Despite that upheaval, ‘Silent Movie Baby’ feels wonderfully buoyant. Bouncing keys and synth sit within an otherwise organic alt-folk arrangement, while a subtle distortion gives Hibberd’s dreamy vocal an intriguing edge. There’s even a faint Britpop quality to her delivery, but the real delight comes from the little flute flourishes dancing through the chorus. A brief middle-eight breakdown shifts the texture without disturbing the song’s easy momentum, leaving behind an understated but unmistakable sense of euphoria.

Victor Claas’ accompanying video offers a stranger counterpoint. Grainy, homemade footage moves through grass and shadowy outdoor spaces from a roaming first-person perspective, giving the visuals an uneasy found-footage quality. Where the video feels mysterious and slightly disorientating, however, the song itself proves unexpectedly joyful.

The post Flora Hibberd gets the ghosts in line on ‘Silent Movie Baby’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

Every element fits together seamlessly. The unmistakable twang of the pedal steel gently introduces its country influence without ever overwhelming the song, while Flora’s wonderfully characterful folk vocal sits naturally at its centre. There’s a warmth running throughout, but the minor-key arrangement adds just enough melancholy to give ‘Shelley’ an emotional depth that lingers long after the final note.

Although the accompanying visualiser captures candid moments around Paris on nostalgic, retro-style film, the song itself conjures a completely different landscape. It’s easy to picture a sweltering afternoon somewhere in the American countryside, where dusty roads stretch towards the horizon and time seems to slow to a crawl. That ability to transport the listener somewhere else entirely is what makes ‘Shelley’ feel so quietly captivating, proving once again that Flora Hibberd has a remarkable knack for creating music that feels both familiar and entirely her own.

The post Flora Hibberd finds timeless beauty on ‘Shelley’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

An evolution from the lush acoustic warmth and folk-tinged sonics of her acclaimed debut album Swirl, Hibberd makes a creative leap forward with Mammoth, a 10-track collection shot through with the energy of an epoch – electric, raging, and vital. Produced by Ben Lanz (The National, Beirut), the record represents a turn towards modular synth-driven rock and energised pop, and captures Hibberd at her most fearless, ambitious, and sonically expansive yet.

New single ‘Ache’ is an indie-pop anthem that leans into melodic bass and joyous synth lines – marking a clear departure from the artist’s previously guitar-driven works, while retaining the lush textures and contradictions that have defined it.

Contributing to these textures is a striking vocal from Sufjan Stevens – who creates an overlapping dialogue which twists and turns through the song – with further vocals from Kate Stables and Lonny, whose voices blend instinctively into the arrangement’s harmonic fabric. The result is a richly detailed collaborative statement, one that signals a confident new direction – balancing intimacy with euphoric scale, and sonic playfulness with immediate pop impact.

“It doesn’t matter if everything is made up, it will all still make you ache, like stubbing your toe or waiting for someone at the airport,” says Hibberd.

The accompanying music video, directed by Jorge Domingo, is a cinematic short built around the iconography of folk-heroes such as William Tell and Robin Hood. Watch as Hibberd frolics in woodland scenes and theatre seats in the imaginative film below.

Mammoth:

1. Bowling Ball
2. Silent Movie Baby
3. Perfect Ripple
4. Deltaplane
5. Mythic Figure
6. Ache
7. Mammoth
8. Dew Pond
9. Shelley
10. Hares On The Mountain

The post Flora Hibberd announces sophomore album Mammoth with soaring indie-pop anthem ‘Ache’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

Produced by Ben Lanz (member of The National, Beirut), ‘Mammoth’ finds Hibberd expand her artistry into a rich world of indie pop and art rock, while retaining the lush textures and contradictions that have defined her work.

“Mammoth is something enormous and lost. Something that is about our future and our past. We are here lost in our era and somehow so is she. If you look you can see it,” Flora Hibberd says.

The accompanying lyric video further develops this imagery: “A glitchy CGI mammoth wanders, gambols, rests in a vast landscape. The uncanniness of the image collides with her vulnerability and loneliness. A flock of birds migrating underlines her solitude, and time becomes unclear – the mammoth restlessly traverses epochs as we ask ourselves why she is so alone, what she is walking towards,” says collaborator and video creator, Victor Claass.

As twangy guitar lines, shimmering synth and bold brass instrumentation weave through her signature image-driven songwriting, Hibberd is heard embracing a broader sonic palette on ‘Mammoth’; one which opens up a world of possibilities for a new musical chapter.

The post Flora Hibberd enters sweeping new era with ‘Mammoth’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

Replete with lush instrumentation and Hibberd’s warm, distinctive vocals, the song playfully conjures feelings of anticipation and excitement. With it comes a charming, animated lyric video by bandmate Victor Claass.

About the making of the video, Claass says: “Flora and I hang out in museums a lot. Suppose we both get a lot of inspiration from images, if not from the sensitive world in general. In summer we found ourselves wandering the Jardin des Plantes with no plans for the day, so we climbed up to the mezzanine of the palaeontology gallery of the Paris Natural History museum, where the fossil collection is displayed. I was struck by the mysterious seventies charm of the explanatory panels above the display cases. They seem stuck in time, and somehow mirror the post-war abstract movement in the visual arts. The painstakingly detailed organic drawings mixed with blocky sans serif text, all glued to the boards by hand, with some edges now peeling off and the colours a little faded, are so pleasing to look at. I suddenly came up with the idea of a music video for ‘Jesse’ that would playfully animate them, without trying to illustrate the song or necessarily be ‘relevant’ to it. But in the end, and that’s the magic of putting words, forms and sounds together, the whole thing sort of makes sense. ‘Jesse’, and Flora’s songs more broadly, are very much about the shape of things, about knowledge, about language and its limits. Here, her lyrics take over the intricate jargon of science, to the point where words vanish entirely, as if under their own weight. Along the way, insects, minerals, plants and other various swirly forms dance around.”

The post Flora Hibberd shares new single ‘Jesse’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

Along with the announcement, Hibberd shared the album’s lead single ‘Code.’ It is a lucid introduction to the record’s sound, that marries the mystical and mundane through lush production and captivating vocals.

“‘Code’ was so hard to get right, it went through many variations,” Flora Hibberd says. “We made this version late one night after driving to get burgers in a storm, I sat under the piano singing into an Electrovoice RE11 to avoid drum bleed, we played the song over and over until we fell into a groove. I love all the synths, each their own little signaling system, and the weird backing vocals, and the upright piano opening up the second instrumental. The descending sound in the intro and third verse was made by whirling a piece of plastic tubing around, recording it into a Casio keyboard and then playing it as a sample. The clarity when the chorus comes back right after, so satisfying.”

The single is accompanied by a video directed and edited by Roberto Cicogna. It follows a character as she roams across a town, searching for the source of a mysterious radio signal. The sound ultimately leads her to Flora and the rest of the band.

Swirl:

1. Auto Icon
2. Remote Becoming Holy
3. Code
4. Every Incident Has Left Its Mark
5. Canopy
6. Baby
7. Jesse
8. Lucky You
9. Fern
10. Still No Closer
11. Ticket

The post Flora Hibberd announces new album Swirl & shares lead single/video ‘Code’ appeared first on She Makes Music.