Originally released in 1999 on Merge Records, The Albemarle Sound, the third full-length LP by Brooklyn, New York’s The Ladybug Transistor, exists just outside its fixed point in time and space. Perhaps the last great pop album of the 20th century, The Albemarle Sound is like few records from the turn of the millennium, its attention turned to the intricate arrangements of late 1960s pop and the strange and familiar environs of home.
The notion of home is important to The Albemarle Sound, not just lyrically and thematically, but in the fact that the album was recorded, mixed and produced in a Victorian house in Flatbush named Marlborough Farms. The Ladybug Transistor was formed in 1995 as the home recording project of singer and trumpeter Gary Olson, and by 1999 the group had swelled to include siblings Jeff Baron (guitar) and Jennifer Baron (bass), Sasha Bell (keyboards and flute), San Fadyl (drums), and Julia Rydholm (violin), who lived together at Marlborough Farms, a home filled with instruments, recording equipment and a piano room where the group made demos.
“The instruments and recording equipment around the studio seemed to have stories that were woven into the fabric of the house or its prior inhabitants,” recalls Jennifer, the sense of history and community evident in the warmth of The Albemarle Sound. Recorded entirely analog on a 16-track machine, the album invites the listener in by invoking place with an impressionist’s attention to detail and a surrealist’s curiosity. Moments at Sheepshead Bay and Prospect Park are transfigured in the light through the windshield of a car as tears are transubstantiated into summer rain and canals take the place of asphalt streets.
Musically, these scenes are given voice by Olson’s rich baritone and animated by arrangements that meld elements of the kind of baroque, orchestral pop practiced by Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach with the sweeping cinematic vistas of Luis Bacalov, imbuing their surroundings with California sunshine and an occasional bit of western swagger. Each of The Albemarle Sound’s 12 songs are soundscapes unto themselves, entire neighborhoods built by the careful employment of voice and instruments, every part exquisitely placed to prick the ear and pull the heartstrings at just the right time.
The lineup that shaped The Albemarle Sound weaved in and out of each other’s projects over the years that followed the album’s release, including Gary’s solo output, Jeff and Sasha’s band The Essex Green, Jennifer’s band The Garment District, and The Sasha Bell Band.
The Ladybug Transistor released one album following the 2007 passing of drummer San Fadyl, 2011’s Clutching Stems, and in the time since, The Albemarle Sound has grown in stature, hailed as an essential release in the deep catalogs of Merge Records and the universe of bands adjacent to the Elephant 6 Recording Company alike. The album’s 20th anniversary prompted shows in New York City and Norway featuring a reformed lineup of Gary, Jeff, Jennifer, Sasha, and, Julia. A tour followed in 2023, focusing on songs released during the band’s most productive period, 1999-2003, that welcomed Derek Almstead (Giant Day) on drums and included a special engagement at The Andy Warhol Museum.
For the 25th anniversary of The Albemarle Sound, the record has been lovingly reissued on silver vinyl by Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records. The CD includes 12 bonus tracks which break open the year-long recording process with the inclusion of rare B-sides, four-track demos, instrumentals and alternate mixes, further highlighting the band’s mastery of songcraft while teasing out the intricate worlds those songs contain, making a case, as fans of The Ladybug Transistor have known for decades now, that The Albemarle Sound is as infinitely rewarding to return to as it is to visit for the first time.
The regular version of the LP comes on silver vinyl pressed by Third Man Record Pressing and housed in a full color jacket with a 11″x 22″ full-color double-sided insert and digital download that includes the full album along with all the bonus tracks.
The Deluxe version of the LP is limited to 30 copies and comes on silver vinyl pressed by Third Man Record Pressing and housed in a full color jacket with a 11″x22″ full-color double-sided insert and digital download that includes the full album along with all the bonus tracks, along with a two-color screenprinted 12″x12″ mini poster, set of four 1.25″ buttons, and a mobile.
The CD version features the album and all of the bonus tracks.
The LP/CD bundle includes both the regular LP and CD together.
