Daphne Parker Powell is set to release her sixth album, ‘The Starter Wife’ on October 14, and we’re all here for it. Out through Pleasure Loves Company, the long player is preceded by a number of striking and gorgeous tracks, accompanied by beautifully crafted multiplane camera and shadow puppet videos.
Our focus today is on ‘Clear Blue’, and the video by Michael & Alexandra Shaheen, and Anna Hatchuel, which perfectly accentuates Parker Powell’s pure, mellifluous vocals.
Singer-songwriter Daphne Parker Powell has written her new album in the aftermath of a divorce, and emerges from the experience stronger than ever before. Describing the album as “an exercise in radical trust, Parker Powell says,
“Younger me believed his vows to have and to hold, love and cherish, through good times and bad, in sickness and health, till death do us part. He proved himself fiercely unworthy of it, and despite the myriad flags, I charged forward-heart first. Instead of choosing to steel myself against future pain, I decided to let myself stay vulnerable, and even open my heart wider than I ever had. This album is my honest look at abandonment, codependency, and grief.”
Originally from New London, Connecticut, now based in New Orleans, Louisiana, Parker Powell, who usually does all her own production, has for ‘The Starter Wife’, allowed Duane Lundy at Lexingtol Recording Company to take the reins, in order to push it to the limits she might not be brave enough to reach. ‘Clear Blue’, released at the end of July, retains Parker Powell’s characteristic Americana style, while imbuing it with a wistful melancholy. Although not even two minutes long, the track is no less poignant and moving, with stripped back instrumentation, and the leanest of drums quietly keeping pace. Listen to it in isolation, then with the music video, and each time focus on a different aspect of the track. Parker Powell is joined by trusted friends, who also happen to be incredible musicians; Kieran Ledwidge, on violin, is given joint billing with Daphne, as so he should, the Sydney Australia based artist is a longtime collaborator. But we cannot also forget the contributions of Justin Craig on drums, Isaac Young on piano, and Rhodes synth, Duane Lundy’s percussion, Andrew Sovine’s bass and ebow. Additionally Daphne Parker Powell herself performs on acoustic guitar.
The stunning animated video focuses on a paper cut out of a fifties style housewife as she passes through a variety of landscapes, accompanied all the time by a butterfly. The scenes start out dark and dreary, and as she passes through troubled times (floods, volcanos, other destruction), she gradually finds herself in a beautiful glade, where the relevance of the butterfly becomes clear. The butterfly shares its wings with the housewife, who, now freed from the life that constrained her, is able to truly live her life.
‘The Starter Wife’ is out October 14. Watch the music video for ‘Clear Blue’ below. You can find out more about Daphne Parker Powell and her music online on her official website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
