Land of Talk — the Montreal-based project helmed by Lizzie Powell — have announced their fifth album, led by new single "Your Beautiful Self."
Performances arrives on October 13 via Next Door Records / Saddle Creek. It follows the band's most recent LP, 2020's lovely Indistinct Conversations, as well as 2021's Calming Night Partner EP.
Produced by Powell, the new record serves as a bit of a reinvention — as well as a meditation on the performative nature of femininity — following a time they describe as a period of "identity confusion" in 2021.
"I realized right away that I was not feeling electric guitar for this album," Powell explained in a statement. "At first, I felt like something was wrong with me: Land of Talk is about guitars and me rocking out. But is that all I am? Can I get away with doing a Land of Talk record without a ton of electric guitar? I would write demos and think, 'Oh, that doesn't really kind of sound like Land of Talk.' But then I realized that I'm Land of Talk."
"It's the weirdest, mightiest little record I've made since I used to write music on my four-track when I was 14," they continued. "I needed to make a love letter to my teenage self by being more vulnerable and doing all the production myself.
Of the full-bodied "Your Beautiful Self," they added:
This was one of the earliest songs I wrote for the record and it came out of the session I did at my friend's house I rented in Sutton, Quebec. There's a little bit of Echo and the Bunnymen's "Under the Killing Moon" in here. We kept reworking the song in different studios and different contexts but it really clicked when I swapped out guitar for piano. Taking things out and allowing myself to be spare made it work. I wanted to be anti-virtuosic here. Also, my voice goes up the octave on this song in a really fun way. It was a weird and fun personal challenge to get my voice to start out that low.
Listen to the song below, where you'll also find the album tracklist.
Performances:
1. Intro (high bright high)
2. Your Beautiful Self
3. Fluorescent Blood
4. Marry It
5. Rainbow Protection
6. Clarinet dance jam
7. Sitcom
8. Semi-Precious
9. August 13
10. Pwintiques
Pre-order Performances.
Performances arrives on October 13 via Next Door Records / Saddle Creek. It follows the band's most recent LP, 2020's lovely Indistinct Conversations, as well as 2021's Calming Night Partner EP.
Produced by Powell, the new record serves as a bit of a reinvention — as well as a meditation on the performative nature of femininity — following a time they describe as a period of "identity confusion" in 2021.
"I realized right away that I was not feeling electric guitar for this album," Powell explained in a statement. "At first, I felt like something was wrong with me: Land of Talk is about guitars and me rocking out. But is that all I am? Can I get away with doing a Land of Talk record without a ton of electric guitar? I would write demos and think, 'Oh, that doesn't really kind of sound like Land of Talk.' But then I realized that I'm Land of Talk."
"It's the weirdest, mightiest little record I've made since I used to write music on my four-track when I was 14," they continued. "I needed to make a love letter to my teenage self by being more vulnerable and doing all the production myself.
Of the full-bodied "Your Beautiful Self," they added:
This was one of the earliest songs I wrote for the record and it came out of the session I did at my friend's house I rented in Sutton, Quebec. There's a little bit of Echo and the Bunnymen's "Under the Killing Moon" in here. We kept reworking the song in different studios and different contexts but it really clicked when I swapped out guitar for piano. Taking things out and allowing myself to be spare made it work. I wanted to be anti-virtuosic here. Also, my voice goes up the octave on this song in a really fun way. It was a weird and fun personal challenge to get my voice to start out that low.
Listen to the song below, where you'll also find the album tracklist.
Performances:
1. Intro (high bright high)
2. Your Beautiful Self
3. Fluorescent Blood
4. Marry It
5. Rainbow Protection
6. Clarinet dance jam
7. Sitcom
8. Semi-Precious
9. August 13
10. Pwintiques
Pre-order Performances.
