Land of Talk returns!
This year marks the 20 years of Land of Talk, the swirling, expressive indie-rock project of Montreal's Lizzie Powell. As the associated blurb that sits alongside her newly-announced album, LASTS, it's a venture that has led Powell both to and away from music. The opening burst of 2008's Some Are Lakes and 2010's Cloak and Cipher were strong enough in their own right to sustain an interest this many years on, and yet the seven year gap between them and 2017's boldly warped Life After Youth felt like a distant itch that needed scratching.
Since that return, we're now set in a cycle of-sorts, with LASTS, released this coming November, rounding out Life After Youth, Indistinct Conversations (2020) and Performances (2023) in a three-year album release cycle.
That's the backstory, then, but what comes now feels both prescient and colourful. LASTS was crafted during time spent in a cabin in rural Harrington, Quebec, and was self-produced by Powell, then pulled together alongside long-time collaborators Michael Feuerstack and Michael Belyea. It announces itself via lead single '4.44', a song that gracefully finds a heavy n' heartfelt meeting spot between wild abandon – an arm out a car window, sunlight glinting – and something altogether more lingering and important.
“‘4:44 was one of the first songs we recorded at the cabin. It felt so good to finally be playing live in a cozy space with good pals in the dead of an especially lonely winter. Melodically, I don’t remember where the track came from, it just appeared fully formed despite my best efforts to doubt it, shape it, or abandon it altogether.” - Lizzie Powell
There's always been an intriguing, almost hypnotic power to Powell's voice and that fascination is front-and-centre again here, conveying a sense of hopefulness even as the fabric begins to tear a little at the seams. The guitars are choppy and buoyant, the production consciously frazzled as the whole thing builds and then lets loose, rolling on and on, and on again
On the surface it can sometimes feel as bright as Land of Talk have ever sounded, but you get a sense that it's perhaps just a perfect reflection held for a moment on the calm surface, always ready to fold in on itself as the wind whips up, as a stone is thrown and lands.
“Lyrically, ‘4:44’ formed much later and mostly was improvised in the studio. I had recently read online some demonstrably false things about my personal (and professional) life written by someone who I thought knew me. Whether they changed the facts out of sheer ignorance or in an effort to protect my privacy is unknown. The experience reminded me how I’ve come to accept the false narratives and (essentially) myths surrounding Land of Talk for years. For a while, I was questioning if I even knew my own story; my own lived experience.” - Lizzie Powell
LASTS will be released on November 13th, via Saddle Creek
Pre-order / Listen via Bandcamp here
