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Tracklist:

1. Bagpipe Blues
2. California’s Dreaming
3. Koalas
4. Lemon Poppy
5. Charlie Potato
6. Crown Shy
7. Running Home To Sing
8. Sunnyside
9. Surround

Longing. Heartbreak. Levity. Joy. Being filled with love for all things. All of these sensations flow at once through Canadian singer-songwriter Tess Parks new album, Pomegranate. Re-establishing Parks as the consummate artist-observer against a swirling nouveau-delic backdrop, her third solo album arrives on October 25th 2024 ia Fuzz Club and was produced by multi-instrumentalist and close collaborator Ruari Meehan, who shared mixing duties with Grammy-nominated engineer Mikko Gordon (The Smile, Gaz Coombes, Arcade Fire).

Though Tess Parks first became widely known for her string of collaborations with Brian Jonestown Massacre mastermind Anton Newcombe, her 2022 solo offering And Those Who Were Seen Dancing left an unforgettable impression with its signature blend of weight, whimsy, and open-heartedness. The New York Times would praise its confident, enchanting presence, whilst Exclaim! proclaimed it as a record that demands to be heard and felt. Where Dancing retained a fair measure of bedroom-demo charm, this time the canvas is bigger, with Meehans arrangements stretching all the way to the horizon. This is the most ambitious and cinematic Parks music has ever sounded. Drawing on psychedelic elements in a way that sounds decidedly fresh, the dreamlike atmospheres feel oddly nostalgic and modern at the same time.

The pair are backed on most tracks by band members Francesco Pearz Perini whose piano and organs shine through gloriously on Koalas and Californias Dreaming respectively and Marco Ninni, who provides the solid backbone throughout on drums. From a vocal perspective, it feels like Parks pushes her voice to new heights on this album too. Her lyrics are sharp, ever-present, and imbued with strength, depth, and poetic purpose, which shine particularly bright on tracks like Koalas and Charlie Potato. They weave through her flurries of beautiful melodic hooks, featuring sublime choruses and complex, multi-layered harmonic structures, as showcased on Crown Shy and Bagpipe Blues especially.

On Pomegranate there are also plenty of new experiments and guests introduced. Koalas, for example, features the spellbinding whistling of Molly Lewis, lending a bittersweet Morricone-esque charm. Crown Shy features soaring strings (arranged by Ninni and played by Joe Butler), and Bagpipe Blues and Charlie Potato are elevated by Kira Krempovas ethereal flute playing the latter also accompanied with Wurlitzer piano played by Oscar SHOLTO Robertson. The euphoric Running Home To Sing and album-closer Surround centre the synthesiser for the first time, whilst the piano features more prominently across many of the tracks.