Acclaimed singer-songwriter Alice Phoebe Lou has announced the premiere of a brand new album. Child’s Play is available now at all DSPs and streaming services.
Produced by Loving’s David Parry at his Dobro Genius studio in Victoria, BC, Child’s Play includes the stunning first track, “Underworld,” streaming now HERE. With its thumping rhythm and electrical storm energy, “Underworld” stands among the South Africa-born, Berlin-based songstress’s most affective tracks thus far, an intense outpouring of feelings describing the alternate world one exists in with another person when the connection transcends words.
Hailed by Consequence for “her intriguing melding of genres like folk, jazz, and electronic and dance music,” Lou will celebrate Child’s Play with a truly epic international live schedule, with North American dates currently underway through this week; additional North American dates begin February 16, 2022 at Chicago’s Evanston Space and continue through early March.
Child’s Play reunites Lou with producer David Parry, who previously traveled to her adopted hometown of Berlin to record this year’s acclaimed Glow. Lou’s dream to record at Parry’s Vancouver Island studio lived on and in time, she – along with best friends and longtime musical partners Ziv Yamin (drums, keyboards) and Dekel Adin (bass) – were able to secure permission from Global Affairs Canada and flew to Victoria.
A two-week quarantine on beautiful Nanoose Bay allowed ample time to tie up loose ends before spending 10 days at Parry’s Dobro Genius studio. Working with the producer’s collection of analog gear and vintage instruments, Lou and her musical compatriots nurtured her recently composed songs into something altogether fresh, a natural evolution of sound and vision from her previous work.
Alice Phoebe Lou comments on recording her new album
“The process was simple and intuitive. Using an 8-track tape machine and allowing the very new songs to grow into themselves. We worked tirelessly on a limited schedule to bring these personal songs to life, so used to each other by now from recording Glow together that even though the workload was immense, it felt easy and enjoyable, the four of us very much on the same page.”
Check out the video for her track “Underworld” below:
More info about Alice Phoebe Lou
Alice Phoebe Lou left her native South Africa at 18 and began busking her way through Europe, wowing passers-by with her stunning vocals and captivating songs. Her self-released debut EP, Momentum, arrived in 2014, followed two years later by her acclaimed first album, Orbit.
Lou’s second LP, 2019’s Paper Castles, marked a popular breakthrough, earning high profile applause from the likes of NPR, Rolling Stone, The FADER, and more. A tireless live performer, she celebrated the album with more than a hundred shows across four continents. Highlights included an historic performance at East Berlin’s Funkhaus radio building, famed for its excellent acoustics and captured for posterity on 2019’s Live At Funkhaus. Along the way Lou cultivated a devoted fan following that includes Sir Paul McCartney, who invited her to perform his “Deep Deep Feeling,” heralding his 2020 album, McCartney III.
2021’s Glow saw Lou embracing an entirely analogue approach, recording, mixing, and mastering the LP with producer David Parry on vintage gear at East Germany’s residential Castle Studios.
With Lou’s self assured vocals set against a star-dusted backdrop of scuzzy guitars, sauntering bass grooves, and mesmeric piano sequences, the album was met by international acclaim from a wide variety of media outlets.
“Incorporating elements of indie, pop, folk, jazz, punk and psychedelic music, Glow offers an introspective twist to the ‘vibey’ music of today…An exemplary arrangement for these trying times, Glow embraces the spirit of self-reflection that only comes from a year of solitude. Lou’s angelic voice accompanies the album’s soft psychedelia to create a soothing, poetic stream of consciousness about all things love, heartbreak and self.” The Daily Californian
“Known for crafting intuitively catchy music clad with funky basslines, electric guitars and glistening synth arrangements, Alice Phoebe Lou has made a name for herself as an exemplary independent artist. With no label, the 27-year-old dons all sorts of caps, overseeing her writing, her production, her merch, her accounting, etc, etc. In that regard, her success is all the more a testament not only to her talents and ambition as an artist, but to the changing tides in how the music industry operates.” – American Songwriter
“Alice Phoebe Lou’s voice has consistently been a standout element on all of her records…Her ethereal vocals ground each song while also making the melodies around them soar. She can sound like Judy Garland, Kate Bush, or Angel Olsen, but mostly, Lou’s voice is distinctly her own.” – Consequence
You can download / stream Child’s Play HERE.
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