Artists / rainwater

Rainwater
Saturn Return

Catalog Numbers: FH-063 / FH:VI-033
Release Date: June 7, 2019
Genre: Indie Pop / Folk Rock / Post-Easy-Listening
Radio Friendly: Yes
Type: Album
Purchase: Bandcamp
Links: Discogs Info | Spotify

pressing information

Digital: Worldwide

Cassette Tape: Furhoof: Sixth Man

• 1st Press (2019): 100
  Blue cassette with white imprint A-side, full-color 4-Panel J-Card (two-sided), in clear plastic Norelco case. Hand-numbered.

Compact Disc: Furious Hooves

• 1st Press (2019): 50

  Limited Edition Handmade CD-R comes in a quad-foldout sleeve with full-colour matte art (front/back) and CD label with Saturn drawings by Blake Luley, band photo insert. Hand-numbered.
  
  

Release Biography

The opening line on Rainwater’s sophomore album asks “What the hell is my Saturn Return, a place I go or a lesson I learn?” In Western Astrology, a “Saturn return” is when the planet Saturn returns to the same position that it occupied during one’s birth, resulting in a period of extreme personal growth and change starting in one’s late 20’s and lasting into the early 30’s. ‘Saturn Return’ is also the sophomore album by Seattle band Rainwater, and represents a similar re-birth for the group. Whereas their first record, ‘Swimming in Sunlight’, was primarily a solo effort by primary songwriter Blake Luley, with help from NYC-based friends, ‘Saturn Return’ is the work of a highly collaborative band truly coming into their sound. After moving across the country, a journey documented on the band's ‘Place’ EP, Luley re-grouped Rainwater with new bandmates Drew Fitchette and Amy Godwin, Stephen Steen, and James Kasinger and began to take stock of his new surroundings and new life. The songs on ‘Saturn Return’ are duly concerned with turning points and moments of transition, from the human to the astrological. Questions of death, marriage, belonging, friendship, family and faith are juxtaposed with cosmic wonder as the band matches this intimate introspection with lush, melancholy arrangements.

Rainwater recorded ‘Saturn Return’ mostly as a full band to tape at the Unknown Studio in Anacortes, WA with Nich Wilbur (Mount Eerie, Stephen Steinkbrink, LAKE) over two long weekends, finishing the album at home in spare time in-between. They draw from a wide palate of Americana, folk, alt-country, indie and pop rock. The addition of lap steel gives several songs a nocturnal country feel, while others flicker with moody intensity and culminate in ferocious guitar solos. The band cites influences as diverse as Fleetwood Mac, Phil Elverum, and Frank Ocean, and their gentle playfulness is reminiscent of acts like Yo La Tengo and Galaxie 500. But now more than ever, Rainwater just sound like themselves. Though they confidently cover a wide range of approaches, their sound is unified by a pensive mood and open, expressive lyrical focus, more interested in acceptance than angst. ‘Saturn Return’ is both intimate and expansive, deeply personal yet welcoming, even bewitching, like gazing up at the stars completely alone. This is above all an album about maturing and growing up, and Rainwater have done just that. ‘Saturn Return’ is out on June 7th 2019 by Furious Hooves digitally worldwide, as well as on limited edition cassette and handmade CD-R.

– ‘Saturn Return’ bio written by Gleb Boundin.

Press & Accolades

"Rising out of a crepuscular quiet, the song slowly rises into something insistent and fierce."
– Various Small Flames, premiere of “Pink Flowers” from ‘Saturn Return’.

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