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Plain Angels

by Anthony Worden

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  • Record/Vinyl

    Includes digital pre-order of Plain Angels. The moment the album is released you’ll get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    shipping out on or around May 10, 2024
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD)

    Includes digital pre-order of Plain Angels. The moment the album is released you’ll get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    shipping out on or around May 10, 2024
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Pre-order of Plain Angels. The moment the album is released you’ll get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card
    releases May 10, 2024

      $5 USD  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    7
    releases

    Get all 7 Anthony Worden releases available on Bandcamp.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Plain Angels, How Could We Lose When We're So Sincere?, Voilá, Shake it Like a Clock, Slouching Towards Tomorrow, Ideal Conceptions of the Beautiful and Good, and DEMOS. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $32 USD

     

1.
On My Way 2U
2.
Burnt Out Case
3.
Down But Not Yet Out Again
4.
$20
5.
Death of the Wife
6.
Heart of Life
7.
Strangers
8.
Divinity School
9.
John Cazale
10.
Teenage Prayer

about

Sometimes to go forward, you first have to go back—and the only way to pass through the present undaunted is to unencumber oneself of the past.

For Anthony Worden, the process of moving past an onslaught of sudden grief crystalized in an Iowa City basement, and—over the course of half a year of writing and rehearsing with his band, the Illiterati—took on the form of his fifth studio album, Plain Angels. Sourced from a period that Worden describes as something of a “social reset,” characterized by the end of a long-term relationship (a development that upended his recent move to Kansas and spurred him to re-relocate to his native city), paired with a series of health scares in his immediate family and the death of an extended family member, the songwriter found himself contending with “big feelings” like “the realization that your loved ones aren’t going to be around forever.” Amidst a blisteringly cold Iowa winter—during which Worden’s day job as an electrician apprentice had him “thrown into installing solar panels in subzero weather on the farms, hog barns, and small towns of the middle part of the state”—he also found himself asking even bigger questions: “With everything that happened, I found myself almost resetting my worth, asking myself—what am I doing here?”

With emotional baggage in toe, Worden holed up in the unfinished cellar studio of band bassist Lucas Adolphson, spending “a lot of time with a glass of whisky” to divine art from feeling. The end result is a collection of ten tracks that’s as meditative as it is triumphant, presented as a loose narrative of personal resilience. Whether it’s charting the hope that comes with starting over somewhere new (“On My Way 2U”), becoming more aware of your fading youth in a college town (“Down But Not Yet Out”), the myriad feelings you feel on a funeral day (“Death of the Wife”) or encountering an ex after some-but-not-all wounds have healed (“Strangers”), the anecdotes that form Angels together create a picture of bittersweet acceptance, uplifted by Worden’s candid lyricism, the Illiterati’s refreshing approach to contemporary rock—which feels as indebted to 70s new wave as it does in early 2000s power pop thanks to the performances by Adolphson, keyboardist/producer Avery Moss, and drummer Aaron Knight—as well as mastering by Huntley Miller, who previously collaborated with indie heavyweights Bon Iver, Low, and Wednesday.

Taken all at once, Angels presents a portrait of taking change in stride, a reminder that the only way out is through, and the importance of turning to others in times of trouble. “I’m definitely in a way different, better place than when I started writing these songs,” Worden says. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned, you don’t really get over these things—there’s no way to really get over the death of a loved one or even the end of a relationship—you just learn how to live with it. And when I look back on this process, I think what really helped me with that was being other people—the band in particular.”

credits

releases May 10, 2024

Drums: Aaron Knight
Bass: Lucas Adolphson
Keyboards: Avery Moss
Guitar: Anthony Worden

Lex Leto-Flute on “John Cazale”
Nolan Schroeder-Baritone and Tenor Saxophone on “$20”
Blake Shaw-String Arrangement on “Death of the Wife”
“Heart of Life” originally recorded and written by Marching Church

Recorded at Flat Black Studios
Additional Recording done at home studios
Mixed by Avery Moss
Mastered by Huntley Miller
Album art by 57avenues

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Anthony Worden Iowa City, Iowa

Iowa City, IA

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