Acclaimed singer-songwriter Allison Russell releases new single 'The Returner' and announces second album will be released in September.
Image: Dana Trippe
Four time Grammy nominated Canadian singer, songwriter and activist Allison Russell has released her new single ‘The Returner’, the first taste of her second solo album, also called The Returner.
The song is beautifully lush and mesmerising, with folk and country undertones and gorgeous strings mixed in. Lyrically it talks of renewal, reclamation and letting go, in the process become born again with a whole new perspective on life. “Now I let go / Everything that I've known / Let it go on, let it roll out…Goodbye, so long, farewell, all I've been,” she sings in her stunningly rich, warm and expressive vocal.
The song features on her second solo studio album The Returner which will be released on September 8. Written and co-produced by Russell with dim star (her partner JT Nero and Drew Lindsay), it was recorded in a single week in December last year and features Russell’s ‘Rainbow Coalition’ all female band. Also making an appearance on the album are superstars Wendy & Lisa, Brandi Carlile, Brandy Clark, and Hozier.
The album continues the theme of reclamation of the here and now. “My goal with The Returner – sonically, poetically, and spiritually – is a radical reclamation of the present tense, a real time union of body, mind, and soul,” Russell says. “This album is a much deeper articulation of rhythm, groove, and syncopation. Groove as it heralds the self back into the body, groove as it celebrates sensual and sexual agency and flowering, groove as an urgent call to action and political activism. In just a word, it's funkier. But as is the history of anything funky, it’s never just a party. It is a multiverse of energies that merges the celebration and the battle cry. For while an embrace of the present tense is a celebration, it is equally an unquestioning leap into battle – cultural, political, environmental.”
Russell started her career in music in the late 1990s, forming several bands before becoming a solo artist in 2021 with the release of the album Outside Child. The album attracted streams in the millions and earned her three nominations at the 2022 Grammy Awards and won awards at the UK Americana Music Awards, Canadian Folk Music Awards and Juno Awards amongst others. This year she received a fourth Grammy nomination for her duet with Aoife O’Donovan ‘Prodigal Daughter’.
Russell is a very special artist with music that has an extremely important message of liberation, love, and self-respect, as well as connecting deeply with your soul. The Returner is promising to be an album of great beauty and is guaranteed to be a highlight of your September.
‘The Returner’ single is out now via Fantasy Records. You can download and stream here
The Returner album is out now via Fantasy Records. You can pre-order and pre-save now.
To keep up with all things Allison Russell you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter.
