Pitchfork: Vashti Bunyan to Release Second Album

The sophomore slump is an ugly, ugly thing. Musicians don't like falling into it, and on occasion it offends our ever-so-delicate sensibilities to have to listen to it. With everyone's welfare in mind, therefore, some artists go to great lengths to avoid the phenomenon. Take British folk goddess Vashti Bunyan, for example. Her strategy? Wait 35 years to release a second album. Lookaftering, Vashti's new LP, and her first since her beloved 1969 debut Just Another Diamond Day, will be unveiled on October 25, courtesy of DiCristina in America and FatCat in the rest of the world.

Though the title sounds suspiciously close to a word coined by my four-year-old cousin, Vashti insists that its origin goes back further than that: "Lookaftering is a word my family has always used for taking care of someone or something. I also felt it could mean looking back--which is a lot of what the album is about-- and that lookaftering is what I've been mostly doing in the intervening years." The majority of Bunyan's "lookaftering" has occurred since 1997, when she typed her name into an internet search engine and learned of her cult following. Since then, she has recorded with the likes of Piano Magic, Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective, and the Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde.

And what would be the point of making all these friends if they aren't there to help when you need them? Lookaftering will feature no shortage of guest stars, with folks like Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Adam Pierce (Mice Parade) all lending a hand. "Post-classical" composer Max Richter is also helping with the album, as both a producer and a co-arranger.

For now, we're lookaftering our dear readers the only way we know how-- with a tracklist:

01 Lately
02 HereBefore
03 Wayward
04 Hidden
05 Against The Sky
06 Turning Backs
07 If I Were
08 Same But Different
09 Brother
10 Feet Of Clay
11 Wayward Hum

href="http://pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-06/02.shtml#vashti">Vashti Bunyan Signs to FatCat Records