Ora Cogan
- bizzarre
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Ora Cogan shares new single "The Smoke" taken from her new album 'Hard Hearted Woman' out this Friday, March 13th, via Sacred Bones.
Ora Cogan releases “The Smoke,” the final pre-release single from her forthcoming album and Sacred Bones debut, Hard Hearted Woman, out this Friday (March 13th). Cogan is also set to tour the UK and Ireland later this month.
Following recent single “Division," “The Smoke” rises on a hypnotic rhythm, nodding toward JJ Cale while pulling the form apart. It’s a groove for the end times with congas, shakers, cracked guitars, and ghost-weathered textures all colliding as Cogan sifts through the darker corners of our shared humanity.
She doesn’t shy away from the mess. Instead she digs into it, looking for the spark that can turn dread into empathy. Commenting on the track, Cogan says:
"’The Smoke’ is about theatre of the absurd. It is about how humans can be ridiculous and still beautiful. How we can hero worship, villainize and romanticize each other.
Sometimes perception shifts depending on how and where the light is hitting. This song is about losing faith in people and continuing to bend towards love."
Of the song’s accompanying visualiser, director Paloma Ruiz-Hernandez says:
"Alone in a diner she's never been to before. She orders coffee for the beat to pick up, turns to her dominoes to find answers and to pass the time, the only thing missing is the smoke."
Ora Cogan’s music is alchemical: part instinct, part ritual, and always conjured from the edges where life feels sharpest. With Hard Hearted Woman, she mixes haunted folk, psych rock, and a shadowy strain of country, building a realm where catharsis feels lush, mysterious and vital. Shaken by the tenor of modern life, Cogan pulled in a circle of kindred musicians and made a record shaped by someone who has looked into the abyss and decided, again and again, to choose curiosity.
Hard Hearted Woman grew out of a blur of cold-water plunges, long river swims, late-night ruminations with friends on art and politics, and long drives through the rural Lillooet landscape to visit her godmother.
Alongside her band and guests from both the country and experimental worlds, she recorded with David Parry (Loving) at Dream Club in Victoria, B.C., as well as in her studio in Nanaimo, and remotely with Tom Deis. The result glows like something pulled from smoke and seawater — intimate, shimmering, and carved with wit as much as grief. It’s a swirling, jewel-toned ode to all the angels and the demons.
A work of devotion to mystery, to community, and to the strange power of making art in a fractured world, Hard Hearted Woman is a record about hardness and resilience; it’s the shell we grow so our most human, breakable selves can survive. Hard Hearted Woman is for anyone trying to stay open, even when the world makes that feel impossible.
Photo by Paloma Ruiz-Hernandez
Ora Cogan Tour Dates
Fri. March 13 - Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl (Album Release Show)
Thu. March 19 - Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin
Fri. March 20 - Oxford, UK @ The Nest
Sat. March 21 - Manchester, UK @ Yes Pink Room
Sun. March 22 - Newcastle, UK @ The Lubber Fiend
Tue. March 24 - Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete's
Wed. March 25 - Glasgow, UK @ Room 2
Fri. March 27 - Galway, IE @ Roisin Dubh
Sat. March 28 - Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Sun. March 29 - Cork, IE @ Wavelength at Cyprus Avenue
Wed. April 1 - Sheffield, UK @ Sidney & Matilda
Thu. April 2 - Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade
Fri. April 3 - London, UK @ Dingwalls
Fri. May 1 - Nanaimo, BC @ The Vault Cafe
Sat. May 2 - Olympia, WA @ Wild Child
Sun. May 3 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Tue. May 5 - San Juan Bautista, CA @ Coyote Call Bar
Wed. May 6 - Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Fri. May 8 - Tucson, AZ @ Slow Body Beer
Sat. May 9 - Santa Fe, NM @ El Ray
Sun. May 10 - Silver City, NM @ Whiskey Creek Zócalo
Thu. May 14 - San Diego, CA @ The Banshee
Fri. May 15 - Oakland, CA @ The Stork
Sat. May 16 - Nevada City, CA @ Honey Hills Festival
Sun. May 17 - Arcata, CA @ Outer Space
Tue. May 19 - Seattle, WA @ Substation
Wed. May 20 - Victoria, BC @ Other Guise Theatre
Tickets here
Pre-order Hard Hearted Woman here
