Margaret Glaspy shares new single & video ‘Get Back’
Forthcoming album Echo The Diamond out this Friday, August 18 via ATO
London headline show & further UK appearances confirmed for September
Margaret Glaspy has shared a new video for ‘Get Back,’ taken from her album Echo The Diamond which is out this Friday, August 18 via ATO Records. On the single and video, Glaspy shares, “the process of writing ‘Get Back’ helped lift me out of a dark time in life. Now, when I play it live, it seems to re-enact some kind of deep compassion and joy that I’m so grateful for. It is the most fun I’ve ever had on stage.”
The release is preceded by previous singles ‘Act Natural’ & ‘Memories,’ which have seen support from Pitchfork, Spin, Stereogum, Consequence, and more. The album is produced by Glaspy with co-production from her partner, guitarist/composer Julian Lage and is the follow-up to 2020’s Devotion. On August 18 Glaspy will celebrate the release of Echo The Diamond with a performance and album signing at New York City’s Rough Trade records. She has also confirmed her return to UK shores this September, touring alongside Half Moon Run before a headline show at London’s Omeara on September 20. Following this, she will tour North America in support of the album, including a hometown show at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom on October 20. All tour dates are listed below and tickets are on-sale here.
Echo The Diamond is the third full-length from Margaret Glaspy and takes its title from a turn of phrase that Glaspy tossed off in the midst of a conversation with Lage. “Bruce Lee once said to be water—if water is in a teacup, it becomes teacup-shaped; if it’s in a glass, then it takes the shape of that glass,” she recalls. “For me, Echo The Diamond is a way of saying ‘shine bright’, ‘be brilliant.’” The album expands on the frenetic vitality of her widely acclaimed debut Emotions and Math—a 2016 release The New Yorker hailed as an album “in which pretty songs often turn prickly, enriched by carefully measured infusions of dissonance and grit.” This time around, Glaspy worked with drummer/percussionist David King of The Bad Plus and bassist Chris Morrissey (Andrew Bird, Lucius, Ben Kweller), recording at Reservoir Studios in Manhattan and embracing an intentionally unfussy process that left plenty of room for spontaneity. “I love music with a big element of risk to it, which was really the heartbeat of this album,” she says. “A lot of what you hear are the very first takes.” Anchored in the raw yet mesmerising vocal presence and impressionistic guitar work she’s brought to the stage in touring with the likes of Spoon and Wilco, Echo The Diamond holds entirely true to the spirit of its lyrical explorations, presenting a selection of songs both unvarnished and revelatory.
Originally from the Northern California town of Red Bluff, Glaspy first started writing songs at age 15 and soon began honing the potent balance of sensitivity and incisiveness that now imbues her music. In bringing Echo The Diamond to life, she adhered to a songwriting process meant to preserve and amplify her unfettered expression (“If I sit down with a guitar for about 15 minutes, I usually have a song at the end,” she notes). Along with drawing from an eclectic mix of inspirations—Sonic Youth, Vivienne Westwood’s punk-influenced approach to fashion, Tom Waits’s music and turn as a jailbird DJ in Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law, the 1985 Japanese Western film Tampopo—Glaspy sustained that sense of thoughtful urgency upon joining forces with King and Morrissey in the studio. “This is the most fluid and immediate music I have ever made,” she says. “I see now that I protected the creative space by surrounding myself with incredible people in making this record, and I’m so happy I did.”
As a result of Glaspy’s rigour in protecting her instincts, Echo The Diamond ultimately marks the glorious realisation of her most closely held intentions for the album. “I’m excited to make music that doesn’t try to manipulate the listener into wishing for things to be any different from what they are. Ideally, I want my songs to reveal life for what it is, and to show that it’s that way for everyone.”
The new song will prove itself so easily connectable, reaching out and proudly offering such emotion running throughout the bright tonality with a nod to nostalgic, affection oozing from Glaspy’s ferocious vocal harmonies and the extensive range. You can’t help but be blown away by this track, it will force this understanding, revoluting to the words and appreciating the message of this sublime creation.
Margaret Glaspy tour dates
18 Aug | New York, NY | Rough Trade Records (Instore)
12 Sept | Brighton, UK | Chalk*
13 Sept | London, UK | O2 Forum Kentish Town*
14 Sept | Bristol, UK | SWX*
16 Sept | Manchester, UK | Albert Hall*
17 Sept | Glasgow, UK | SWG3*
18 Sept | Leeds, UK | Brudenell Social Club*
20 Sept | London, UK | Omeara (Headline)
28 Sept | Washington, DC | Union Stage
29 Sept | Philadelphia, PA | Underground Arts
30 Sept | Boston, MA | The Sinclair
02 Oct | Toronto, ON | Horseshoe
03 Oct | Cleveland, OH | Grog Shop
Oct 04 | Detroit, MI | El Club
Oct 06 | Minneapolis, MN | Fine Line
Oct 07 | Chicago, IL | Sleeping Village
Oct 08 | Milwaukee, WI | The Back Room @ Colectivo
Oct 10 | Nashville, TN | Blue Room @ Third Man Records
11 Oct | Atlanta, GA | Center Stage
12 Oct | Durham, NC | Motorco Music Hall
13 Oct | Asheville, NC | Grey Eagle
14 Oct | Richmond, VA | Richmond Music Hall
20 Oct | New York, NY | Bowery Ballroom
01 Nov | Austin, TX | Antone’s
02 Nov | Dallas, TX | Deep Ellum Art Co
04 Nov | Denver, CO | Ophelia’s
06 Nov | Salt Lake City, UT | Urban Lounge
07 Nov | Boise, ID | The Olympic
09 Nov | Seattle, WA | Madame Lou’s
10 Nov | Vancouver, BC | Biltmore Cabaret
11 Nov | Portland, OR | Mississippi Studios
13 Nov | San Francisco, CA | The Independent
14 Nov | Los Angeles, CA | Lodge Room
*opening for Half Moon Run
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