Orlando Weeks - A Quickening
As the birth of Orlando Weeks’ son drew near, he wanted to try to make sense of an experience that is both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. The result is ‘A Quickening’, an album that tells the story from the point of view of a prospective father-to-be, a figure both vital to the story and yet also somewhat removed, in awe of what the mother goes through and often helpless to do anything about it.
“I was trying to find a course through something that happens all the time, but still feels exceptional,” Weeks says.
A baby is born every minute, and yet the experience of becoming a parent - and the way it promises to change your life - is unprecedented.
Weeks’ voice shimmers as it expresses feelings of love, fear and wonder that are overwhelming but still delicate. Drums trip, woodwind and brass can be heard, piano lines run in and out, vocals layer and guitars are few and far between. This is not the indie rock and roll that some may have predicted.You might think of Talk Talk. You might think of Robert Wyatt. You might think of Radiohead or Bon Iver. You might think of the wonder of Kate Bush. You might think of Lambchop’s late career electronic turn, replacing in that case Kurt Wagner’s Nashville-inflected fragments with Orlando’s chiming and pure delivery, served up by way of South London.
Many of those influences surge and flourish throughout the new single ‘Blood Sugar’. A mesmeric, all-enveloping layer of sound highlighted by choral vocal harmonies. The track includes the line “gone the bell that rung forever… at least as long as I can remember”, a reference to Big Ben which was under repair and had stopped chiming at the time of his son’s birth, Weeks commented; ‘’I couldn’t work out if its silence was a good omen or a bad one.’’ Stranger than that, for much of their time at hospital, Weeks and his partner found themselves in the very same room he was born in.
TRACKLISTING
1. Milk Breath
2. Blood Sugar
3. Safe In Sound
4. St. Thomas’
5. Takes A Village
6. Moon’s Opera
7. All The Things
8. Blame Or Love Or Nothing
9. None Too Tough
10. Summer Clothes
11. Dream
PRODUCT DETAILS
Artist: Orlando Weeks
Label: Play It Again Sam
Condition: New
Genre: Indie & Alternative
Format: Vinyl LP
Cat Number: PIASR1165LPX
Released: 12th June 2020
Deluxe Limited edition LP is on heavyweight clear vinyl with a signed and hand finished print. Includes download card.