JENNIFER CASTLE IN CAMELOT: NEW ALBUM OUT NOVEMBER 1
“LUCKY #8” SINGLE AND VIDEO OUT TODAY
Photo by Jimmy Limit.
Following the release of the breathtaking “Blowing Kisses” single and video (as featured in Season 3 of FX’s The Bear; check out this CBC interview), the celebrated songwriter and poet Jennifer Castle has announced the album—and kingdom—it calls home.
Camelot, Castle’s extraordinary, moving chronicle of the artist in early middle age, charts a realer place than the legendary Camelot of the British Early Middle Ages, but it too is a space more psychic than physical. In Castle’s Camelot, the fantastic interpenetrates the mundane, and the Grail, if there is one, distills everyday experience into art and art into faith, subliming terrestrial concerns into sublime celestial prayers to Mother Nature, and to the unfolding process of perfecting imperfection in one’s own nature: “Back in Camelot / I really learned a lot / circles in the crops and / sky-high geometry …”
Camelot is out worldwide on November 1. Pre-order below, and for a limited time, use coupon code CAMELOT for 30% off all other Castle albums (on the PoB site only).
The album’s announcement is accompanied by the release of new single “Lucky #8,” an irrepressible ode to dancing as a bulwark against the “tidal pools of pain” and the “theory of collapse.” Co-producer Jeff McMurrich provides the song’s chiming guitars—he plays lead throughout the album—with an assist from special guest Cass McCombs on slide guitar.
Pre-Order LP and CD:
$9.00 – $35.00
This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pagePre-order, Stream Singles, and Watch Videos Elsewhere
The release of “Lucky #8” comes with a tender video Jennifer created using footage of heroic, historic gymnastics routines that were a formative part of her childhood. Now seen through the rearview, these routines take on a new poignance and are embraced differently in Castle’s adulthood. As she gratefully sings in the song’s chorus, “so just give the money to the dancers / while their hips go figure eight / and they entrance us with the answers / and we hope and pray the message ain’t too late.
Jennifer shares that “Lucky #8” “sort of has that energetic vibe to it, where it attempts a stunt lyrically (in my mind) to absorb all the possibilities of life into one moment and to be okay with that complexity, instead of fracturing off into myriad neurotic narratives.”
With regard to the video, she adds: “Questing through the smudged screen to where the inexhaustible competition for greatness twirls. The body is a noble sword, bandaged. But did they win? Sometimes even now that adrenaline takes flight within me. But can I win? And win at what? Lay it on its side, sweet angel. Infinity is victory.”
- Deluxe LP edition features 140g black vinyl and a 34” x 22.5” poster insert with lyrics and artwork by Jesse Harris.
- Deluxe CD edition features a gatefold jacket with replica LP artwork and a lyrics insert.
Acknowledgments
Castle reaches a pitch of mystical transport so gorgeously ethereal she seems about to drift off into lands that don’t appear on any map. – Greil Marcus, The Believer
Castle’s music is not so much of the earth as floating above it, untethered to the natural order of time and space … She effortlessly conveys the conflicting emotions that accompany loss. – Pitchfork
No hyperbole, Jennifer Castle is a spectacular songwriter. Castle’s singing carries the joy of life. – The FADER
Castle channels the lunar radiance of Emmylou Harris and the heartfelt barroom blues of Jimmie Dale Gilmore, quietly gleaming with a rustic beauty and a deep, patient understanding of the mystic. – Aquarium Drunkard
Castle’s songs are vibrant and bountiful landscapes, and even in their quietest, darkest moments, they thrum and glow. As a songwriter, Castle has a stunning capacity for crafting lines rich with nuance, humor, and devastating beauty. – CBC
Jennifer Castle Live
Oct 10 – Nowadays Festival, Dartmouth, NS, Canada
Oct 11 – The Cap, Fredericton, NB, Canada with Jon McNeil
Oct 22 – Folken, Stavanger, Norway
Oct 24 – Uppsala Art Museum, Uppsala, Sweden
Oct 25 – Pygméteatern Theatre, Stockholm, Sweden
