Tess Parks announces new album LP 'Pomegranate' due Oct 25th via Fuzz Club & shares new single & video "Koalas".
Canada-born, London-based singer/songwriter Tess Parks is today announcing her third solo album, ‘Pomegranate’, and sharing the lead single and video "Koalas". Out October 25th via Fuzz Club. ‘Pomegranate’ is the follow-up to her long-awaited solo return with ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’, which arrived in 2022 to critical acclaim following a string of collaborative albums with Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe.
Written and recorded between London, Toronto and Los Angeles, ‘Pomegranate’ finds Parks teaming up with long-term bandmember and close collaborator Ruari Meehan, who assumes production duties here and co-mixed the album alongside Grammy-nominated engineer Mikko Gordon (The Smile, Gaz Coombes, Arcade Fire). New single "Koalas" is a piece of beautifully hazy, slow-burning psych-folk with Parks' smoky vocals floating over feathery acoustic guitar and piano, and some spellbinding whistling courtesy of Molly Lewis.
On the new single, Parks says:
“In November 2020, Ruari was in London and I was in Toronto and he sent me the music for 'Koalas'. At this point, we hadn't seen each other in over a year. It would be another year before we saw each other again. I was suffering from severe PTSD at this point in my life, and to be honest, I couldn't bring myself to listen to the song properly until early February.
When I finally did - it was one of those moments when you hear a song and you know it’s going to be one of your favourite, most cherished songs for your whole life. It's the most beautiful music I've ever heard."
She adds:
"Ruari sending me this song instigated the making of this album - a daily back and forth correspondence where he would send me music and I would sing some words over it and then he would sing other ideas back to me. It was a true lifeline at what felt like the end of the world. I don’t know who I would be without these songs, this song particularly, and waking up everyday looking forward to what he was going to send me next."
Longing. Heartbreak. Levity. Joy. Being filled with love for all things. All of these sensations flow at once through Canadian singer-songwriter Tess Parks’ new album, Pomegranate. Re-establishing Parks as the consummate artist-observer against a swirling nouveau-delic backdrop, her third solo album arrives on October 25th 2024 (Fuzz Club / Hand Drawn Dracula) and was produced by multi-instrumentalist and close collaborator Ruari Meehan, who shared mixing duties with Grammy-nominated engineer Mikko Gordon.
Though Tess Parks first became widely known for her string of collaborations with Brian Jonestown Massacre mastermind Anton Newcombe, her 2022 solo offering And Those Who Were Seen Dancing left an unforgettable impression with its signature blend of weight, whimsy, and open-heartedness.
Arriving almost a decade after her 2013 debut album Blood Hot, the New York Times would praise its “confident, enchanting presence”, whilst Exclaim! proclaimed it as a record that “demands to be heard and felt”. Where Dancing retained a fair measure of bedroom-demo charm, this time the canvas is bigger, with Meehan’s arrangements stretching all the way to the horizon. This is the most ambitious and cinematic Parks’ music has ever sounded. Drawing on psychedelic elements in a way that sounds decidedly fresh, the dreamlike atmospheres feel oddly nostalgic and modern at the same time.
The pair are backed on most tracks by band members Francesco ‘Pearz’ Perini, whose piano and organs shine through gloriously on "Koalas" and "California’s Dreaming" respectively – and Marco Ninni, who provides the solid backbone throughout on drums. From a vocal perspective, it feels like Parks pushes her voice to new heights on this album too.
Her lyrics are sharp, ever-present, and imbued with strength, depth, and poetic purpose, which shine particularly bright on tracks like "Koalas" and "Charlie Potato". They weave through her flurries of beautiful melodic hooks, featuring sublime choruses and complex, multi-layered harmonic structures, as showcased on "Crown Shy" and "Bagpipe Blues" especially.
On Pomegranate there are also plenty of new experiments and guests introduced. ‘Koalas’, for example, features the spellbinding whistling of Molly Lewis, lending a bittersweet Morricone-esque charm. "Crown Shy" features soaring strings (arranged by Ninni and played by Joe Butler), and ‘Bagpipe Blues’ and "Charlie Potato" are elevated by Kira Krempova’s ethereal flute playing – the latter also accompanied with Wurlitzer piano played by Oscar 'SHOLTO’ Robertson. The euphoric "Running Home To Sing" and album-closer ‘Surround’ centre the synthesiser for the first time, whilst the piano features more prominently across many of the tracks.
If Dancing was the sound of a personal thawing-out process, Pomegranate tingles with a sense of rejuvenation and resilience. Resilience for highly sensitive souls, however, does not come without scars. And Parks will admit that these songs are covered in bruises. Faded, perhaps, but bruises nonetheless. We all know that pressing one’s thumb against a black and blue bruise until it hurts can feel pleasurable from time to time. Still, the point is that we’re hearing triumph captured in song — not just for Parks, but for the sheer act of seeing music through. Much like with Dancing, it’s a small miracle that Pomegranate got finished at all.
As Parks tells it,
"Look, there's so much tragedy happening in the world right now. It's so easy to feel helpless. It feels self-indulgent to be someone singing at all from their own perspective.
But if anything, this album is a gift of love, our contribution to the world of something beautiful that we made amongst so much pain.
"I went through a long period of feeling like I never wanted to make music again. What is the point of singing? Everything is pointless. I was taking refuge making paintings, sitting in silence for hours. There was a lot of processing to do. I am so grateful that I was given the encouragement to continue creating with sound, and that's what Ruari has done for me.
It seems only right to give back that encouragement to others.”
Pre-order album here