Lisa's Second Album: Passenger

[saskia]

Originally Posted by mariaoran

About the amazon pre-order, where did you find that Saskia? A quick Amazon search returned nothing...

Here's the link to amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Passenger-Lisa...2281075&sr=8-1

Hope it works!

[ko210]

“Passenger” is to be released in the USA on the 20th September on ATO records, the 21st of October in Ireland and the 24th October in the UK. European release dates and tour dates to follow.. Lx

[eva_arg]

how weird that it's being released in the US one month earlier. hope it doesn't affect sales

[verenita]

i thought the same... and i find it quite sad, to be honest. but, i guess this is what some call capitalism or imperialism, maybe

besides that... great news thanks.

[malakitt]

I just saw that "Passenger" is available for pre-order in Norway, as an import from ATO Records. if anyone's interested in having a look the link is here: http://www.platekompaniet.no/Musikk....id=ATRD17422.2

I've always been a Damien fan and I've never seen Lisa perform, but I'm quite excited to see/hear how this record turns out. I'm looking forward to hearing "Knots" in particular.

[ko210]

^ interesting... think this is the cover artwork?

[verenita]

^ is that a map? sort of satellite photo, me thinks.
thanks for the info... i´m gonna wait to buy the album in ireland (the shipping cost are veeery expensive, even higher than the product, in this case).

[mariaoran]

haha I would generally find the news that the record will be released earlier in the US as, you know, good, but not so much now... By then I'll be in Spain. It's still exciting though!

Vere I think the release date thing might just be due to her having to do more promotion and gigs in Ireland and europe in general as supposed to the US. they might just be getting this part of the world out of the way for this year. Also who knows what kind of contract they have with their American record company : )

[verenita]

^ yes, i guess so... but i still don´t like the idea and regarding contract´s duties... you´re probably right, but i, personally, think it´s because the power of the most poweful people... but, we still have amazing news! and that is all that matters, isn´t it?

[mariaoran]

Oh speaking of, from her Facebook:

Just to explain, the reason the record is coming out a month earlier in the states is because we already work with ATO records, so they are ready to go. It's taken us a little longer to get ourselves sorted for everywhere else. Just in case anyone was wondering x

They obviously read the igloo... hah!

[eva_arg]

ha! I'll totally take that as a reply to us

[saskia]

There's a bigger picture of Passenger on Lisa's website:

[ko210]

'A Sail' is the first single... love the song, but it's a bit disappointing for a lead-off single:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/a...---a-sail.html

[saskia]

Thanks very much for the info and the link!
I agree with you about A Sail being the lead-off single for Passenger, then again I wonder what I would think if I hadn't heard the song a thousand times before... Lisa and her management definitely have a point when they ask people to remove videos of unreleased material from youtube... Although I have to admit that A Sail has never really blown me away. From what I've heard of the new material I'd say that Flowers is my current favourite though it wouldn't make for a good lead-off single either. But Knots would be great!
I wonder if there will be a video for A Sail...

[verenita]

Originally Posted by mariaoran

Oh speaking of, from her Facebook:

Just to explain, the reason the record is coming out a month earlier in the states is because we already work with ATO records, so they are ready to go. It's taken us a little longer to get ourselves sorted for everywhere else. Just in case anyone was wondering x

They obviously read the igloo... hah!

lol! fair enough... i guess. so cool that they took the time to explain to US
thanks, maria.

[ko210]

Originally Posted by saskia

Thanks very much for the info and the link!
I agree with you about A Sail being the lead-off single for Passenger, then again I wonder what I would think if I hadn't heard the song a thousand times before... Lisa and her management definitely have a point when they ask people to remove videos of unreleased material from youtube... Although I have to admit that A Sail has never really blown me away. From what I've heard of the new material I'd say that Flowers is my current favourite though it wouldn't make for a good lead-off single either. But Knots would be great!
I wonder if there will be a video for A Sail...

