It has been too long since Squirrel Flower’s last album, 2023’s Tomorrow’s Fire. Ella Williams has stayed busy via collaborations with Horse Jumper Of Love and Babehoven, in addition to contributions to benefit compilations. Now, the Chicago indie musician is announcing her fourth studio LP Say A Prayer To The Gods Of Getting Going, arriving this summer. The thoughtful ballad “Reelin” serves as the lead single, which is out today.
“The lyrics started as an art piece I made on an overdue Kansas Turnpike toll bill,” Williams explains of “Reelin.” “This song is my ode to the push and pull of domesticity and unraveling. Leaving and getting reeled back in, over and over and over and over.”
She adds:
This video was born from serendipity and divine timing. There was a huge storm at the time Clay [Frankel], Jackson [James] and I had planned to shoot in this industrial area I’d been scoping out, and we called the shoot off. At the last minute, I looked at the sky and decided it’d be worth trying. We pulled up to the spot just as the clouds were breaking and a gorgeous double rainbow shot across the sky out of the sparkling city. The other footage is from the Indiana dunes, referencing many performance art videos I’ve made of myself playing accordion with the dunes and factories in the background.
The album was tracked live at Door County, WI’s Merry Meadow with co-producers Seth Engel and Jack Henry, and later rerecorded in Asheville, NC by Alex Farrar (MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee) at his Drop Of Sun studios. Guests include Dave Hartley (The War On Drugs), Seth Kauffman (Angel Olsen), Dimitri Giannopolous (Horse Jumper Of Love), Sofia Jensen (Free Range), Clay Frankel (Twin Peaks), Andy Krull (Red PK), Book Not Brooke (Babywave), and family members Jameson, Jesse, and Nate Williams.
“Reelin” is a gorgeous, introspective tune whose lyrics about life plans are enough to rattle a twentysomething such as I: “When I’m 30/ I’m gonna have a husband/ And a garden and a plan/ And good intentions/ And good credit/ Til bad things call me back again.” Watch its music video below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Say A Prayer To The Gods Of Getting Going”
02 “Cleveland”
03 “Not Me”
04 “Helicopters”
05 “Highway Woman”
06 “Reelin”
07 “Foot Thick Ice”
08 “Sick Tooth”
09 “Fought A Hornet”
10 “Surfing USA”
11 “Weightless, Untethered”
Say A Prayer To The Gods Of Getting Going is out 8/21 via Polyvinyl. Pre-order it here.
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