Heather Woods Broderick has announced her fifth full-length album, Labyrinth is set for release April 7 via Western Vinyl. She has also shared the album’s glistening, cascading synth and drum-led second single, ‘Crashing Against The Sun,’ alongside a video directed by Jeremy Johnstone. The new single follows November’s ‘Blood Run Through Me,’ an additional album track that features vocals from Labyrinth co-producer D. James Goodwin and singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan.
Of ‘Crashing Against The Sun’, Broderick says the song is about, “‘coming to terms with the realities of today, and moving through the present with a presence of mind and recognition of all the possibilities the future holds. It’s about what we cling to as reassurance or validation in our world, and how these things are often fleeting. The song illustrates a curiosity as to how those same sentiments can also have dual existence and present positivity. The subtleties of existence are full of variability. Our experience can often feel redundant, but uniqueness lies in the details. Essentially, time flies, enjoy the ride.”
Across Labyrinth, Broderick serves as our reflective host, subverting expectations of conventional songcraft with impressionistic language and quietly relentless explorations of the human experience that’s at once light and dark, more circular and less linear. “Many of us yearn for stillness and peace, as an escape from the movement all around us,” she explains when asked about the themes of the album. “Yet movement is perpetual, happening all the time on some level. It’s as wild as the wind, yet eternally predictable in its inevitability. It is linear in part, but infinite in its circuitry. Our lives just punctuate it.” The album is a collection of beautifully-sung tone poems that pulse with elements of trip hop, true-to-life songcraft, and occasional peaks of electro-pop grandeur. The songs are also among her most spare to date, reflecting a natural, conscious progression towards being more exposed in her music, with her honeyed vocals upfront and the songs’ essence immediate to listeners.
Labyrinth:
- As I Left
- I Want To Go
- Admiration
- Crashing Against The Sun
- Wandering
- Wherever I Go
- Tiny Receptors
- Blood Run Through Me
- Seemed A River
- What Does Love Care