Flowers is my favorite too, followed closely by Knots and Little Bird. But just as a lead-off single, to catch people's immediate attention, Knots or What'll I Do would've been really great choices. A Sail is great live but something about the keyboards is too... sleepy? I don't know, the live version from 09 with just the regular piano has such a rhythm to it, but this mellow version doesn't really work as a first single - for me.

Still can't wait for the album though. I've got my Boston ticket, so I'm just ready to go, ha

[Shaftell]

Oh man I am so excited that she decided to put " A Sail" on her album. Ever since I heard it live, I fell in love with it.

I can't wait for her new album. I finally get to see her live in Vancouver in October! Yay!!

[riotana]

Hey!

Just listened to the album-version of A Sail and I love it. I think her voice is a little bit hoarsely (i hope this is the right word....I mean this is how you say when you've got a flu and a sore-throat, right?) but I really like that. I'm sure they'll do a video for A Sail, since it's the first release, really looking forward to that!

And I also like this a lot: “Many of [the songs] were written while I was away from home or on the road, and the feeling of transience and nostalgia that this constant traveling evoked seemed to seep into every song, ” Hannigan says in a press release.

[saskia]

Originally Posted by ko210

Flowers is my favorite too, followed closely by Knots and Little Bird. But just as a lead-off single, to catch people's immediate attention, Knots or What'll I Do would've been really great choices. A Sail is great live but something about the keyboards is too... sleepy? I don't know, the live version from 09 with just the regular piano has such a rhythm to it, but this mellow version doesn't really work as a first single - for me.

I guess you mean this live version:



I definitely prefer the piano version (= live version) to the studio version though they are not that different - and as I couldn't detect the keyboards on the studio version could it be that you meant the glockenspiel played with a bow as Donagh does in the video?
What I liked about the studio version though is that it sounded sort of raw and not too processed. I was pleasently surprised by that because Lisa once said of Sea Sew that she liked that it sounded raw and squeaky whereas I always felt that Sea Sew was a little too flat (nevertheless a superb album, don't get me wrong!). And I agree with riotana about Lisa's voice sounding a little hoarse which I really like because it gives Lisa's vocals a nice edge.

Anyway, I am really excited to hear the studio versions of the other songs, especially Little Bird and Knots!

[verenita]

Originally Posted by ko210

'A Sail' is the first single... love the song, but it's a bit disappointing for a lead-off single

well... perhaps the choice has to do with a concetp of being a passenger... and it started with "a sail". i like the idea
thanks for the info.

[ko210]

Originally Posted by saskia

I guess you mean this live version:



I definitely prefer the piano version (= live version) to the studio version though they are not that different - and as I couldn't detect the keyboards on the studio version could it be that you meant the glockenspiel played with a bow as Donagh does in the video?

No, it's like, instead of a piano, Gavin's playing some sort of keyboard/organ/something electronic, and it's just so sleepy sounding.

[ko210]

Just now, while on Amazon pre-ordering, I stumbled upon the full album preview and tracklisting for 'Passenger' (no Flowers?)... you have to organize the songs by Release Date to listen:

http://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Hannigan/...=ac_dpt_sa_bio

[cille]

^You're brilliant!

[verenita]

^^ thanks for the info, there´re also a few more pic from the "photoshopped" session:


the one i like the most:

[ko210]

^ didn't even notice the pictures - lovely!

There's also a new biography up, which actually is what brought me to that page... she's got some interesting things to say about 'Sea Sew', and the album cover is explained.

Between writing her first album – 2008’s ‘Sea Sew’ – and its eagerly-awaited successor, Lisa Hannigan’s life has changed in oh-so-many ways. She penned her first songs in hope rather than the expectation that the wider world might find a use for them; knocked out at rehearsals in a freezing barn in the Irish countryside, the record was produced at a friend’s studio within a fortnight. Yet the self-released ‘Sea Sew’ went double platinum, was nominated for the Choice Music Prize in her native Ireland and the Mercury Prize in the UK, and saw Hannigan play bewitching guest spots on the likes of ‘Later…With Jools Holland’, ‘The Tonight Show With Jay Leno’ and ‘The Colbert Report’.

