ABIGAIL LAPELL’S NEW LP, ANNIVERSARY, OUT FRIDAY, MAY 10 VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC
PRE-SAVE ANNIVERSARY HERE
WATCH / SHARE “FLOWERS IN MY HAIR” FT. GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS HERE
BUY / STREAM “FLOWERS IN MY HAIR” FT. GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS HERE
CANADIAN TOUR DATES CONTINUE THIS WEEK // TICKETS HERE
"(‘Stolen Time’) A disc of pure, impalpable beauty, weightless notes and melodies that pierce our hearts.... And the young woman, prey to a vagueness in the soul that she sublimates in a handful of magical songs, to offer us a twilight album, somewhere between Gillian Welch and Laura Veirs." - Rolling Stone
“[Lapell’s] beautiful fourth album ‘Stolen Time’ is a moving collection of songs inspired by nature, the seasons, and her family’s experience as refugees fleeing eastern Europe during the Holocaust.” - The Guardian
“(‘Stolen Time’) The album’s apparent simplicities belie an emotionally complex set, a sequence that addresses an assortment of difficult subjects, energized throughout by Lapell’s sober yet deeply expressive voice.” - No Depression
“Lapell’s masterful skills on finger-style guitar, harmonica, piano once again return to effortlessly complement her eerily beautiful vocals.” - KUTX (NPR)
"Incredible music from Toronto" - Folk Alley
"The standout track 'Rattlesnake' begins with a slowly ramping up guitar that is sparse and haunting yet upbeat. Lapell lays down vocals that feel rooted and soulful with an element of blues running through her unique style of folk-noir." - Glide Magazine
Photo Credit : Jen Squires // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
This Friday, Toronto singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Abigail Lapell will release her highly anticipated new album Anniversary via Outside Music. Recorded in a 200-year-old church in Ontario, the project is an evocative collection of original love songs that balances buoyant earworms and poignant ballads, ultimately emerging as an earnest celebration of commitment.
Ahead of the release, today Abigail revealed a final glimpse into the project with the video for “Flowers In My Hair”. The track features acclaimed indie-folk band Great Lake Swimmers’ frontman Tony Dekker and is a sunny acapella singalong that acts as an ode to summertime. Lapell expands, "'Flowers In My Hair' is a summery song about skinny dipping and lying around sunbathing, covered in flowers, and feeling carefree and in love – or, at least, in love enough for the moment." Recorded live-off-the-floor in a 200-year-old church, the earworm captures joyful, off-the-cuff harmonies that float across claps and layered stomps, infused with the natural reverb of the unique recording space.
WATCH / SHARE “FLOWERS IN MY HAIR” FT. GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS HERE
BUY / STREAM “FLOWERS IN MY HAIR” FT. GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS HERE
MORE ABOUT ANNIVERSARY
On Anniversary, Abigail Lapell interrogates the romantic ideal of growing old together. ‘Anniversary’ means literally ‘returning yearly’, and the album’s 11 songs track the revolving days, seasons, and years to celebrate and complicate the notion of eternal love. Across the project, Lapell drew inspiration from a series of personal milestones, including turning 40, along with the fifteenth anniversary of her father’s death – and, more recently, several weddings and births in her family. She offers a 40-something vision of love, haunted by the ghosts of departed loved ones, past relationships or even the spectre of faded youth.
Anniversary was fittingly recorded in a historic 200-year-old church adjoining a cemetery, complimenting the project’s resonant and hauntingly intimate theme. Lapell tapped Tony Dekker to co-produce the album, and the two assembled a stellar cast of musicians to round out Lapell’s vocals, piano, harmonica and fingerstyle electric guitar. The ensemble’s sensitive, orchestral country-jazz arrangements reveal the depth of Lapell’s musical palette – making use of the church’s in-house piano, harpsichord and several antique organs.
Across the album, Lapell’s deft lyrics jostle with love song tropes, grappling with love’s finitude and the irony of how codependency and longing are revered in popular music. “I wanted to explore some of the contradictions within the pop culture notion of love,” Lapell says. “These dichotomies of light and dark, love and loss, fleeting and eternal – even in the traditional wedding vows, ‘sickness and health, richer or poorer.’” Ultimately, while deconstructing the myths of romantic love, Anniversary emerges as an earnest celebration of commitment – acknowledging its tragedy and hope, and its power to haunt and console at the same time.
Anniversary comes on the heels of Abigail Lapell’s critically acclaimed 2022 album Stolen Time, and her project Lullabies, released in November of 2023. Over the course of her musical journey, Lapell has garnered three Canadian Folk Music Awards, hit number one on Canadian folk radio and reached a staggering 40 million+ streams on Spotify alone.
PRE-SAVE ANNIVERSARY HERE
TOUR DATES // TICKETS HERE
05/09/24 Toronto, ON - Both Sides Now, A Tribute to Joni Mitchell | Harbourfront Centre
05/10/24 Toronto, ON - Both Sides Now, A Tribute to Joni Mitchell | Harbourfront Centre
05/11/24 Toronto, ON - Both Sides Now, A Tribute to Joni Mitchell | Harbourfront Centre
05/12/24 Hamilton, ON - Mills Hardware
05/17/24 Ottawa, ON - Red Bird Live
05/18/24 Napanee, ON - Doghouse Studios
05/22/24 Toronto, ON - TD Music Hall
05/25/24 Greenbank, ON - Greenbank Folk
05/29/24 Montreal, QC - Casa del popolo
05/31024 Saratoga Springs, NY - Caffe Lena
05/31/24 Northampton, MA - Parlor Room
06/01/24 Cambridge, MA - Club Passim
06/02/24 Exeter, NH - The Wordbarn
06/04/24 Portland, ME - Oxbow
06/05/24 New Haven, CT - Cafe Nine
06/06/24 Brooklyn, NY - Cafe Wha?
06/07/24 Monkton, MD - Manner Mill
06/09/24 Philadelphia, PA - Abyssinia
06/10/24 Pittsburgh PA - Club Cafe
06/11/24 Oakland, MD - Backbone Farm
06/13/24 Chicago, IL - Schubas Tavern
06/14/24 Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
06/15/24 Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark
06/19/24 Crapaud PEI Festival of Small Halls
06/20/24 Saint Peters Bay PEI Festival of Small Halls
06/22/24 Newport Landing NS Full Circle Festival
07/19/24 Dawson City YT Dawson City Music Festival
07/20/24 Dawson City YT Dawson City Music Festival
07/21/24 Dawson City YT Dawson City Music Festival
PRE-SAVE ANNIVERSARY HERE
DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
ANNIVERSARY TRACKLIST:
1. Anniversary Song
2. Footsteps
3. Count On Me (feat. Great Lake Swimmers)
4. Rattlesnake
5. Blue Blaze
6. Someone Like You
7. 3am
8. Flowers In My Hair (feat. Great Lake Swimmers)
9. Blue Electric Skies
10. Wait Up
11. Stars (feat. Great Lake Swimmers)
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