Abigail Lapell Releases New Single 'Ships'

With a cyclical, hypnotizing guitar part and foggy, maritime imagery, Toronto songwriter Abigail Lapell's new song "Ships" crashes on top of itself again and again until its subtle power tops the seawall and floods the landscape.

Sounding like a mellower Sleater-Kinney or Laura Veirs with a horn section, "Ships" explores the insatiable, contradictory impulses that drive doomed love and other addictions, or as Lapell puts it, "Leaving versus staying, quitting versus relapsing-familiar shores and uncharted waters." The idea of opposites attracting-or repelling-shows up in the song's arrangement, too. What begins as a soft indie rock head-nodder-with drums (Dani Nash), bass (Dan Fortin), and guitars (Christine Bougie)-starts to sneak in a horn or two, a step on the overdrive pedal, and layers of vocal harmonies before climaxing with a wild sax solo only met in energy by Lapell's reactive vocals.

Fortunately, cameras caught the whole recording process at Montreal's hotel2tango recording studio, and today, Under The Radar premiered that footage in the music video for "Ships" who stated, "Lapell's latest single sees her follow further in a folk rock direction, taking full advantage of her band's explosive live chemistry."

"Ships" is the second single from Lapell's upcoming album Stolen Time-out April 22nd on Outside Music. Fans can hear the previously-released "Pines" at this link and pre-order or pre-save Stolen Time right here. Abigail will also appear at this year's SXSW on March 16 at Stephen F's Bar. More information can be found here.

The upcoming Stolen Time strikes a balance between Lapell's acoustic debut, Great Survivor, and her two rockier Chris Stringer-produced records, Hide Nor Hair and Getaway, while bringing a live-off-the-floor 70s folk-rock vibe and more structural experimentation to the table on songs that feel expansive in their scope-unhurried, psychedelic, and other-worldly.

Lapell's band underscores and meets the power of her vocals on songs like "Ships," a wild sax solo seemingly enticing her higher and louder to meet the crashing waves. But many of Stolen Time's standout tracks are solo acoustic guitar songs, backed by little more than Lapell's harmonica, pump organ, or accordion.

"Old Flames," with Lapell's melodic fingerstyle guitar mimicking flickering embers, is a bit of an answer song to Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire," and the swirling and woozy "Scarlet Fever" was inspired by an elderly relative's tales of being quarantined as a child. "Land Of Plenty" was influenced by Lapell's family history of escaping the Holocaust by immigrating from Eastern Europe to North America, as well as more recent immigration stories.

Stolen Time also marks the collaborative meeting of two important music communities for Lapell, who spent formative years in Montreal's Mile End before returning to her hometown: From Toronto, Dan Fortin (bass), Dani Nash (drums, vocals), Christine Bougie (lap steel, guitar) and Rachael Cardiello (viola); and from Montreal Katie Moore (vocals), Chris Velan (vocals), Pietro Amato (French horn) and Ellwood Epps (trumpet); Nashville pedal steel player Fats Kaplin and Vancouver cellist Peggy Lee also play on the album.

Listen to the new single here:

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