To say that the response to ‘Sea Sew’ exceeded Lisa’s wildest expectations is, appropriately, an understatement. Why appropriately? Well, because understated has very much been the manner in which Hannigan has conducted her life as a solo artist up until this point. At the Mercury ceremony, she eschewed the big stage of the Grosvenor Room and accompanied herself on guitar as she delivered a quietly entrancing version of ‘Lille’. And in keeping with the music inside it, even the artwork of ‘Sea Sew’ was a homespun affair, with sleeve art and every lyric hand-sewn by the artist herself. “Sea Sew was the most honest record I could make at the time that I made it,” says Lisa now, “but I look at it today, and there’s a certain sense of wanting to appear happy and confident. I wanted it to seem as though nothing bothered me.”

For those of us gazing on from afar at her evolution as a performer, the first glimmer that there was something more to Lisa Hannigan than meets the eye came last year, when she appeared alongside Green Gartside, Teddy Thompson and Vashti Bunyan on a tour celebrating the music of Nick Drake. By common critical consensus, her transformation of Drake’s ‘Black-Eyed Dog’ as a macabre deathly jig stole the show. You couldn’t watch what she did to that song and not feel excited about what she was going to do next.

It doesn’t take long in the company of Lisa’s second album, ‘Passenger’, to hear that excitement repaid. Hannigan famously made her name as the beautiful, breathy accompaniment to Damien Rice, with whom she sang and toured for seven years. It is on this second solo album that you sense she’s truly found her own voice, and it is on aching, mournful form from the very opening song. ‘Passenger’ begins with ‘Home’, which was written shortly after Lisa read ‘Skippy Dies’ by Dublin author Paul Murray. “It’s set at a boys’ boarding school,” she explains, “and I think the atmosphere of wild uncertainty, urgency and frustration that consumes you at fourteen sort of grabbed hold of me.” Abetted by the demonic ivory-pounding of Gavin Glass and the breathtaking violin playing of Lucy Wilkins, the rain-lashed ruminations of the song portend a more undulating emotional journey than ‘Sea Sew’.

Having spent just two weeks recording her debut album, you might think that Lisa and her band would have relished the opportunity to stretch out the recording process on ‘Passenger’. Hannigan had other ideas. Keen to capture the electrifying synergy that her musicians are apt to summon on a live stage, the band, together with producer Joe Henry (Elvis Costello, Ani DiFranco, Solomon Burke, Loudon Wainwright III) went to Bryn Derwyn studio in Wales and made the record in a week, followed by a day of strings and horns in London. The collaboration with Henry came after a chance meeting at the Royal Festival Hall, where Lisa guested at the Kate McGarrigle Tribute Concert. “He expressed an interest in working together that night, but what really sealed it was meeting him in Pasadena where he lives. He’s a proper Southern gent. We got the train out to there from L.A, and as we alighted, he crossed the tracks to meet us. He was in one of those proper old American villages that has a hardware store and bakery and a butcher –not like anywhere that exists any more. We shook hands and that sealed the deal.”

Much of ‘Passenger’ reflects the journeys Lisa has taken, particularly whilst touring her first record. “I chose ‘Passenger’ as the title after living with the finished songs as a whole,” she says. “Many of them were written while I was away from home or on the road, and the feeling of transience and nostalgia that this constant travelling evoked seemed to seep into every song.” The overarching theme of the record, then, is “those loves, heartbreaks, confusions and friendships that we take with us through life, over years and continents, enduring the passage of time.” This emotional landscape is captured quite literally on the album’s cover, which collates maps of the main places where the record was written (Dublin, Brooklyn, West Cork). As ever, it’s beautifully detailed effort from Hannigan, who perforated the images into paper and shot light through them, creating a stunning map of her music in the process.

