet, but I knew he was right.”
They’re soon gonna be trading the boards too: on June 5th they’ll be performing as part of the River Series of concerts at Harbor Town Amphitheater, Memphis.
A Little More Time is the first in-studio collaboration with Reigning Sound’s original Memphis lineup of Greg on guitar, vocals, bassist Jeremy Scott, drummer Greg Roberson and Alex Greene at the keyboards since 2005’s Home for Orphans album, which Merge reissued last year.
Get that seven-year itch scratched yourself in just over a fortnight.
A Little More Time with Reigning Sound will be out from Merge on May 21st on CD and LP; you can pre-order your copy here. Oh, Rough Trade have an exclusive pink and purple swirl pressing for the UK only, which you can order here.
