Out today, Marina Allen reveals the next single ‘Or Else’ from her new album ‘Centrifics’ set for release on 16th September on Fire Records.
New track ‘Or Else’ is a personal notebook of revelations on relationships; slow self-roasting like a lost but soulful Laura Nyro out-take.
“I wrote ‘Or Else’ in the voice of an old version of myself. By making it into a caricature and distancing myself, I was able to process the close up feeling of grief in a dissolving relationship.”
Full of surprising melodies and hooks, contemplative, and constantly startling. Not your typical singer-songwriter, Marina Allen draws from influences as wide as loft jazz, Karen Carpenter, Meredith Monk and the New York avant-garde, and modern masters like Joanna Newsom, Neko Case, and Fiona Apple.
While the more DIY ‘Candlepower’, pieced together over a couple of years was subversive, and obscure, the focused ‘Centrifics’ is more joyful, funny and direct. Lilting melodies contrast with serious messages, while Allen’s extraordinary range and depth of singing showcases her carefully considered nuances.
Recorded at a number of studios across L.A between 2021 and 2002, ‘Centrifics’ was produced, engineered and mixed by Chris Cohen and co-engineered by Jonny Kosmo. It features performances from Chris Cohen, Logan Hone, Jonny Kosmo, Emily Elhaj (Angel Olsen), Jasper McMahon, Ben Varian and Joachim Polack (Pearl and the Oysters, Mild High Club).
“I went into writing ‘Centrifics’ knowing I wanted to give myself permission. I was fed up with hiding myself and a fierceness started to enter the songs, which I leaned into. The entire time I was writing, I just kept saying “yes”, that was my only rule. In a way, these songs became a bridge for me to get to the other side and so ‘Centrifics’ became aspirational. I threw the stone into the ocean as far as I could and then figured out how to swim to it. Instead of trying to get it perfect, the album works as a ladder to confront and hoist myself over all the hurdles, walls, setbacks and suffering. In that way imagination became a tool I desperately clung to rather than a place to recede.”
‘Centrifics’ is a collection of awe-inspiring reflections, observations and questions about the self, the world, and how they interact.
Available on White Vinyl (Rough Trade Exclusive), Black Vinyl and CD.
