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INCOMING | Mara Carlyle — Floreat
Floreat
[PIAS; August 22]
If you’ve been following Wears The Trousers for a few years now, you’ll probably be familiar with the ongoing saga of Mara Carlyle’s long-awaited second album – the sadly all-too-usual tale of a talented artist getting swept up and then spat out by major label machinery, to all intents and purposes held to ransom and left with no choice but to fight tooth and nail to reclaim their recordings. In July last year, Mara decided to give up trying to get the album released, but only weeks later her song ‘Pianni’ was picked up by furniture giant IKEA to soundtrack a major new TV ad and suddenly things weren’t nearly as bleak.
Originally titled Ancient & Modern, then Nuzzle, the record will finally see the light of day this August under the new name of Floreat, a Latin word that translates to either “let it flourish” or “let her bloom” – highly appropriate given her struggles over the past few years. Co-produced with Dan Carey (Hot Chip, The Kills, La Roux) and written and arranged entirely by Mara, the album runs the gamut of musical history in the fashion we’ve come to expect of her, from sixteenth century secular madrigals all the way to modern urban pop, via the fictitious concept of Elizabethan ska, and includes contributions from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
For super-keen fans, Floreat will be available early (July 25) from Rough Trade Shops with a four-track bonus CD featuring four live tracks recorded at St Barnabas Church in North London, including a non-album duet with Willy Mason. Pre-order it here.
Tracklist:
01 But Now I Do…
02 Weird Girl
03 Bowlface En Provence
04 Pearl
05 Nuzzle
06 King
07 How It Felt (To Kiss You)
08 All Will Be Well
09 Away With These Self-Loving Lads
10 The Devil & Me
Comments
Tagged ancient and modern, floreat, mara carlyle, nuzzle
PhilesbJune 27, 2011 at 3:23 pm
GOOD NEWS!!!
I was waiting for her new album for ages (do you remember me?) !
Though I hope the album won’t be a record like “Hot Chip, The Kills and La Roux”!What do you mean by “modern urban pop”?
If the “pop songs” of the albums are like But Now I Do, Bowlface En Provence and Away With These Self-Loving Lads (songs from her previous EP Ancient And Modern) it’s good but if it’s a lot more like radio songs I will be disapointed.
Are there any beautiful songs like the ones from The Lovely?
adminJune 27, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Trust me, you will not be disappointed! It’s exactly what you want from Mara.
PhilesbJune 27, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Thanks for reassure me!
By the way, it’s a bit off topic but if you like beautiful female voice and are into folk bluegrass things, check out Crooked Still and their last album Some Strange Country!The voice of Aoife O’Donovan is as divine as the one of Mara Carlyle and the music is very good!
It would be great if you can review more folk roots bluegrass albums!For example the albums of Alexa Woodward are very nice and it’s a shame you didn’t review them!
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the new album of Mara Carlyle!
adminJune 27, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Noted, and thanks, but we can only review what we are sent! We’re open to reviewing all kinds of music here.
PhilesbJune 27, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Sorry for floodind but I just wanted to say that I’ve just checked out Mara Carlyle’s MySpace page and we can listen to one of the new song (The Devil And Me) that will be on her new album!Actually it’s not a new song because I have already heared to it but I don’t remember where.Anyway it’s still good because I will have that beautiful song with a CD audio quality.If the songs Weird Girl, Pearl, Nuzzle, King, How It Felt (To Kiss You) and All Will Be Well are as good as the other songs I will die!
I’m looking forward to Floreat!!!
By the way, The Unthanks have a new album (Last) and it is even better than Here’s The Tender Coming which you reviewed two years ago ( http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/2009/10/the-unthanks-heres-the-tender-coming-2009/ ) !
PhilesbJuly 31, 2011 at 7:14 pm
You were right, the new album is very good and I’m not disappointed by it at all! I knew I could trust you anyway (really!) !
I was afraid by the result of the pop songs you talked about but actually the two pop songs of the album are good and refreshing!
Thank you very much!