LIVE, LAUGH, MAJOR LOVE OUT MAY 17, 2024 VIA SLOW WEATHER
WATCH / SHARE “MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME” HERE
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“Major Love — the collaborative project between Edmonton songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Colleen Brown and Scenic Route to Alaska — are following up their 2018 debut this May, excavating the painful reverberations of pandemic isolation with latest single "Making the Most of It." Produced by Marcus Paquin, the upcoming record promises catharsis and introspection like only Brown and co. can provide.” Exclaim! | Most Anticipated Albums of 2024
Photo Credit : Ryan Parker // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Live, Laugh, Major Love, the long-awaited, Marcus Paquin-produced, semi-eponymous sophomore album from Major Love, comes to us like a cheeky valentine, pairing emotional vulnerability with light-heartedness and the kind of confidence that is synonymous with rock. Earnest without taking themselves too seriously on this record, Major Love’s lead singer-songwriter Colleen Brown playfully scorns romantic love even as she openly longs for it.
“When love relationships go bad, there’s always some part of you that recoils at the next opportunity. You’re like the armadillo. You’re always wearing your armour. And then you attract more armadillos, both of you protecting yourselves, both of you only showing a small part of your tender self. All the while, wishing, at least in part, to relieve yourselves of your shells. To be naked in your need,” says Brown. “The older I get, the more plainly obvious it is to me that in order to survive, we need to learn to love each other, forgive each other, be emotionally vulnerable with one another, look for ways we can collaborate and compromise, and become totally and utterly truthful with ourselves and each other.”
The eleven tracks that comprise Live, Laugh, Major Love showcase Brown’s willingness to do just that, in partnership with her Major Love bandmates: Trevor Mann on guitar and vocals, Shea Connor on drums and vocals, and Murray Wood on bass, who also make up the trio Scenic Route To Alaska.
Today, they are sharing the new single from the LP, “Mountain Standard Time”, marked by anthemic opening guitar riffs, and the addition of Marcus Paquin’s vibey Garth Hudson-esque organ. The song is “a reflection on leaving our comfort zones to chase love or ambition; only to feel like an alien in a strange land, and eventually returning home to some sense of deeper belonging,” says Brown.
Mountain Standard Time” was recorded live off the floor at Moose Farm Studio in northern Alberta by Jesse Northey, leading to the rest of the album's studio sessions with Marcus Paquin (at the National Music Centre in Calgary). The band had intended only to track demos, but the performance had all the ambiance and energy owed to the song - intended to memorialize a relationship that had just ended for Brown out east, and a return to the band’s Western Canadian roots. It is part 2 of a two-song epic recorded that day, which includes its precedent “The More I Know”, written around the same time.
The single arrives today with a video that was filmed at Long Lake Provincial Park in Northern Alberta, by Edmonton-based filmmaker Dale Bailey. They gathered a big group of friends - and fireworks - and coaxed Colleen into hanging off the front end of a pontoon boat named ‘Ruff’in It’. The video features long exposure time lapses, giving the effect of painting with light, and emphasizing the song’s references to the passing of time, and connection to the cosmos.
WATCH / SHARE “MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME” HERE
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This latest offering, Live, Laugh, Major Love, began with the creation of these two demos; “The More I Know” and “Mountain Standard Time” and became the starting point for the whole record after a serendipitous meeting with Grammy Award-winning producer Marcus Paquin, who would go on to complete the album with the band. “I met Marcus in early 2020, when the two of us were backing up Hawksley Workman and Sarah Slean on tour. I showed him a bunch of my music. He played me the new Weather Station album he had just completed and I was really blown away, obviously, so I really wanted to work together…and we hatched plans to complete the rest of [Major Love’s] album at the National Music Centre in Calgary.”
There were some worldly delays to getting started on that - during which time Brown released two solo albums - Isolation Songs in 2020 and Winging It in 2022 - the latter of which features Paquin as mixing engineer on the track “I Am Leaving (And It's Okay)”.
The band finally convened in May 2022 to record Live, Laugh, Major Love, titled in homage to the very cheesy home decor of the rental house they stayed at while recording in Calgary, and in a nod to Brown’s self-help journey that colours a lot of the songwriting. “I'm kind of poking fun at myself while also earnestly repeating my daily affirmations… That's the thread that ties all the songs together - it's me wrestling with my shadows, succumbing at times, trying to pull myself back into the light.’
By the time we hear the album’s closing track “Better Excuse” we do feel as though we are once again in the light. Brown brings us back, full circle, to her romantic optimism, but this time holding on to all the lessons gleaned from the preceding tracks, as she sings about living the life she wants without waiting for love, while also putting forth the offering: “I’ll make the time, I’ve always got space for two.”
WATCH / SHARE “MAKING THE MOST OF IT” LYRIC VIDEO HERE
BUY / STREAM “MAKING THE MOST OF IT” HERE
PRE-SAVE LIVE, LAUGH, MAJOR love HERE
LIVE, LAUGH, MAJOR LOVE TRACKLIST
01 For The Long Run
02 Making The Most Of It
03 Same Girl
04 One Woman
05 The More I Know
06 Mountain Standard Time
07 Keep Your Heart To Yourself
08 Mind Body
09 Mistake Again
10 Time
11 Better Excuse
