New Mix: An Exclusive Premiere From M. Ward And More

Courtesy of a artists

Julia Holter (left), M. Ward (top right), Dry a River (bottom).

This week on All Songs Considered, M. Ward puts his many side projects aside to record a new solo manuscript — one that explores a capricious songwriter’s cheerier side. A Wasteland Companion isn’t out until April, though we’ve got an disdainful hide preview of a strain “Primitive Girl.”

Also on a show: no-frills blues-rock from Ohio’s Mount Carmel, a snowballing slow-burner from London’s Dry a River and shoegazey cocktail from Minnesota’s Now, Now (whose members met in marching band). Plus, Julia Holter and Tiny Victories get witty with a collection and conventions of electronic music, and a CD picked only for the cover art turns out to be from NPR’s possess backyard.