Album: The Future (2021)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats recorded their third album during the lockdown, putting the frontman in a reflective mood. The title track finds Rateliff looking deep within himself as he ponders mortality and grace.
  • Rateliff struggled to come up with this song title. "I'm a big fan of Leonard Cohen and I knew he had a record called 'The Future,'" he told the UK newspaper The Sun.

    Rateliff then decided it would be an appropriate name for the LP as well. "The album has a thread through all the songs - what is my future? What is our future? It just felt like an appropriate title," he said.
  • The album was recorded at Rateliff's Broken Creek Studio, just outside of Denver, Colorado. Rateliff and the band recorded it live as much as possible. For instance, the version of "The Future" on the record is only the second take Rateliff & the Night Sweats got down.
  • The album producers are:

    Bradley Cook (Bon Iver, Kevin Morby, The War on Drugs).

    R.M.B, who are the production trio of Rateliff, Night Sweats drummer Patrick Meese, and Beach House collaborator James Barone. The trio helmed Rateliff's 2020 solo album And It's Still Alright.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Bill Withers

Bill WithersSongwriter Interviews

Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."

Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets

Curt Kirkwood of Meat PuppetsSongwriter Interviews

The (Meat)puppetmaster takes us through songs like "Lake Of Fire" and "Backwater," and talks about performing with Kurt Cobain on MTV Unplugged.

Song Cities

Song CitiesMusic Quiz

Nirvana, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are among those who wrote songs with cities that show up in this quiz.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Tom Waits Lyrics Quiz

Tom Waits Lyrics QuizMusic Quiz

Pool balls, magpies and thorns without roses - how well do you know your Tom Waits lyrics?

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.