Guests include Lucinda Williams, Zooey Deschanel, Jason Lytle (ex-Grandaddy)

Photo by Jen Reel

Post-Post-War, M. Ward has been busy palling around with that Zooey Deschanel character, issuing an introductory volume in their She & Him pantheon, and traveling the world both by himself and with the actress-slash-tunesmith. But come February 17, Ward will issue Hold Time, his first solo album in two and a half years and fourth new offering under his own name for Merge (4AD, meanwhile, will handle the release in the UK and mainland Europe).

While the new disc includes a jam called "Oh Lonesome Me", Ward is anything but alone on it. Hold Time features guest contributions from Lucinda Williams, former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle, DeVotchKa's Tom Hagerman, and the aforementioned Deschanel across its 14 tracks.

Speaking to Paste Magazine recently, Deschanel referred to Hold Time as her favorite album ever, but there's gotta be just a smidge of bias working in her estimation, don't you think? While Paste had the pair on the line, Ward let it be known that She & Him are busy working up tunes for Volume Two, which he told them is "going to be twice as good as Volume One." That may be so, M., but good luck getting a 14.8 out of us.

Ward also noted that the long-promised collaborative LP between himself, Conor Oberst, and My Morning Jacket frontdude Jim James should see the light of day in 2010 or perhaps the year after.

A little closer on the horizon is the pack of California shows She & Him will attend to next month.

Hold Time:

01 For Beginners
02 Never Had Nobody Like You
03 Jailbird
04 Hold Time
05 Rave On
06 To Save Me
07 One Hundred Million Years
08 Stars of Leo
09 Fisher of Men
10 Oh Lonesome Me
11 Epistemology
12 Blake's View
13 Shangri-La
14 Outro

She & Him:

11-01 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
11-02 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's 365 Club
11-03 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's 365 Club
11-05 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues

album of the year '09?

zooey i don't really care about. she and him kinda bored me. but Jason lytle i didn't expect and now i'm excited.

loved the she&him album. In terms of sheer enjoyment, it's probably at the top of my list as far as 08 goes.

Definitely looking forward to this one. Post-War, Transfiguration, and especially Transistor Radio were all great.

Lucinda Williams? I'm sold.

hmm... here's the actual cover art:



cool... but i much prefer the older one he had on his site :/

apparently promos have just gone out though... giddyup!

based on chinese translation im excited, but i was direly unimpressed with post-war

Star-Studded?

That's a great album cover.

eh?

Chinese Translation is ON Post-War?

Post War might be his best record to date imo. That or Transfiguration of Vincent.

I don't get the lack of Post-War love. Vocals are miles better than on Transfiguration IMO.

Hold Time


That was stunning.

I saw these three live together in 2004 (or late 2003) and it was amazing. I would love to hear this record.

I think I'd like this idea lot more if Conor Oberst wasn't involved. Dude's ok, but hasn't got a scratch on M. Ward or Jim James, vocally, creatively, or otherwise.

i dig Conor a lot... but i tend to agree.

he's a better lyricist than Jim tho

i saw them on that tour as well, prior to me being able to stomach Conor, but even then he was vastly outclassed & out of his league

creatively i'd disagree. conor has much more interesting lyrics and for a few albums has blown mward out of the water in terms of arrangement. i don't think m ward has really branched through that much territory in terms of sound. so far, he's one of those artists who have one sound that they stick to and make the same album every year, maybe just a little better eachtime. which is fine, grandaddy was like that, but i'd take them over m ward too. i don't feel he's an artist who brings anything too special to the table or raises any sort of bar for other artists.

am i the only one that loved the track?

i liked it a good bit, but can't say i loved it. gets me excited for the new album either way though.

it was pretty good, i'm guessing i'll like it if i listen a couple times more