Pete Yorn Celebrates musicforthemorningafter‘s 20th Anniversary With Rooftop EP
Twenty years ago this Saturday, Pete Yorn released his debut album, musicforthemorningafter. Do you remember that album? The singles are fire. The deep cuts are solid. Inspired by power-pop acts like Sloan and in step with metropolitan roots-rockers like Ryan Adams, Yorn put together a sleek collection of radio-friendly rockers with a slight twang. From the country-leaning “Strange Condition” to the electronically infused alt-rocker “For Nancy (‘Cos It Already Is),” the album’s hits can hang with the likes of the Wallflowers and Sheryl Crow, artists who were inhabiting that space between pop, rock, and country in the late ’90s and early aughts.
Today Yorn has announced that he’s commemorating his debut album’s anniversary with a new EP called Rooftop. The four-song set begins with “Rooftop,” a song from the musicforthemorningafter sessions that was later re-recorded as an iTunes bonus track for Yorn’s 2009 album Back & Fourth. It ends with a performance of “Lose You” from Yorn’s quarantine livestream last year. In between are two more live tracks captured at the former Philadelphia radio station Y100: a cover of the Smiths’ “Panic” and “Life On A Chain,” musicforthemorningafter‘s opening song and lead single.
In a press release, Yorn writes, “We made it in garages in California, in Van Nuys and Culver City…I just made music that I liked and I knew that there were no guarantees of where it would get me… but twenty years later I am really proud of the impact the record has had and it still carries a deep emotional resonance for me.” The live take of “Life On A Chain” is streaming today, and you can hear it below.
Back in January, Yorn released a covers album called Pete Yorn Sings The Classics, which you can also stream below:
Rooftop is out 5/5 on Sony Legacy/Columbia.