The Anchoress — Confessions Of A Romance Novelist (2016)

  ^{The Anchoress — Confessions Of A Romance Novelist (Jan. 8th 2016)} ΰΠ  A woman who is an anchorite — a person who lives in seclusion, esp a religious recluse; hermit; one who has retired from the world. Multi–instrumentalist, songwriter, PhD and producer Catherine Anne Davies (aka The Anchoress) sums up the album’s overall concept as “deconstructing normative ideas of love and romance”, with each song sung by a different character — “what you might call a musical ghost writing of sorts”. You can hear this distilled in the Prince–inspired feminist manifesto ‘One For Sorrow’ that questions the concept of marriage. There’s a different take on obsessional love in the album’s title track, where the album’s narrator ironically references her “bedroom shrine to Margaret Thatcher”. Meanwhile, ‘You And Only You’ — an anthemic ode to being better off alone — features the distinctive operatic indie–wail of Mansun’s Paul Draper, who co–produced the album with Catherine.© THE ANCHORESS,© Ξ Photo by Isabella Charlesworth.Ξ Head dress by Fumbalinas. RUFF BY ISABELLA CHARLESWORTH
Location: London, England, UK
Album release: January 8th/15th 2016 (Physical)
Record Label: Kscope
Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Female Vocal
Duration:     49:38
Tracks:
01. Long Year      3:51
02. What Goes Around      4:17
03. Doesn’t Kill You      4:40
04. You And Only You (feat. Paul Draper)     4:09
05. One For Sorrow      3:24
06. P.S. Fuck You      3:19
07. Popular      3:57
08. Bury Me      3:43
09. Intermission (Notes To The Editor)      2:11
10. Waiting To Breathe      3:02
11. Chip On Your Shoulder      2:58
12. Confessions Of A Romance Novelist      6:24
13. Rivers Of Ice      3:43BIOGRAPHY:
Ξ   Revenge–pop? The Prog Karen Carpenter? Barbra Streisand on acid? Bat For Lashes on an obscure book–binge? Whichever way you choose to describe Confessions Of A Romance Novelist — the debut album by The Anchoress (co–produced by Mansun’s visionary frontman Paul Draper) — one thing’s for certain, this is something truly different. Multi–instrumentalist, songwriter, PhD and producer Catherine Anne Davies (aka The Anchoress) sums up her album’s overall concept as, “Deconstructing normative ideas of love and romance. With each song sung by a different character, it’s what you might call a musical ghost writing of sorts.” Co–producer and collaborator Draper has helped Davies capture a collection of songs on which she has played a variety of instruments, including piano, guitar, flute, omnichord, mellotron, wurlitzer, glockenspiel, and celeste (as well as multi–tracking up to 25 vocal harmonies on some songs). The creation Confessions Of A Romance Novelist was not without its setbacks and was interrupted by a series of events that threatened to derail the project completely. Catherine says, “This album has been made on a wing and a prayer, lots of favours, one car crash, one death, one broken hand, and a lot of patience on so many parts. Stir in 3 jobs, 4 studios, 2 arrests, 3 pianos, 40 songs and 1 very patient engineer — and you get some way to understanding what a long road it has been.” The incomparable Confessions Of A Romance Novelist follows two sold–out singles, which were playlisted on both BBC 6Music and Xfm, and received plaudits across the globe, from America’s NPR, to Les Inrockuptibles in France, the NME, and influential websites like The Quietus. Ξ   Draper helped to capture the collection of songs on which Catherine played a variety of instruments, including piano, guitar, flute, omnichord, mellotron, wurlitzer, glockenspiel, and celeste, as well as multi–tracking up to 25 vocal harmonies on some of the songs. Yet, recording was interrupted by a series of events that threatened to derail the project completely, including Catherine injuring her hand so badly during a 48–hour recording session that she was told she might not play again and had to wear a metal cast for 6 months. She says: “This has been made on a wing and a prayer, lots of favours, one car crash, one death, one broken hand, and a lot of patience on so many parts. Stir in 3 jobs, 4 studios, 2 arrests, 3 pianos, 40 songs and 1 very patient engineer… and you get some way to understanding what a long road it has been.”
Ξ   The album follows two sold–out singles, which were playlisted on both BBC 6Music and Xfm, and received plaudits across the globe, from America’s NPR, to Les Inrockuptibles in France, the NME, and influential websites like The Quietus and Line of Best Fit.
Ξ   The Anchoress is currently on tour with Simple Minds, co–writing Paul Draper’s debut solo album, and has begun working on her second album with Bernard Butler.
Press:
Ξ   “...a flawless and sophisticated hyper–literate pop record.” — GQ
Ξ   “Deft, engrossing lyrical work with some beautifully dark arrangement.... enthralling.” — Clash
Ξ   “A strutting howl of a vocal and grit–edged guitar.... a sprawl of dark southern gothic.” — The Quietus
Ξ   “Davies is making music like nobody else at the moment.” — NME
Ξ   “Wales’s (much more explicitly feminist) answer to Lana Del Rey.” — Ann Powers, NPR
Label: http://www.kscopemusic.com/
Website: http://www.iamtheanchoress.com/
RADIO:
MANAGEMENT:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_anchoress
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/theanchoress
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theanchoress?_rdr=p                                                                  Paul Draper & Catherine
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The Anchoress — Confessions Of A Romance Novelist (2016)

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