Montreal native Helena Deland's debut album Someone New is out now via Luminelle Recordings, and today, you can listen to it in full.
Following the release of her Exclaim! favourite four-part EP series Altogether Unaccompanied in 2018, Deland has returned with her full-length follow-up, an examination of self and a departure from "projected or imagined expectation."
After sharing the record's "Pale," "Truth Nugget," "Lylz" and the title track alongside a video directed by Xavier Bélanger-Dorval, the artist has finally emerged with the fleshed-out project, arranged with the help of long-time friend Valentin Ignat, mixed by collaborator Gabe Wax and produced in part by Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Jake Portrait.
"In and outside of my music career, relying on the gaze of someone else for validation and a sense of my own worth alienated me from myself and made it very difficult for me to make anything," she explained of the record's themes in a statement.
"I had to take some time to reflect on that and to let myself write some tunes that were soft pockets of myself outside of myself," she added. "The songs allowed me to feel freed at least partially from insecurities the patriarchal gaze brings forth by identifying them and situating myself in relation to it."
Read Exclaim!'s 9/10 review of Someone New here, and listen to the record in full below, where you can also watch Deland's recent music videos.
Following the release of her Exclaim! favourite four-part EP series Altogether Unaccompanied in 2018, Deland has returned with her full-length follow-up, an examination of self and a departure from "projected or imagined expectation."
After sharing the record's "Pale," "Truth Nugget," "Lylz" and the title track alongside a video directed by Xavier Bélanger-Dorval, the artist has finally emerged with the fleshed-out project, arranged with the help of long-time friend Valentin Ignat, mixed by collaborator Gabe Wax and produced in part by Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Jake Portrait.
"In and outside of my music career, relying on the gaze of someone else for validation and a sense of my own worth alienated me from myself and made it very difficult for me to make anything," she explained of the record's themes in a statement.
"I had to take some time to reflect on that and to let myself write some tunes that were soft pockets of myself outside of myself," she added. "The songs allowed me to feel freed at least partially from insecurities the patriarchal gaze brings forth by identifying them and situating myself in relation to it."
Read Exclaim!'s 9/10 review of Someone New here, and listen to the record in full below, where you can also watch Deland's recent music videos.
