Album of the Week: Earthstar Mountain

At the time of typing this, I have no idea what next week's Record Club album is going to be. Maybe by the time I get to the bottom of this blog post, I'll have figured it out. I will most likely just ask people at the Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans Zoom for ideas. No shame in combining the clubs in your life every once in a while.

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WEEK 348 — September 28-October 4, 2025

Earthstar Mountain

by Hannah Cohen

LISTEN:

Spotify | YouTube | Bandcamp | Apple

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PICKED BY ZACH

ZACH'S COMMENTS: "As usual, I asked my brothers for recommendations. I downloaded all the albums for listening offline while I was on an airplane. This one seemed like one that I needed to spend more time with to develop a real opinion about. Plus, from what I vaguely read about her, Hannah Cohen seems like an indie darling, and I'm a sucker for an indie darling. So her new album it was. I am happy to share the runners-up with anyone that wants to know."

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ALBUM DETAILS

GENRE: Singer-songwriter, chamber pop, soft rock, contemporary folk

RELEASED: March 28, 2025

LENGTH: 37:12

TRACKLIST:

1. Dusty
2. Draggin'
3. Mountain
4. Earthstar
5. Rag
6. Una spiaggia
7. Summer Sweat
8. Shoe
9. Baby You're Lying
10. Dog Years

LYRICS: Genius.com

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ARTIST DETAILS

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

ABOUT: Hannah Cohen was born on October 25, 1986, in San Francisco, California. She comes from an artistic family, including a jazz drumming grandfather who's still playing. She hitchhiked to NY as a teen, and posed for famous artists ("becoming somewhat of a muse" says Wikipedia). Then she got into the NY music scene, and started working with a group of musicians. Her first album came out when she was 26. Her partner is musician Sam Evian, and the two of them own Flying Cloud recording studio together. He has also produced her last two albums. 

DISCOGRAPHY: This is Cohen's fourth and most recent album. Her debut album, Child Bride, came out in 2012. It was followed by Pleasure Boy (2015) and Welcome Home (2019). 

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ADDITIONAL INFO

READING SOME SHIT: Rolling Stone feature from March 2025

WATCHING SOME SHIT: KCRW Live from a month ago

RECORD CLUB CONNECTIONS: RC alumnus Sufjan Stevens makes his triumphant return, singing backup vocals on two tracks. Wikipedia mentioned collaborator Rob Moose, who has worked with so many RC alumni, including on Bon Iver's most recent album, but it doesn't look like he contributes to Earthstar Mountain.

This is our fifth appearance by Earth: Active Listening: Night on Earth, EarthGang, Little Earthquakes, and In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3. This is our second appearance for Mountain: Mountain Brews and Mountain Goats. Surprisingly, this is our first Star.

MENTIONS ON THE BLOG: None! A few Cohens, though: RC captain Seth Cohen, music critic Ian Cohen, boygenius track "Leonard Cohen," the actual Leonard Cohen.

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OTHER ALBUMS TO CHECK OUT

LAST WEEK'S ALBUM: M.B.D.T EP by DJ Arana, and make sure to check out the reviews if you wanna see what we thought of it!

RC@5: We're relistening to the Record Club album we featured exactly five years ago this week. The RC album for this week in 2020 was HEAVN by Jamila Woods.

SHADOW RECORD CLUB: Each week, we're exploring the genres of last week's album. If there is a genre that has a #1-rated album that I've never heard before, I'll download it. If not, I'll just give you my best recommendation. Last week's M.B.D.T EP was a Beat bruxaria album. We're listening this week to ESPANTA GRINGO by d.silvestre. I've never heard it before!

NEXT WEEK'S RC ALBUM: In case you need some extra time with an album to write a review for it, you can get a head start on Luke's Garage by Delicate Steve! (See! I figured some people would come through. We have our albums picked through October now. Good job, friends.)

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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!