Each of Chadwick’s records marks a moment in time. This new collection signals the beginnings of control and self-renovation. Words written unconsciously that are always five steps ahead of her own actual awareness. After a lifetime of alcohol use disorder, she got sober immediately after recording this record. ”I can hear it,” says Chadwick. “The desolate desire for change, the goodbyes, the fading romance, the memories. And the pain- that’s different but that never leaves, it’s part of me.”

Chadwick knows what the right song — or the wrong song — can do to a room. And Take Me Out To a Bar / What Am I, Gatsby? marks a deliberate pivot. This new devastating record seems to emanate from a dive bar jukebox. Something that can survive, fulfill its purpose, comfort or delight while fearlessly beckoning listeners into her sunken universe. Intended to be less demanding for the listener, “something that you can dip in and out of, phrases that tilt the room for a moment but allow space for the listener to inhabit or leave”, with an abject awareness that “last call” is approaching.

This new collection pivots like a broken lullaby around stop-you-in-your-tracks lyrics and a low lit bar. Glasses tinkling, smoky scattered laughter and the banal becoming beautiful as the pianist creates the mood, anonymous and as romantic as a streetlight under the gentle ebbs and flows of intimate chatter. Chadwick sees Take Me Out To a Bar / What Am I,Gatsby? as the elegant-aspiring sibling of ‘the tantrum record’ Me And Ennui Are Friends, Baby, 2021.

Take Me Out To a Bar / What Am I, Gatsby? was co-produced by Chadwick and Chris Townend at Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art’s Frying Pan Studios. To create the dreamy and cinematic feel of the record, Townend screwed contact mics to the piano’s body, played the entire album back through it with the sustain pedal held down by a sandbag, and recorded that resonating, a natural reverb — close, claustral, — that cradles each song the way a music box shelters its melody. “These days the most punk thing you can do is be resourceful,” Chadwick shrugs, “Making choices is free.”

Take Me Out To a Bar / What Am I, Gatsby?:

1. What Am I, Gatsby?
2. She Never Leant Upon a Bar
3. Soundtrack
4. Take Me Out To a Bar
5. I’m Not Clinging To Life
6. Not Cool Like NY / Not Cool Like LA
7. Fade Like Rain
8. Big Business
9. The Show Musn’t Go On

The post Sarah Mary Chadwick announces new LP Take Me Out To a Bar / What Am I, Gatsby? and unveils new single ‘Not Cool Like NY / Not Cool Like LA’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

Lead single ‘Shitty Town’ is released alongside a bold and playful official video, a dramatized love story breakdown played out on the theatrical stage. Resonant keys and flutes shimmer in the backdrop under Chadwick’s coarse vocals and biting, poetic lyricism. Describing it as ‘leaving a place kind of song’, the theme of being an audience to your own story flows into the song’s lyrics. “I watch through the window at my life,” she sings, “It seems to function/but who’s driving/this shitty car?”

Chadwick is a gifted and singular songwriter, uniquely attuned to the minutiae of human emotion, not unlike Phil Eleverum’s work as Mount Eerie and Daniel Johnston’s adventures on tape. A multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Chadwick’s songs are unsparing, brutal, and absolutely lovely. A prolific visual artist alongside her songwriting, Chadwick’s cover art of this record mirrors the slight alteration in tone; whereas previously, self-portraits of herself alone fronted her releases, now she has pictured herself amongst a group around a piano. Still not looking at peace, but surrounded by people, nonetheless.

Messages to God is a beautifully realized record. It’s not happy but it is funny and optimistic. It is melodramatic, self-serving and generous. Sometimes, from way back in the shitty seats of the theater, you’re at your closest to god. That’s what this record is like, finding beauty in everyday occurrences. Because it’s there. You just gotta look really hard sometimes. And as Chadwick provides, “Because every day’s just one more day / trying to write messages to god’’.

Messages to God:

1. Don’t Tell Me I’m A Good Friend
2. I Felt Things In New Zealand
3. Angry And Violent
4. Drinkin’ On A Tuesday
5. Shitty Town
6. Sometimes I Just Wanna Feel Bad
7. Someone Else’s Baby
8. Only Bad Memories Last
9. C’mon Stud
10. Looked Just Like Jesus

The post Sarah Mary Chadwick announces new LP Messages To God; shares new single/video ‘Shitty Town’ appeared first on She Makes Music.