WATCH AND SHARE “partner” HERE
BUY / STREAM “partner” HERE
ADA LEA’S UPCOMING LP, one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, OUT SEPTEMBER 24, 2021 VIA NEXT DOOR RECORDS
“‘damn,’ from the Montreal-based singer-songwriter Ada Lea, unfolds like a quiet epiphany: a gradual accumulation of feelings and frustrations that, in an instant, snap into a sudden clarity.” - The New York Times
“[‘damn’ is] propulsive, unsettling and exquisite – and an impressive way to kick off an album.” - NPR Music
"Sonically weightless and vibrant, [‘damn’] is an indie pop paradise that slowly gets more complicated with each word that Levy sings.” - Stereogum
PRE-ORDER one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden HERE
“partner” video still
Montreal’s Ada Lea (the moniker of Alexandra Levy) releases a new single/video, “partner”, from her forthcoming album, one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, out September 24 on Next Door Records. It’s the follow-up to previously-released singles “damn” and “hurt”. Throughout “partner”, Lea sings as if she’s bright-eyed during a late night. Her narrative lyrics about an introspective evening unfurls over piano, synth, and a drum machine: ‘the cab lets me off at the diner // just for memory’s sake // and I sit at the same booth // with tears in my eyes // begging won't you admit you’re giving up on me too quick’. Levy describes it as “a song about moving through a memory… an involuntary memory that steals up on you the night after a rager (which takes place the morning after the song ‘damn’).” The accompanying cinematic video, directed by Erica Orofino, features Levy as she moves through memories and the city.
WATCH AND SHARE “partner” HERE
BUY / STREAM “partner” HERE
“partner” is one of the stories that make up the new LP. As a whole, these tracks chart unavoidable growth that comes with experience. On one hand, it’s a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs, and on the other a book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. The album is set in Montreal and each song exists as a dot on a personal history map of the city where Levy grew up. The city exists as both the location of and a character in many of these songs.
WATCH AND SHARE VIDEO FOR “damn” HERE
The sounds across the album range from classic, soft-rock beauty to intimate finger-picked folk passages and night-drive art-pop. And the textures are frequently surprising due to the collage of lo-fi and hi-fi sounds that tastefully decorate the album without ever clouding the heart-center of the song. Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics centre storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centred in its setting of the Saint-Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. Levy creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons.
WATCH AND SHARE “HURT” HERE
BUY / STREAM “HURT” HERE
PRE-ORDER one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden HERE
one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden TRACKLIST
01 damn
02 can’t stop me from dying
03 oranges
04 partner
05 saltspring
06 and my newness spoke to your newness and it was a thing of endless
07 my love 4 u is real
08 backyard
09 writer in ny
10 violence
11 hurt