LeAnn Rimes – CHANT: The Human & The Holy (Album)

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LeAnn Rimes shifts her focus into a new stylistic direction with CHANT: The Human & the Holy, a 12-track collection set for release on Friday (Nov. 20). Rimes dropped two of the songs off the album ahead of the full project’s release, beginning with “Sing Love Into the World.”

This song, like the rest of CHANT, grew out of Rimes’ practice of daily mantras and inspirational chants. It’s an important piece of the singer’s toolkit for physical, mental and emotional wellness, which she started building after checking herself into a treatment facility for depression and anxiety in 2012, one day after her 30th birthday.

Rimes has been open about her mental health struggles over the years, explaining that her early rise to fame took a toll on her from a mental standpoint. The singer shot to overnight success with “Blue” in 1996, at the age of 14. She also points to her parents’ divorce and the collapse of her first marriage to dancer Dean Sheremet in 2009 as contributing factors.

When she began treatment, the singer was only a year into her marriage to actor Eddie Cibrian, and she has said that the issues she faced then posed a challenge in their relationship — but after working through those struggles, her marriage is stronger than ever.

Having learned new skills including breathwork and meditation during that growth process, Rimes is now channeling her mantras and inspirational chants into music. On Thursday (Nov. 19), she released “My Heart,” the first song on CHANT’s tracklist.

The singer will take her spiritually-infused new musical direction one step further on Nov. 30, when she launches her spiritual health and wellness podcast, Wholly Human. The first season of the podcast will introduce listeners to Rimes’ journey, share how she built her wellness toolkit and spotlight the community and teachers who helped her get to where she is today.

Tracklist:

1.”My Heart”

2.”Be Still and Know”

3.”In the Stillness”

4.”Treasured”

5.Human/Holy”

6.”The Truth of Love”

7.”What I Cannot Change (Chant)”

8.”With My Hands”

9.”Set Me Free”

10.”Let the Light In”

11.”Christed”

12.”Sing Love Into the World”

OVERALL RATING: 4 stars

Irene Skylakaki – Souvenir (Album)

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Greece’s resident uber-cool, singer-songwriter Irene Skylakaki has been generating a lot of interest this year and deservedly so. She’s released a string of highly successful and distinctive singles over the past few months including the haunting sounds of ‘Sutherland Avenue’, the hypnotic synths of ‘Dreamy’ and the piano-led ‘Souvenir’, solidifying her sound and making her stamp on the world of alternative-folk music’. Now, Skylakaki returns to unveil her newest album, her fourth full-length project, the eponymously named and highly anticipated, Souvenir.

The sounds of Souvenir are angelic, ethereal and completely otherworldly, Skylakaki creates a sense of eerie calm through the use of gentle piano keys, acoustic guitars, atmospheric synths and of course, her incredibly angelic, whisper-like vocals that enshroud the listener in a comforting bliss. Enlisting the help of friends and fellow musicians Andres Mesa and Iain Gordon Smith for production, Skylakaki managed to create a collaborative project, a labour of love and a source of pride spanning several months and several miles.

Irene Skylakaki explains the creative process behind her album:

“A few years ago, I met Andres Mesa who was working at the studio of Phil Manzanera as a sound engineer at the time. Hewas familiar with my music and we started recording songs without a specific plan – sometimes this spontaneity creates a unique creative freedom which was the case in this collaboration. The recordings of the demos took place at Phil Manzanera’s Gallery studio which was the most precious experience. Andres’s fresh outlook on production was a driving power in the creation of the album.

We had a lot of musicians and friends contributing their talent over the years and the album lacks homogeneity in sound but is connectedthrough a deeper cause: recording individual songs that we are happy with irrespective of their style. During the lockdown, I had to leave London and come back to Athens, so I worked on a few songs remotely with Scottish musician, friend, and producer Iain Gordon Smith. This was also a different experience and I’m really happy with the outcome. Overall while this is my fourth album, it feels more like my first one, as my involvement in every little detail was much deeper. I believe it’s a good music ‘photograph’ of where I stand at the moment and I’m excited to share it.”

Irene Skylakaki’s album Souvenir is a dynamic, deeply personal and emotional journey spread across eleven masterfully produced and skillfully written songs. Her haunting, angelic vocals against the backdrop of gentle synths and soft percussive beats create a sound and mood unlike any other.  Through her incredibly skilled penmanship and instrumentation choices, Irene cleverly manages to create music that is much like physical art; captivating, three-dimensional and up for interpretation.

Tracklist:

01.Intro – the Animal
02.Mary Smiles
03.Sutherland Avenue
04.Souvenir (feat. Jay-Jay Johanson)
05.Hallucination
06.Harrow Road
07.Thank You. For Good Science
08.Under Water
09.3 Square Meter Room
10.Dreamy
11.Outraw

OVERALL RATING: 4 stars

Kodaline – One Day at a Time (Album)

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One Day At A Time is the band’s fourth album, and adds a new chapter to a career that has already encompassed three #1 albums in Ireland, two Top 5 albums in the UK, and more than a billion streams at Spotify, The new Deluxe version has 4 new tracks and will also be available in a physical format on CD, Vinyl and Cassette for the first time.

Release date: 20 Nov 2020

Tracklist:

1.Wherever You Are

2.Sometimes

3.Saving Grace

4.Say Something

5.The Evening

6.Spend It With You

7.Care

8.Heart Open

9.Everyone Changes

10.In The End

11.This Must Be Christmas

12.Everyone Changes featuring Gabrielle Aplin

13.The Rare Auld Times

14.Teenage Kicks

OVERALL RATING: 5 stars