New York, NY (Top40 Charts) London based Holly Henderson is back with a reflective new single "Back After Sunrise" from her critically acclaimed sophomore album "The Walls". Glowing with gorgeous harmonies against a retro psych-pop backdrop, "Back After Sunrise" is a song about the end of a chapter and how we look idealistically at the time spent, when it's all nearly over.
"It's specifically about when I was ready to leave my home, to start a new life in America, before the lockdown", says Henderson. "But it was so obviously the wrong choice. But not every decision to walk away from something is rooted in hating someone or something, sometimes it's just not right, and that's almost worse. But we soothe ourselves 'I do my little dance, where we all pretend, we'll be back after sunrise', until we're ready to move on.", she explains.
The track, which escalates from soft glimmering melancholia into a fuzzy epic, comes from Henderson's long-awaited sophomore album, "The Walls", where the singer-songwriter shows a very different side to her musicality and depth. While her debut album, "Monday Green" featured Henderson's impressive rock guitar work and alternative pop anthem prowess, her new work shows a more introspective, and slightly more delicate side to her songcraft.
Recorded in a farmhouse in the English countryside, Henderson's new album brings her full circle from her previous Los Angeles recorded album. Finely crafted arrangements, sonic musings, and playful themes take us on a journey with Henderson as she deconstructs her Brit Pop and classic influences and reassembles them into progressive-folk wonderment.
On "The Walls", Holly said, "This album sits within a sense of place. As a songwriter, I can only speak of my own thoughts of home and belonging. I suppose this record is a wandering eye over the fleeting moments from the last few years, of when I felt at home, and when I didn't. When I felt like the walls were tumbling, when they kept me safe, and when they became my prison. I learned the only way of breaking these patterns, was to let people step over the threshold.
Due to the intimacy of the songs, I wanted to preserve the organic nature of the words and the arrangements. The heart of every song was recorded live, from the front room of a farmhouse in Sevenoaks - everyone facing each other, hearing each other, and working together. The sounds you hear are preserved in the moment that they happened. Tentative and selective moments were never changed in post. The other-worldly elements, synths, sounds, etc, were still captured live. 3 to 4 of us, tinkering with analogue synths, percussion, voices, iPads, etc, while the songs played. Rowan's sensitivity as an engineer and producer, preserved every magical moment in his safe hands, while every person in the band shines throughout, regardless of trying to make this happen during the times of Covid, nothing was missing."
- "Bejewelled psych-pop with folk qualities, her work has a haunting after-effect that can't be shrugged off."-
Clash Magazine
- "It has an attractive tendency to glide into intriguing areas whether that be via hooky melodies or spells of analogue tinkering. The atmospheres here shift charmingly between Nick Drake,
Beth Orton and a playful optimistic ambience of Henderson's own"- Prog Magazine
- "Soothing, sun-soaked psych-pop"- Top40-Charts.com Magazine
"Back After Sunrise" is out now via London-based Ivy RecRods.