159: Ada Lea - blue baby frigidaire mini fridge
We were closing in on four years since the release of Ada Lea's previous album, the quietly enigmatic one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden LP. In the time since, Alexandra Levy went back to school to study painting and poetry and also started teaching a songwriting class at Concordia University.
Somewhere within that refining, she also worked on the songs that would become her third album, when i paint my masterpiece, which is released in August via Saddle Creek and Next Door. Recorded as a trio, alongside Tasy Hudson and Chris Hauer, the album was produced with Here We Go Magic’s Luke Temple and boasts a whopping 16 songs.
Always bursting with skewed and unique colours, Ada Lea returns in suitably compelling style with 'blue baby frigidaire mini fridge' an extravagantly titled, but gently meditative and poetic track. Lyrically dense but beautifully detailed, the song burrows a little deeper as it rolls on and on through its country-like sway, carrying is through snapshots of seasonal signs; a flick-book of memories that never settle long enough for us to fully examine.
Levy's music has always felt guided entirely be her own light, and it feels no different here. Words swirl and light flickers and while we never quite know where we might end up, the thrill of it all is in the journey. And it's so good to be back following her heels once again.
baby blue frigidaire mini fridge
that i traded last week
for a box spring and a pair of sunglasses
took the tiny red bird matches, too
tonight i’m looking, not seeing anything like you
paul celan at one hundred
book of francesca woodman’s photographs
someone sent to me as a present
it appeared on my apartment’s front doorstep
tonight i'm looking, not seeing anything like you
waking up, and it’s fall again
heaven is a place i know
then the air gets all cold again
i wanna know where you are, and what you’re thinking
this chair, this window
this mountain view
our old time souls, this old-time moon
the kettle gets to whistling its song
the cardinal’s on the porch
needle skips while monk is hammering “i let a song go out of my heart”
neon pothos, jigsaw puzzle
and i’ve forgotten every password
cast iron stove pot from the yard sale down the road
a bowl of soggy rice
yeah, everything comes at a price
waking up, and it’s fall again
heaven is a place i know
then the air gets all cold again, i wanna know where you are
and what you’re thinking
this chair, this window!
this mountain view!
our old time souls, this old-time moon!
when i paint my masterpiece is out August 8, via Saddle Creek and Next Door
You can pre-order now via Bandcamp
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