Rachael Yamagata announces new album

August 2, 2011 by Alan Pedder in Blog

Moody piano balladeer Rachael Yamagata has brightened up her outlook a little on her new Pledge Music-funded album Chesapeake, out October 11 in the US on her own Frankenfish Records.

Working again with John Alagia, who co-wrote her hit 2003 single ‘Be Be My Love’ and produced the bulk of her debut album Happenstance, Yamagata says she “lightened up in a way that gives this record more tempo and there’s almost a positivity to some of these songs, which I’ve never been able to do… Before I really gravitated to these darker songs and ballads and a lot of self-introspection… There’s still some darker ballads, but, on the whole, it’s a lighter record.”

“In a funny way I think this might be a more commercial record for me in terms of reaching a broader audience because there was no attempt or requirement to be anything but what we felt like doing in the room,” she told Rolling Stone.

Preview this new sound with a listen to ‘Starlight’, a track Yamagata says “feels like it should be in some European dance club”, adding “That song just evolved in the process of making the record. It came into something that is kind of sexy and cool. I’m stoked about it.”

Stream the track here.