A lyric on ‘Richardson’ cuts to the core of the album’s solitary feeling. “I got too down around my friends,” Shura sings over a laid-back groove adorned with soft guitar licks and flurries of keys. It was the first song written for the record, and it was also – by circumstance, but also fittingly – the first song she’s written at home alone on an acoustic guitar since she was a kid. Featuring Cassandra Jenkins, whose album An Overview on Phenomenal Nature was one of the few Shura could listen to during that period of high stress, the track brings her sadness full circle; Jenkins’ voice accompanying hers in lush harmony the same way it did back then.

Shura says: “I fell in love with Cassandra’s record at a low point in my life. It felt like an armchair I could crawl into. It accompanied me on long walks I took around my apartment in Greenpoint. I always knew I wanted to work with Cassandra on something. After a few conversations it became obvious to the both of us that it had to be this song. That Cassandra would accompany me here. A song about walking, thinking, and trying to find comfort somewhere, as Cassandra’s voice accompanied me on those walks then.”

Cassandra Jenkins says: “I was drawn to Richardson because it captures a mood that’s hard to place, in part because it’s so much about place, and a kind of limbo we bring with us wherever we go. I love that this collaboration developed into a meta conversation between me and Shu about the ways we communicate with our loved ones when we are apart, whether by circumstance, time, or geography. It makes me think we were cosmic pen pals long before we ever met.”

The post Shura shares ‘Richardson’ ft Cassandra Jenkins appeared first on She Makes Music.

‘Recognise’ is the linchpin between this album and Shura’s previous work, which contains the lesson learned over the last six years of uncertainty. It opens with a celestial whirl of synths and soft, almost will-o-the-wisp vocals, before bursting into an unexpected bloom of frenetic drums. Lyrically it plays with artistic identity and the selfishness of dreams (“All this time I’ve been dreaming / Is it selfish? I’m not sure”), before settling on the fact that life is unpredictable, and simply being alive is enough.

Shura says of ‘Recognise’: “Arthur Russell sang ‘being sad is not a crime’ and yet somehow when I went through a period of despair in January I felt that the best course of action was to hide myself away from the world. I think Recognise is a song about coming out the other side of that feeling. Slowly coming to the understanding that everything is ok. And that ok – is good. That I can sit quietly, read a book, sip a coffee and deeply appreciate being here and everything that has happened and has yet to happen…”

Though it’s an album rooted in themes of depression and loneliness, I Got Too Sad For My Friends is far from downcast, it’s an album that stays fully present in its feelings and plunges its fingers into the earth – even when it can be painful to do so. Produced by Luke Smith (Foals, Shygirl, Depeche Mode) and featuring collaborations with Cassandra Jenkins (in a full circle moment, more on this in the coming months…), Becca Mancari and Helado Negro, it retains Shura’s usual crystalline sound and precision while introducing a different kind of warmth and earthiness.

The artwork for I Got Too Sad For My Friends depicts Shura sitting alone on a mountainside, dressed in a baggy jumper, ripped jeans, Converse, and various pieces of armour that fail to cover her vital organs. Part Kurt Cobain, part Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet. The image captures everything about the album, which documents a rocky period of sadness and isolation in pastoral terms. Its warm blend of chamber pop, sixties folk and campfire Americana builds the singer’s acutely introspective songwriting out into a vast landscape.

I Got Too Sad For My Friends:

1. Tokyo
2. Leonard Street
3. Recognise
4. World’s Worst Girlfriend
5. Richardson ft. Cassandra Jenkins
6. America
7. Online
8. I Wanna Be Loved By You
9. Ringpull
10. If You Don’t Believe In Love ft. Helado Negro
11. Bad Kid ft. Becca Mancari

The post Shura announces new album I Got Too Sad For My Friends and shares first single ‘Recognise’ appeared first on She Makes Music.