Lenka's New Album SHADOWS Released Today
By: BWW News Desk Jun. 04, 2013
LENKA will release her third album, Shadows, today June 4. The collection will be the inaugural release on the Australian singer-songwriter's own Skipalong Records. An interactive pre-sale campaign for Shadows kicks off today on the PledgeMusic platform in partnership with distributor INgrooves Fontana. Fans who participate can receive signed items, Lenka-made "mystery crafts," including belts, finger puppets and hair clips, art pieces, a personalized ringtone or greeting, handwritten and decorated lyric sheets, one-of-a-kind personalized lullabies and more.
You can stream "Faster With You," a track from the album, now here or here. Individuals who pre-order Shadows on PledgeMusic will receive a free instant download of "Faster With You." A portion of these proceeds will go to the charity Save the Children, which promotes children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries. Further details on the pre-order campaign are available here.
Shadows is the follow up to Lenka's 2011 album, Two, which has been widely licensed. "Two," the title track, will be heard in an upcoming GMC commercial in North America and "Heart Skips a Beat" was tapped for a global Special K commercial. Lenka's video for "Everything at Once" was featured in a global commercial for Microsoft Windows 8. "Everything at Once" was a Top 10 single at iTunes and reached No. 1 on the German National Radio Airplay chart in January 2013.
Lenka's new record is a highly personal collection of songs, penned while she was pregnant with her first child.
"I felt very free going into making this album. It was a solo mission, on my terms, my time, my choices," says Lenka. "Previously my music was focused on being uplifting and energizing. For this album, I shifted to create a lullaby soundtrack for myself, my child and everyone out there. I have always loved albums that one can fall asleep to; an experience I enjoyed a lot growing up. Those songs drift into your unconscious like no others."
Tracks like "Nothing Here But Love," an unbridled paean to the power of love, and "After the Winter," a celebration of spring and the hope it holds that features Tracy Bonham on violin, offer a welcome respite from a rattled world. "Two Heartbeats" is an ethereal slice of life written from the perspective of an unborn child (and features the in utero heartbeat of Lenka's son).
The album has is soothing moments, to be sure, but Shadows also grapples head-on with separation ("Faster With You"), loss (the heartbreaking "Nothing") and the fears that keep young and old awake at night ("Monsters").
"The Shadows are imprints and remnants of the big life stuff happening to me right now," she explains. "I have been reflecting a lot as things change around me. Birth, death, love, regrets, innocence, dreams, independence, connection."
Lenka plays a variety of instruments throughout, including keyboards, wurli, glockenspiel and vibraphone, and recorded the album in New York, Montreal, Toronto and her hometown of Sydney.
In Australia, Lenka reunited with Tom Schutzinger, whom she had originally worked with when both were members of acclaimed Australian electronic/ambient band Decoder Ring. Schutzinger produced "No Harm Tonight" as well as "Heart To The Party," a track he and Lenka co-wrote.
After leaving Decoder Ring and moving to the States, Lenka released her self-titled debut album in 2008. It entered Billboard's Heatseekers chart at #3 and contained "The Show," a No. 1 single at radio in three countries that has had a very long life. It was the pivotal song in the 2011 film "Moneyball" and Billy Crystal sang "The Show" during his opening monologue for the 2012 Oscars. "The Show" has also been heard in promotional spots for "Ugly Betty," Old Navy, Coca-Cola, Apple and Crate & Barrel commercials, and on "Dancing With The Stars" and "Grey's Anatomy."
"Lenka pens catchy songs that seem playful on the surface but have a lyrical bite," said the Los Angeles Times Magazine and Marie Claire put her sophomore album, Two, on its "To-Do List," praising the "lovelorn sophomore album" while Billboard hailed it as "unfailingly sunny." Her "Heart Skips a Beat" clip was an iTunes Music Video of the Week and has more than five million views on Vevo. Lenka has toured widely and performed on such shows as "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and "Fox & Friends." Her 2013 tour plans - which will include extensive Asian and European treks - will be announced shortly.
Shadows - Track Listing
1, Nothing Here But Love
2. Faster With You
3. Heart To The Party
4. After the Winter
5. Find A Way to You
6. Honeybee
7. No Harm Tonight
8. Two Heartbeats
9. Monsters
10. Nothing
11. The Top Of Memory Lane
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