And so it proves to be - from the foetal, otherworldly beauty of ‘Paper House’ to the string-led stillness of ‘Nowhere To Go’, ‘Passenger’ is an evocative and quietly poetic second album. Lyrically, the record appears to address relationships new and old, though the interweaving of truth with fiction always feels fundamentally honest. ‘Paper House’, for instance, recalls the idyll days of a former love, which cannot be revisited (“Oh you know what you are to me / and you know you will always be”). The sweetly-sung ‘Little Bird’, meanwhile, reveals itself to be a quietly steely defiance of an ex (“when the time comes, and the rights have been read / I think of you often, but for once I meant what I said”). Even in its ostensibly light moments, ‘Passenger’ is still riddled with anxiety. On ‘Safe Travels (Don’t Die)’, Lisa exhorts her other half, “don’t swallow bleach out on Sandymount Beach/I’m not sure I’d reach you in time my boy/Please don’t bungee jump or ignore a strange lump/ And a gasoline pump’s not a toy.”

One of the most thrilling moments on ‘Passenger’ is the track ‘Knots’, which seems to reflect not only Lisa’s travels over these last few years, but also her steady progress as a songwriter. An electrifying blend of Southern stomp, screeching strings and lyrical tales of a debauched, whiskey-soaked night, ‘Knots’ sounds like the kind of song Hannigan would only have the confidence to write now. And then there’s ‘O Sleep’ – a duet with Ray Lamontagne – which came to Lisa in a single rhapsodic burst. “I’d just heard Dr. Ralph Stanley’s version of ‘O Death’ on a Robert Plant documentary, and I was really taken by the idea of addressing something intangible. Around the same time, I went for a walk in Sandymount, Dublin and was singing into my phone. Then I stopped in a café and took one of their paper bags and wrote all the words on the back.”

She may have taken a somewhat circuitous route to the limelight, but ‘Passenger’ feels like Lisa Hannigan has finally come of age. That said, she still bears the same worry and nerves of someone unsure why people are suddenly so interested in her. In other important respects though, significant progress has been made. “I never used to feel comfortable calling myself a songwriter. I just used to think of myself as a singer. But now, I allow myself that luxury.” In time, Lisa Hannigan may even allow herself to believe she is a great songwriter. Listen to ‘Passenger’ and you’ll believe it too.

[verenita]

nice, nice, nice

“I never used to feel comfortable calling myself a songwriter. I just used to think of myself as a singer. But now, I allow myself that luxury.”

she diserves it for sure!

[saskia]

Originally Posted by ko210

Just now, while on Amazon pre-ordering, I stumbled upon the full album preview and tracklisting for 'Passenger' (no Flowers?)... you have to organize the songs by Release Date to listen:

http://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Hannigan/...=ac_dpt_sa_bio

Originally Posted by cille

^You're brilliant!

I'd even go so far as to say he's as close to being God without actually being God. Thank you so much for the link and the info!
The new songs are breathtakingly beautiful (especially Little Bird, Home and O Sleep) and Lisa is absolutely right to allow herself the "luxury" to call herself a songwriter now. Sea Sew was great, and Passenger is ****ing brilliant, though I was surprised that Flowers apparently didn't make it onto the album whereas she'll coverBlow the Wind southerly. Then again, maybe the girl pulled a Damien and put a hidden trank on the album...

Originally Posted by verenita

^^ thanks for the info, there´re also a few more pic from the "photoshopped" session:


the one i like the most:

I love the second one, too, and I think she doesn't look photoshopped much on the first - THANK GOD!!!

And this one I like as well:



Love her smile!

[verenita]

^ i meant they are from the same photo session

[saskia]

Via twitter:

Just filmed a music video at home with @ArbutusYarns. Loving his work. Looking forward to seeing the finished piece!

Me too!

[ko210]

^ me three!

Myles O'Reilly might be my favorite thing to happen to the Irish music scene in years