First Listen: Jolie Holland, 'Wine Dark Sea' — npr.org

hide captionJolie Holland's new album, Wine Dark Sea, comes out May 20. Jolie Holland's new album, Wine Dark Sea, comes out May 20. When she sings, Jolie Holland's words come out warped and slurred, the notes bent sideways and raw at the edges. When she first emerged as a solo artist a decade ago, Holland set that eccentric delivery against dustily barren old-time arrangements that often made her sound as if she were echoing out of a transistor radio many decades ago. But these days, on the new Wine Dark Sea, she sets it against low, sullenly rumbling arrangements that sprawl and wander ambitiously across the sounds of blues, rock, jazz and soul.

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