Octoberman
date: March 6, 2012
label: Saved By Vinyl
downloads: (right click and "save link as")
mp3 - Dressed Up
1 |
2 |
|---|
tracklist:
1) Waiting For Christine
2) Pool Hoppin
3) Burning Sun
4) Dressed Up
5) Thank You Mr V
6) Actress
7) Falcon Song
8) The Bystander
9) Wind Up Bird
10) Eddie and Rita
On the surface Octoberman’s 4th album Waiting In The Well (Saved By Vinyl / Outside) is about waiting.
Co-produced by Jim Guthrie (Royal City, Islands, Human Highway) and mixed by Howie Beck (Feist, Hayden, Jason Collett), Waiting In The Well showcases a more focused and poppier side of Octoberman's brand of folk-rock heard on previous releases These Trails Are Old and New (2006), Run From Safety (2007), and Fortresses (2009). The title Waiting In The Well was inspired by popular Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and finds Morrissette following the book’s lead character down a metaphorical well in search of something deeper. While making Waiting Morrissette discovered that the wear and tear of touring had given him a vocal polyp that required intervention. The resulting surgery left him silent for two weeks and prohibited from singing for five months, forcing the singer to step back, listen and... Wait.
Upon completion of Fortresses, Morrissette moved from Vancouver to Toronto, and recruited a new rhythm section in Marshall Bureau (drums) and Tavo Diez de Bonilla (bass). After a month-long European tour where the song arrangements fleshed themselves out, Octoberman went to London, Ontario’s House Of Miracles with Producer / Engineer Andy Magoffin (Constantines, Great Lake Swimmers, Cuff The Duke) to record Waiting. The polyp became a blessing in disguise as it allowed time for co-producer Jim Guthrie to add his magic to the project. The downtime was also used to accumulate contributions from regular Octoberman members Shaun Brodie (trumpet) and Randy Lee (violin) plus a gang of Toronto friends including FemBots' Dave MacKinnon (piano), Wilderness of Manitoba's Melissa Dalton (vocals), Muskox's Jeremy Strachan (saxophone), Cuff The Duke's Francois Turenne (guitar), and Two-Minute Miracles' Justin Nace (pedal steel).
After earning critical praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Uncut and Americana UK (Album of 2007), being featured prominently on Grey’s Anatomy (2010), appearing at the SXSW, Pop Montreal, Sled Island and CMJ festivals, and extensive touring of North America and Europe, Waiting in The Well finds Octoberman set to build on the foundation their previous work has laid. Throughout the album is the permeation of a voice deeply connected with its subject, weary and worn and willing to dive below the surface to understand it’s root. Yes, on the surface the album is about waiting, but a careful listen to the songs reveals something deeper lurking in the well. The result is Octoberman’s strongest and most personal album to date.
To whet the appetite before the album’s March 2012 release, an ep’s worth of bonus material was released last October.