Each few years, the Texas-based, Ohio-raised former Black Swans chief Jerry David DeCicca emerges with a brand new batch of songs constructed in his personal idiosyncratic model. DeCicca tends to write down rugged folk-rock tunes with a peculiar slant, singing them in a blunt post-Dylan bleat. It seems he’s nonetheless an unmistakable presence even when working in a unique sonic milieu.

In September, DeCicca will observe 2020’s The Unlikely Optimist And His Home Adventures with a brand new album known as New Shadows. It options appearances from an eclectic assortment of musicians together with Aquilles Navarro of Irreversible Entanglements, David Hidalgo and Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, Jeff Parker, Rosali, James Brandon Lewis, and Brian Harnetty. The title monitor delves deeper into synthesizers and digital voice alteration than I ever anticipated from a Jerry DeCicca mission, lacing in saxophone and considerable guitar motion too en path to on a kind of alternate-timeline ’80s film soundtrack vibe. Beneath a pile of digital results, he sings about discovering new hiding locations as a method of survival: “Getting misplaced has no value/ When there’s no value for being gone.”

This excerpt from the album bio on Bandcamp sums it up properly:

The manufacturing (by Don Cento and JDD) is modeled after DeCicca’s favourite early 80’s albums (Lindsey Buckingham’s Legislation & Order, ZZ Prime’s Afterburner, Robert Palmer’s Clues, Lou Reed’s New Sensations,) whereas the songs’ architectures and pathos lean extra in direction of Warren Zevon, Townes Van Zandt, and John Prine.

If that seems like one thing you’d love — and it actually must be — watch Kelsey Picolo’s “New Shadows” video beneath.

TRACKLIST:
01 “New Shadows”
02 “Manzanita Bay”
03 “Misplaced Days”
04 “Angelina”
05 “These Blues”
06 “When You Wanted My Assist”
07 “97 Nights”
08 “Strolling Stick”
09 “Sing”
10 “Ivory Tower”

New Shadows is out 9/29. Pre-order it right here.