New Single + New Album + New Brunswick (Sappyfest – July 2016)
Today, Little Scream shares a dark and epic track from her upcoming album, Cult Following, which will be in stores on May 6 via Dine Alone Records in Canada. Showcasing a heavier, more atmospheric side of the record than the hit single Love As A Weapon, which PopMatters described as “a bright, shiny jolt of dance-pop heaven,” Someone Will Notice is a song catalyzed by the suicide of a small-town Canadian teenage girl and the cruelty of faceless Internet culture. It paints a picture of desolate loneliness, ending in a transcendent escape fantasy. Arranged and performed with Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry on guitar and synths and Jeremy Gara on drums, Someone Will Notice reveals the powerfully empathic sensitivity and emotional heft behind this stunning new album.
Little Scream, a.k.a. Laurel Sprengelmeyer, says she began conceiving of Cult Following while visiting a friend in a small intentional community in northern Brazil that was on the verge of becoming a cult. “People were running around reading auras, interpreting each other’s dreams, and ‘living on light’ instead of eating—which was as compelling as it was absurd. I became very aware of the entropy of belief. You could feel the magnetism of ideas take shape and pull people into their center like a black hole… a thing so filled with light that its own gravity means that none of it can escape.” That experience laid the groundwork for Cult Following, a lush, expansive, retro-leaning gem.
With nods to Tina Turner, Tracey Thorn, and White Album-era Beatles, Cult Following ambitiously straddles intimate fragility with bombastic dance floor ready songs. It stuffs glorious eras of art pop into a weird modern package—a far more extroverted expansion of the cinematic landscapes and themes from Little Scream’s previous album.
Mary Margaret O’Hara, Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten, Aaron and Bryce Dessner from the National, Owen Pallett, and Kyp Malone all make guest appearances on this album, but the world they inhabit is entirely Little Scream’s. Her voice acts as a tour guide through lush sonic landscapes carefully constructed with her creative partner, Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire).
Cult Following is available for pre-order now on CD and limited-edition translucent blue vinyl in the Dine Alone store, and digitally via iTunes.
Little Scream was recently announced as a featured performer at Sappyfest 11, July 29 – 31, 2016 in Sackville, NB. More info on Sappyfest is available here.
