Merge Records will release Life Like, the fourth full-length album from Raleigh’s The Rosebuds, on Tuesday, Oct. 7. The 10-track LP was written by Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp between tours and recorded at home with help from locals including Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Portastatic’s Matt McCaughan (both played on last year’s Night of the Furies) and Ashley Stove/ Bull City guitarist Jim Brantley.
Crisp’s vocal presence in the band continues to move beyond harmonies. Her icy lead on one highlight “Another Way In” sits nicely against Howard’s languid Southern motion. Life Like offers a partial return to the acoustic basis of 2005’s Birds Make Good Neighbors (there’s even a jangly wordless tune, which sounds like M. Ward working on an assembly line), but the electronic pulses and textures that helped the duo find new fans last year haven’t been altogether dismissed. See photographer Tim Lytvinenko’s preview of the record.
Like most records, this one comes with a cover and a track list:
1. Life Like
2. Cape Fear
3. Border Guards
4. Bow to the Middle
5. Nice Fox
6. Another Way In Concordia Military
7. Club
8. Hello Darling
9. Black Hole
10. In the Backyard
According to The Rosebuds’ booking Web site at Ground Control Touring, the band has only one date scheduled: Terminal 5 in New York City Saturday, July 26.
