Bonus Vlautin CD released as Faber publishes novel

To celebrate the publication of Willy Vlautin’s new novel The Night Always Comes (3rd June), Faber has announced a bonus CD for Rough Trade customers.

Named after the novel and limited to 650 copies, the album was written and recorded by Vlautin's band The Delines for Rough Trade, a group of independent record labels in the UK and US. The company has also confirmed an exclusive virtual event with Vlautin, on 7th June.

The album features Vlautin on guitar and vocals, Amy Boone (vocals), Cory Gray on piano and trumpets, Sean Oldham on drums, and Freddy Trujillo on bass. It is produced by John Morgan Askew and features 10 new Delines songs, in addition to a cover of Spiritualized’s 1997 song "Broken Heart".

Vlautin’s sixth novel, The Night Always Comes, is set in Portland, Oregon. Set over the course of two days and two nights, it follows Lynnette and her desperate attempts to finally become a homeowner in her rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood.

Vlautin said of the soundtrack: "It started with a song written by Cory Gray, our keyboard player and trumpeter. It was a late-night moody trumpet ballad. Every time we played it I thought of Lynette, the main character in The Night Always Comes. I told Cory this and he was nice enough to let me name it, so I called it 'Lynette’s Lament'. The version on this record is called 'Lynette'. After that the other songs for The Night Always Comes just started showing up. I wrote piano ballads and trumpet tunes on guitar and Cory brought them to life. He also wrote more tunes and during this time I heard Spiritualized’s song 'Broken Heart' again. It was a tune I’d always loved but when I heard it this time I knew that it was Lynette’s song.

"So when we went into the studio we cut that one and Amy, the singer for the Delines, did an amazing job on it. The whole idea of the record is that it’s the soundtrack to Lynette driving through Portland on a winter night. She’s in a worn-out car that has no heat and she’s trying to get as much money as she can to save the idea that she could own her own home and somehow keep her life and family together."