aaamusic | On 14, Mar 2012

Lisa Hannigan

New Single – ‘What’ll I Do’ – Out April 9

Live – Queen Elizabeth Hall – May 13

 

“Beautiful…Changed Hannigan may have, but it’s a change for the better” Sunday Times Culture

“Bold…the follow-up to her excellent debut, 2008’s Sea Sew, sees her expanding her horizons without scrimping on nuance or emotion.” Uncut ****

“Playful, sometimes starkly beautiful” Mojo ****

“Everyone’s a little bit in love with Lisa…Hannigan is on confident form” Daily Telegraph ****

“A more mature and melancholy outlook…it’s such a delight” The Sun ****

“Beautiful and disturbing” Rolling Stone

 “Passenger feels unforced, spontaneous and timeless” BBC.co.uk

Lisa Hannigan has announced plans for the second single from her stunning sophomore record, ‘Passenger’. ‘What’ll I Do’ will see an April 9 release (Hoop Records / PIAS), and follows an extensive period of activity for Lisa; which includes a Choice Music Prize nomination (the Irish Mercury), breakthrough spots on the likes of ‘The Tonight Show With Jay Leno’, and a stunning winter tour back in the UK, culminating with an intimate Shepherds Bush Empire show. She will now headline the Queen Elizabeth Hall on May 13.

 

Produced by US legend Joe Henry (Solomon Burke, Loudon Wainwright) after a hook-up in Pasadena, ‘Passenger’ has proved that there is more to Lisa Hannigan than may have initially met the eye. The album has already reached number 1 in her native Ireland, and led to a huge demand for Lisa in the States (she was recently asked to perform at this year’s Sundance Festival). Yet Hannigan’s artist-led, DIY roots remain the same: the record was recorded in just one week, before Lisa hand-made the shimmering album cover (which features maps of Brooklyn, Dublin and West Cork shot through with light). Lisa is currently filming videos for every track on ‘Passenger’, beginning with the paint-splattered, Southern stomp of ‘Knots’, and more recently ‘Little Bird’. Filmed entirely underwater and in one beautiful take, ‘Little Bird’ was recently Video of the Year at iMTV Awards; affirming Hannigan’s all-round artistic talents (not to mention an impressive lung-capacity).

 

Lisa’s second single, ‘What’ll I Do’, is one of the brightest-sounding moments across ‘Passenger’. Buoyant, infectious and arguably her most immediate track to date, the song was inspired by “the fact that, though life goes on regardless, some people make the world brighter with their presence.” Lisa recently filmed a one-take video for it whilst being thrown about on a rollercoaster (following 18 takes, she ended up using the first one). And despite its upbeat sound, ‘What’ll I Do’ contains the same lyrical anxieties and themes of loss and distance that are evident across the album (“oh I don’t know what to do with myself / now that I’m here and you’re gone”).

 

Written in response to journeys both literal and metaphorical, ‘Passenger’ completes the personal outing that saw Lisa exit her seven-year collaborator Damien Rice, and make her first steps as a solo artist (see the Mercury-nominated ‘Sea Sew’). A darker and altogether more personal offering, the album was themed around “those loves, heartbreaks, confusions and friendships that we take with us through life, over years and continents, enduring the passage of time.” And it’s all there to be heard – from the rain-lashed, ivory-poundings of opening track ‘Home’ to the idyll days of former love described in ‘Paper House’(“Oh you know what you are to me / and you know you will always be”). Having made her name singing co-vocals, Lisa has since turned the tables on the gorgeous ‘O Sleep’, inviting old friend Ray LaMontagne to guest. And as ‘Passenger’ now begins to take off, you sense Lisa’s own journey is only just getting started.

 

May 13                  London                  Queen Elizabeth Hall