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♫ Spiral ♫ contains eight of Allison 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.
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Dearly
Words and Music by Allison Crowe
I open my door
And I never know who’ll walk through
It could be him, it could be her,
My God, it could be you
And I don’t know whose face I see
But I can see it clearly
And I don’t know whose hand I hold
But I know I hold it dearly
But for now I rest my mind,
And I lay in kindness and cry
For some day near
Love will find me here,
Some day near this pain will die
We’ve laid our terms
We’ve held our crimes
And we’ve gone our separate ways
We need to heal, we need to die
To be born in better days
And I don’t know whose face I see
But I can see it clearly
And I don’t know whose hand I hold
But I know I hold it dearly
So scar me up, come on
Just add another to the pile
You see I’ve done so much just to myself
And you know it’s been a while
So break my heart, hurry
It likes the pain, it is sick, but it’s what I do
And besides the droning beating of itself
It could use the breath of you
And I don’t know whose face I see
But I can see it clearly
And I don’t know whose hand I hold
But I know I hold it dearly
And I see the faces
Of those I could love
And I have seen them turn away
And so you turn yours next to mine
But I can’t ever say
That I would…
Dearly
I would hold you dearly
Double-Edged Swords
Words & Music by Allison Crowe
Going backwards on the train to France
As Germany flies by
I find myself distracted and
Wondering where and what and why
I’m running away, running faster still
Slamming into a wall
The trips that I take myself on
Always lead to a fall
So don’t hurt me, then maybe do
Maybe just let me be
I don’t want to believe in anything
And I am not sure that I am free
If anything, don’t lie to me
Just to play at words
Either run, walk, or attack me
You and your double-edged swords
I don’t know why I get so close
So enraged, so serious
I don’t know why my lucidities
Always lead to delirious…
But, they do, oh my they do
And I delight in the blood
Far beneath these wings, I think,
is something less than good
So, don’t hurt me, but, then, maybe do
Maybe just let me be
I don’t want to believe in anything
And I am not sure that I am free
If anything don’t lie to me
just to play at words
Either run, walk, or attack me
You and your double-edged swords
Now, maybe this is just my imagination
If so ignore this proclamation
Hell, now I’m filled with indignation
So please accept my resignation
I’m unpredictable, unwise at times
Dangerous in changing light
Too deep, too dark to see through
Or clear, calm and bright
So, if you think you’re trouble
What does that make me
If you think you’re the forest, baby
That makes me the sea
So don’t hurt me, well, then, maybe do
Maybe just let me be
I don’t want to believe in anything
And I am not sure that I am free
If anything, don’t lie to me
just to play at words
Either run, walk or attack me
You and your double-edged swords
Don’t hurt me
Maybe just a little
Maybe just let me be
I don’t want to believe in anything
and, then again, I kinda do
So, if anything don’t lie to me
just to play at words
Either run, walk or attack me
You and your double-edged swords
Either run, walk or attack me
You and your double-edged swords
Chelsea Hotel No. 2
Words & Music by Leonard Cohen, Ron Cornelius
Performed by Allison Crowe
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were looking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Well, those were the reasons, that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh
That was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left
Ah, but you got away, oh, didn't you baby,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
' all of that jiving around.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend
And you told me again - you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception
And then clenching your fists for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well, never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music"
Ah, but you got away, oh, didn't you baby
You just turned your back on the crowd
You got away, I never once heard you say
I need you, I don’t need you
I need you, I don’t need you
And all of that jivin’ around
I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't think of you that often
Wake Up
Words & Music by Allison Crowe
I have watched you for years now
And I have seen you slowly dying
I think that you gave up everything for a while
I think that you stopped trying
Now you’re saying that I’m too good for you
When you know I’m not
But I can, I can tell you
that you’re hanging yourself here
'cause I’m all you’ve got
But, honestly
painfully
What do you want from me?
Wake up
Do I have to
Slap you in the face?
