 |
 |
Your first clue might be the way the songs bleed into one another. Leigh's disarming voice floats and hovers over Matt's articulate, emotive guitar and string arrangements, ascending and descending like an uncertain angel on Jacob's ladder. Suddenly, you realize that you're already listening to the third song on the album, unaware that the first two had ever ended. It's okay. Relax. That's how it's meant to be. "This project is like a part of our lives pulled up, roots and all," says Matt Slocum, the principal songwriter for Sixpence None the Richer. "It's not a scattered collection of unrelated songs. It's all one story, a whole story, a journey... We wanted to give listeners some sense of that by overlapping the first few songs."
"I've never been able to distance myself from our other projects and listen to them objectively," adds Leigh Nash, the band's endearing vocalist. "But somehow I've found myself doing that with this one. Each song just paints such great pictures. For me it's really a combination of the mood of the music and the poetry of Matt's lyrics."
Born from the musically fertile soil of Austin, Texas, Sixpence None the Richer recorded two critically acclaimed albums for a small independent label and toured with bands as diverse as 10,000 Maniacs and The Smithereens. While their debut, The Fatherless and the Widow, had landed a Billboard Critic's Choice as one of the Ten Best Albums of the Year, the publication embraced their second offering, This Beautiful Mess, with equal enthusiasm noting, "...the heart of Sixpence remains songwriter/guitarist Matt Slocum's literate, pensive songs and lead vocalist Leigh (Nash's) ethereal delivery.
Her voice invites comparisons to Edie Brickell and Natalie Merchant, but she distinguishes herself with an edge of soulful passion..." On the heels of This Beautiful Mess, Sixpence None the Richer found themselves cast into an unexpected and frustrating artistic limbo. When their label collapsed financially, an outside company quickly claimed ownership of Sixpence's contract, and a lengthy struggle ensued, until the band was at last freed to sign with a new label.
The self-titled Sixpence None the Richer is the flagship release for Squint Entertainment. Finding an innovative ally in producer Steve Taylor, Sixpence None the Richer entered the studio and began to creatively build upon their guitar, bass and drum foundation. As they experimented with more subtle and intricate texturing, the band added new elements such as acoustic piano, muted trumpet, accordion, pedal steel guitar, cello and other string arrangements. (In addition to performing all of the guitar parts, Matt arranged the album's string section and played cello.)
The progression of songs on this new Sixpence None the Richer album unfold in a linear fashion, revealing in a literate manner the journey from despair and frustration to patience, renewed commitment and rebirth. "We've been given a lot of freedom to dream and create," concludes Matt. "It's something that we probably would have taken for granted a few years back, but it means so much more when you've had to struggle and pray and wait for it. Sixpence None the Richer is the project we've been hungry to make for a long time."
Visit Official Website. |
