Tag: The Question

4th single from upcoming LP, The Question

Anna Tivel is set to release her 4th LP, The Question, on April 19 and it promises to be her most groundbreaking effort to date. Produced by multi-instrumentalist, Shane Leonard, the 3 singles released thusfar have all pushed the boundaries of Tivel’s oeuvre in unexpected ways. The stark piano and swirling keyboards of “Fenceline” and the haunting synthesizer of “The Question” are surprisingly perfectly at home, considering that these are folks songs at heart, and the lush strings of “Minneapolis” are the perfect compliment to Anna’s vocal.

The latest single from the LP, “Worthless”, continues along this vein but takes it all one step further. The gritty, pulsating bass line is the perfect backdrop, creating a palpable tension that is so thick you can almost taste the smoke. Couple that with a bluesy off-kilter guitar and Mellotron solo and it’s easy to forget that this started as a folk song.

“This is a song about labels”, Tivel says, “about how difficult it is to shake a word, a name, a category heard over and over until it feels like it must be true. It’s about the power of the things we call each other.” Fittingly, this just may be the track, and certainly the album, that moves Anna Tivel beyond the reach of conventional labels and places her in the company of the great songwriters of her generation.

The record will be available April 19 on LP, CD and digital formats. In in addition to standard Black Vinyl, the LP will be available as a Limited-Edition Marble Yellow version (150 copies). You can pre-order the record here.

Anna Tivel’s latest single, Fenceline, has been added to NPR’s Heavy Rotation!

“Ever since Elliott Smith broke out in the late ’90s, Portland, Ore. has been a hotbed for indie folk troubadours. Laura Veirs, M. Ward, Laura Gibson, and, most recently, Haley Heynderickx have all found inspiration on the banks of the Willamette River. But Anna Tivel is perhaps the most underrated of them all. She’s long been adept at writing arresting but sparse songs, anchored by vivid storytelling lyrics that showcase her uncanny ability to paint landscapes with words. Her latest single, “Fenceline,” is no exception. The song is the first track released from Tivel’s forthcoming album, The Question, due out April 2019. But with this record, her superb compositions have been elevated to new heights. With the help of producer and multi-instrumentalist Shane Leonard and engineer Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens), Tivel has crafted a truly goosebump-inducing soundscape.”

The digital single is available now on iTunes, Spotify, and everywhere else. The full length LP will be released April 19, 2019 and can be pre-ordered via the Fluff and Gravy store, including Limited Edition color vinyl.

Rolling Stone Magazine shared Anna Tivel’s new single, Fenceline, and had the following to say.

It’s easy enough to write a song that imagines a world without borders; much harder to write a song that takes on the present dark, harsh contemporary complexities and realities of borders and immigration. By avoiding any sweeping statements and sticking exclusively to rendering her narrator’s plight in vivid imagery, Tivel’s song does just that. But when a moment of revelation does arrive, it’s less inspiring than devastating: “Down here at the border,” Tivel sings to a swelling set of strings and dark piano chords, “I’m just an animal.”

The digital single is available now on iTunes, Spotify, and everywhere else. The full length LP will be released April 19, 2019 and can be pre-ordered via the Fluff and Gravy store, including Limited Edition color vinyl.