Pour cold water on you
Just to get through
Your kingdom is becoming
a disgrace
I always tried to help you
You wouldn’t let me come near
I could see that you were suffering
But you always hid your fear
And it’s cold now
As you, as you go to war
You can go to Hell
’cause I won’t, I won’t, I won't
be here anymore
Honestly
And disdainfully
What do you
Want from me?
Wake up
Do I have to
Slap you in the face?
Pour cold water on you
Just to get through
Your kingdom
is becoming a disgrace
Wake up
Do I have to
Slap you in the face?
Pour cold water on you
Just to get through
Your kingdom
is becoming a disgrace
A disgrace
Oceans
Words & Music by Allison Crowe
I have a heart that’s torn between two oceans
Please don’t confuse me with the sea
In the flicker of an eyelash - and a nap
I’m off to Germany
Folds of the time that we never spend
Wrap around me like an illness
Now I have a contentment in me
A small death likened to stillness
And I am alive
And this is not contrived
It’s just how I feel about you
And you and you
A calm and fickle breeze blows through
Sand rolling between the toes of strangers
The laughter and the tearing eyes
Aware but uncaring of the dangers
Words thrown out and cast back slow
Testing the bridges and waters clear
Faces lovely, too fleeting to hold
See them truly, void of fear
And I am alive
And this is not contrived
It’s just how I feel about you
And you and you
The heart collides in small bursts of sparks
And holds true sometimes to false
But you’re nothing if you don’t feel this
You’d barely have a pulse
And so I continue on my merry way,
A gypsy twisting with imaginary lovers
Together with so many in the tides of day
Alone beneath the covers
But I am alive
And this is not contrived
It is just how I am feeling about you
And you and you and you
It is just how I feel about you
And you and you and you
And you
I Don't Know
Words & Music by Allison Crowe
I don’t know how to deal with this
So maybe I’ll just descend into madness
Looking out of the corner of my eye
Maybe I’ll just run away
If I can’t think of anything nice to say, to save my life,
before we all fly away
And I’d like to think I did something worthwhile
And I don’t know what is wrong with everyone
I guess, I don’t even know what’s wrong with me
And I won’t try to be judgemental
I won’t try to be holier than thou
But I don’t get this and I am not going to pretend I do
I’m tired of watching so many people
Systematically destroy themselves
Go ahead, this one is on me
I think we’re all hiding from an invisible monster
Some part of ourselves
We don’t want anyone to see
I’d like to think this did something worthwhile
Besides
Killing everyone I know
I don’t know what is wrong with everyone
I guess, I don’t even know what’s wrong with me
And I won’t try to be judgemental
I won’t try to be holier than thou
I don’t get this
And I am not going to pretend I do
And I’d like to think this did anything at all
But, I think I know better by now
I don’t know what is wrong with everyone
And I guess, I don’t even know what’s wrong with me
And I won’t try to be judgemental
I won’t try to be holier than thou
But, I don’t get this, I don’t get this
I don’t get this
I don’t know what is wrong with everyone
But, I guess, I don’t even know what’s wrong with me
And I won’t try to be judgemental
I won’t try to be holier than thou
I don’t get this and I am not going to pretend I do
'cause I do...
