I imagine that Johnny Klein has been looking at the stars a lot. The songwriter and guitarist, currently based in Philadelphia, sings his songs with a permanent sense of the awe one feels underneath the eastern expanses. The music he makes as Euphoria Again has ebbed and flowed over the last decade but it retains a folky wonder. No matter where he is or what sounds he’s playing with, from Nashville twang to the Band’s anachronistically beautiful harmonies to Knifeplay’s elemental slowcore, Klein is standing with his neck craning heavenwards.
The years since his last full-length have been filled with collaboration — splits with Glovertown’s Fog Lake and a Julia’s War triple with Bleary Eyed and Sun Organ — and filled with songs. Waiting On Time To Fly is Klein’s third record and first for Philly’s Born Losers. Lead single “Sky Remembers” is gentle, reminiscent, and overflowing with imagery. Memories get stuck in the firmament’s teeth as tambourine washes in like the midnight tide on a placid lake. Echoes of Kurt Vile and Empty Country reverberate through the song’s cavernous and gorgeous arrangement and Klein’s pleading vocals. It never rises above a rumble, yet manages to swallow you with nostalgic warmth, particularly as harmonies and countermelodies swell in the final moments.
Waiting On Time To Fly, taking its title from 2023 single “Take My Devil,” will be out on November 15.
Written by Aly Eleanor
