BUY / STREAM FAIR-WEATHER HERE
RUSSELL LOUDER’S NEW LP, FAIR-WEATHER, OUT TODAY VIA LISBON LUX RECORDS
WATCH / SHARE “NEED” HERE
PERFORMS TODAY AT POP MONTREAL
"Louder sings of infatuation ("Need"), of trying to be open to love while fearing a loss of self ("Going Under") and how the end of a relationship can lead to coming into your own ("Movie Queen") while crafting songs built on synth-pop, disco and folk, with perfectly placed strings. Louder has broken themself open for Fair-weather. ...an album created from such vulnerability, heart and danceability that it's impossible to ignore." CBC Music
Photo Credit : Bobby Leon // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, Russell Louder is releasing their new LP, Fair-weather. The album finds Louder exploring the many conditions that comprise patience, support, and compassion when circumstances take a downturn, looking inward to examine the universal and all-too-familiar realization of desiring what’s deserved but that isn’t offered, and surrendering in order to rebuild.
The result is a record that charts a gleaming evolution: interspersing their signature unyielding vocals over luminescent, asymmetrical 80s synth-pop, and the throb of “desert noir”-tinged folk rock. At times, utilizing pulsating disco as an alarm to call attention to the imperfect emotions we’d rather look away from; or, confronting the skin-crawl of jealousy through icy techno; and inviting minimal ascending strings to simulate the wobbly courage of grieving love while remaining open to it.
BUY / STREAM FAIR-WEATHER HERE
Recently, Louder also shared the video for album track “Need” from director Bobby Leon. "When I was writing this song, I was really exploring the ‘love is the drug’ theme of songwriting,” explains Louder. “This led me to reflect on my own addictive or self-soothing tendencies, and how historically I’ve allowed the idea of love to consume me in a really intoxicating way – I say ‘the idea’ because I don’t think true, secure love is intoxicating. I also integrated mechanisms of disco to create a build of tension and ecstasy in the production of this song.”
On the video, Leon says the inspiration for the music video was “rooted in creating tension moments between Russell and their cast-mate Frederique Rodier. Through flashes of what could be opportunities of tension between two people, as well as tension through movement, push and pull, leaving trails behind, we get carried away in the feelings of desire and needing someone to need us. We never get the satisfaction anticipated, not even at the end of the video.”
WATCH / SHARE “NEED” HERE
MORE ABOUT FAIR-WEATHER
A masterclass in the potency of a collage-like approach that utilizes essential tools to maximum effect, Fair-weather was primarily crafted in their bedroom, with found percussion, Ableton Live, and their father’s classical acoustic guitar from the 1950s.
Reminiscent of Canadian’s renowned legacy of arresting and sparse vocal-centered electronica, yet taking cues from artists as varied as Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus, to Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel, Fair-weather weaves together an amorphous blend of genres. That savant mélange truly is the mark of an artist with limitless ambition — and the skill to prioritize cohesion and clarity.
MORE ABOUT RUSSELL LOUDER
Born in rural Prince Edward Island and raised in a family of musicians, visual artists, and poets, Louder learned early how art could communicate a rich emotional lexicon. As a teenager, they traveled across Canada and the United States as a performance artist and received dispatches from Montreal’s early 2000s techno scene from their brother through mailed mixtapes.
Developing the foundations of the project from an attic room in Iceland eight years ago, they’ve since seen their debut album longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize and performed at numerous festivals : Sled Island, Flourish Festival, Pop Montreal, Liverpool Sound City, M for Montreal, and Future Forest, and a range of Pride festivals around the East Coast.
Russell Louder will celebrate the release of Fair-weather with a performance today at Pop Montreal.
FAIR-WEATHER TRACKLIST
01 Need
02 Mirror
03 Under My Skin
04 Come Around
05 Movie Queen
06 Know By Now
07 Epitaph
08 Going Under
09 Lullaby