‘cause maybe I understand too well
Spiral
Words & Music by Allison Crowe
I’m jealous and crazy
Languid and lazy
Take me quickly
Fill me sickly
Naked I take it
Two lips and a paid debt
Returned and recurring
laid and stirring
Spiral quickly
You can’t see me
But I’m dropping fast
See I want it
See I want it
See I want it now
In peace thoughts fasten
buckled and crass, then,
safely saunter
silent wander
A fine degradation
thick sedation
pain dissipates
sacred desecrates
Spiral quickly
You can’t see me
But I’m dropping fast again
See I want it
See I want it
See I want it now
Spiral quickly
You can’t see me
But I’m dropping fast again
See I want it
See I want it
See I want it now
See I want it
See I want it
See I want it now
Throw Your Arms Around Me
Composed by John Archer, Geoffrey Crosby, Douglas Falconer, John Howard, Robert Miles, Mark Seymour, Michael Waters - Hunters and Collectors
As performed by Allison Crowe
I will come for you at night-time
I will raise you from your sleep
I will kiss you in four places
As I go running along your street
I will squeeze the life out of you
You will make me laugh and make me cry
And you will never forget
You will make me call your name,
and I'll shout it out to the blue summer sky
And we may never meet again
so shed your skin and let's get started
And you will throw your arms around me
Yeah, you will throw your arms around me
I dreamed of you at night-time
and I watched you in your sleep
I met you in high places
I touched your head
and touched your feet
So if you disappear out of view,
you know I will never say goodbye
And though we try to forget it,
I will make you call my name
and I'll shout it out to the blue summer sky
And we may never meet again,
so shed your skin and let's get started
And you will throw your arms around me
Yeah, you will throw your arms around me
You will throw your arms,
You will throw your arms around me
You will throw
your arms
around me
Why
Words & Music by Annie Lennox
As Performed by Allison Crowe
How many times do I have to try to tell you
That I'm sorry for the things I've done
But every time I go to tell you
That's when you have to tell me
Hey, this kind of trouble's only just begun
I told myself too many times
Why don't you learn to keep your big mouth shut
That's why it hurts so bad to hear the words
That keep on falling from your mouth
Falling from your mouth
Falling from your mouth
Tell me
Why
Tell me, why
I may be mad
I may be blind
I may be viciously unkind
But I can still read what you're thinking
And I've heard it said too many times
That you'd be better off
Besides
Why can't you see that this boat is sinking
this boat is sinking, this boat is sinking
Let's go down to the water's edge
And we can cast away your doubts
Some things are better left unsaid
But they still turn me inside out
Turning inside out,
turning inside out
Tell me
Why
Tell me
Why
This is the book I never read
And these are the words I never said
And this is the path I'll never tread
And these are the dreams I'll dream instead
And this is the joy that's seldom spread
And these are the tears,
The tears we’ve shed
This is the fear
And this is the dread
And these are the contents of my head
These are the years that we have spent
And this is what they represent
This is how I feel
Do you know how I feel?
I don't think you know how I, why I, feel
Going Home Tonight
Words & Music by Allison Crowe
I know the night is on us
and la lune it moves above
just try not to close your eyes
The windows float around
and the ice flies by our heads
and skirts the surface now
And you've seen
the darker side of me
and you still find a light
it's not much further now
We're going home tonight
Le soleil is a reminder
that what once was cold can warm
the dark can fall behind her
it's in your shadow now
the winter's at its end
and all can fall to blindness of the freezing rain
and I see the darker side of me
and I still find a light
it's not much further now
We're going home tonight
Forget what you have learned here
it doesn't matter now
not while the grass is greening
L'oiseau is loudly singing
and the sun becomes her home
and everything is fallen
the curtains drop as she takes hold
And sees the darker side of me
and she still finds a light
it's not much further now
We're going home tonight
And I see the darker side of me
and I still find a light
it's not much further now
We're going home tonight
We’re going home
Tonight
No Matter the Battle
Words & Music by Allison Crowe
I still hold secrets
I thought that was over
They’re still with me
Yeah, they’re still there
And I’ve walked backwards
And fallen down so many times
It seems like the truth
Is fatally attracted to me
But I can’t see
And I can’t feel
But I still don’t know why
And I believe now that you are with me
And I have heard you say
That you will love me anyway
No matter the battle
And I’ve exploded
Into pieces and shattered
These frames and phrases
As tears burst through
