Posts Tagged ‘Contact Sports’

SQUIRREL FLOWER – ” Conditions “

Posted: May 14, 2018 in MUSIC
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For fans of Big Thief, Mitski and Sharon Van Etten. Squirrel Flower is the alias 21-year-old Ella Williams adopted for herself when writing and performing songs as a child. Since those early days her movement through music has progressed at a staggering pace and now a reissue of her second EP Contact Sports, available on vinyl for the first time. Contact Sports is a perfectly formed collection of songs about relationships; intimacy, dependency, betrayal and place set to the unique backdrop of the American Midwest. The first three songs represent the push and pull of love and intimacy while the last three are more meditative, more place-based. From the fulsome guitar and visceral, cathartic breakdowns of lead single Conditions to the carefully layered beauty of Hands Melt, this varied collection frequently impresses with its maturity and craftsmanship. Lyrically too, tracks like the fuzzy, dimly-lit euphoria of Daylight Savings are spellbinding in their turn of phrase as Williams sings “I know we’ve gained an hour, but I feel like we’ve lost two”.

What were you doing when you were nine? Ella Williams, aka Squirrel Flower, was touring with the Boston Children’s Chorus singing to the likes of Barack Obama and The King Of Jordan. By fourteen she was taking songwriting seriously, and now aged twenty-one looks set to take world by storm, with the upcoming re-release of her superb second EP, Contact Sports.

This week ahead of the July re-issue, Ella has shared the video from one of the record’s stand-out moments, Conditions. The video, filmed in her college’s athletic centre, ties into the EP’s central idea, that as with sports, in this case basketball, relationships can feel like, “a dangerous game, a competition.”Musically, there’s a stunning maturity to both Ella’s vocal and her songwriting, the intense guitar lines, and nuanced vocal flourishes create an intensity that contrasts the slow-moving percussion. As the song reaches its emotive conclusion, Ella’s vocal repeats the line, “don’t you dare say that you do not know me”, before becoming lost in a barrage of reverberating guitar lines. It’s a stunning piece of songwriting, if you haven’t already explored the music of Squirrel Flower, this is the perfect time to discover your new favourite songwriter.

Contact Sports is re-issued July 20th. Click HERE for more information on Squirrel Flower.

SQUIRREL FLOWER – ” Contact Sports “

Posted: January 19, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Squirrel Flower is the project of Boston-based songwriter, Ella Williams. Working in a similar realm to the likes of Mitski or Sharon Van Etten, Squirrel Flower’s music is emotionally raw, and musically intriguing. Waves of crashing guitar chords and steady pounding drums creating a base on top of which Ella’s stunning vocals can soar and cartwheel; and what a voice it is, rich, raw and dripping with deeply, human emotion .

Whilst it’s already out, Squirrel Flowers’ latest release, Contact Sports, arrived so late in the year it was almost unanimously missed a tragedy that simply must be put right. Contact Sports was a splendid record, six tracks that effortlessly blended sweet, hushed moments with raw, almost scuzzy guitar thrashing, sparse instrumentation that somehow sounds rich and full, and a central character who seemed hurt, but not broken, as if strengthened by the emotions life has brought out of her. On the stunning closing track Midwestern Clay, Ella sings, “I got no idea what’s keeping me in the air, but nothing’s keeping me on the ground”, if she gets the exposure her music so richly deserves, she looks destined to soar.

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SQUIRREL FLOWER – ” Midwestern Clay “

Posted: December 18, 2016 in MUSIC
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Squirrel Flower’s beautiful new track “Midwestern Clay” is a fine example. A slow, sombre, moody piece of downbeat pop music; in light of recent events it feels wildly important, wildly moving, wildly poignant to sit and bask in its shadow, exuding a sadness that is perhaps needed to bring about some form of focus and rumination in to a week that quickly spiralled out of control.

“I’ve got no idea what I’m doing here, but I’m here, ’cause I’ve got no place else to be,” Ellä Williams bellows towards the end of her new track, her scorched, full-bodied vocal soaring high above a dirge-like guitar that simmers menacingly way down below it all, making for something that is as decidedly poignant as it is powerful.

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All of these muddled words are to say that music, and art, and personal endeavours, remain as important and vital right now as they did yesterday, as they did last week, as they did last year, and they’ll continue to be just that regardless of which way this ship steers – and Squirrel Flower’s magical sombreness is proof, if needed, of such a thing.

The EP drops mid-December, via It Takes Time Records