''Like Love, Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul'' is the third album by

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

band

Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter Jesse Sykes (née Solomon) (born July 17, 1967) is an American singer and songwriter, best known for her band Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, which was formed in 1999 with Phil Wandscher. Early life and education Sykes was born in Mount Kisc ...

. It was released in 2007 on

Barsuk Records Barsuk Records ( ) is an independent record label based in Seattle, Washington, that was founded by the members of the band This Busy Monster, Christopher Possanza and Josh Rosenfeld, in 1998 to release their band's material. Its logo is a draw ...

. Sykes said the structure of the album's songs were often not what listeners initially expected. "Essentially, what we're doing is kind of folk music, but the structures are complex," she said. "It's like country/folk/rock with a psychedelic bent."Linda Ray, "Beautiful Kind of Loneliness", ''Tucson Weekly'', 2007.
/ref> She said the album's elaborate title was inspired by a heavily tattooed bar patron Sykes saw outside a club in

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

: "I met this extraordinary guy. He was covered in tattoos, and he had three scripted L's tattooed on his wrist," she recalled. "When I asked him what it meant, he said, 'Like, Love, Lust, baby'—and he pointed at his wife and said, 'That's all that matters. You got that, and you got everything'."Hannah Levin, ''Seattle Weekly'', February 7, 2007
/ref> Sykes said "Aftermath" drew its inspiration from Swedish singer-songwriter

Nicolai Dunger Nicolai Dunger (born 4 February 1968) is a Swedish singer and acoustic songwriter from Piteå in Sweden. He has released twelve EPs and albums, singing primarily in English, and collaborated notably with Will Oldham, the Esbjörn Svensson jazz ...

, who provides backup vocals on another song, "Station Grey". "It was magical," she said. "He was just sitting on my couch and playing a bunch of his songs, some of my favorites. He has kind of a strange, complicated style. I was so inspired, and I think 'Aftermath' came out of trying to incorporate that experience." Four of the album's songs were co-written with Sweet Hereafter guitarist

Phil Wandscher Phil Wandscher is the former guitarist of the alt-country band Whiskeytown, and is now a member of Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. Wandscher appeared on Death Cab For Cutie's album ''Transatlanticism ''Transatlanticism'' is the fourth stu ...

, formerly of

Whiskeytown Whiskeytown was an American alternative country band formed in 1994 from Raleigh, North Carolina. Fronted by Ryan Adams, the group included members Caitlin Cary, Phil Wandscher, Eric "Skillet" Gilmore, and Mike Daly. They disbanded in 2000 with ...

. Sykes said: "Phil's playing kind of blows me away, and in my writing process, now, it turns out that the songs have a lot more space for him to do things, important things. They're not guitar solos for the sake of guitar solos. They're actually complex melodic structures that are almost classical at times. There are a lot of counterpoints and layering in the records. Nothing unnecessary; everything seems to be reacting to something else." The album was initially recorded with longtime producer

Tucker Martine Tucker Martine (born January 14, 1972) is an American record producer, musician and composer. In 2010, ''Paste'' Magazine included Martine in their list of the 10 Best Producers of the Decade. Early life Tucker Martine, the son of singer and son ...

, but remixed by English-born, Seattle-based producer

Martin Feveyear Martin John Feveyear born late '66 is a British record producer and audio engineer based in Seattle, Washington. Beginning as a singer-songwriter and musician, Feveyear soon began recording work for artists in both the UK and US before moving to ...

after concerns over the sound.

Track listing

(all words and music by Jesse Sykes except where noted) # "Eisenhower Moon" – 3:33 # "LLL" – 3:57 # "You Might Walk Away" – 2:49 # "Air Is Thin" (Jesse Sykes,

) – 4:20 # "Spectral Beings" – 4:13 # "How Will We Know" (Sykes, Wandscher) – 5:24 # "Hard Not to Believe" – 4:36 # "Aftermath" – 3:27 # "Station Grey" – 5:04 # "I Like The Sound" (Sykes, Wandscher) – 3:51 # "Morning It Comes" (Sykes, Wandscher) – 6:08 # "Open Halls of the Soul" – 5:26

Personnel

* Jesse Sykes – vocals, acoustic guitar *

– guitars, harmonica, lapsteel, keyboards, vocals * Anne Marie Ruljancich – viola, vocals * Bill Herzog – electric and upright bass, vocals * Eric Eagle – drums, percussion Additional musicians: * Micah Hulscher – piano, harmonium * Steve Moore – keyboards, organ * Eyvind Kang – viola, violin * Wayne Horvitz –

Hammond B3 Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in South ...

* Gretchen Yanover – cello * Dave Carter – trumpet * Craig Flory – saxophone * Josiah Boothby –

french horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

* Ben O'Shea – trombone * Billy Joe Huel – trumpet * Ron Weinstein – Hammond B3 * Tucker Martine – percussion *

– backup vocals ("Air is Thin", "Station Grey")

References

{{Authority control 2007 albums Southern Lord Records albums Albums produced by Martin Feveyear Jesse Sykes albums