Songs of the Week: January 22 - 28, 2024
“FSHG” by The Rural Alberta Advantage
As they get ready for their upcoming Winter North American tour, The Rural Alberta Advantage have released new video for “FSHG”.
The song is off their most recent album, The Rise & The Fall, and is chill tune that was recorded live off the floor, during their final recording session for the album. Singer Nils Edenloff explains, “I wanted us to record ‘FSHG’ live off the floor and feel like a counterpoint to the rest of the album. We laboured over so many minute details on 'The Rise & The Fall', and I wanted to record ‘FSHG' while it still felt organic and raw. Lock it up before we had a chance to tinker with it too much. I also wanted people listening to the record to feel as though they’re peeking in on a brief and momentary event. So much of the album deals with events and snippets of time, and with ‘FSHG', as the song progresses it starts to evaporate, pulling away from the listener and fading into nothing. Sort of reminding us that not everything lasts forever.”
Check out the video below, which was recorded at that very session, and make sure you check them out on tour, which includes a stop here in Vancouver at the Commodore Ballroom on February 17th!
Kirk
“Stars At Midnight” by Harrison Brome
I needed some mellow music this Monday morning, and the new track, “Stars At Midnight” from Vancouver’s Harrison Brome hit the spot.
The song is the title track from his new EP that came out on the 26th of this month, which has five new songs in total.
Of the release Brome says: "It walks you through a story of heartbreak and an endless want for a connection that has faded away. I wanted to capture some moments we've all likely encountered in a relationship, emotional and physical separation, wishing you could turn back time, and holding onto something that might no longer be there. It tells a story of lost love and the want to find the light that used to shine brightly between two people."
You can stream the EP by clicking here.
Christine
“Marion” by Alana Yorke
Alana Yorke has such an incredible story that I have to start with it, before I delve into the new release, so here it is:
In November 2022, Alana Yorke woke up one morning and realized she was unable to move her left arm. A few days (and numerous hospital tests) later, she discovered she’d had a hemorrhagic stroke that affected the right hemisphere of her brain (associated with creative expression) in the parietal lobe (responsible for receiving and filtering sensory input). What could have been an unmitigated disaster changed Yorke’s life. The previous decade had been filled with profound challenges — during a sample-gathering scuba expedition as part of her academic work, she ran out of air and subsequently developed debilitating PTSD. The stroke, however, was a serendipitous force: the psychological heaviness suddenly lifted, and Yorke found herself freed from past emotional baggage and propelled by euphoric creativity. While the album that would became Destroyer had always been part of a process of plumbing the depths, Yorke was consumed by a desire to share what she had experienced on the other side of the veil. “The goal was to bring these images and stories back to our world,” she explains.
Just. Wow.
The gorgeous new track “Marion”, and the first single off the album that is to be released in May, is an exploration of generations and what ties them together. The strings at the beginning really grabbed me, as did her haunting voice, and the visuals in the accompanying video. Definitely give it a watch.
Christine
