Eric Bachmann - Eric Bachmann (2016) [HDtracks]

Fresh on the heels of a celebrated Archers of Loaf reunion and the long-awaited reissue of the first two Crooked Fingers albums on vinyl, Eric Bachmann returns on March 25 with a self-titled album that looks ahead to his future. "To me, the '90s were for the Archers... The 2000s were for Crooked Fingers," says Bachmann. "I feel like now - in 2015, 2016 - it's time to metamorphose. When you do this for a long time, you feel a strong pull to reinvent things from time to time, or at least to reconfigure them. There is resistance, of course, from many places to remain the same. But after a while the dam breaks and the compulsion to change becomes overwhelming. You just have to do it or you sort of feel like you're not being true to yourself." Inspired to write an album on the piano by friend Todd Fink from The Faint, Eric consciously bid farewell to the "personas" of his past. Eric Bachmann builds around the one truth Eric has found in his years of travel: "Places do not offer a sense of home for me. People do." Gospel-like vocal arrangements, pedal steel, and a song he "stole" from his wife Liz Durrett all combine to make this the most assured and personal album of Bachmann's career.