And I’ve tried to hold them
to me so tightly
I felt I couldn’t breathe
more times than you could believe
And I can’t see
And I can’t feel
But I still don’t know why
And I believe now that you are with me
And I have heard you say
that you will love me anyway
No matter the battle
So here you stand now
You’re still beside me
And I still hold you
And will, ’til I can’t see
‘cause if you’ll hold the light
I’ll wade through the depths
and breathe for you
if you will fly for me
But I can’t see
and I can’t feel
but I still don’t know why
and I believe now
that you are with me
and I have heard you say
that you will love me anyway
no matter the battle
And I still hold secrets
I thought that was over
And you’re still with me
Yeah, you’re still there
Throw Your Arms Around Me
Composed by John Archer, Geoffrey Crosby, Douglas Falconer, John Howard, Robert Miles, Mark Seymour, Michael Waters - Hunters and Collectors
As performed by Allison Crowe
I will come for you at night-time
I will raise you from your sleep
I will kiss you in four places
As I go running along your street
I will squeeze the life out of you
You will make me laugh and make me cry
And you will never forget
You will make me call your name,
and I'll shout it out to the blue summer sky
And we may never meet again
so shed your skin and let's get started
And you will throw your arms around me
Yeah, you will throw your arms around me
I dreamed of you at night-time
and I watched you in your sleep
I met you in high places
I touched your head
and touched your feet
So if you disappear out of view,
you know I will never say goodbye
And though we try to forget it,
I will make you call my name
and I'll shout it out to the blue summer sky
And we may never meet again,
so shed your skin and let's get started
And you will throw your arms around me
Yeah, you will throw your arms around me
You will throw your arms,
You will throw your arms around me
You will throw
your arms
around me
Why
Composed by Annie Lennox
As Performed by Allison Crowe
How many times do I have to try to tell you
That I'm sorry for the things I've done
But every time I go to tell you
That's when you have to tell me
Hey, this kind of trouble's only just begun
I told myself too many times
Why don't you learn to keep your big mouth shut
That's why it hurts so bad to hear the words
That keep on falling from your mouth
Falling from your mouth
Falling from your mouth
Tell me
Why
Tell me, why
I may be mad
I may be blind
I may be viciously unkind
But I can still read what you're thinking
And I've heard it said too many times
That you'd be better off
Besides
Why can't you see that this boat is sinking
this boat is sinking, this boat is sinking
Let's go down to the water's edge
And we can cast away your doubts
Some things are better left unsaid
But they still turn me inside out
Turning inside out,
turning inside out
Tell me
Why
Tell me
Why
This is the book I never read
And these are the words I never said
And this is the path I'll never tread
And these are the dreams I'll dream instead
And this is the joy that's seldom spread
And these are the tears,
The tears we’ve shed
This is the fear
And this is the dread
And these are the contents of my head
These are the years that we have spent
And this is what they represent
This is how I feel
Do you know how I feel?
I don't think you know how I, why I, feel
about
♫ 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 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 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.
Music created in: Corner Brook, NL + Nanaimo, Chilliwack, White Rock, Denman Island and Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada; Vienna, Austria; & Hollywood, CA, USA
Engineered by: Allison Crowe (Canada + Europe); & Larry Anschell, (Turtle Recording studios, White Rock, Canada)
except: 'Wake Up' Engineered by B.R.N. (Condor) and John MacMillan; & 'I Don't Know' Engineered by John MacMillan
Orchestrated, Arranged and Produced by: Kayla Schmah
Cover paintings: 'Look at Me' (front), 'I Found You' (inside) by Tara Thelen (tara-artwork.com) Image of 'Look at Me' graciously provided by Maurits Godschalx from his collection
Photos of Allison, Billie, Dave & Laurent: Billie Woods (billiewoods.com)
Another great album by Hungry Lucy. A very gothic feel to some of the songs. 'Cover Me' is the stand out track for me but they are all good. Russell Whyman
The Los Angeles-based indie rock artist's first full-length album is inspired by songwriters like Glen Campbell and George Harrison. Bandcamp New & Notable May 8, 2020
This posthumous record by the lead singer of the Tragically Hip, containing both electric & acoustic takes, showcases his songwriting gifts. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 12, 2020
Songs of timeless beauty and power in the mold of Vashti Bunyan and Nick Drake from enigmatic Los Angeles artist Shannon Lay. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 4, 2017