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Completing their seventh studio album was a hard-won victory for The Milk Carton Kids, but I Only See the Moon was worth the effort for Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan. What started as a three-week recording session in the fall of 2021, with Pattengale producing the contemporary folk duo himself for the first time, stretched into a months- long project that found the pair digging deeper into their craft than ever before. With a new studio of their own in Los Angeles and the realization that they were in no hurry, The Milk Carton Kids took the time they needed to be fully satisfied with I Only See the Moon. The three-time Grammy nominees sound refreshed on 10 new songs distilled to the essence of The Milk Carton Kids: two voices blended together in spellbinding harmony, accompanied by subtly perfect acoustic instrumentation. Turns out that's a tough sound to get just right, but I Only See the Moon shows just how much Pattengale and Ryan were willing to work for it.

When Annahstasia writes a song, it embodies a world of its own. The self-taught singer-songwriter says her artistic practice is steeped in fantasy and romanticism, and Annahstasia’s rose-colored perspective is elucidated by her enchantingly sumptuous and acrobatic voice—one she developed through a lasting appreciation for complex vocalists like Bill Withers, Nina Simone, and Janis Joplin. “Those were the first musicians that I felt lended their voice to their music and not the music to their voice,” she explains. She rarely, if ever, writes her lyrics down, instead preferring to imagine the spirits that live in her songs—how they might look, move, talk or dance—and speak to their identities in real-time through her music. Her first solo release, 2019’s Sacred Bull was an honest, no-frills experiment that opened doors to collaborations with the likes of singer Raveena, who features on her new record, and Lenny Kravitz, who invited her to support him as an opener on his “Raise Vibrations” European tour. Now, Annahstasia’s own stunning voice is the powerline that weaves together her forthcoming folk-rooted record, Revival, a delicately produced project that both renewed her love of music after a period of uncertainty and facilitated a potent resurgence of self.