Allison Crowe's newest album,
Spiral, is released
this March 17, St. Patrick's Day, as digital downloads and a
series of 14 videos posted on Allison’s site,
Facebook,
and
YouTube. The physical album/CD is scheduled to
start shipping the same day. Spiral comprises 11 songs plus a
two song reprise/encore.
Follow the yellow-brick road of song, cinematic in scope,
visceral in nature, thinking, feeling, courageous and fun -
rock, pop, folk, soul, roots.
Allison Crowe’s music is that feast where, says the poet
Rimbaud, “all hearts open and all wines flow.”
Over a decade of reviews, the word most often used to describe
the voice of Allison Crowe is “gorgeous”. The word that
testifies more than any other to her musical performance is
“amazing”. This month, the much-loved and acclaimed
singer-songwriter releases “
Spiral”, her seventh
album/CD. It is both of these things. And plenty more.
U.S.-based entertainment blog ‘
Muruch’ earlier this
year named it as an album most highly anticipated, and, now,
UK music blog ‘
We Write Lists’ includes "
Spiral"
as one of "The Twelve Most Exciting Albums of 2010",
remarking: "Crowe's speciality is startlingly beautiful
piano-based songs that sort of make you wonder why you bother
with anything else."
(Joining Crowe on the list are new recordings from: Fleet
Foxes, Fyfe Dangerfield, Girls Aloud, Goldfrapp, Gorillaz,
Joanna Newsom, Marina and the Diamonds, Massive Attack, MGMT,
Music Go Music and She and Him.)
For Allison Crowe, a peerless live performer, and a
singer-songwriter of the thrilling calibre known in the 1960s,
Spiral is the seventh release from her label,
Rubenesque Records, in as many years. Musical production
wrapped on Valentine's Day.
Spiral contains eight of Crowe’s original songs, ranging from
the tender and playful country/roots of “Dearly”, to the
upbeat pop of “
Double-Edged Swords”, ’cross the
loving “
Oceans”, and darker terrain of “
I Don’t
Know” and the hard rocking title track. Raw, natural,
emotion is embraced passionately with elegiac beauty and
melody in these, and such joy-filled tunes as “
Going Home
Tonight” and “
No Matter the Battle”. With the
live track, “
Wake Up”, Crowe, again, renders the
personal universal, and the global, human.
Uniquely known not just as one of the most exciting
songwriters of a new generation, Crowe is also one of our
finest interpreters of popular song. Spiral’s mix of light and
shadow includes a trio of fresh covers – revisiting music of
Annie Lennox (“
Why”), Leonard Cohen (“
Chelsea
Hotel No. 2”), and Hunters and Collectors’ Antipodean
anthem, “
Throw Your Arms Around Me”.
On this new song collection, the bi-coastal Canadian, (she
calls Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Nanaimo, British
Columbia, home), is joined by ideally-skilled and sympathetic
west-coast musicians Billie Rocha-Woods (acoustic guitar,
backing vocals), Dave Baird (bass, backing vocals), Laurent
Boucher (percussion), Brendan Millbank (cello) and Larry
Anschell (electric guitar, and, also, Engineer/Producer at
Turtle Studios in White Rock, B.C.)
Kayla Schmah, Los Angeles-based, Canadian-born, composer and
film scorer, orchestrates and produces the album with, yes,
"gorgeous" musical textures, and cinematic ideas artfully
brought to life. Concert capturings by Engineers B.R.N. (aka
Condor) and John MacMillan complete this diverse mix of music
made in Corner Brook, Nanaimo, as well as Chilliwack, White
Rock, Denman Island and Salt Spring Island, Canada, Vienna,
Austria, and Hollywood, USA.
The visual art of Spiral matches its aural beauty - with cover
paintings by Netherlands-based Tara Thelen, photographs by
Canada's Billie Rocha-Woods, and California's Dan Goldwasser,
fontage from Brazil’s Billy Argel and graphic design by
Florida's Alix Whitmire.
Allison Crowe's trans-national and international concert dates
for 2010 follow the release of Spiral.