Carving Canyons

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Lissie says that the breakup, bookended by the pandemic, spurred on the creative outburst that led to this album. Granted, her debut album Catching Tigers was eclectic, and certainly weaved influences of folk with country in an attempt to showcase her varied songwriting.

I just kind of have to sit with my feelings and confront myself and sort of try and grow and have self-awareness and emotional intelligence and practice self-care and do all of these things I’ve neglected for so long.L: Yeah and, I mean, talk about working with a total legend – she’s written some of the best songs ever! But, of course there’s 10, 11 other songs on the album that are kind of all existing in their own kind of world, hopefully. The album’s context – the loneliness at the center of the pandemic – feels almost behind the times (partly because of the surfeit of covid-based releases over the past few years). Still, Lissie primarily uses the setting to look at the fallout from a breakup that occurred early in the era.

I really gave them freedom to ‘sing what you feel – I have a few ideas, but I’d just love for you to take it away.All the songs on this album were written by Lissie, but it has been endowed with a strong collective co-writing effort which included Madi Diaz, Morgan Nagler, and Natalie Hemby. The album’s sentiments are a reminder of the power of healthily embracing our most challenging emotions. The Stevie Nicks comparisons come easily, and “Night Moves” owes too much to Fleetwood Mac (though it’s quite good, whether it’s a knockoff or not).

And as much as it’s terrible to have to go through hard things, these are the things that create this landscape of our lives, and all of its texture and its edges and its depressions and its color, that rich pageant of life that we all experience. We carry a broad range of CDs and vinyl (7”/12” singles and LPs) and specialise in indie, alternative, rock, punk, metal plus a few other genres. In addition to our lovely colored vinyl pressing of 'Carving Canyons,' the Bandbox exclusive also comes with a 16-page zine dedicated to Lissie, featuring pro-shot photographs from her performance at our popup, essays about her career, as well as an engaging and revealing interview with Lissie herself, where she talks about where she was creatively and personally when she wrote and recorded 'Carving Canyons,' as well as her candid track-by-track breakdown of each song on her new album. The singer is finally able to look at herself with affection: she looks at her struggles, at her strengths, at the lost battles and the challenges she overcame.After a week or so of not-so-cryptic teasing, French electro behemoths Justice have officially announced their new album Hyperdrama, simultaneously dropping not one but two lead tracks which have landed with a resounding THUD. As I grieved – not only for a relationship, but for the world in the midst of a pandemic – I felt like my anger made people uncomfortable, but I came out the other side empowered and ready to step back into my light.

Unravel” starts the album off with a smoky-sounding picked acoustic guitar that casts the album in twilight, but the shimmer of “Chasing the Sun” has the opposite effect and throws a bright light on the record. When the pandemic started spreading, Lissie was in her Iowa farm dealing with an impactful breakup: she decided to use the time wisely, learning to know herself better and, through connecting with nature, connecting with the deepest and more hidden parts of herself.But once I started writing in November, it was like I had some time to reflect on these stages of grief I found myself in. Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Night Moves” – featuring Lissie at her husky-voiced best in this perfect slice of Laurel Canyon-esque pop. On “Unlock the Chains,” she sets herself free, and by the piano-led closer “Midnight,” Lissie is ready to go out into the world and rediscover herself. Perhaps the best chorus out of the twelve, it’s impossible not to feel like screaming this song on the top of one’s lungs. Welsh rock group Dream State have already achieved theirs of making splashes in the scene, but it looks like they’re Still Dreaming.